Benzinga Asks: Did You Go To The Movies In October? What It Could Mean For Movie Theater Stocks

Movie theater companies are reporting record post pandemic attendance in October. With many people opting to go to the movies for the first time in months, Benzinga took to Twitter TWTR to ask its users if they were part of the record October figures.

What Happened: Imax Corp IMAX reported third quarter revenue of $56.6 million, up 52% year-over-year. The company reported overall global box office sales of $142 million in the third quarter, up 100% year-over-year and its third straight quarter of $100 million or more in box office revenue.

The third quarter was Imax’s best in the pandemic era for global box office numbers, both revenue and gross margins. Since the close of the third quarter, Imax reported its best October ever thanks to the release of “Dune.”

AMC Entertainment Holdings AMC reported strong results for “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” which was the second-biggest domestic opening for an October movie ever.

AMC saw 2.4 million moviegoers in the U.S. during the weekend of Sep. 30 through Oct. 3 and 3.9 million moviegoers globally. The total set a post-reopening record and came on the heels of the strong demand for “No Time To Die” in theaters.

AMC has not reported third quarter earnings yet and could show strong demand during the quarter. The filing may also provide an early look at what the October records mean for the company’s financials.

Cinemark Holdings Inc CNK reported third quarter revenue of $434.8 million, up significantly from the $35.5 million posted in the prior year’s third quarter that saw theaters closed during the pandemic.

Cinemark reported 30.7 million moviegoers in the third quarter. The company said it had its best pandemic month in October, following the trends reported by others.

Related Link: AMC Entertainment Q2 earnings Takeaways: Transformational Quarter But Not Out Of The Woods 

Benzinga Poll: With the record October figures reported by movie theater companies, Benzinga asked its Twitter followers if they were among the people who attended a movie in theaters in October.

The results were:

• Yes, went once in October: 27.8%
• Yes, went more than once in October: 19.9%
• No, streaming & chill: 52.3%

Over half of those polled by Benzinga admitted to not going to the movie theater in the month of October. This came as a bit of a surprise based on the results from movie theater companies.

What wasn’t too surprising is the demand for streaming from consumers and how it impacts the demand of going to the movie theater.

A previous Benzinga Twitter poll showed that 53.4% of people polled subscribed to three or more streaming services with Netflix Inc NFLX, Disney+ from Walt Disney Company DIS, Hulu and Amazon.com Inc AMZN Prime among the most popular streaming options.