Shares of IMAX (IMAX -1.77%) are up today on the heels of its quarterly earnings report, even though some of the entertainment company's results were severely lacking compared to where they were a year ago.
Revenue took a huge hit, dropping from $80.7 million to $51.7 million. Because of the steep decline in sales, IMAX's profit margins suffered, too. Income from operations dropped from $22.3 million in Q3 2012 to $2.8 million, while net income sank from $14.9 million to $1.6 million.
Despite the sharp decrease in revenue and profit margins, IMAX has actually accumulated more cash to its books than it had last year -- $25.9 million compared to $21.3 million as of Dec. 31, 2012. The company also announced that it signed contracts for 99 new theaters within the third quarter, and currently has a backlog of 356 theaters to its name, a historical high, and a 25% increase year-over-year.
CEO Richard Gelfond said he looked forward to "our great start to Q4," and that "IMAX's strong performance on Gravity and Stalingrad, reminds us of the importance of assessing our portfolio of films on an annual basis, which we believe is a relatively predictable driver of box office performance over the long-term."
