AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AMC) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call May 5, 2023 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

John Merriwether - VP, Capital Markets and IR

Adam Aron - Chairman and CEO

Sean Goodman - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Eric Wold - B. Riley Securities

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the AMC Entertainment's First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, John Merriwether. Please go ahead, sir.

John Merriwether

Thank you, operator. Good morning. I'd like to welcome everyone to AMC's First Quarter 2023 Earnings Webcast. With me this morning is Adam Aron, our Chairman and CEO; and Sean Goodman, our Chief Financial Officer.

Before I turn the webcast over to Adam, let me remind everyone that some of the comments made by management during this webcast may contain forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectations. Numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those that might be expressed today.

Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in our most recent public filings, including our most recently filed 10-K and 10-Q. Several of the factors that will determine the company's future results are beyond the ability of the company to control or predict. In light of the uncertainties inherent in any forward-looking statements, listeners are cautioned against relying on these statements. The company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, or future events.

On this webcast, we may reference non-GAAP financial measures, such as adjusted EBITDA, constant currency, free cash flow, operating cash burn, and operating cash generated among others. For a full reconciliation of our non-GAAP measures to GAAP results, please see our earnings release posted in the Investor Relations section of our website earlier this morning.

After our prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. This morning's webcast is being recorded, and a replay will be available in the Investor Relations section of our website at amctheaters.com later today.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Adam.

Adam Aron

Thank you, John. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for joining us today. As we sit here this morning, I could not be more optimistic about AMC's future because of two vital developments from the first quarter of 2023. First, is the clearly growing industry-wide box office up in North America by some 29% quarter-to-quarter versus last year, growing to more than $1.7 billion in the quarter. And industry-wide attendance in movie theaters in our markets across Europe has risen even closer to pre-pandemic levels, prior to pre-pandemic norms than even the surge in North American box office gains. Incidentally, that clearly growing industry box office has continued in April and so far in May. The April domestic box office was up about 58%, for example, and there is a flood of potential hit movies still to be released in the remainder of 2023. We previously indicated that we expected the 2023 industry-wide domestic box office to be up 15% to 25% or more over that of 2022. Well, now with a big start this year, we now believe the '23 domestic box office will be up 20% to 30% over last year.