Nicole Kidman's Viral AMC Commercial Is Getting The Sequel It Deserves

If commercials had an Oscars-equivalent awards show, then Nicole Kidman’s beloved AMC ad would take home Best Picture, and thankfully, there’s more to come. Screenwriter Billy Ray (not to be confused with Billy Ray Cyrus) told Vanity Fair on Aug. 31 that he has already written the sequel to the viral AMC ad, as requested by the theater chain itself. “I got a text from the chairman of AMC about a month ago asking me if I would write the next one, and of course the answer to that is yes,” Ray said. And luckily, Kidman will return for round #2. “Of course it’s with Nicole,” he revealed. “I’m not doing it without Nicole.”

AMC debuted its new commercial starring Kidman in September 2021, as theaters around the world were attempting to get audiences back into seats after a year of closures. Evidently, the sight of Kidman in a sparkly suit dramatically hyping up the importance of movie theaters was effective. The ad quickly went viral, with memes and Bravo ads spoofing Kidman’s monologue, and fans especially latched onto the now-iconic line “Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this.” The success of the campaign led AMC to extend Kidman’s contract for another year in August 2022.

Kidman found the ad’s resonance with audiences very amusing, telling The Playlist in January that the “heartbreak” line drove home how important movie theaters still were for film lovers. “It's so true,” she said. “I mean, talk about not feeling alone, sitting in a cinema with a broken heart, and then watching something that breaks your heart again, and you go, ‘I'm not alone.’ Please. This must not go away. We have to have cinema.”

Speaking to VF, Ray revealed that he was prepared to write the ad for free to support Kidman, but luckily, his agent sensed what a phenomenon it would become and made sure he was fairly compensated. “When Nicole first asked me to do it, I was just doing it as a favor,” he explained. “I said I would do it for free just because I’m a fan and a friend of hers. My agent said, ‘No, that’s not what’s happening here. You need to be paid for this.’ And it turns out my agent was right, because it’s had real value.”

While Ray said he was “very excited” for what’s to come, he refrained from sharing many details about the sequel commercial. “All I can tell you about it is we are not dumb enough to fly in the face of the one we’ve already done and try to top it,” he teased. “So it’s a very, very different approach that is a little bit of a wink to the one we’ve already done.” As long as heartbreak still feels good in a place like AMC, then all will be well.