AMC Leisure shares plummeted Thursday after the theater chain indicated in an SEC submitting that it would promote as much as $250 million value of its inventory. The Leawood, Kan.-based exhibition big mentioned it was contemplating promoting the inventory to offset its poor field workplace income in the course of the first fiscal quarter of 2024. Hours after the submitting got here out Thursday morning, AMC inventory was down about 15%.Within the submitting with the Securities and Trade Fee, the nation’s largest movie show firm partly blamed the disappointing field workplace returns on final yr’s writers’ and actors’ strikes, which delayed a number of main theatrical releases and successfully shut down movie and TV manufacturing for about six months.AMC Chief Government Adam Aron beforehand implored the leisure unions and the Hollywood studios to finish their labor disputes “instantly” to mitigate the “collateral injury from these prolonged work stoppages.”The exhibitor additionally cited within the SEC submitting “elevated seasonal working capital necessities … and the ensuing money burn” it has suffered.“We intend to make use of the online proceeds, if any, from the sale … to bolster our liquidity, to repay, refinance, redeem or repurchase our present indebtedness (together with bills, accrued curiosity and premium, if any) and for common company functions,” the submitting reads.The start of 2024 spelled bother for AMC and different cinema operator as big-budget studio automobiles resembling Sony Photos’ “Madame Internet” and Apple’s “Argylle” tanked and home field workplace income fell 20% from the earlier yr. Scattered titles resembling Paramount Photos’ “Bob Marley: One Love” and “Imply Women” made respectable cash. However pickings remained pretty slim till March, when Warner Bros. and Legendary’s “Dune: Half Two” opened with greater than $80 million within the U.S. and Canada, the primary film to take action in 4 months.The exhibition trade was nonetheless recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic — which shuttered theaters worldwide — when members of the Writers Guild of America and the Display Actors Guild-American Federation of Tv and Radio Artists went on strike. In response to the overlapping work stoppages, studios pushed at the least a dozen footage to 2025 from 2024, together with the eighth installment in Paramount’s “Mission: Unattainable” franchise and Disney’s live-action remake of “Snow White.” Consequently, this yr’s launch calendar is thinner than exhibitors had hoped.Analysts anticipate full-year field workplace income for 2024 to fall someplace between $8 billion and $8.5 billion in america and Canada, which might be down from 2023’s $9-billion home haul — regardless of a slew of extremely anticipated sequels and franchise installments on the horizon.Nonetheless to return in 2024 are Common Photos’ “Depraved,” Warner Bros.’ “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” Paramount’s “Gladiator 2,” Sony’s “Venom: The Final Dance,” Amazon MGM’s “Challengers” and Disney’s “Deadpool & Wolverine.”