AMC Entertainment has reported results for the fourth quarter and provided a full year summary of 2023. Total revenues for the year grew 23% to $4.81 billion, compared to $3.91 billion in 2022. The chain saw an adjusted net loss of $318.8M, an improvement of $409.1M compared to 2022. In the fourth quarter, total revenues grew 11.5% compared to 2022.
Commenting on the earnings announcement, Adam Aron, AMC chairman and chief executive officer, said, “AMC reported strong results for both the fourth quarter and full year of 2023, once again exceeding Wall Street’s consensus expectations. It was another full year of continued meaningful recovery from the aftermath of the 2020 pandemic, as evidenced by AMC’s full year 2023 revenues growing by 23% over 2022, and AMC’s Adjusted EBITDA growing by some nine times, from $46.6 million in 2022 to $425.8 million in 2023. AMC’s Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA for 2023 were the strongest since pre-pandemic 2019, and for the first time post-pandemic, AMC delivered positive Adjusted EBITDA in each quarter of the year.”
Aron continued by highlighting AMC Entertainment’s distribution of concert movies Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé. Aron attributed AMC’s fourth quarter revenue growth of 11.5% to the two concert films, sharing that the two films represented one ninth of the complete fourth quarter domestic industry-wide box office. Aron said, “They were the first movies ever distributed by AMC in our entire 103-year history. To that end, our praise for Taylor Swift and Beyoncé Knowles Carter has no limit, and we offer our boundless thanks to these two world class artists for entrusting AMC to collaborate with them as to the theatrical exhibition of their two masterpiece creations.”
AMC prioritized strengthening their balance sheet and cash reserves in 2023, resulting in a reduced principal balance of its debt by $448.1M. The circuit also reported paying off the majority of remaining deferred rent obligations, which dated back to the beginning of the pandemic. AMC also raised $865M in gross cash proceeds through the sale of equity in 2023. The efforts resulted in a smaller net debt at year-end 2023 than AMC had at the start of the pandemic.
Aron also addressed the interruption of the 2023 strikes, which led to delayed titles. Although the industry domestic box office was down 35% versus pre-pandemic 2019 for the fourth quarter, AMC believes the strike impacts will be short-term. The chain expects the box office to strengthen in March, during some of the summer months, and particularly in the last third of the year. AMC is bullish and optimistic over the medium term, with current expectations for industry box office over 2024 to grow by $1 to $2 billion or more.
“Knowing though that there will be strike-caused challenges, especially early in 2024, we have implemented decisive measures to strategically position the company to successfully navigate what we believe is only a temporary setback and reestablish our longer-term recovery trajectory,” Aron said in summary. “Given AMC’s proven ability to thread the needle in coping with one Herculean challenge after another, we are confident in our company’s future.”
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