Leading cinema circuits in U.S. & Canada 2022, by number of screens

As of March 2022, AMC Theatres was the leading cinema circuit in the United States and Canada, with 7.85 thousand screens spread across both countries. Regal and Cinemark followed with around 6.85 thousand and 4.43 thousand movie theater screens, respectively.

AMC versus COVID-19

The pandemic's impact on the North American cinema industry continued in 2021. That year, attendance at AMC's movie theaters added up to almost 129 million, up from 75 million in 2020 – an annual increase of over 70 percent. But the 2021 figure amounted to little more than one-third of the 356-million attendance the company reported in 2019, before the coronavirus outbreak. Similarly, AMC Theatres' revenue amounted to 2.53 billion U.S. dollars in 2021 – less than half of the result reported two years earlier.

Cinemark tries to recover

The Texas-based cinema chain faced a comparable struggle. Attendance at Cinemark's movie theaters stood at 73 million in 2021, more than doubling its 2020 figure but still amounting to less than half of the 176-million attendance recorded in 2019. Meanwhile, the revenue of Cinemark Holdings, Inc. added up to 1.51 billion dollars in 2021, down 54 percent from the 3.28 billion dollars reported two years before.