Cinemark Lost $209 Million in Q1, Announces New Deals With 5 Major Studios

We’re still in a pandemic — especially movie theaters

cinemark earnings
Cinemark's logo on the iconography of a dollar bill

Cinemark lost more money — $208.8 million — than media analysts predicted in the first quarter of 2021. The movie-theater chain did beat revenue expectations, for what that’s worth.

Wall Street had forecast a loss per share of $1.46 on $92.96 million in revenue, according to a consensus estimate compiled by Yahoo Finance. Cinemark actually posted a loss of $1.75 per share on $114.4 million in revenue.

Of that revenue figure, $56.1 million came from ticket sales and $39.5 million at the concessions stand.

For the sake of comparison, Cinemark lost $59.4 million in the first quarter of 2020, or -51 cents per share. Movie theaters in the U.S. were open for the majority of that quarter a year ago.

As of March 31, 2021, Cinemark had 301 domestic and 78 international theaters open. The company has an aggregate screen count of 5,872 in 523 theaters.

Cinemark plans to open six new theaters and 72 screens during the remainder of 2021, and 13 new theaters and 123 screens subsequent to the current year.

“Over a year has passed since COVID-19 prompted the shutdown of our global circuit, and today I am pleased to report that we are now actively on the road to recovery,” Mark Zoradi, Cinemark CEO, said in a statement on Friday. “We are highly optimistic about theatrical exhibition’s resurgence in the U.S. over the coming months on account of a range of factors, including the rapid pace of the vaccine rollout, improving consumer sentiment about returning to movie theaters, recent box office successes and confirmation of consistent product supply. On a global basis, we remain confident that, like the U.S., other countries will quickly recover as lockdowns reign in the virus and vaccines are more widely disseminated.”

CInemark also announced it reached agreements to theatrically showcase films from all five major studio partners — Universal, Warner Bros., Disney, Paramount and Sony Pictures Entertainment — across its U.S. theatres.

“Cinemark is thrilled to have reached new agreements with our major studio partners, and we are eager to continue providing movie fans an immersive, larger-than-life cinematic environment to see major upcoming films, ranging from the biggest blockbusters to specialty fare to family-friendly content,” said Zoradi in a prepared statement. “In our ongoing efforts to maximize attendance and box office during the pandemic and beyond, our goal is to provide the widest range of content with terms that are in the best long-term interests of Cinemark, our studio partners and moviegoers. We are pleased with these recent developments and are confident we are taking positive steps toward reigniting theatrical exhibition and evolving the industry for a post-pandemic landscape.”

According to the statement, the full terms of the deals are confidential and not disclosed, but each was described as having “unique attributes specific to the individual studio that mutually benefits both parties.” Follow-up questions asked during the earnings call about the deals were deflected.

Cinemark stock closed Thursday at $20.49 per share. The U.S. stock markets will reopen for regular trading at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Cinemark executives will host a conference call at 8:30 a.m. ET to discuss the quarter in greater detail.

Lawrence Yee contributed to this report.

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