According to Market Watch, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., buoyed by the success of its name-brand popcorn, will be launching branded premium gourmet candy at its theaters.

On a company conference call on Tuesday, August 8, AMC's CEO Adam Aron gave an update on the company's popcorn brand and its efforts to launch more products.

The AMC-branded RTE, microwave-at-home popcorn has been selling well at Walmart stores and on its website, Aron said. AMC is looking to expand the partnership to other grocery chains, he said.

Due to the success of the branded popcorn, AMC wants to launch premium branded candy at its theater locations later this year or in early 2024, the CEO said. 

“Premium AMC candies, coming to theaters, are now in the works,” he said. “We believe we will be successful with the candy lines as we have been successful with the popcorn lines.”

The line will include chocolate candy and gummies, although chocolate from Hershey and Nestle will still be sold at AMC theaters.

The candy line was first announced on a conference call in May of this year, reports TheStreet.com.  After some of AMC's candy suppliers started charging them up to 33% more in the past year due to inflation, the chain decided to start making candy themselves.

"That got us thinking very hard about our candy," AMC Theatres Aron said in the call, regarding the price increases. "We realized that we could manufacture a private-label brand of candy to very high-quality standards, price it less expensively than our current candy is priced, and have a higher profit margin because our cost to manufacture the private-label brand is so much less than the normal brands that you've seen in our previous three years."

This will allow the chain to offer the candy to consumers at a lower price, and "reap more of the profits by eliminating the supplier," the website said.

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