AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE:AMC)’s chief has said the cinema chain was “no longer on its heels”, but recovery continued to induce losses for the meme-stock.
The group’s net losses for the fourth quarter of 2021 (Q4 2021) shrunk to $134.4mln from a $946.1mln loss in same, lockdown-marred period of 2020, with a net loss per share of US$0.26 in line with analysts’ expectations.
But adjusted EBITDA was positive for the first time in two years, hitting US$160mln while operating cash generated US$220mln.
The cinema group reported US$1.17bn in revenue for the Q4 2021, compared to US$162mln in Q4 2020, with record-breaking Spiderman: No Way Home driving attendance to its almost completely reopened cinemas.
“As we have repeatedly said, with the monetary war chest that was provided to us by our shareholders in 2021, AMC is no longer on its heels,” AMC CEO Adam Aron told investors.
“As COVID case numbers are finally declining and vaccination numbers increasing, as our operating results are markedly improving, and as our healthy liquidity allows, AMC is playing on offense again.”
AMC realised a seven-fold increase in visitors against Q4 2020, and a 50% rise on Q3 2021.
The company has embraced the retail investor spirit that propelled its stock more than 400% in two weeks in May last year, launching four separate NFT programmes and accepting cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin for online payments.
AMC’s share price was US$18.32 after falling 0.71% in after-hours trading yesterday.