AMC, IMAX, Cinemark Stock Could Boost From Summer Movies

The release of several successful films this summer is benefiting the entertainment industry in a big way. In this clip from "Ask Us Anything" on Motley Fool Live, recorded on June 21, Motley Fool contributors Rick Munarriz and Dan Caplinger discuss the recently released hit movies that are turning the attention back to movie theaters.

Rick Munarriz: This is just an opening weekend and the biggest opening weekend as far as the volume of movies people wanted to see that we've had in more than two years. This is back to 2019 levels where, yes, Buzz Lightyear was disappointing at $51 million, but we had Top Gun Maverick, which opened four weekends ago, still over $44 million, I believe, and then Jurassic World Dominion, which opened the weekend before, it actually topped like it was almost at $60 million. It's going to be a very interesting summer for the multiplex industry.

Obviously, these are stocks that we talk about. Companies like the AMCs (AMC 3.43%) of the world, the IMAXs (IMAX -2.83%) of the world, which was a former newsletter recommendation and the other smaller Cinemark's (CNK -0.06%) National CineMedia, which runs advertising for multiplex operators. But as far as this goes, I think this is going to be a very interesting summer for the industry. Because unlike the past two years, basically, we've had a big movie. We had Spiderman in December come out, and then it took us about three months before we had The Batman reboot come out. Then after that, we had to wait another two months before the Doctor Strange movie came out, to really bring people back to the theaters. Now this summer, we have three movies right now that opened in the last month. That are all going to be some of the top drawers so far of this year. We're just getting started because this weekend we have the Elvis movie. The weekend after that we have the Minions' Gru Origin Story, and then after that, we have a Thor Movie. There's really a lot of things happening at the theater.

Dan Caplinger: It's like a clearance sale.

Munarriz: Yeah.

Caplinger: It's the clearance sale at Marshalls (TJX 0.60%), man. These studios they've had years worth of projects in the Hopper and they've been like, "Well, no, I'm not going to release some in Summer 2020. Nobody is going to be at the theater. No, I'm not going to do in Summer 2021 either because, yeah, people are starting to go back to the theater." This is a hit. I want to get full value from this. Now, you have this inventory built up and it's going to be fascinating to see how this goes. For avid movie-goers, this should be one of the best summers ever because you have so many hit movies coming out because you've had that backlog in production.

Munarriz: It was a self-fulfilling prophecy. I remember late 2020 when the James Bond movie, No Time to Die, they said we're going to bump that. Regal Cinemas [Cineworld (CINE)], the country's second largest theater said, that's it. They threw in the towel. We're going to close again our theaters after the first pandemic close, and didn't reopen until several months later. Now, you're getting that pipeline, you're getting that spigot of a product coming out there, and it's going to be definitely an interesting summer. Not that I'm saying that this is the perfect time to buy into this industry, but I think if you're bearish as far as movie theater goes because you think, "No one's going to the movies anymore," it's certainly true for most type of movies, but we're talking about the actions superhero, family friendly movies that are still doing well at the movie theaters. There's going to be a lot of them. If AMC, and Cinemark, and IMAX don't pull it out this summer, then it's time to worry, but I definitely think it's going to be an interesting summer.