As coronavirus pandemic numbers continue to rise across the United States, it doesn’t look like movie theaters are going to see a big influx of audiences anytime soon, especially as the regular flu season starts to come around. In addition to increased COVID-19 cases, movie studios still aren’t releasing any major blockbusters to theaters. Since AMC Theatres said not too long ago that they could run out of cash by the end of the year, they’re now preparing to sell millions of dollars in stock.

Deadline has news on AMC Theatres selling stock as their latest attempt to avoid having to declare bankruptcy and shut down the country’s largest theater chain completely. The update comes from an SEC filing today, which says AMC Theatres is hoping to sell 20 million Class A shares, which would get them $47.7 million. If you’d like to know more about Class A shares and how they function for a company like AMC Theatres, there’s a good breakdown over here.

Even though $47.7 million is a lot of money for you and me, for a major company like AMC Theatres, that’s life support for maybe a few more months. It’s not clear how much money the theater chain has left, or how much they’re spending each month to keep locations open around the country compared to how much they’re bringing in from the sparse audiences who have returned to theaters, but this isn’t good.

In the SEC filing today, AMC Theatres also noted that they see their “ability to obtain additional liquidity and our ability to continue as a going concern.” That concern probably isn’t going away until close to mid-2021.

As of now, there’s still a chance that Wonder Woman 1984 will open on Christmas Day, but Warner Bros. Pictures still has to make a final decision on that front. The odds don’t sound all that good though, because Sony Pictures has already pushed Ghostbusters: Afterlife from March 2021 to later in the year, and MGM and Paramount Pictures followed suit by shifting the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect and the animated monster wrestling comedy Rumble from January to later in 2021 as well. If the coronavirus pandemic continues to get worse, then we’ll probably see more early 2021 theatrical releases doing the same.

Movie theaters are facing a doomsday scenario, and there’s a decent chance we’ll see many locations closing next year. There’s always a chance that a positive outcome from the 2020 election could result in financial assistance coming their way early next year, but they’ll have to stick it out for at least a few more months.

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