Greetings, and welcome to AMC Annual Meeting of Stockholders. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO for AMC. Thank you. You may begin.
Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone in the room and listening via webcast. Will the meeting please come to order? As you know, I'm Adam Aron, a director, the President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of AMC Entertainment Holdings, Incorporated, and I might add, a substantial stockholder in AMC, owning just under 795,000 AMC shares, and having been granted as part of my annual compensation for the past many years, an additional 2.1 million shares in AMC vesting over the next 2.5 years. I act and think like a shareholder 'cause I am a shareholder. On behalf of AMC, welcome to our 2022 annual meeting of stockholders. An agenda outlining the order of business has been made available. The matters on which the stockholders will be voting are to, one, elect directors.
Two, ratify the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent public accounting firm for 2022. Three, approve or not approve on an advisory basis the compensation of the company's named executive officers as disclosed on the proxy statement. Four, to transact any other business that may properly come before the meeting. I'd like to begin the meeting by introducing our current board of directors, all of whom are joining us remotely on this webcast. Joining us are Hawk Koch, Philip Lader, Gary Locke, Kathy Paulus, Anthony Saich, Adam Sussman, and Lee Wittlinger. I can promise you, the shareholders of AMC, that we have an extremely diligent, engaged, and committed board of directors at this company. Kevin Connor, the Senior Vice President and General Counsel and Secretary of the company, will serve as Secretary of today's meeting.
He has delivered an affidavit from Computershare, the notice agent for the annual meeting, which states that on April 29, 2022, a notice of the meeting was mailed to all stockholders of record as of the close of business on April 22, 2022, the record date for the meeting. This affidavit is available for examination and will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. Mr. Connor will now discuss the procedures for transacting the business of this meeting. Kevin?
Thank you, Adam. Good afternoon. The meeting will take place as described in the agenda. We have a quorum of stockholders present in person or by proxy to conduct business. When an item of business on the agenda is before the meeting for consideration, questions and comments should be limited to that item. If a stockholder has a question or comment not related to a business item on the agenda, an opportunity will be provided at the designated time. If you wish to make a statement about any resolution pending on the floor, please raise your hand to be recognized. Once you are recognized, please approach the front desk and state your name and whether you are a stockholder or a proxy holder. If you are a proxy holder, please state the name of the stockholder that gave you the proxy.
Please keep your statements brief and limited to the specific item up for discussion. We may have to interrupt any statement that continues for an unreasonable amount of time. Any speaker will be limited to an absolute maximum of 2 minutes. If you have not already submitted your votes and would like to vote during the meeting, please raise your hand now and a ballot will be provided. Ballots will be collected at the conclusion of the business items on the agenda. Any ballot not received when called for will not be counted. We will announce the preliminary results at the conclusion of the meeting.
Thank you, Kevin. The board of directors has appointed Eddie Gladbach and Kelly Schemenauer as inspectors of election for the meeting. They have signed an oath to act as inspectors of election, which will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. The inspectors have the registered stockholder list of the company as of the record date for determining stockholders eligible to vote at the meeting. This list is available for examination and will also be filed with the minutes of this meeting. Kevin has advised me that a quorum is present, so I declare the meeting is duly and lawfully convened. I'm aware that there is considerable shareholder interest in knowing how many shares have been voted at this meeting.
The number of shares that voted prior to the meeting are approximately 269 million shares, which is 52% of the 516.8 million total outstanding shares. I'd remind our shareholders that voting is an important opportunity for you. At last year's stockholder meeting, many shareholders also did not vote their shares, as was the case this year. I would encourage more of you to vote at future shareholder meetings to let your voices be heard. The first item of business is the election of directors. As disclosed in the proxy statement, the candidates for director who've been nominated by the company's Nominating and Governance Committee of the Board of Directors are Board of Director nominees, Adam Aron, that would be me, Howard W. “Hawk” Koch, Jr., and I think he legally changed his name many years ago just to “Hawk” Koch.
I'm gonna call him Hawk Koch, not Howard Hawk Koch. Kathleen Pawlus and Anthony Saich. In accordance with the company's bylaws, stockholders are required to provide the advance notice of their intent to nominate candidates for director. No such advance notice was properly received, and therefore, no additional director nominations can be accepted at this time. I declare the nominations for directors closed. Therefore, a motion to elect the nominees is now in order.
Debbi Webber, a stockholder. I move that the nominees be elected as directors to serve until the 2025 annual meeting of stockholders.
Thank you, Debbi, for that nomination. Is there a second?
Thank you, Derek, for the second. Are there any questions or comments on this motion? I hear none. Therefore, with no further discussion, I hereby call the question and declare the polls open to vote on the motion. If you have not voted or if you wish to change your vote and you are here in the room at the meeting, please do so now by marking your ballot. Seeing no ballots being put forward, I now declare the polls closed on this motion and we'll proceed with the agenda. The next item of business is to ratify the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent public accounting firm for 2022, as discussed in the proxy statement. I'd like to recognize representatives from EY who are joining us in the room today. Would you please stand? Thank you, gentlemen, and welcome.
A motion to ratify the auditor appointment is now in order.
Amanda Dennis, a stockholder. I move that the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent public accounting firm for 2022 be ratified.
Thank you, Amanda, for the motion. Is there a second?
Natalie Martinez, a stockholder. I second the motion.
Thank you, Natalie, for the second. Are there any questions or comments on this motion? Hearing none, there'll be no further discussion, and I hereby call the question and declare the polls open to vote on the motion. If you've not yet voted or if you'd like to change your vote, you're here in the room, please do so now by marking a ballot. Seeing none, I now declare the polls closed on this motion, and we will proceed with the agenda. The next item of business is to approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers. This proposal is a non-binding stockholder advisory vote. The company's executive compensation is discussed in detail in the proxy statement. A motion to vote on the compensation of the named executive officers is now in order.
Gregory Verlanes, a stockholder. I move that the compensation of the company's named executive officers, as disclosed in the proxy statement pursuant to SEC rule, be approved.
Thank you, Greg, for the motion. Is there a second? Thank you, Ron, for the second. Are there any questions or comments on this motion? Hearing none, there'll be no further discussion, and I hereby call the question and declare the polls open to vote on the motion. If you've not yet voted, or if you wish to change your vote, please do so now by marking a ballot. Seeing no ballots being brought forward, I now declare the polls closed on this motion, and we'll proceed with the agenda. If you have a ballot to be submitted, please raise your hand and the inspectors will collect it. We will now briefly recess the meeting. While we are recessed formally, I'd like to make a few comments about AMC and open the meeting to any questions that stockholders may have.
Let me remind everyone that some of our comments or answers to questions may contain forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectations. Numerous risks, uncertainties, and other factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those that might be expressed today. Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in our public filings, including our most recently filed 10-K. Several of the factors that will determine the company's future results are beyond the ability of the company or of the management to control or to predict. In light of the uncertainties inherent in any forward-looking statements, you are cautioned to not place undue reliance on these statements. AMC undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events.
With that said, I personally, and all of us at AMC, are very grateful to all of you, our shareholders, for your commitment to AMC. Some of you are here in the room, some of you are here on the phone. There are others of you scattered all across the globe, and some of you are here with the hope merely to make money, which of course is absolutely fine. While others of you also believe that it is vital that you help keep cinemas open and alive. As long as any one of us at this meeting can remember, movie theaters have been so much at the center of the cultural fabric here in the United States and, in fact, the world over.
No company has stood taller in this area than AMC in the United States, which dates back to the 1920s, along with our Odeon Cinemas Group throughout Europe, which dates back to the 1930s, and with our new growing business as well in the Middle East. Your enthusiasm and passion for AMC Entertainment as our shareholders is what convinces us that we will be standing tall going forward as the industry leader and the industry innovator, just as has been the case heretofore. You should take some comfort in knowing that we have a sound underpinning strategy that can be encapsulated in just three words, recovery, agility, and transformation. Recovery embodies all the steps we've taken to build back from pandemic closure. Starting in the third quarter of 2020 through the end of 2021, our revenues grew every single quarter. In 2022, again, we will make progress.
It is our current expectation that second quarter revenues in 2022 will exceed first quarter revenues, that third quarter revenues will exceed second quarter revenues, and that fourth quarter revenues will exceed third quarter revenues. The word agility in our strategy means that we are preparing to cope and adjust as best we humanly can to any change that may come our way in movie theater business. Over the past two years, especially, AMC's management team has proven and demonstrated again and again and again that we were able to navigate well through uncharted waters. We threaded needles with a deft hand. That same expertise and experience will continue to be applied when facing any curves in the road ahead.
As for transformation, AMC is looking at various opportunities to make our company a bolder and grander enterprise, a bigger, more exciting, more successful company in future than it was when first confronting the pandemic some 27 months ago. Our investment of $28 million in Hycroft Mining Holding Corporation is an example of AMC Entertainment being willing to seek transformative change for the benefit of our shareholders. As such, I can announce today that recently our board of directors has approved allocating up to $100 million of additional AMC's monies from what I have termed our cash war chest for additional investment opportunities in companies where we think that AMC can add value and in turn, that we therefore can create value for AMC shareholders. You also can take comfort in knowing that we are optimistic about our future.
That optimism stems in part from the overwhelming success of movies in theaters right now. Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World Dominion, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, all monstrously successful and in many cases, record-setting hits. Soon we will be showing more blockbusters in our theaters, including this very month, Pixar's Lightyear, which opens tomorrow, Friday, along with Elvis and Minions and Thor and Bullet Train and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar Two, so many more big movies coming throughout 2022. Before moving to your questions , I'd also like to address three additional topics. That I believe to be of particular interest to our shareholder base. We do read your comments. I do read your comments on Twitter and on Reddit, and we have a good sense of what is important to you.
First, just yesterday, I tweeted that we at AMC have done a share count six times in the past year. That to our knowledge, there are 516.8 million issued and outstanding AMC shares. Many of you do not believe that this number is accurate, but that is the number that we know to be true. Second, last year, you urged us to stop issuing additional common shares. As many of you were, I think I should use the word obsessed with the topic of dilution. We followed your wishes. I was quite open at the time that I thought that following your wishes was a mistake, but that I also thought it was incumbent on me as CEO of the business to follow your wishes.
In my view then, what makes a company stronger and what really strikes fear amongst short sellers is when a business can increase or demonstrate a future ability to increase the amount of cash it has in the bank. We issued shares at AMC in January of 2021, and the AMC stock price rose. We issued shares in May and June of 2021, and again, the AMC stock price rose. We stopped issuing shares in July of 2021 at your urging, and then our share price started to slide ever since. Still, we did follow your wishes. We further announced that we would not seek your approval to issue more common shares in all of 2021. We kept our word.
Some of you cynically assumed that we would attempt to issue new common shares as early as the first week of January 2022 when 2021 had ended. We did not do so. I can announce today that we have no plans to seek your approval to issue new common stock for all of calendar year 2022. However, for full transparency, I have previously said publicly that a decade ago, the board of directors of the company authorized the creation of preferred stock at AMC, but that's a different kettle of fish, and we would only consider creating preferred stock if we were convinced it was in the interest of AMC shareholders to do so. On the third topic, many of you give voice that AMC should address trading practices in the markets.
In the words of many a tweet that I received, "Do something." It's not exactly identified what, but it's do something. I said on our first quarter earnings call that you should not take silence as inaction. That it's an art form in running a company to know what to do and what not to do, to know when to do it and when not to do it. I said that AMC would pounce when the time was right. Since that earnings call, I can't tell you how many tweets I've received that have asked, "So when are you gonna pounce?" When would the time be right? Just as has been the case before on the advice of counsel, I cannot tell you today what we will do or when we will do it.
I can safely say that in looking at all the surroundings and circumstances before AMC, we likely will not do anything. We will likely not pounce prior to the announcement of our second quarter earnings, which will occur a month or two from now. The box office in April and May are public numbers, and the box office in April and May was just great and considerably higher than the months of the first quarter, January, February, March. In June, we'll have the benefit in our theaters of Top Gun, Jurassic, Lightyear, Elvis. It is likely that it is important for our shareholders and the financial markets more broadly to assess the importance and implications of our second quarter results before we do the next step. With that all said, are there any questions from our shareholders here at the meeting?
If you have any questions relating to the company, feel free to ask them. If they're individual matters, we do have people in the room who can discuss customer issues and the like with you privately. The floor is now open to shareholders with a reminder that so that all shareholders get a chance to speak if they wish. We are gonna limit questions to two minutes. Questions in the room? Yes, sir.
Mr. Aron, hi. My name is Corey Siegel. I'm a shareholder.
Corey, I don't know if they can hear you on the phone. Can we make sure that you have a microphone?
You want me to come to get one?
Yeah, just maybe step up a little closer to him.
Just speak right into that speaker phone, and that way you'll, you know. This one works. You can have that. This way the webcast will get your question as well as my response.
Okay, thank you. Hi, Adam, it's a pleasure to be here. I have a statement rather than a request, but it doesn't require a response, but you're more than welcome to respond. I wanna credit Boss Blunts from YouTube for reminding me of Thomas Peterffy. He founded Interactive Brokers and explained the stock positions which facilitated the risk of the entire financial market collapse. The event was contained, but well illustrated in the GameStop stock from January 26th to the 28th in 2021, when the stock surged from $77 to $408. In the aftermath, it was determined that GameStop had 50 million registered outstanding shares, short interest of 70 million, and derivatives representing rights to exercise purchase of another 150 million shares.
Meaning market makers are facilitating an infinite liquidity practice as recently referenced and confirmed by Virtu Financial CEO that created an obligation to potentially deliver 270 million shares of a stock that GameStop only issued 50 million for. If the price of a stock can jump from $77 to $408 in two days, and the registered outstanding shares leading up to the volatility were conveniently at or just under the number of issued shares, then aside from that being a red flag of cooking the books, it illustrates that the stock price was not reflecting true demand.
While GameStop's stock price easily could have and may very well still run into the thousands of dollars, it did not because brokers of Apex Clearing took away the buy button and went position close only, effectively suppressing new demand, increasing selling pressure, and likely covering positions they had otherwise simply accounted for with share lending rehypothecation. I remind us all of that real life example of the current market making practices and unregulated risk that many AMC shareholders believe it pose a threat to our current stock price. Many retail holders and apes bought AMC shares to save AMC from predatory short sellers that may have been trying to bankrupt or devalue and buy out AMC during a very vulnerable pandemic period. We have been successful, and you have successfully embraced our community.
At this point, I would ask that you clarify the process of the six share counts referenced in your recent tweet so that we may better understand if those actions are addressing the true shareholder concerns. I ask that the board utilize some of our resources to identify and communicate potential risk to our current stock price. I, for one, do believe it's significantly suppressed. The metrics on ownership, utilization, short entries, shares on loan, and daily volume appear to be similar to how GameStop was being reported before it experienced historically significant price increase. I expect our leadership to adequately address our concerns or simply state, in light of potential legal liabilities, we cannot or prefer not to comment or investigate if that is the case.
Corey, you have 10 seconds left.
I'm all set. Thank you for everything you've done. I really appreciate you. I'm happy to be here and meet you. Thank you.
First of all, thank you for sharing your observations with me. I think we have been pretty clear that as recently as yesterday we know of 516.8 million issued and outstanding shares. We have said repeatedly over again, you know, many times in the past year that there is no reliable information about any shares above that number presently. We've heard all of the speculation about so-called fake shares or synthetic shares, concerns about trading practices that you all voice on Twitter and Reddit every day, which I read almost every day, not quite every day, but almost every day.
We've said that because we have no reliable information and we are a public company and securities laws are quite precise about what the CEO of a public company can say and cannot say, that the best thing for us to do is make no comment. It doesn't mean that we're not looking carefully at what's going on around us. I will disclose today, for example, some of you are not aware. I know that one of the many concerns that you all voice is something about failed to deliver shares. You should know that we have contacted the New York Stock Exchange on more than one occasion over the past year to inquire of the exchange about the failed to deliver shares in the AMC stock. I wouldn't be surprised if we do that again in the near term.
We are watching, we are mindful. The laws are quite precise about what I can say and can't say, but I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with us. Is there another question in the room? Yes, sir. Go ahead. Give the man a microphone.
How you doing, Adams? Mark Klosner. I just got quick questions. You did 6 share counts. Of those 6 share counts, can you tell us how many of those shares are owned by retail?
I think it was around 70% of our total outstanding shares were owned by retail. I later on, I think it was the next share count. My memory might fail me, but I think it was the next share count that it was up to 80%. That would have been in the June 2021 timeframe, June/July. Ever since then, it's been hovering right around 80%, sometimes a little above, sometimes a little below. In round numbers, 80-ish%, not exactly 80%. I did make a comment on an earnings call one or two quarters back that what I found so interesting about the percentage that retail owns is, by definition, if retail doesn't own it, then institutional investors own it.
Many of the institutional investors who are there are forced to be there because they are index funds. An index fund, by definition, has to buy all the stocks in its index. We've been a Russell 2000 company. If you're a Russell 2000 index fund, you had to buy AMC shares. We're a New York Stock Exchange company. If you were an NYSE index fund, you had to buy all the NYSE shares. What I said that since those people, it's not discretionary investing, whether it's retail or institutional, that if you took out the index funds, if you excluded them from the denominator of the fraction, because they have to be there, they have no choice, then retail own more like 90% of AMC stock.
On the last share count that I saw, that not the share count of total shares outstanding, but what's owned by retail and what's owned institutionally, the numbers are still right in those same ballparks. Kinda 80%-ish, you know, plus or minus five, 90%-ish, plus or minus five, of retail owning our total shares, or in the case of the 80 number, or retail owning 90% of the total number excluding the index funds. Does that answer your question? Thank you. Anyone else in the room?
Yes. Can you talk about the Hycroft Mining real quick?
Sure. You want to ask me about Hycroft? Yes. I see there's another question from a person in the room who told me before the meeting that she was the artist who drew a Let Them Eat Crow meme.
That is one of my favorite inbound memes of the past year. Boy, I have a lot to choose from, I might tell you. I thought Hycroft Mining Holding Corporation was a terrific opportunity for AMC. You know, we took some heat on the first day we announced it because people said, "Why is a movie theater company buying a silver mine in Nevada?" I understand that view. It's pretty out there. Those people only thought of AMC as a movie theater company. We've been saying since last September or possibly since last July, that we were gonna look for transformative change at AMC and go further afield. As I said in my remarks today, be bolder and grander. AMC does have expertise in running movie theaters for sure.
If we proved anything in the last two years, we proved that AMC has unique expertise in scrounging up liquidity for a cash-starved company surrounded in turbulent times, but a company that has deep, rich assets. When we were introduced to Hycroft Mining, it was clear it had deep, rich assets. It runs really deep in the ground. Last I checked, gold and silver can make you rich. It had no cash and had a debt payment it could not make, and it was gonna have to file for bankruptcy, so its shares were priced way low. We instantly thought we recognized that situation. We were just in it. We figured our way out of it. We can help this company to figure its way out of it.
Sure enough, we announced our transaction on a Tuesday morning, and within nine days, we helped Hycroft Mining raise $195 million. Nine days after our investment, it had more cash than it had debt. It had enough cash to operate for five, six years at least. You may recall, I've said this before, but Hycroft is surrounded by other mines in Northern Nevada, also in gold and silver. Hycroft has a 71,000-acre site and has explored only 2% of the site, and has all these proven gold and silver reserves in just 2% of the land it controls.
It was our speculation that if we could get Hycroft more cash so that it could explore more of its land, it likely would be able to find that it has even more reserves than it currently knows. Now, that's not definite. That remains to be proven. But based on our understanding, we got a good shot at that. If that happens, Hycroft is gonna be worth a whole lot more than what we paid for it. I might add, Hycroft has been worth a whole lot more than we paid for it from the very first day of our transaction. Even today, it's three months later after we made the investment, the overall stock market has been declining. You know, we all see the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war. We see the impact of $5-a-gallon gas.
We feel the effect of the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates. The market has been falling. Hycroft's share price is still higher today than it was when we bought in. We were in the money on day one. We're in the money on day whatever we are, ninety-ish. I think it's gonna prove to be a very successful investment for the company. I lastly remind you, we didn't go in alone. There was one other investor who made the exact same investment we made, exact same structure on the exact same day we did. His name is Eric Sprott, a self-made Canadian billionaire who made his fortune in investing in gold and silver. The capital of Canada is Ottawa. The business school of Carleton University is the Sprott School of Business.
This man knows gold and silver, and he's with us side by side, or conversely, we're with him side by side, which also gives us great confidence that we were very smart in making the Hycroft investment. I remind you, as I said in my earlier remarks, the board of directors authorized $100 million of additional investment in other opportunities. We will only deploy those monies if we can find opportunities, whether they're close to AMC expertise or a little bit further afield than the AMC expertise, where we think that we can add value by our involvement, and therefore create value for AMC shareholders. Remember, I too, like you, I'm an AMC shareholder. I wanna see this company do well for the benefit of all shareholders. Are there any other questions in the room? Yes.
Thank you, Adam, or should I say Chef Adam, cook of The Crow. My name is Rebecca, affectionately known as Ginger, in the social media world. This is a different topic that has been discussed today. On page 57 of this proxy statement, it notes that the median employee is a part-time theater level film crew member in the United States. On the previous page 56, it notes that there are about 21,000 U.S. employees. Mathematically, a large percentage of those would be, therefore, part-time employees. It is also noted in the last paragraph on page 56 that total earnings include additional pay elements such as overtime.
What may not be known by many shareholders is that the Fair Labor Standards Act exempts employees of the motion pictures from the FLSA's overtime requirement, 29 USC 213(b)(27). Those working at the almost 600 theaters of AMC across the United States, such as managers in many states, do not receive overtime because their states have no overtime laws. Those part-time workers mentioned earlier are managed at those theaters, and those theaters are managed by people who are working very long hours. As an aware shareholder of what I have previously spoken about, I would like to request that the company reflect their own policy of rewarding performance and retention and look into this and include full-time theater employees in the overtime compensation. Thank you.
Thank you for your question. I'm not sure that at this meeting I can rewrite all U.S. laws related to.
Understood.
Overtime pay and hiring step practices and part-time employees and full-time employees. I can tell you this. I say this knowing I'm gonna go on national television in about nine minutes, so I think we have one more question, which is great. Perfect. We'll wrap. I'm so proud as a leader of AMC that we kept this company going during this pandemic when everybody in the universe seemed to think or write that we weren't gonna make it. In all the things that we accomplished, in all the hours that we slaved to get this company to make it through the pandemic, the one thing that I was most proud of above all else is that I was helping to preserve 35,000 jobs here in the United States and internationally. We did that. Go back to August in your heads of 2020.
Go back in your heads to August of 2020. It was pretty bleak. The future of those 35,000 jobs was not assured. We saved those jobs so those people do have an income. What's more, especially in 2021, as the country has seen a labor shortage, we've been raising wages all over this company. You know, ours is a company where many people, that's their first job out of school. Ours is a company where many of them are teenagers who are still in school. It's hard to find quality employees in the United States these days. Not because there aren't a lot of them, there are, but there are more jobs than there are people.
We, like other employers, are working very hard to attract, incentivize, retain employees. One of the easiest ways to get there is by raising wages, and we did. We raised our so-called AMC minimum wage by almost a third over the past year. What's more, over the Christmas and New Year's holiday, we actually implemented time and a half overtime holiday pay for all of the people in our theaters, which is something that AMC, to my knowledge, has never done before. It was the right thing to do, and we wanted to thank them for working as hard as they did, especially on holidays when they might wanna be with their families.
We're very mindful of the issues that you're raising generally, that we should want to see our employees be as well compensated as the company can afford, and we are trying to do that as best we can. Next question. I think this is the last that I see in the room, which is great. You're on.
Thank you, Adam. My name is Toni Wyman. I'm a shareholder and also a very proud AMC employee. My question comes from the AMC Investor Connect. I chose this one because it's kind of quick. When will AMC start selling merchandise? Is there any progress that you can give us about this initiative?
Thank you to the AMC Ideas Group. You've literally given us hundreds of ideas, and I've seen them. We've actually started a different kind of merchandise program than the one you envision. It started with the Ghostbusters ambulance, and we did a Batman popcorn tub, and we did a Jurassic World popcorn tub. With logo branded merchandise, I said when I started, I think it's gonna be second half of this year where we will go forward with the merchandise program, which was one of the many ideas that have come in from our shareholders, which we actually have implemented. There's a long list of ideas that have come in from our shareholders that we will implement. I appreciate the ideas. Keep them flowing. We've implemented a lot of them. Merch is one.
Accepting cryptocurrency for payment is another. Having NFTs to help sell movie tickets. We've done half a dozen of those already and more in the works. Keep the good ideas flowing. We're implementing the good ones. With that, we're now going to have a report on the results of the election.
Great.
I really am on TV in five minutes, Kevin, so you gotta move.
The preliminary report of the inspectors of election indicates that Mr. Aron, Mr. Koch, Kathleen Pawlus, and Dr. Saich have been elected as directors. The appointment Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent public accounting firm for 2022 has been ratified. The non-binding advisory vote to approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers, as disclosed in the proxy statement, has failed to obtain the support of the majority of votes cast.
Thank you, Kevin. On behalf of the company, again, I'd like to thank all of our shareholders for your support of AMC. In addition, I'd like to thank you for reelecting all four directors, which includes me as being reelected to our board of directors and for ratifying EY as our accountants. The board and I greatly appreciate you sharing your views with us as expressed in your vote on say on pay. We will carefully consider your views as we make future compensation and disclosure decisions. I hereby request the final report of the inspectors of election be filed with the minutes of this meeting. That concludes the business of the meeting. Is there a motion to adjourn?
Thank you, Scott, for the motion. Is there a second?
Thank you, Lisa, for the second. All in favor of adjourning, please say aye.
Aye.
Anyone opposed? Same. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you to all of the AMC shareholders. We value you more than you'll ever know. We're adjourned.