Not again, IMAX (Nasdaq: IMAX)! The big screen market leader posted a wider-than-expected loss in its latest quarter on a steeper-than-expected top-line shortcoming.
Revenues fell by 28% to $27.5 million. Second-quarter profits from continuing operations replaced a $0.04-per-share profit a year earlier with a deficit of $0.11 per share. Wall Street was expecting a loss of $0.03 per share on $34.9 million in total revenues.
Revenue from new theater installations dipped as expected, but film revenues also suffered a deep, 32% slide. That's a pretty precipitous slip from a line item that had served as one of the highlights during the recent dark quarters.
Film revenues were growing consistently at IMAX until now. The company's ability to team up with successful theatrical releases and its growing installed base of bigger-than-life screen systems were providing dependable growth.
Yes, Superman Returns was big on IMAX a year ago, but Sony's (NYSE: SNE) Spider-Man III and the tail end of Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) 300 were no slouches. The comparison will get better in the current quarter. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has been big, ringing up nearly $28 million in IMAX ticket sales. That compares nicely with the $7 million grossed by last year's disappointing The Ant Bully.
The lumpy installation revenues should also begin to straighten out as more of the company's joint venture deals with multiplex operators like Regal (NYSE: RGC) and Muvico become a bigger part of the IMAX exhibitor base.
Further down the road, IMAX's move to push digital projection systems as early as late next year will help improve content delivery costs and enhance programming flexibility beyond the initial upgrade burden.
This doesn't ease the second-quarter sting. Investors have suffered through a botched sale of the company, corrective accounting, and dealing with a company that often can't even schedule its conference calls correctly. This is the second time that the company has had to bump its second-quarter earnings release (it did so last year, too).
IMAX should be a shining beacon to a battered movie house industry, providing greater ticket sales than through conventional screens. However, it still feels as if IMAX can use a savior of its own. If suitors come calling, let's hope that IMAX is humble enough to answer.
Big-screen Foolishness:
IMAX was recommended two summers ago to
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Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz loves to spot great things early. It's why he's been with The Motley Fool since 1995. He does not own shares in any of the stocks in this story. He is also part of the
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newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy, and it looks smoking hot on one of those eight-story IMAX screens.
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