Proactive Investors - Movie theatre chain AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE:AMC) reported a smaller loss for the first quarter than Wall Street expected and expressed confidence about the upcoming movie slate for the end of 2024 and 2025.
The shares traded down 2.5% at $3.11 premarket on Thursday.
After a 6% decline in the North American box office in the first quarter of 2024, revenues were understandably down, but for AMC it was less than 0.5% to $951.4 million, in line with the consensus estimate.
Net loss per diluted share was $0.62 compared to $1.71 a year ago, better than the Street expected.
CEO Adam Aron said: "We had expected for some time the Hollywood actor and writer strikes of 2023 would impact the first quarter box office but were heartened by the strength of moviegoing in March which reminded us that better times are ahead."
He said AMC grew its domestic market share, maintained total revenues in line with the prior year, and continued to grow revenue and profit per patron well above pre-pandemic measures.
Cash reserves stood at $624 million at the end of Q1, with an additional $124.1 million of equity capital raised since March.
The second quarter box office, though it includes recent releases such as Ryan Gosling's The Fall Guy (pictured) and Alex Garland's Civil War, is expected to continue to be affected by the 2023 Hollywood strikes, Aron said, but "we continue to be ebullient about the upcoming film lineup in the second half of 2024 and throughout 2025".
"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.”
He said the group is looking to capitalize on the success last year of the Taylor Swift and Beyonce films, and is "interacting" with several musical stars, with the first being a "unique listening event" coming up soon with Billie Eilish as a part of her next album launch.