'Spider-Man' saves the day, theatre chain AMC beats revenue estimates

[BENGALURU] AMC Entertainment Holdings beat estimates for fourth-quarter revenue on Tuesday (Mar 1) as box-office hits such as Spider-Man: No Way Home brought people back to the movies.

Long-awaited releases including the James Bond film No Time To Die and Marvel's Venom: Let There Be Carnage also helped the theatre chain recover from pandemic restrictions that had brought movie-going to a standstill.

Pressures from inflation, labour shortages, supply chain disruptions as well as the crisis in Europe after Russia invaded Ukraine could pose challenges for the company, chief executive officer Adam Aron said on a post-earnings call.

Earlier this year, worries over the Omicron variant pushed producers to postpone movie releases.

"The box office pacing and our results in 2022 are expected to be heavily weighted towards the second half of the year," Aron said.

AMC, which saw a footfall of nearly 60 million during the quarter, said bookings are very strong for The Batman film opening this weekend. It also expects to benefit from releases like Top Gun: Maverick and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever later this year.

AMC's CEO stressed on initiatives like variable pricing of tickets in the United States, focus on NFTs or non-fungible tokens, potentially issuing its own cryptocurrency and selling its own branded popcorn to grow business in a post-Covid environment.

Currently, AMC is charging patrons higher for The Batman movie than other films at its US locations, something it has been doing for years in Europe.

"In 2022, 2023 and beyond, we also expect to transform our company into becoming something much greater than solely a movie theatre operator," Aron added.

The company's revenue for the quarter ended Dec 31 was US$1.17 billion, above expectations of US$1.10 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Net loss narrowed to US$134.4 million, or 26 cents per share, from US$946.1 million, or US$6.21 per share, a year earlier. REUTERS