Nicole Kidman Revealed If She Got Paid For Her AMC Theatres Ad

It’s hard to believe Nicole Kidman’s AMC Theatres ad is almost five years old. But indeed, it’s been half a decade since the Oscar winner first strolled into the cool comfort of an empty movie theater, donning a gray, shiny pinstriped pantsuit and ready — as she put it — “to laugh, to cry, to care. Because we need that.”

The viral, minute-long spot would become one of Kidman’s most beloved roles, up there with Satine in Moulin Rouge! or Celeste in Big Little Lies. But unlike other projects on her lucrative resume, Kidman’s AMC ad didn’t earn her a movie-star paycheck. And as she shared in a new interview with Jimmy Fallon, that’s by design.

Popcorn With Purpose

During a March 2 appearance on The Tonight Show to promote her new series, Scarpetta, Kidman reflected on the enduring buzz surrounding her AMC ad. “I had no idea that thing was gonna work, and we did it out of the purest of intentions,” she said, acknowledging the spot’s context in the early years of COVID, when the pandemic had a profound impact on cinemas and movie-going culture as a whole.

“We need to help the theaters,” she recalled telling her friend, screenwriter Billy Ray, who would pen the iconic ad — including its most enduring line, “Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this.” (As Ray later told Variety, “It’s kind of my favorite line I ever wrote in my life.”)

Kidman recalled enlisting the crew from her film, Being the Ricardos, including cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth, who directed the AMC spot with his brother and fellow filmmaker, Tim Cronenweth.

She “called in all these favors,” Fallon observed, which Kidman affirmed. “We did it for nothing, and then it went off,” she said, before turning to the audience: “So, thank you, and thank you for supporting cinemas.”

As Variety reported at the time, the ad campaign cost $25 million. But as Kidman shared on Fallon, that wasn’t her paycheck — rather, most of this went toward placing the ad on network television, per the outlet.

Kidman’s Love For The Silver Screen

While Kidman couldn’t have predicted the ad’s impact (it spawned everything from a Saturday Night Live spoof to official, limited-edition merch), she’s proud of doing her part to support cinema.

“I pay money, and I go and I see my commercial in the AMC,” she told Allure in 2025 — not that she’s going just to see herself on screen, of course. “I always go and see movies. I’m a paying member of the public who goes to the movie theaters with huge enthusiasm. And I love it.”