LEAWOOD, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 29, 2025--
AMC Theatres® (NYSE:AMC), the largest theatrical exhibitor in the United States and the world, today announced it has opened the Company’s first two XL at AMC auditoriums, both in the Kansas City market. The Extra-Large Format (XLF) experience is officially branded and available to AMC guests for the first time ever at AMC DINE-IN Studio 28 in Olathe, Kan., and AMC DINE-IN Prairiefire 17 in Overland Park, Kan.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250429415698/en/
This “XLF” experience features a wall-to-wall screen of at least 40 feet wide and 4K Laser projection, powered by Barco. Moviegoers can expect to see the biggest blockbusters on XL at AMC screens, in 2D and 3D formats. The XL at AMC experience will also allow more large-screen programming flexibility at AMC when multiple blockbusters are playing in theatres that also contain a Premium Large Format (PLF) screen.
This new XL at AMC initiative is designed to make it easier for guests to identify the largest non-PLF auditorium in theatres that have screens at least 40 feet wide. Every XL at AMC auditorium receives a branded entry, and easy-to-identify branding on the AMC website and mobile app.
The XL at AMC auditorium is the latest innovation under the AMC Go Plan, the company’s forward-looking strategy to invest in and reimagine the theatrical experience for guests nationwide. From more and better PLF experiences, to luxury seating and cutting-edge laser projection, to dynamic new food and beverage offerings, AMC is focused on delivering unmatched comfort, quality, and immersion.
AMC expects to unveil up to 50 XL at AMC locations by the end of 2025.
Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO of AMC Theatres, commented on the launch:
“XL at AMC is the next evolution in ensuring our guests know where they can find the largest screens at our theatres. We are excited to open our first XL auditoriums right here in our home state of Kansas, as we execute on the AMC Go Plan and reaffirm our commitment to redefining what it means to go to the movies.”
Guests at AMC DINE-IN Studio 28 and AMC DINE-IN Prairiefire 17 can book their tickets for the XL experience by looking for the XL logo next to showtimes on the AMC website and mobile app.
For showtimes, ticketing, and more information about the XL at AMC experience, visit amctheatres.com.
ABOUT AMC ENTERTAINMENT HOLDINGS, INC.
AMC is the largest movie exhibition company in the United States, the largest in Europe and the largest throughout the world with approximately 900 theatres and 10,000 screens across the globe. AMC has propelled innovation in the exhibition industry by: deploying its Signature power-recliner seats; delivering enhanced food and beverage choices; generating greater guest engagement through its loyalty and subscription programs, website, and mobile apps; offering premium large format experiences and playing a wide variety of content including the latest Hollywood releases and independent programming. For more information, visit www.amctheatres.com.
Category: Company Release
The first two XL at AMC auditoriums are officially unveiled at AMC locations in Kansas. AMC expects to bring up to 50 XL at AMC auditoriums to its U.S. circuit in 2025.
The first two XL at AMC auditoriums are officially unveiled at AMC locations in Kansas. AMC expects to bring up to 50 XL at AMC auditoriums to its U.S. circuit in 2025.
NEW YORK (AP) — The public knew Sean “Diddy” Combs as a larger-than-life music and business mogul, but in private he used violence and threats to coerce women into drug-fueled sexual encounters that he recorded, a prosecutor said Monday in opening statements at Combs' sex trafficking trial.
“This is Sean Combs,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson told the jury, pointing at Combs, who leaned back in his chair in a Manhattan courtroom. ”During this trial you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendant’s crimes."
Those crimes, she said, included kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction.
Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos, though, described the closely watched trial as a misguided overreach by prosecutors, saying that although her client could be violent, the government was trying to turn sex between consenting adults into a prostitution and sex trafficking case. The judge said he expects the trial to take eight weeks.
“Sean Combs is a complicated man. But this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money,” Geragos told the jury of eight men and four women. “There has been a tremendous amount of noise around this case over the past year. It is time to cancel that noise.”
Geragos conceded that Combs' violent outbursts, often fueled by alcohol, jealousy and drugs, might have warranted domestic violence charges, but not sex trafficking and racketeering counts. She told jurors they might think Combs is a “jerk” and might not condone his “kinky sex,” but “he’s not charged with being a jerk."
Prosecutors seized on Combs’ violence as they questioned their first witness and showed jurors a key piece of evidence: a now-infamous video without audio of him kicking and dragging the R&B singer Cassie, his longtime girlfriend, at a Los Angeles hotel in March 2016.
Combs shook his head slowly side to side as the footage played. Jurors ended up seeing it four times as former hotel security officer Israel Florez testified, including once as Combs’ lawyer tried to poke holes in his recollection.
After CNN aired the video last year, Combs apologized and said he was “disgusted” by his actions.
Florez testified that he encountered Combs near the sixth floor elevators while responding to a security call for a “woman in distress." Combs, wearing only a white towel, was slouching in a chair “with a blank stare ... like a devilish stare, just looking at me,” Florez told jurors.
Florez, who is now a Los Angeles police officer, said that as he was escorting Cassie and Combs to their room, she indicated she wanted to leave and Combs told her, “You’re not going to leave.” Florez said he told Combs, “If she wants to leave, she’s going to leave.”
Cassie left, and Florez said Combs, while holding a stack of money with a $100 bill on top, told him, “Don’t tell nobody.” Florez said he considered it a bribe and told Combs, “I don’t want your money. Just go back into your room.”
Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, is expected to testify Tuesday.
The second witness, Daniel Phillip, said he was a professional stripper who was paid $700 to $6,000 to have sex with Cassie while Combs watched and gave instructions, with the first encounter in 2012.
Phillip told jurors that he stopped meeting with the couple after he saw Combs throw a bottle at her and then drag her by her hair into a bedroom as she screamed.
On cross examination, defense attorney Xavier Donaldson tried to attack Phillip’s credibility, mocking Phillip’s former employer, a male review show company whose slogan promised “the ultimate ladies night experience.”
Combs watched Monday's proceedings attentively. He hugged his lawyers and gave a thumbs-up to family and friends as he entered the courtroom. He also blew a kiss to his mother and mouthed, “Hi mom, I love you,” as she arrived for the start of testimony.
Some of Combs’ children also attended, including three daughters who left the courtroom when the testimony turned lurid.
The case has drawn intense public interest, and the line to get into the courthouse stretched down the block. As Combs' family and lawyers left court Monday, some people were already lining up to snag a seat for Tuesday.
Combs, 55, pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment that could result in a 15-year-to-life prison sentence if he is convicted. Since his September arrest, he's been held at a federal jail in Brooklyn.
Judge Arun Subramanian has granted Combs permission to wear regular clothes in court, instead of jail garb. On Monday, he sported a gray sweater and a white button-down shirt. Because hair dye isn't allowed in jail, his normally jet black mane is now mostly gray.
Lawyers for the three-time Grammy winner say prosecutors are wrongly trying to make a crime out of a party-loving lifestyle that may have been indulgent, but not illegal.
Prosecutors say Combs coerced women into drugged-up group sexual encounters he called “freak-offs,” “wild king nights” or “hotel nights,” then kept them in line by choking, hitting, kicking and dragging them, often by the hair.
In her opening, Johnson said Cassie was far from the only woman Combs beat and sexually exploited.
The prosecutor said Combs last year brutally beat another woman — identified only as Jane — when she confronted him about enduring years of freak-offs in dark hotel rooms while he took other paramours on date nights and trips around the globe.
The sex parties are central to Combs' sexual abuse, prosecutors say. Combs’ company paid for the parties, held in hotel rooms across the U.S. and overseas, and his employees staged the rooms with his preferred lighting, extra linens and lubricant, Johnson said. Combs compelled women, including Cassie, to take drugs and engage in sexual activity with male escorts while he gratified himself and sometimes recorded them, Johnson said.
Combs would beat Cassie over the smallest slights, such as leaving a freak-off without his permission or taking too long in the bathroom, Johnson said. Combs threatened to ruin Cassie’s singing career by publicly releasing videos of her sexually involved with male escorts, the prosecutor said. “Her livelihood depended on keeping him happy,” Johnson said.
Cassie sued Combs in 2023, and the lawsuit was settled within hours, but it touched off a law enforcement investigation and was followed by dozens of lawsuits making similar claims.
Geragos claimed Combs’ accusers were motivated by money. She told jurors that Cassie demanded $30 million when she sued him, and another witness will acknowledge demanding $22 million in a breach of contract lawsuit.
She also conceded that Combs is extremely jealous and “has a bad temper,” telling the jury that he sometimes got angry and lashed out when he drank alcohol or “did the wrong drugs.” But, she said, “Domestic violence is not sex trafficking.”
The Associated Press doesn’t generally identify people who say they are victims of sexual abuse unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has done.
This story was updated to correct the spelling of Casandra Ventura's first name, which had been misspelled “Cassandra.”
Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.
Sean Diddy Combs, center, motions a heart sign to his family in attendance as he is escorted out of lock-up by US Marshals, on the first day of trial, Monday, May 12, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
Janice Combs, mother of Sean "Diddy" Combs, right, arrives to the courthouse in New York, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Family and supporters of Sean "Diddy" Combs, including King Combs, second from right, arrive to the courthouse in New York, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Family and supporters of Sean "Diddy" Combs arrive to the courthouse in New York, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Janice Combs, mother of Sean "Diddy" Combs, second from right, arrives to the courthouse in New York, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Family and supporters of Sean "Diddy" Combs, including his sons Quincy Brown, third from left, and Justin Combs, second from right, arrive to the courthouse in New York, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Family and supporters of Sean "Diddy" Combs, including his sons Quincy Brown, second from left, and Justin Combs, third from right, arrive to the courthouse in New York, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Sean 'Diddy' Combs, right, turns around and looks at the audience during jury selection at Manhattan federal court, Monday, May 5, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
FILE - Cassie Ventura, left, and Sean "Diddy" Combs appear at the premiere of "Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A Bad Boy Story" on June 21, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
