AMC Entertainment Names Ellen Copaken Senior Vice President Marketing

AMC Theatres announced it is promoting Ellen Copaken to Senior Vice President Marketing, effective immediately. Copaken will report to Adam Aron, AMC Chairman and CEO, and will join AMC’s Executive Committee.

Copaken joined AMC in February of 2022 as Vice President of Growth Strategy, after more than 20 years of experience in senior marketing roles at brands like Frito-Lay, PepsiCo, and Hostess Brands. In joining AMC, Copaken’s first charge was to launch AMC’s initiative in making AMC’s Perfectly Popcorn available for purchase in the home.

Copaken succeeds Eliot Hamlisch, who had been commuting across the country to AMC’s Theatre Support Center in Leawood, Kansas from his residence in northern New Jersey. For personal reasons, Hamlisch was unable to relocate permanently.

In conjunction with Copaken’s elevation to head Marketing, AMC has made the following related corporate organizational moves:

• AMC’s grocery popcorn initiative will move to the Marketing department and continue to be overseen by Copaken and her popcorn team.
• The role of Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer Mark Pearson, to whom Copaken previously reported, is unchanged and he will continue to lead AMC’s strategic and innovative growth opportunities. He continues to report directly to Adam Aron.
• AMC’s external communications, led by Vice President of Corporate Communications and Public Relations Ryan Noonan, will now also report directly to Adam Aron.
• AMC’s internal communications efforts will move to Human Resources, led by Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Carla Chavarria.

“Ellen Copaken has truly distinguished herself as she grabbed the reins of our desire to launch AMC Perfectly Popcorn to the home market,” AMC Chairman and CEO Adam Aron said in a press release. “In the year and a half that she has been with us, her talent, skill, and affable nature have been obvious to all who have interacted with her. I could not be more excited to be working with her as she now also assumes the leadership of our marketing efforts.”