AMC Theatres
Whetting the appetite for todays second-quarter earnings announcement, AMC Entertainment on Tuesday night touted strong uptake for its nascent frequent moviegoer program, AMC Stubs A-List. This morning, in pre-market trading, AMC shares were up 2.45% as the worlds largest exhibitor reported a 20% Q2 increase in revenues across all categories to a record $1,442.5M. Thats compared to total revenues of $1,202.3M for the April-June period last year.
The Dalian Wanda Group-owned AMC beat Wall Street estimates with earnings per share coming in at 17 cents versus a net loss of $1.35 per share for the same period a year ago. Net income increased $198.7M to $22.2M after a $176.5M loss in Q2 2017 that was impacted by an impairment charge for AMCs investment in National CineMedia.
Revenues from admissions jumped 17.7% to $896.3M during a period that saw the release of such blockbusters as Avengers: Infinity War, Incredibles 2 and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Food and beverage sales increased 19.2% to $445.8M. Of the total revenue pie, $313.2M came from international theaters as compared to $294.9M for the three months ended June 30, 2017.
Adam Aron, CEO and President of AMC noted that admissions revenues at AMCs IMAX, Dolby Cinema and premium large format screens grew in the quarter by 70.3% in the U.S. and 17.5% in Europe.
He also pointed to the April opening of the AMC Cinema in Riyadh and reiterated that the company expects to open 50-100 AMC Cinemas in Saudi Arabia in the years ahead.
Aron further said the company continued to deleverage, “in part due to our earnings strength and in part through AMC having successfully monetized some $500 million of non-strategic assets over the past 11 months. Taking all this together, AMC made enormous progress in the second quarter of 2018.”
He called the exhibition business “a solid and steady industry over the long haul… It is finally time for the sky-is-falling-in cynics to admit that they misinterpreted a brief slump in moviegoing last summer. Our industry is flourishing and strong, and the prospects for AMC are enormously bright.”
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