Last summer’s actors and writers strikes continue to reverberate in the movie theater business, according to AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron. As a result of the work stoppage, Hollywood studios upended much of the early 2024 release calendar and delayed major films that wouldn’t have been completed on schedule — leaving cinema operators with less to offer their patrons in the first half of the year.
AMC Theatres, the world’s biggest exhibitor, certainly felt the lack of tentpole films as the company fell short of projections with its quarterly earnings. Revenue at the theater chain fell 31% in the second quarter of 2024, to $1.030 billion from $1.347 billion in the prior-year period. Net loss for the three months also widened to $32.8 million compared with $8.6 million for the quarter ended June 2023.
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“As we accurately predicted and previously disclosed, the prolonged actors and writers strikes of 2023 severely reduced the number of movies being released theatrically in the early months of 2024,” says AMC’s chairman Adam Aron. “This explains the weakness in our preliminary Q2 2024 results, as contrasted with the same quarter of a year ago.”
Earlier this week, AMC Theatres reached an agreement to restructure a portion of its debt to extend maturity dates by at least three years. The company is currently saddled with $4.5 billion in debt,including more than $2.8 billion of maturities that were pushed from 2026 to 2029 and 2030.
“We are ever more confident in the future of our business as we will continue to take the necessary actions to best position AMC to thrive in a more favorable environment,” Aron said on Monday.
May and June releases like Disney and Pixar’s blockbuster “Inside Out 2,” “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” and “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” were bright spots in an otherwise bleak period for moviegoing. Earlier summer offerings, such as “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” “The Fall Guy” and “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1,” were misfires that kicked off the all-important popcorn season with a whimper rather than a bang. However, exhibitors have reason for optimism even while domestic revenues are down 17% in 2024 compared with the same frame in 2023 and nearly 35% behind 2019. That’s because the North American box office is finally gaining momentum with “Despicable Me 4,” “Twisters” and the upcoming “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
“If looking only at the full quarter, the lay observer might easily miss the incredibly good news that transpired within the second quarter. Finally, moviegoing in theatres appears again to be on an upwards trajectory. AMC enjoyed a significant increase in our daily revenues in June of 2024 as compared to those of April and May of 2024,” Aron said. “So far, the impressive box office performance has continued into July. And AMC continues to be confident that industry-wide movie revenues for the second half of 2024, and into 2025 and 2026 will continue to show increasing strength.”
