AMC Theatres on Thursday reported a net loss for the fourth quarter, despite revenue that came in right at Wall Street expectations.
The exhibitor reported a loss of $13.5 million in the fourth quarter after reporting net income of $170.6 million during the same quarter a year ago. That loss equated to a per-share loss of 13 cents vs. last year’s 43 cents per-share earnings.
Analysts tracking the company via Yahoo! Finance were expecting the company to report earnings of 2 cents per share for the fourth quarter.
Revenue in the quarter was $1.45 billion, compared with $1.41 billion during the same quarter last year. Analysts were also anticipating revenue of $1.45 billion.
“We are very pleased to have delivered another quarter of strong results to finish 2019. Despite the U.S. industry box office declining 1.6% in the fourth quarter, AMC grew revenue 2.4%,” AMC CEO Adam Aron said in a statement. “These impressive results illustrate the power of customer engagement through the AMC platform, especially from our A-List subscription program and AMC Stubs loyalty program in the U.S., returns from our industry leading recliner seating investments both in the U.S. and overseas, as well as the strength of our diversified geographic footprint.
“In the fourth quarter, AMC once again vastly outperformed the rest of the U.S. theatre industry, among other metrics by a stunning 607 basis points on admissions revenue per screen. It was the seventh consecutive quarter that AMC added market share in the United States,” he continued. “Likewise, we generated record fourth quarter food and beverage revenues per patron in both the U.S. and international markets, as fourth quarter U.S. and international food and beverage revenues per patron grew 2.5% and 7.8%, in constant currency, respectively.”
AMC said that the fourth quarter loss included approximately $84.3 million of expense related to impairments from long-lived assets, the majority of which the company said are attributable to impairments of operating lease right-of-use assets from the adoption of a new accounting standard.
According to AMC the new standard the company is adopting changes how it reports certain financials, but it doesn’t affect day-to-day operations or cash generation.
Attendance at AMC’s theaters was down overall during the quarter, mainly do to a slide in U.S. attendance. Admission revenue, however, increased to $877 million, compared with $862.3 million a year ago.
Food and beverage revenue saw a slight increase to $438.3 million, compared with $435.1 million during the same quarter last year.
Since its launch in June 2018, AMC’s subscription A-List tier of the AMC Stubs loyalty program has attracted more than 900,000 subscribers, the company said.
“A-List membership levels and contributions continue to exceed our expectations,” the company said in its release. “Based on an average monthly frequency of 2.4 times for our A-List members in the fourth quarter, their associated full-price bring-along guest attendance, their food and beverage spend and the price increases in the first quarter, we believe the A-List program was profitable in the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2019 compared to our estimated results if the program had not existed.”
AMC, which is one of the largest theater operator is the world, did not mention any impact as a result to the coronavirus outbreak that began in China.