AMC Theaters continued to chip away at its losses in the first quarter of 2024, as revenue remained flat year-over-year at $951 million amid an early-year slump exacerbated by last year’s Hollywood strikes.
Some of the top-line data from the major theater chain’s latest quarterly reports:
Net loss: $163.5 million for Q1, an improvement from the $182 million loss in Q4 2023 and $235 million for the prior-year quarter.
Loss per share: Net loss of 62 cents per diluted share, as both the LPS and quarterly revenue met projections set by Zacks Investment Research.
The per share loss is slightly worse than the 54 cent loss reported last quarter but an improvement from the $1.71 loss reported in Q1 2023.
Debt reduction: A reduction of $17.5 million
AMC has had few profitable quarters since the pandemic, but has been steadily decreasing its loss per share and is also chipping away at its debt load while holding its capital expenditures largely in check.
The majority of the chain’s debt is due in 2026, and the company has proposed an extension. AMC also reported $624 million in unrestricted cash reserves.
Like the rest of exhibition, AMC had to weather a sluggish start to the box office due to a lack of “Avatar”-level holiday hits and a low quantity of wide releases in January and February. Business picked up in March thanks to films like “Dune: Part Two,” “Kung Fu Panda 4” and “Godzilla x Kong,” but quarterly domestic grosses still dropped 6.6% year-over-year.
With no films expected to earn a $100 million-plus domestic opening in Q2, AMC and other chains are likely to see year-over-year revenue drops. But CEO Adam Aron expressed optimism about the second half of 2024, which will kick off in July with the highly anticipated “Despicable Me 4” from Universal and Disney’s “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
“While the second quarter box office will continue to be affected by the 2023 Hollywood strikes, we continue to be ebullient about the upcoming film lineup in the second half of 2024 and throughout 2025,” Aron said in a statement. “With many more great films slated for the remainder of 2024, 2025 and even well into 2026, we are exceedingly confident in our ongoing recovery trajectory.”
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