AMC signs deal to lease the Grove and Americana, two of Los Angeles' top-grossing cinemas

AMC Entertainment, the worlds largest cinema chain, is adding two more Los Angeles locations to its roster.

On Monday, the movie theater chain said it was taking over the leases of the 14-screen cinema at the Grove shopping complex in the Fairfax neighborhood and the 18-screen location at Americana at Brand in Glendale. Both locations were formerly operated by Pacific Theatres and are owned by real estate company Caruso.

In April, Decurion, which owned the Pacific Theatre and ArcLight Cinema chains, said it would not be reopening its 17 locations. AMC, which has collected more than $1.6 billion in cash from stock sales, had previously disclosed that it was looking at several of Decurion's old leases, looking for locations that had strong ticket sales before the pandemic.

In 2018, The Grove theater was the second-highest grossing cinema and the Americana was the fifth-highest grossing cinema in the Los Angeles area. AMC is expected to reopen these theaters in August.

"These two theaters each are located in world-class lifestyle centers offering the best in retail, dining and entertainment options," AMC CEO Adam Aron said in a statement Monday. "Each was conceived and is run by Caruso, one of the largest and most admired privately-held real estate companies in the United States."

Expanding AMC's footprint has always been at the heart of Aron's strategy. Aron acquired Carmike, Odeon and Nordic shortly after taking the role of CEO in 2015.

Shares of the company were unchanged after the closing bell Monday, but are down more than 40% over the last month. The price of the company's stock has been cut in half from its peak of $72.62, which was hit in early June of this year. The wild swings came as the stock was swept into the Reddit investing craze along with other "meme" stocks like Game Stop and Bed Bath and Beyond.