We try so hard to be expert in what we usually do so well, devoted as we are to pleasing hundreds of millions of guests in our theatres each year.
Today, though, as Dune 3 tickets went on sale, the crushing volumes briefly slowed or glitched our online ticketing systems.
Indeed, AMC experienced extraordinarily high demand, particularly for premium format presentations and for some of our most desired locations.
Ticketing traffic across AMC’s website and mobile app reached levels approximately three times higher than what we experienced during the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ticket launch, which itself followed strong advance sales for The Odyssey ticket launch before that.
It’s not that our systems totally failed. We have been selling enormous numbers of tickets today, but when any of our customers experience less than our best, it is just not right.
It’s a high class problem to have such staggering demand, but even so it is intolerable and inexcusable. It just can not and should not happen, because as AMC is the clear market leader, you deserve better from us.
There was much discussion internally ahead of and preparing for the Dune 3 launch. We thought we were ready, but we weren’t.
I am told that about $2 million of IT programming resource will let us fully address the issue. Of course, that money has been approved already, and we’ve asked our IT team to move at a whirlwind speed to take whatever steps are needed so that our ticketing systems are — in all situations and in all quantities —again top shelf.
If some of you experienced delays or intermittent issues while attempting to purchase tickets today, we encourage you as potential AMC guests to retry your purchase, as inventory remains available at many locations and showtimes.
We appreciate our guests’ patience and enthusiasm, and we are very encouraged that so many moviegoers are excited to secure their seats for one of the most anticipated theatrical releases of the year.
Dune 3 will open on December 18.