AMC Theatres debuts crypto payments for e-gift card purchases

The major American theater chain wants to let customers buy movie tickets with crypto by 2022.

American cinema giant AMC Theatres is steadily approaching its goal of accepting cryptocurrency payments by year-end, now debuting crypto purchases for electronic gift cards.

AMC customers can now buy digital gift cards with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) directly through the AMC website, mobile app and theaters, CEO Adam Aron announced on Tuesday.

The new payment option was enabled through major crypto payments processor BitPay, allowing consumers to purchase e-cards of up to $200, Aron noted.

The CEO paid special attention to Dogecoin (DOGE) among the digital assets accepted for AMC e-card purchases. Aron hinted in September that AMC will include DOGE in the list of cryptocurrencies accepted for tickets by the end of 2021.

Aron had conducted a poll of 140,000 people on Twitter, asking the community whether AMC should accept DOGE payments for tickets. “It’s clear that you think AMC should accept Dogecoin. Now we need to figure out how to do that. Stay tuned,” Aron said at the time.

Related: Verifone to enable crypto payments at major retailers through BitPay

As previously reported, Aron announced the company’s plans to accept Bitcoin payments for movie tickets in August, expecting to have rolled out the new payment option by 2022. The movie chain also plans to support four other cryptocurrencies — the aforementioned DOGE, Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

Earlier this year, Major Cineplex Group, the largest movie theater operator in Thailand, launched a payment pilot allowing customers to buy tickets with cryptos.