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After Cineworld Group warned of a third-quarter box office dip, Adam Aron forecast “increasing demand” at his theaters toward the end of 2022 and into next year.
By Etan Vlessing
Canada Bureau Chief
After Regal-owner Cineworld Group warned of a theater admission dip until November 2022 amid summer doldrums, AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron says he is optimistic about higher admissions in the fourth quarter of 2022 and into next year.
“Yesterday Cineworld, which is the world’s second-largest movie theater circuit, issued a public statement that it anticipates low levels of admissions until November 2022, which are expected to negatively impact its liquidity position in the near-term,” Aron said in a statement Thursday.
He reiterated previous guidance that the Hollywood “film slate in the third quarter of 2022 is expected to be relatively weak.” But Aron added: “However, we continue to be quite optimistic about the increasing demand for our portfolio of movie theaters in the fourth quarter of 2022 and calendar year 2023.”
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On Wednesday, the warning from Cineworld marked a change in position after the exhibitor in March during an analyst presentation said the company was “now well positioned to benefit from the strong movie slate in 2022 and beyond.”
After a strong box office recovery in the first half of 2022, major exhibitors are looking to momentum possibly stalling in the second half of the year for a lack of big-name Hollywood tentpoles after the performance of Top Gun: Maverick and Minions: The Rise of Gru.
Cineworld, like AMC Theatres, has a big debt mountain to deal with coming out of the pandemic, and the U.K.-based exhibitor said it was exploring unspecified strategic options to address its liquidity needs.
For his part, Aron, aware investors are eyeing the balance sheets of major exhibitors for threats to profitability, said AMC ended the second quarter of 2022 with over $1 billion of liquidity after fresh cash raises in 2020 and 2021.
“Our new AMC Preferred Equity security, which begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, August 22, 2022, should also make us a much stronger company…. Accordingly, we remain confident about AMC’s future,” Aron added.
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