(Reuters) -AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter revenue on Tuesday, as box-office hits such as “Avatar: The Way of Water” made movie-goers flock to its theaters during the holiday session.
Disney’s Marvel superhero film “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” in November also gave the much-needed optimism to AMC and other cinema chains as they still try to recover from the pandemic and compete against the growing trend of online streaming.
Shares of Leawood, Kansas-based AMC, which operates more than 900 theaters globally, rose 2% in trading after the bell.
“We expect the recovery will continue apace in 2023, as Hollywood is expected to release approximately 75% more major movie titles than it did in 2022,” AMC Chief Executive Adam Aron said.
Revenue for the quarter was $990.9 million, compared to analysts’ expectation of $977.7 million, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
Net loss widened to $287.7 million, or 26 cents per share, during the quarter ended Dec. 31, from $134.4 million, or 13 cents per share, a year ago.
(Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
