What happened
Shares of AMC Entertainment (AMC 8.22%) are heading 2.6% lower at 12:11 p.m. ET on Tuesday on no news specific to the movie theater operator, although it's preparing to release its first-quarter earnings report next Monday.
Wall Street is expecting AMC to report a loss of $0.63 per share this quarter on revenue of $736 million, well ahead of last year's loss of $1.42 per share on $148 million in revenue, but still substantially below its 2019 totals.
So what
With only a few movies that made a mark in the quarter, AMC's results are likely to be stellar in comparison to last year, but not enough to indicate business is healthy. According to Box Office Mojo, cumulative box office receipts totaled about $1.3 billion for the first quarter of 2022, up 460% year over year, but still well below 2020.
Image source: Getty Images.
A few films like the carryover of Spider-man: No Way Home from its December release and The Batman in March undoubtedly gave theater operators like AMC a boost. CEO Adam Aron had said the fourth quarter was the chain's best performance in two years and the first quarter is likely to be a repeat. But still being well off the results of a pre-pandemic quarter indicates moviegoers are still leery about coming out to the cinema.
Now what
AMC has steadily fallen since its late-March spike and there's nothing to suggest it won't keep on this downward trend. Even if it gets a bounce from its earnings report, it might not hold since there are numerous headwinds still heading the movie theater stock's way.
