Tag: IMAX

Will Movie Theater Stocks Become Blockbusters?

People are going back in to the movie theaters to see the big screen. Over Christmas weekend, Avatar: the Wave of Water pulled in $64,000,000 in box office gross, and has brought in a total gross of $261,681,686 so far.

by Fred Fuld III

Over Christmas weekend, Avatar: the Wave of Water pulled in $64,000,000 in box office gross, and has brought in a total gross of $261,681,686 so far.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish generated $12,420,000, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody sold $4,765,000, and Babylon brought in $3,600,000 over the same weekend.

People are going back in to the movie theaters to see the big screen.

Unfortunately for the theater companies, their performance over the last year has been miserable.

For example, Cinemark (CNK) has dropped by 46% year to date and is down over 20% just in the last week.

However, Texas based Cinemark,  operates over 500 theaters with more than 5,800 screens in the United States, and South and Central America. 

The stock has a forward price to earnings ratio of 23, and has an earnings per share expected growth rate 0f 127% next year. Quarterly revenue growth was 49.6% year over year.

It also has a very favorable price to sales ratio of 0.45. (Remember, a P/S of less than 1 is good, above 2 is not so good.)

Marcus (MCS), which owns and operates movie theaters, along with hotels and resorts, is down 22% so far year to date.

Marcus has a nosebleed high P/E ratio of 422, but a more reasonable forward P/E of 26. Earnings per share this year were up 70.4%.

The price sales ratio is a great 0.64, and the stock is even selling below book value with a price to book of 0.96.

The stock even pays a dividend with a yield of 1.44%.

There is also Reading International (RDI), the owner of theater chains, which is down 30%, and of course the famous meme stock, AMC Entertainment (AMC) which has tanked by 74% this year.

StockSymbolYTD Price
AMC EntertainmentAMC-74%
CinemarkCNK-46%
MarcusMCS-22%
Reading InternationalRDI-30%
IMAXIMAX-22%

Will any of these stocks bounce after year end tax selling? It is impossible to know, but maybe one of these will win an award for Best Stock.

Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.

AMC Doubled Today: What About the Other Movie Theater Stocks?

by Fred Fuld III

In case you missed it, the stock price of AMC Entertainment (AMC), the company that owns the chain of movie theaters, doubled today.  Well, OK, it was up only 95.22%, but it is up another 5.20% in after market trading, as I am writing this.

AMC chart

To think that you could have both AMC for $2 a share back in January, and now it is over $62.

Of course, AMC is one of the “stonks”, a stock that has a large group of traders buying the stock to take advantage of the fact that the stock is heavily shorted, creating a major short squeeze. So the substantial increase today has nothing to do with the company’s earnings, revenues, or anything else.

However, it does point out the fact that the number of American’s that have been vaccinated has been on the rise and the COVID-19 infection rate is dropping. It also means that people are more willing to get out and go to a movie theater. Especially a nice air conditioned theater during the hot summer.

Cinemark Holdings Inc. (CNK), based in Plano, Texas, operates over 500 theaters. It has a market cap of $3 billion, and is generating negative earnings. It does not pay a dividend.

The Marcus Corporation (MCS) owns theaters in 17 states with the brands Marcus Theatres, Movie Tavern by Marcus, and BistroPlex. Earnings are currently negative. It has a market cap of $710 million.

Cineworld Group PLC ( CNNWF) is a UK based company that operates such theater chains as Regal, United Artists, Edwards theatres, Cineworld, and Picturehouse. Earnings are currently negative. The market cap is $1.8 billion.

IMAX Corporation (IMAX) offers theater software and equipment to theaters. Earnings are currently negative. The stock trades at 25.7 time forward earnings, and does not pay a dividend. IMAX has a market cap of $1.3 billion.

Let’s see if any of these stocks become blockbusters.

Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.