The AMC 25 Theaters in Times Square in New York is seen on Tuesday, July 8, 2014.
Richard Levine | Corbis News | Getty Images
AMC Entertainment On Wednesday, it warned investors of declines in key metrics during the second quarter, sending its shares down more than 7%.
The company blamed last year's actors and writers strike for the slowdown in theatrical releases, which ultimately led to “weakness” in the quarter ended June 30.
AMC's preliminary results revealed that revenue fell more than 23% during the period to $1.03 billion. It also said it expects to post a net loss of $32.8 million compared with a profit of $8.6 million in the second quarter of 2023. Full results will be released on August 2.
“As we accurately predicted and previously disclosed, the prolonged 2023 strikes by actors and writers dramatically reduced the number of films released in theaters in the first few months of 2024,” Adam Aron, president and CEO of AMC Entertainment, said in a statement. “This explains the weakness in our preliminary second quarter 2024 results compared to the same quarter last year.”
The theater industry has gotten a boost in the past month after a pandemic-driven slump, as moviegoers have returned in droves to watch movies like Disney and Pixar's “Inside Out 2,” Universal and Illumination's “Despicable Me 4,” Universal's “Twisters,” and Neon's surprising indie horror film “Longlegs.”
“But if you just look at the entire quarter, the lay observer could easily miss the incredibly good news that came out in the second quarter,” Aron said. “Lastly, movie theater attendance appears to be back on an upward trajectory.”
Still to come is Disney and Marvel's highly anticipated release of “Deadpool and Wolverine,” which is expected to have the biggest opening of 2024 and of any R-rated film in history.
And the final stretch of the year will see the release of some major blockbusters. “Beetlejuice” will arrive in early September, “Joker: Folie a Deux” will arrive in October along with “Venom: The Last Dance” and in November “Gladiator II”, “Moana 2” and “Wicked” will arrive. In December, “Kraven the Hunter”, “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” and “Mufasa: The Lion King” will also arrive.
“AMC remains confident that industry-wide film revenues for the second half of 2024 and into 2025 and 2026 will continue to show increasing strength,” Aron said. “This, in turn, suggests that AMC should enjoy increased Adjusted EBITDA as long as overall industry revenues increase. These improvements in revenue, earnings and Adjusted EBITDA are our current expectations for the future, and are all reflective of AMC's future.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
