Problems at AMC Entertainment (AMC)
Problems at AMC Entertainment (AMC)
AMC Entertainment (NYSE: AMC — $1.62 billion) is the largest movie theater company in the world. AMC is also a consistently unprofitable, deeply indebted, and highly dilutive business that has seen its stock double in recent days based on spurious stock promotion. In today’s special investigation, The Bear Cave explores the recent resurgence of “meme stocks,” the players involved, and why AMC is the worst positioned among the hype. In short, The Bear Cave believes AMC is a dead company walking and its promoters are a disgrace for the U.S. public markets.
What’s going on?
On Wednesday, May 8, the popular trading account @MrZackMorris cryptically tweeted “AMC” with a popular meme of a videogame player leaning forward to concentrate. @MrZackMorris has over half a million followers and is operated by 39-year-old Edward Constantin. In December 2022, Mr. Constantin was one of eight people charged in what the SEC called “a $100 Million Stock Manipulation Scheme Promoted on Discord and Twitter.” A Texas judge later dismissed the SEC’s lawsuit and today Mr. Constantin operates a new $100/month trading Discord called “FU Money.”
Originally, the MrZackMorris tweet had very little impact on AMC or other “meme stocks.”
However, on Sunday, May 12 at 8pm ET @TheRoaringKitty tweeted a variation of that meme after three years of inactivity on social media. The Roaring Kitty moniker belongs to Keith Gill, a famous deep-value investor who gained a loyal following of millions of retail investors for his Reddit posts and YouTube Livestreams recommending GameStop before it increased ~5,000%+ in 2020 and January 2021. The Roaring Kitty meme post has been viewed over 26 million times.
Below, tweets from both MrZackMorris and Roaring Kitty.
Beyond these tweets, Mr. Constantin (MrZackMorris) and Mr. Gill (Roaring Kitty) do not appear to have any relationship.
In addition, the Roaring Kitty account has subsequently released a series of at least fifty cryptic videos mashing together popular songs, movie scenes, and memes. The videos, which consistently get millions of views, appear to suggest Roaring Kitty will soon share a new stock pick with his followers that could inspire a GameStop-like short squeeze.
For example, at 1pm ET on Monday, May 13 Roaring Kitty tweeted out a video clip from Furious 7 with musical lyrics from “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa:
“How can we not talk about family, when family is all that we got. Everything I went through, you were standing there by my side. And now you gon' be with me for the last ride.”
At 1:30pm on Monday, May 13 Roaring Kitty tweeted another video with lyrics from “Dog Days Are Over” by Florence + The Machine:
“Run fast for your mother. Run fast for your father. Run for your children, your sisters, and brothers. Leave all your love and your longing behind. You can’t carry it with you if you want to survive. The dog days are over. The dog days are done. Can you hear the horses because here they come.”
At 3pm on Monday, Roaring Kitty tweeted another video that said, in part,
“Make no mistake. It’s not revenge he’s after. It’s a reckoning.”
At 4pm on Monday, Roaring Kitty tweeted a scene from Peaky Blinders with the ending lines:
“I had more complicated strategies in mind. / It’s gonna be a busy few weeks brotha. / Yeah.”
And at 8pm on Monday, Roaring Kitty tweeted out lyrics from “Bang!” by AGR including:
“Let’s go out with a bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. I’m way too young to lie here forever. I’m way too old to try so whatever come hang. Let’s go out with a bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Here we go. [Directed by Roaring Kitty]”
“Oh, have I got your attention now?”