By Robb M. Stewart
AMC Entertainment Holdings expects to swing to a loss in the latest quarter in the wake of the prolonged Hollywood actors and writers strikes last year, though it flagged a recovery in movie going last month.
The movie-theater operator said preliminary second-quarter results point to a loss of about $32.8 million against a year-earlier profit of $8.6 million, much narrower than the $159.3 million loss penciled in by analysts. That is expected to translate into a loss per share of about 10 cents for the three months to the end of June, against year-earlier earnings of 6 cents.
The Leawood, Kan.-based company forecast revenue would decline to about $1.03 billion for the quarter from $1.35 billion last year, in line with the mean estimate of analysts polled by FactSet.
Last year's strikes cut into the number of movies being released in theaters in the early months of 2024, a trend the company had warned could occur.
Chairman and Chief Executive Adam Aron said the weakness masked what appears to be an upward trajectory in moviegoing, with a significant rise in daily revenue in June compared with April and May. The industry box office for June was 1.4% below that of April and May combined, and Aron said the improvement has continued into July.
Aron said AMC is confident that industry-wide movie revenue for the second half of this year and into 2025 and 2026 will continue to show increasing strength.
AMC is set to release quarterly results after markets close Aug. 2.
Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 24, 2024 09:56 ET (13:56 GMT)
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