Nostalgia and curiosity peaked moviegoer curiosity this summer time—and theaters, which had been plagued throughout the pandemic, noticed a significant revival. Actually, AMC Theatres reported its finest quarterly earnings in its 103-year historical past this week, largely due to the mass attendance on the Barbie and Oppenheimer films, which had field workplace gross sales of $1.4 billion and $947 million, respectively.
AMC, the most important film chain on the earth, posted $1.4 billion in whole income for the third quarter, up greater than 45% year-over-year.
“AMC was actually in a unique ballpark of accomplishment than many third-party observers anticipated,” Adam Aron, AMC chairman, president, and CEO, mentioned throughout the Leawood, Kansas-based Fortune 100 firm’s third-quarter earnings report on Wednesday. “Your complete quarter was rejuvenating for AMC. Moviegoers returned to AMC theaters and ever growing numbers within the third quarter of 2023 in response to each our studio companions’ efforts to extend the amount and high quality of recent releases.”
However it wasn’t simply “Barbenheimer” that made the third quarter a blockbuster for AMC. Build up money reserves and shedding unsuccessful areas helped the mega movie show chain proceed its pandemic restoration.
“We’ve been maniacal in build up our money reserves,” Aron mentioned. “For these attempting to grasp how AMC efficiently has been defying gravity these previous three and a half years: Having ample money available is the key sauce.”
Plus, throughout the third quarter, AMC added one new theater for each three it closed. That brings the whole variety of areas closed because the pandemic started to 156 and whole new areas opened to 57. This nets a discount of 99 areas.
Nonetheless, third-quarter rents had been 5.6% beneath the identical interval in 2019, Sean Goodman, AMC government vp of worldwide operations and chief monetary officer, mentioned throughout the earnings name. AMC didn’t reply to Fortune’s request for feedback on what number of lease negotiations had been underway and the way a lot the corporate had saved because of this. Nonetheless, Aron mentioned throughout the earnings name that the corporate had “renegotiated our rents downwards to the tune of tens of tens of millions of {dollars} of advantages a yr.”
“This portfolio rationalization along with ongoing landlord negotiation has unequivocally resulted in a extra worthwhile theater portfolio,” he added.
The corporate nonetheless has a deferred hire steadiness of $74.2 million as of the top of the third quarter, Goodman mentioned, however AMC plans to cut back it by one other $20 million by yr’s finish.
“We needed to get extra environment friendly as a result of throughout the ravages of the pandemic. We had no revenues,” Aron mentioned. “We’ve gotten this firm to be a lot leaner than it ever was earlier than.”
With thinning margins, many movie show chains have began adding more to the experience to draw customers, like heated lounge chairs, new screens, and specialty meals.
Plus, the new Taylor Swift movie has been a smash hit and helps to revive theaters and malls—each business actual property mainstays that tanked throughout the pandemic. Actually, The Eras Tour helped AMC notch its highest single-day ticket income ever at greater than $100 million inside 24 hours of tickets to the movie happening sale.
Different theaters, nevertheless, couldn’t keep above water and have been flipped for retail and different mixed-use developments.
Plus, there may be the persevering with rigidity between theaters and streaming platforms. However the Barbenheimer craze introduced tens of millions again to theaters. Actually, a July report by the Nationwide Affiliation of Theatre Homeowners confirmed that greater than 200,000 folks bought tickets to see “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” on the identical day throughout opening weekend alone.
“Within the eyes of customers, a powerful theatrical launch backed up by an enormous advertising marketing campaign creates worth when they’re choosing what to look at wherever they find yourself watching the film,” Jackie Brenneman, president of The Cinema Basis, wrote within the 2023 State of the Cinema Industry report. “When the flicks are there, the audiences are there.”