The entertainment landscape is changing in a huge way as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and movie theaters are struggling right now. Forced to close their doors, it's hard to say when things will finally return to normal for them, especially as strict social distancing measures will be necessary - something which is going to hurt ticket sales in a major way.
July is currently the planned re-opening date, but one chain that's really suffering is AMC (the company owns Odeon Cinemas in the UK). They were facing bankruptcy before the crisis despite being the biggest theater chain in the world, and they've controversially decided to stop showing Universal films in response to Trolls World Tour getting a VOD release.
Now, though, a new rumour shared by The Daily Mail (meaning you should definitely take it with a pinch of salt) claims that Amazon could be considering buying AMC.
Given the chain's current financial situation and the fact that Amazon is thriving right now, this would make sense, and the company did previously attempt to acquire Landmark Theaters before losing out to Cohen Media Group. Needless to say, this would be a game-changer, and something likely to further close the gap between the theatrical and streaming worlds.
Neither company has commented on these claims, but AMC is a bad way, so selling up to Amazon could be their only option right now. Either way, expect things to continue to change this year as Hollywood is forced to find new ways to operate in the midst of a deadly global pandemic.