It’s the “political issue” statement that’s causing the media storm, even more than the policy that isn’t requiring masks.
It’s common to refer to disagreements about policies that garner emotional responses as “political” or “political issues.” The problem is that a lot of them aren’t actually political.
Policies regarding masks during a pandemic are public health. Especially those policies that are developed by private corporations. Decisions regarding the pandemic vary on a scale of “how much are we going to work towards the public well-being.” It’s not political at all.
Arguing that those policies are “politics” is a distancing measure. It’s a way of avoiding accountability by trivializing the decision. Because “political disagreements,” truly political disagreements taxes and legislation, typically (or shouldn’t) fall on a explicitly moral spectrum, there’s no real more about the “right” or “wrong” decision. However, things like public health, civil rights, etc, lie explicitly on a moral spectrum.
People understand if a corporation doesn’t act according to moral expectations. In a capitalist society, it’s somewhat expected for companies to put profits over people. AMC stepped in it by trying to distance and trivialize the issue.