- The number of visitors to cinemas owned by AMC, the world’s largest theater chain, has fallen 90% year-on-year, and its revenue has plummeted to match.
- The company on Monday reported a pre-tax loss of $901 million in the quarter.
- AMC sold just 6.5 million tickets in the quarter, down from 87.1 million in the previous three months, as cinemas in the US and elsewhere shut their doors thanks to COVID-19.
- US visitor numbers dived much more rapidly in the three months to September than visitors to its international theaters because of tougher lockdown restrictions, it said in its latest results.
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Revenues at AMC, the world’s largest theater chain, plummeted by more than 90% in the three months to September, as lockdown restrictions continued to wreak havoc on the cinema industry.
Its revenues fell to $119.5 million, and the number of tickets it sold caved to 6.5 million, from 87.1 million in the previous quarter, the chain reported in an earnings call Monday.
It posted a pre-tax loss of $901.2 million. During the same period in 2019, this loss was $55.0 million.
AMC’s US visitor numbers dived much more rapidly than visitors to its international theaters because of tougher lockdown restrictions, it said.
Its American theaters, which didn’t begin reopening til mid-August following a five-month closure, sold 97% fewer tickets in the three months to September than during the same time period last year. Its international locations, some of which began reopening in early June, saw visitor numbers drop 82%.
As a result, AMC's international theaters had more than twice as many visitors as its US sites, even though the chain has around three times as many screens in the US.
But this may change. Though sites across the US are reopening, around 17% of cinemas across its international markets closed during October after Italy, Germany, Spain, and the UK announced stricter lockdown measures.
Studios are also delaying film releases, too. The upcoming James Bond instalment "No Time To Die," Marvel's "Black Widow," and Warner Bros.' "Wonder Woman 1984" have all been pushed back – these delays were a major reason why rival movie theater chain Cineworld Group announced the closure of its 536 Regal movie theaters in the US in October.
In 2020 so far, AMC has sold 67.1 million tickets – 20 million fewer than its 2019 ticket sales between June and September alone.
Though the pandemic has stopped some people from choosing to eat out, this hasn't affected sales of snacks for cinema-goers. AMC's US visitors have been spending the same on refreshments as they did before the pandemic, at an average of $5.35 per head, while visitors to its international theaters have spent an average of $0.61 more on food and beverages.
The company has taken "significant" steps to cut non-essential costs, it said. It furloughed all corporate and theatre level employees while the theaters were shut, canceled pending bonus increases, and eliminated or reduced non-healthcare benefits, it said.
It also removed around 176 corporate level positions, as well as almost all outside contractor roles.
AMC has renegotiated theater leases, it added, and accessed government COVID-19 relief programs in Europe.
"The duration and impact of this pandemic are still affecting us to this day and are certain to continue to affect our results going forward," AMC's CEO Adam Aron said.
"And yet, as has been the case at AMC for 100 years, we have remained resilient and resourceful."