AMC Entertainment Is Almost Ready to Party Like It's 2019
At first glance, the final weekend of the second quarter wasn't spectacular for theater operators. Not a single movie topped $32 million in domestic box office receipts. It's the first time we've seen that in nearly two months. However, we also had five movies clocking in with 10 figures in ticket sales proceeds each, something we haven't seen since Valentine's Day weekend in 2020.
The news gets better. With several movies drawing sizable crowds, we're actually close to the pre-pandemic levels that many bears thought we would never see again.
Year-over-year comparisons don't hold a lot of weight in assessing the health of the industry. Stacking up performances against 2019 -- the last full year before the COVID-19 crisis temporarily shuttered multiplex operators and studio productions -- is standard. Looking out to all of 2022, one can argue that we still have a long way to go. Gross ticketing revenue is down 34% year to date from where we were three years ago. Narrowing our focus to the second quarter only, we're down 27% quarter to date. Zoom in to just the final weekend of the second quarter, and box office revenue is down just 11% from 2019.
Source Fool.com
