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The Town with Matthew Belloni

How To Save Movies With the CEO of AMC Theatres

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Live from the El Rey theater in Los Angeles, Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw and Adam Aron, the CEO and chairman of AMC Theatres, to discuss the state of the moviegoing business, why there are so many trailers and ads before the movie starts, Adam's relationship with Netflix, and how the theatrical business can evolve (02:22). For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Email us your thoughts! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thetown@spotify.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Host: Matt Belloni Guests: Adam Aron and Lucas Shaw Producers: Craig Horlbeck, Jessie Lopez, Helen Eichner, John Richter, Victoria Valencia, and Donald LoBianco Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

As the 21st century was getting underway, Hollywood released a series of films that were daring, entertaining, and absolutely unmissable.

0:08.0

Films like 25th Hour, Bring It On, Zodiac, and No Country for Old Men.

0:14.0

They arrived during the George W. Bush era, a chaotic time in America.

0:18.0

Think 9-11, Katrina. The Mortgage Crisis.

0:22.6

After the Bush years, the country would never be the same.

0:25.6

And neither would Hollywood.

0:29.6

I'm Brian Raftery, and in my new limited series, Mission Accomplished,

0:33.6

we're going to dive into some of the biggest movies of the Bush years.

0:36.6

And look at what they said about the state of the nation.

0:39.3

We'll go behind the scenes with filmmakers and experts.

0:41.8

And relive some of your favorite movies from the early 2000s.

0:45.0

From Donnie Darko to Michael Clayton, from Anchorman to Iron Man.

0:48.6

So slip on your sketchers, dig out your old Nokia,

0:51.6

and join me from Mission Accomplished, starting August 12th on the Big Picture Feet.

1:01.3

It is Monday, September 1st. Happy Labor Day. Today it's our live show. Thanks to everyone who came out at the L. Ray Theater last week. Great meeting people.

1:10.5

Seeing the enthusiasm for the show, lots of townies, lots of people were very curious about our mystery guest.

1:16.3

And I was very happy to reveal it was my good friend, Adam Aaron, the chairman and CEO of AMC theaters.

1:22.9

Adam should be very familiar to those of you have been listening to the town since the early days.

1:26.7

In fact, even before that, he was named the inaugural villain of the year in my Puck newsletter for his

1:32.0

interesting stock sales during the whole meme stock madness. That led he and I to start an ongoing

1:37.5

dialogue about the theater business, often an argument, not a dialogue, I'll admit, but a good

1:42.2

nature debate about the movie industry,

...

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