Publicly traded US exhibitor AMC Entertainment is to close 249 screens this year in addition to the 66 it has already said it will close. The closures come the day after AMC reported a $63.6m net loss for the fourth quarter ending March 29 on revenue of some $290m.

Losses in the year ending March 29 totalled $105.9m, reflecting an industry-wide depression which results from dramatic overbuilding and a series of bankruptcies.

AMC controls 2,766 screens in about 180 sites and had said at the beginning of the year that it would close 307 screens by 2004; however that figure has already been surpassed. Nevertheless AMC has so far avoided the bankruptcy or Chapter 11 problems which have plagued other chains like Loews Cineplex or Carmike Cinemas, probably because most of its screens are in megaplex complexes.