Taylor Swift, Beyoncé Concert Films Boost AMC Theaters Q4 Revenues as Chains Cut Losses 37% to $182 Million
AMC Theaters’ fight to maintain cash flow continued this past quarter, as the theater chain posted a $182 million net loss in Q4 amid a threadbare slate but an 11.5% year-over-year increase in revenue to $1.1 billion.
Some of the topline data:
Net loss: The $182 million net loss for AMC includes a non-cash impairment charge related to long-lived assets of $106.9 million, and is an improvement from the net loss of $287 million in Q4 2022.
Loss per share: While still not out of the red, AMC’s reported an adjusted loss-per-share came of 54 cents, improving from a $1.40 loss-per-share a year ago and beating Zacks Investment Research’s projections of a 70 cent loss.
Revenue boost: While concessions revenue increased by $39 million year-over-year to $370 million in the past quarter, admissions revenue surged by $53 million year-over-year to $614 million.
AMC attributed the overall revenue boost to the two concert films it directly released in theaters this past quarter, including “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,”which became the highest-grossing film in North America this past quarter, pulling in $179.8 million domestically.
AMC partnered with indie distributor Variance to release the concert film in theaters at a time when the Hollywood strikes were depleting the release slate, allowing theaters to get a larger share of revenue without a major studio attached. AMC and Variance also released the Beyoncé concert film “Renaissance,” which grossed $33.8 million this past December.
Despite a diminished box office overall in the fourth quarter, AMC’s adjusted EBITDA almost tripled, AMC CEO Adam Aron said in a statement. “Literally, all of that increase in AMC’s Revenue and EBITDA is attributable to our having shown these two movies in our theaters in the U.S. and internationally.”
While other films like Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” Universal/Blumhouse’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s” and Warner Bros.’ “Wonka” also provided some theatrical support, there were no major box office hits like “Avatar: The Way of Water” in winter 2022, and no “Barbie” or “Oppenheimer” as in Q3 of last year.
Those struggles have continued into 2024, as the domestic box office has yet to reach $1 billion in annual grosses two months into the year. AMC and other theaters are hoping it will turn around in March starting with “Dune: Part Two,” which is expected to open to $70 million-plus with significant upside thanks to its critical acclaim.
“AMC believes that the box office will start to strengthen again as soon as this coming month of March, in some of the summer months and especially in the latter third of this year,” Aron said. “And over the medium term, we are both bullish and optimistic. With all the caveats that no one’s crystal ball is perfect, we currently expect that the industry box office in 2025 will grow by $1 to $2 billion, or more, in size over 2024.”
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