AMC announced the Q1 2022 Earnings this week and the stock price of the popular movie-theater company increased 4% as earnings revealed a lesser than expected loss. AMC Theaters and the CEO Adam Aron have done an impressive job of bringing the company out of dangerous territory in 2020 during the pandemic when all theaters were shut down globally.
CEO Adam Aron states, “Our results for the first quarter of 2022 represent AMC’s strongest first quarter in two full years.” AMC retail investors continue to hold the stock strong while hedge funds maintain their short positions. The optimistic news of the Q1 reports from AMC give investors the confirmation they need to keep buying and holding the popular meme-stock.
Adam Aron adds, “The cumulative success of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home,’ ‘The Batman,’ ‘Sonic The Hedgehog 2’ and this past weekend’s opening of ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,’ should leave no doubt about the enduring appeal of theatrical exhibition,” he said. “When Hollywood releases films that moviegoers want to see, people flock to cinemas in huge numbers to watch movies where they were designed to be seen, in theaters, on the big screen.”
While there were not too many new movie releases in the beginning of the year, the release of Marvel’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” will likely provide AMC the boost in ticket sales for the next few months. Additionally, movies like “No Way Home” and “The Batman” carried the ticket sales for AMC, bringing in nearly 40 million customers. While this is a large number of ticket sales and visitors, it did not make up for the almost $1 billion that was allocated towards rent and other operational expenses.
According to analysts, AMC Entertainment was expected to lose 63 cents per share, but ended up with a loss of 52 cents per share instead. Overall the company reported a net loss of $337.4 million, compared to last years loss of $567.2 million. Though a loss was reported for Q1 of 2022, we can still see the great improvement of AMC year over year. Revenue from AMC increased from $148.3 million last year to $785.7 million this year. This increase is incredible for a company that was near filing for bankruptcy in 2020. In 2020 AMC Entertainment was on the brink of bankruptcy and liquidity troubles, but in the last quarter has reported that they’ve ended Q1 with $1.3 billion in available liquidity. Adam Aron continues to listen to retail investors and bring nuance ideas into the company to help it evolve.