“Watch out! Here comes the Spider-Man.”
Indeed, fans of Marvel’s web-slinging superhero can be forgiven for humming the theme song from the 1967 animated series, because it sure seems like Spider-Man is doing everything a spider can… at least when it comes to lifting AMC Entertainment AMC,
shares.
The cinema chain managed to sidestep a brutal day for the broader stock market, popping 2% on Monday after “Spider-Man: No Way Home” broke multiple box office records and CEO Adam Aron took to Twitter TWTR,
to announce those numbers and turn a blind eye to those who bet the cinema chain’s shares will fail to capitalize on a surge in its shares that began in earnest in early 2021.
Peter Parker and his multiverse of friends [No spoilers] earned $260 million over the weekend, earning it the second-largest domestic opening of all time and allaying some investors’ fears that the wider path of the omicron variant would hurt the film’s box office numbers and those of the wider film industry. .
For his part, Aron wasn’t shy about celebrating, using his fingers to brag for Monday’s opening bell that AMC welcomed 7 million customers to see Spider-Man this weekend:
Aron also showed he has no problem throwing shade at his alleged haters on Twitter, praising the web slinger’s big debut with a diss track:
But as those numbers were ramped up further as the estimated numbers solidified, Aron crowed even louder:
“Whoa Nellie” was indeed the buzz among social media retailers, who combined theories surrounding the strong box office, better short squeeze opportunity, as a bull case for AMC during the shortened trading week over the holiday season. The fair is closed on Fridays for Christmas.
Meanwhile, Aron’s public bravado — the CEO also jumped on CNBC Monday morning to offer Jim Cramer a chance to eat crow — was also credited with lifting AMC’s stock in an otherwise bleak session.
Financial data platform Ortex issued a short squeeze warning on AMC early Monday, indicating that short activity around the stock was at its highest in a month, just as the stock price has risen more than 40% in the past five trading days.
AMC Apes, the most stalwart of the meme stocks that have risen mainly thanks to social media’s fervor on fundamentals, also continued to share a theory that millions of AMC stocks are being staked against, or shorted, in dark pools. Those bullish investors argued that keeping AMC’s price above $26 a share would force those naked shorts into public exchanges, as the thinking goes.
That theory echoed to create broader readings of Monday’s 433-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
“I’ve been here before they let the whole stock market drop everything just to keep AMC from running, that’s why everything is quiet,” read the comment on subreddit r/AMCStock.
But ultimately, much of the increased chatter surrounding AMC on Monday — retail analytics firm HypeEquity pointed to a more than 500% increase in listings of the company’s stock on Reddit, which centered around the very rowdy CEO Aron.
“God damn what a slam dunk. Cleans up every inch of AA fud,” stated an AMC bull on r/AMCStock, using a popular acronym, fear uncertainty doubt, referring to recent criticisms of Aron for cashing in on many of his insider AMC shares. “If you still have doubts, I doubt your integrity as a person.”
Elsewhere in the world of meme stocks
GameStop GME,
managed to gain 1% on Monday, and Robinhood HOOD,
slumped another 5.6%, indicating it needs an Avenger or CEO with saltier tweets to get it back into the meme stock game.
Don’t forget to Dr. Watch Trimbath talk about DRS and 2022 on MemeMarkets
You know she’s worth it…
.