AMC 電影院 (AMC) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. First Quarter 2024 Earnings Webcast. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

您好，歡迎收看 AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. 2024 年第一季財報網路廣播。 （操作員指示）謹此提醒，本次會議正在錄製中。

I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, John Merriwether, Vice President, Capital Markets and IR. Please go ahead, sir.

現在我想將會議交給東道主、資本市場和投資者關係副總裁約翰·梅里韋瑟 (John Merriwether)。請繼續，先生。

Thank you, Joe. Good afternoon. I'd like to welcome everyone to AMC's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Webcast.

謝謝你，喬。午安.歡迎大家觀看 AMC 2024 年第一季財報網路廣播。

With me this afternoon is Adam Aron, our Chairman and CEO; and Sean Goodman, our Chief Financial Officer.

今天下午和我在一起的是我們的董事長兼執行長 Adam Aron；以及我們的財務長肖恩·古德曼。

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.

在我將網路廣播交給 Adam 之前，讓我提醒大家，管理層在本次網路廣播中發表的一些評論可能包含基於管理層當前預期的前瞻性陳述。許多風險、不確定性和其他因素可能導致實際結果與今天可能表達的結果有重大差異。

Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in our most recent public filings, including our most recently filed 10-Q and 10-K. 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.

我們最近提交的公開文件中討論了許多風險和不確定性，包括我們最近提交的 10-Q 和 10-K。決定公司未來業績的幾個因素超出了公司的控製或預測能力。鑑於任何前瞻性陳述固有的不確定性，請聽眾不要依賴這些陳述。本公司不承擔因新資訊或未來事件而修改或更新任何前瞻性陳述的義務。

On this webcast, we may reference non-GAAP financial numbers -- measures such as adjusted EBITDA, constant currency, free cash flow, 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 afternoon.

在此網路廣播中，我們可能會引用非公認會計準則財務資料—調整後的 EBITDA、固定匯率、自由現金流量等指標。有關我們的非公認會計原則衡量標準與公認會計原則結果的全面協調，請參閱今天下午早些時候在我們網站的投資者關係部分發布的收益報告。

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

在我們準備好的發言之後，將進行問答環節。這個問題——今天下午的網路廣播正在錄製中，今天晚些時候將在我們網站 amctheaters.com 的投資者關係部分提供重播。

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

這樣，我會將電話轉給 Adam。

Thank you, John. Good afternoon, one and all, and thank you for joining us today. Against the backdrop of an industry box office that was hampered by Hollywood strike-induced production delays, AMC once again outperformed.

謝謝你，約翰。各位下午好，感謝您今天加入我們。在業界票房因好萊塢罷工導致製作延誤而受阻的背景下，AMC 再次表現出色。

We exceeded Wall Street expectations for total revenues, adjusted EBITDA, net income and diluted earnings per share. It was no surprise that most astute observers that the number of major film releases in the first quarter of 2024 would be greatly reduced because of production delays caused by the 5 months long actors and writer strikes in 2023 in Hollywood.

我們的總收入、調整後 EBITDA、淨利潤和稀釋每股收益超出了華爾街的預期。毫不奇怪，大多數精明的觀察家認為，由於2023年好萊塢演員和編劇長達5個月的罷工導致製作延遲，2024年第一季上映的主要電影數量將大幅減少。

Indeed, we saw that one major studio had its first quarter domestic box office revenues decreased by an astounding 98% compared to the first quarter of 2023. That studio's decline was not because of some strategic shift to streaming or a disinterest by consumers in going to movie theaters. It was solely because they were not able to release new films into the market due to the actors and writer strikes of mid-summer last year.

事實上，我們看到一家大型電影公司第一季的國內票房收入與2023 年第一季相比下降了98%，令人震驚。轉移，也不是因為消費者對觀看電影不感興趣。只是因為去年仲夏的演員和編劇罷工，他們無法向市場推出新電影。

However, at AMC, we were heartened by several important events in the first quarter. First, the moviegoing bounced back in March, which was a considerably stronger month than January or February. Second, that our company's intensive review of the movies coming out later in 2024, 2025 and 2026, suggest, in our view, that very good times are ahead for the movie theater industry. And third, that our company, AMC Entertainment, performed so well in Q1, increasing our market share and continuing to become a more potent and more efficient operator.

然而，在 AMC，第一季發生的幾件重要事件令我們感到振奮。首先，三月的電影觀影量出現反彈，這是一個比一月或二月強勁得多的月份。其次，我們公司對 2024 年、2025 年和 2026 年晚些時候上映的電影的深入審查表明，我們認為電影院行業的美好時光即將到來。第三，我們的公司 AMC Entertainment 在第一季表現出色，增加了我們的市場份額，並繼續成為更強大、更有效率的營運商。

Notwithstanding a 6% decline in the quarter's North American box office compared to 2023, AMC's total revenue remained broadly in line with the prior year. And our per patron revenue and per patron profit continued along their stellar growth trajectory with all-time first quarter records achieved on these 2 metrics in our domestic business.

儘管與 2023 年相比，該季度的北美票房下降了 6%，但 AMC 的總收入仍與去年基本持平。我們的每位顧客收入和每位顧客利潤繼續沿著其出色的成長軌跡發展，我們國內業務的這兩個指標在第一季度創下了歷史新高。

At AMC in the quarter, our total revenue per patron was almost 36% above the pre-pandemic level in Q1 of 2019. And even more impressive is that our contribution margin per patron, defined as total revenue, less film exhibition costs and less food and beverage costs divided by the number of patrons was almost 44% above pre-pandemic Q1 of 2019. These achievements are thanks to our relentless focus on enhancing the guest experience in our theaters while at the same time, driving efficiency in our operations. Through our resilience, resolve, creativity and flexibility AMC continues to adeptly navigate through changing and challenging circumstances.

在AMC，本季度，我們每位顧客的總收入比2019 年第一季大流行前的水平高出近36%。減去電影放映成本和更少的食品）飲料成本除以觀眾數量比2019 年第一季大流行前高出近44%。的營運效率。憑藉我們的韌性、決心、創造力和靈活性，AMC 繼續熟練地應對不斷變化和充滿挑戰的環境。

Our surging revenues per patron and surging profit per patron numbers are why at AMC, we believe that there is now a path for AMC to achieve the same levels of EBITDA that we enjoyed pre-pandemic, even at lower levels of revenue.

我們的每位顧客收入和每位顧客利潤不斷增加，這就是 AMC 的原因，我們相信，即使收入水平較低，AMC 現在也有辦法實現我們在大流行前享受的相同 EBITDA 水平。

What's more, if and when the industry revenue does fully recover, we would then expect to be able to achieve substantially higher levels of EBITDA than we did in the past. Moviegoer sentiment is clear. Guests want to see movies on a huge silver screen and they are consistently willing to pay more for the best possible experience. That certainly favors AMC as we have more premium large format screens, namely IMAX, Dolby Cinema and Prime than any other cinema operator in the world.

更重要的是，如果產業收入完全恢復，我們預計能夠實現比過去更高的 EBITDA 水準。影迷的情緒是顯而易見的。客人希望在巨大的銀幕上觀看電影，並且他們始終願意為最好的體驗支付更多費用。這無疑對 AMC 有利，因為我們擁有比世界上任何其他影院運營商更多的優質大螢幕銀幕，即 IMAX、杜比影院和 Prime。

Consumers are also paying up for innovative food and beverage offerings and AMC continues to outsell all our major competitors in F&B. All moviegoers also are now buying movie scene and merchandise from us online and in our concession stands in quantities that we have never before seen.

消費者也在為創新的食品和飲料產品付費，AMC 的銷售額繼續超過我們在餐飲領域的所有主要競爭對手。所有電影觀眾現在也在網路上和我們的特許攤位上從我們這裡購買電影場景和商品，數量是我們以前從未見過的。

Enough said from me about the first quarter of 2024 because my focus is not on a strike that impacted January and February movie releases. It is instead on two other things. First, it's not the movies that were not released in January, February. It is instead the movie slate that is coming over the next 2 years to 2.5 years. I am more optimistic now about the future of movie theaters than I have ever been. And that's because of the movie slate that's coming especially towards the end of 2024 in 2025 and again in the first half of 26, which hold in my opinion, great promise.

關於 2024 年第一季度，我已經說得夠多了，因為我的重點不是影響 1 月和 2 月電影發行的罷工。相反，它是關於另外兩件事。首先，不是一月、二月未上映的電影。相反，它是未來 2 到 2.5 年即將上映的電影。我現在對電影院的未來比以往任何時候都更樂觀。這是因為電影將在 2024 年底、2025 年上映，並在 26 上半年上映，在我看來，這是一個巨大的希望。

Second, I'm paying great attention to our cash reserves. I've said over and over again on these calls and webcasts that cash is king. And that the smartest thing AMC has ever done since COVID hit in 2020, was to make sure that our cash reserves at AMC were robust, while other theater operators fell by the wayside. To that end it is so energizing and so reassuring that we had $624 million of unrestricted cash at the end of Q1 and that AMC has raised yet another $124.1 million of equity capital since March 31. With cash in the bank, we are better prepared to weather any storm. But fortunately, storms do end.

其次，我非常關注我們的現金儲備。我在這些電話和網路廣播中一遍又一遍地說，現金為王。自 2020 年新冠疫情爆發以來，AMC 所做的最明智的事情就是確保 AMC 的現金儲備充足，而其他影院運營商卻半途而廢。為此，我們在第一季末擁有6.24 億美元的非限制性現金，而且自3 月31 日以來AMC 又籌集了1.241 億美元的股本，這真是令人振奮、令人放心。的現金，我們就可以更好地準備抵禦任何風暴。但幸運的是，暴風雨確實會結束。

As a result, we see the box office turning an important quarter later this year and again in full year 2025. This is not just AMC's view. Having recently returned from our industry's largest and most important annual gathering, CinemaCon, the positive energy in the air was palpable. One studio after another confirmed that film production was once again in full motion, that they were eager to bring more titles to the silver screen. And that the value of theatrical exhibition has never been more evident.

因此，我們預計票房將在今年稍後以及 2025 年全年迎來一個重要的季度。最近剛從我們這個行業最大、最重要的年度盛會 CinemaCon 回來，空氣中的正能量是顯而易見的。一家又一家工作室證實，電影製作再次全面啟動，他們渴望將更多影片搬上銀幕。戲劇展覽的價值從未如此明顯。

I'm not going to regale you on this webcast with all the titles of the cavalcade of big movies that are coming but they are indeed coming. And it all starts in just a few months with a great slate of movies exclusively for theatrical exhibition. They include new characters and captivating storylines along with familiar faces and popular franchises.

我不會在這次網路廣播中向您展示即將上映的大片的所有標題，但它們確實即將到來。這一切都在短短幾個月內開始，一系列精彩的電影專門用於戲劇放映。其中包括新角色和引人入勝的故事情節，以及熟悉的面孔和受歡迎的特許經營權。

When I look at year-end 2024, especially, at full year 2025, I see an industry box office. I don't think I should say yet hallelujah, let the good times roll. But I can finally say with confidence hallelujah, let the significantly better times roll. Things are looking up as we look ahead.

當我展望 2024 年年底，尤其是 2025 年全年時，我看到了行業票房。我想我還不應該說“哈利路亞”，讓美好時光滾滾而來。但我終於可以自信地說哈利路亞，讓美好的時光滾滾而來。當我們展望未來時，事情正在好轉。

I'll now pass this webcast over to Sean to provide more details on our financial results as released after which I'll return to update you on some key initiatives. And before taking questions, from our sell-side analysts and from our retail shareholders. Sean?

我現在將把這個網絡廣播轉交給 Sean，以提供有關我們發布的財務業績的更多詳細信息，之後我將返迴向您介紹一些關鍵舉措的最新情況。在接受賣方分析師和散戶股東的提問之前。肖恩？

Thanks, Adam, and thank you to everyone for joining us this afternoon. The box office in the first quarter was impacted by last year's Hollywood strikes. Despite a 6% decline in the North American box office compared to Q1 of 2023, AMC was able to maintain total revenue within 1% of last year's first quarter. This was achieved thanks to the North American market share growing by over 70 basis points more than any other Top 50 theater operators, solid attendance growth in our European business of approximately 6% and total revenue per patron growth of 1.8%.

謝謝亞當，也謝謝大家今天下午加入我們。第一季的票房受到去年好萊塢罷工的影響。儘管北美票房較2023年第一季下降6%，但AMC仍能將總收入維持在去年第一季的1%以內。這一成績的實現得益於北美市場份額的增長超過任何其他 50 強劇院運營商 70 個基點、我們歐洲業務的上座率穩定增長約 6% 以及每位顧客的總收入增長 1.8%。

Now looking at our domestic segment and comparing the first quarter of 2024 to Q1 of 2023. With the box office down by approximately 6%, our admissions revenue declined by 3.2%, outperforming the industry. And total revenue declined by only 2.2%. Total revenue per patron increased by 3.8%, with admissions revenue per patron up by 2.7% and food and beverage revenue per patron up by 1.2%. These perpetual metrics were all-time first quarter records for AMC. And our total revenue per patron was some 43% ahead of the first quarter of pre-pandemic 2019.

現在來看看我們的國內市場，將2024年第一季與2023年第一季進行比較。總收入僅下降2.2%。每位顧客的總收入成長了 3.8%，其中每位顧客的門票收入成長了 2.7%，每位顧客的餐飲收入成長了 1.2%。這些永久指標創下了 AMC 第一季的歷史記錄。我們每位顧客的總收入比 2019 年第一季大流行前成長了約 43%。

In addition, our contribution margin per patron which we define as total revenue less form exhibition costs and less food and beverage costs divided by the number of guests was $15.32. This is 5% above the first quarter of 2023 and 54% above the first quarter of pre-pandemic 2019. These strong per patron metrics are as a result of the continued success of our innovative market-leading food and beverage offerings as well as our alternative content and immersive (inaudible) offerings and revenue diversification initiatives such as retail popcorn. Add to this, our ongoing theater portfolio rationalization and thoughtful expense management, and we end up with record-setting results.

此外，每位顧客的貢獻利潤為 15.32 美元，我們將其定義為總收入減去展覽成本和餐飲成本除以客人數量。這比 2023 年第一季高出 5%，比 2019 年第一季高出 54%。內容和沈浸式（聽不清楚）產品以及零售爆米花等收入多元化措施。除此之外，我們正在進行的劇院投資組合合理化和深思熟慮的費用管理，我們最終取得了創紀錄的結果。

Now looking at our international segment and comparing the first quarter of 2024 to Q1 of 2023, this is all in constant currency. Admissions revenue increased by 3.7% and total revenue increased by 2.8%. Total revenue per patron declined by 2.9%, with admissions revenue per patron down by 2% and food and beverage revenue per patron down by 1.4%. Note that total revenue per patron was 27.8% ahead of the first quarter of pre-pandemic 2019.

現在看看我們的國際業務，並將 2024 年第一季與 2023 年第一季進行比較，這一切都是按固定匯率計算的。門票收入成長3.7%，總收入成長2.8%。每位顧客的總收入下降了 2.9%，其中每位顧客的門票收入下降了 2%，每位顧客的餐飲收入下降了 1.4%。請注意，每位顧客的總收入比 2019 年第一季大流行前增長了 27.8%。

Contribution margin per patron was 3.6% below the first quarter of 2023, up 30.3% above the first quarter of pre-pandemic 2019.

每位顧客的貢獻利潤率比 2023 年第一季低 3.6%，比疫情前的 2019 年第一季成長 30.3%。

Our international per patron metrics this quarter were adversely impacted by country mix. With relatively strong attendance growth in the traditionally lower revenue per patron market of Italy, coupled with attendance declines in the traditionally higher revenue per patron markets of Sweden and Germany. In addition, while our European attendance benefited from strong local content offerings, particularly in Finland, Germany, Italy and Sweden, such content is associated with lower PLF mix and lower revenue per patron.

本季我們的國際每位顧客指標受到國家組合的不利影響。由於義大利傳統上人均收入較低的市場的觀眾成長相對強勁，加上瑞典和德國傳統上人均收入較高的市場的觀眾人數下降。此外，雖然我們的歐洲觀眾受益於強大的本地內容產品，特別是在芬蘭、德國、義大利和瑞典，但此類內容與較低的 PLF 組合和較低的每位顧客收入相關。

As we continue along our recovery glide path, we will maintain our focus on providing a differentiated high-value guest experience at our theaters across the globe and profitable revenue growth through diversification initiatives such as retail popcorn, AMC branded candy and the distribution of alternative content. All of this while paying very close attention to our overall operating efficiency.

隨著我們繼續沿著復甦之路前進，我們將繼續專注於在全球影院提供差異化的高價值賓客體驗，並透過零售爆米花、AMC 品牌糖果和替代內容分銷等多元化舉措實現盈利性收入增長。所有這一切都在密切關注我們的整體營運效率的同時。

Now moving to cash flow and the balance sheet. We ended the quarter -- the first quarter 2024 with unrestricted cash of $624.2 million, which translates into $188.3 million of net cash used in operating activities for the quarter. This is broadly in line with the net cash used in operating activities in Q1 of 2023.

現在轉向現金流和資產負債表。截至本季（即 2024 年第一季），我們擁有 6.242 億美元的非限制性現金，這意味著該季度用於營運活動的淨現金為 1.883 億美元。這與 2023 年第一季經營活動所使用的淨現金大致一致。

CapEx, net of landlord contributions was $46 million in the first quarter. We continue to expect net CapEx in 2024 to be in the range of $175 million to $225 million. From a theater portfolio perspective, we continue to actively manage our footprint.

第一季扣除房東捐款後的資本支出為 4,600 萬美元。我們仍預期 2024 年的淨資本支出將在 1.75 億至 2.25 億美元之間。從劇院投資組合的角度來看，我們繼續積極管理我們的足跡。

During the first quarter, we closed four underperforming locations, and we added one new high-performing theater. This will bring the total number of locations closed since the pandemic began to 169 and the total number of new locations opened to 60 for a net reduction of 109 locations or 10.9% of our locations at December 31, 2019. And we continue to see that the 60 new locations clearly outperform the 169 closed locations.

在第一季度，我們關閉了四個表現不佳的劇院，並增加了一個新的表現出色的劇院。這將使自大流行開始以來關閉的門市總數達到 169 家，新開店總數達到 60 家，截至 2019 年 12 月 31 日淨減少 109 家門市，占我們門市的 10.9%。新地點的表現明顯優於169 個關閉地點。

To ensure our ongoing recovery and position us to thrive as our industry grows, our top two capital allocation priorities must remain. Number one, we must ensure that we have sufficient liquidity to manage through our recovery phase, including the impact of last year's Hollywood strikes. And number two, we must strengthen our balance sheet by extending debt maturities and improving our financial leverage.

為了確保我們的持續復甦並讓我們隨著產業的發展而蓬勃發展，我們的兩大資本配置優先事項必須保持不變。第一，我們必須確保有足夠的流動性來應對復甦階段，包括去年好萊塢罷工的影響。第二，我們必須透過延長債務期限和提高財務槓桿來強化我們的資產負債表。

During the first quarter, we exchanged $17.5 million of debt for roughly 2.5 million shares of common stock, recording a profit of $5.8 million. And we also repaid approximately $8.4 million of deferred rent. The deferred rent balance at the end of Q1 was $47.9 million, and we would plan to reduce this balance by another approximately $12 million by the end of 2024.

第一季度，我們用 1750 萬美元的債務換取了大約 250 萬股普通股，實現利潤 580 萬美元。我們還償還了大約 840 萬美元的遞延租金。第一季末的遞延租金餘額為 4,790 萬美元，我們計劃在 2024 年底將這一餘額再減少約 1,200 萬美元。

Thus far, during the second quarter of 2024, we have raised $124.1 million of gross equity proceeds, excluding commissions and fees through the sale of approximately 38.5 million shares under our existing ATM or at-the-market offering program.

到目前為止，在 2024 年第二季度，我們已籌集了 1.241 億美元的總股權收益，不包括根據我們現有的 ATM 或市場發行計劃出售約 3850 萬股股票所產生的佣金和費用。

So overall, since the beginning of 2022 over the last 2.5 years, we have raised nearly $1.2 billion of gross equity capital. We've lowered the principal value of our debt and finance leases by $707 million through debt repayments, repurchases or exchanges of debt for equity and we've repaid $267 million of deferred uses. This all for a total reduction of debt and deferred leases of $974 million. This debt reduction has also lowered our annual cash interest expense by approximately $60 million.

總體而言，自 2022 年初以來的過去 2.5 年裡，我們已籌集了近 12 億美元的總股本。透過債務償還、回購或債轉股，我們將債務和融資租賃的本金降低了 7.07 億美元，並償還了 2.67 億美元的延期使用。這一切總共減少了 9.74 億美元的債務和延期租賃。此次債務削減也使我們的年度現金利息支出減少了約 6,000 萬美元。

These actions have prepared us to face with confidence, a relatively weak box office in the first half of 2024. And while the second quarter is forecast to be well below 2023's record second quarter, that quarter benefited from the tremendous success of titles such as Super Mario Brothers, Guardians of the Galaxy and Super -- and Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse, we are increasingly enthusiastic about the second half of the year and return to a strong and vibrant post-pandemic growth trajectory.

這些行動讓我們有信心面對 2024 年上半年相對疲軟的票房。 《瑪利歐兄弟》、《銀河守護隊》、《超級英雄》以及《蜘蛛人：穿越蜘蛛人宇宙》，我們對下半年的熱情越來越高，並回到了疫情後強勁而充滿活力的成長軌跡。

And now I'll hand the webcast back over to Adam.

現在我將把網路廣播交還給 Adam。

Thank you, Sean. Before taking your questions, I'd like to bring you all up to date on 5 ongoing initiatives at AMC.

謝謝你，肖恩。在回答大家的問題之前，我想向大家介紹 AMC 正在進行的 5 項舉措的最新資訊。

First, is our continuing dialogue with several of the world's greatest musical artists. As you know, for the first time in our company's history, in late 2023, we surprised the world with our Taylor Swift and Beyonce concert films. That appears to be the gift that keeps on giving because ever since we've been in conversation with artist after artist, after artist. Some of the biggest names who routinely fill arenas and stadiums, the world over.

首先，我們與世界上幾位最偉大的音樂藝術家持續對話。如你所知，2023 年末，我們公司歷史上第一次推出了泰勒絲 (Taylor Swift) 和碧昂絲 (Beyonce) 的演唱會影片，令世界驚嘆不已。這似乎是一份持續給予的禮物，因為自從我們一直在與一個又一個的藝術家交談時。一些最知名的人物經常出現在世界各地的競技場和體育場內。

That has led to an announcement just yesterday of our collaboration with 9 time Grammy winner and 2-time Academy Award winner, Billie Eilish in partnership with Apple Music and Interscope Records, next week, on May 16 and 17, our AMC theater, Dolby Cinemas will be an integral part of the launch of her new album, Hit me Hard and Soft. In a special listening event, Billie Eilish fans will be able to hear the new album in Dolby Atmos sound exclusively at AMC Theaters, the day before the album is released to the public.

為此，我們昨天宣布將與9 屆葛萊美獎得主和2 屆奧斯卡金像獎得主Billie Eilish 以及Apple Music 和Interscope Records 合作，下週（即5 月16 日至17 日）將在我們的AMC影院杜比影院(Dolby Cinemas) 進行合作這將是她新專輯《Hit me Hard and Soft》發行中不可或缺的一部分。在一場特別的聆聽活動中，Billie Eilish 的歌迷將能夠在專輯向公眾發行的前一天在 AMC 影院獨家聆聽採用 Dolby Atmos 音效的新專輯。

The visual content on screen has been carefully selected to delight those in attendance. This is just the beginning of the innovative programming that will be coming to our theaters from our new distribution arm, AMC Theaters Distribution. While the Billie Eilish listening event will take place only at AMC locations, we took great pride that so many of our fellow movie theater operators were included in our efforts with Taylor Swift and Beyonce. We expect going forward that some of our activity in this sphere will be exclusively held at AMC locations only and that other activity cooperatively will be shared across our entire industry.

螢幕上的視覺內容經過精心挑選，以取悅與會者。這只是我們新發行部門 AMC Theaters Distribution 即將推出的創新節目的開始。雖然 Billie Eilish 聆聽活動僅在 AMC 地點舉行，但我們感到非常自豪的是，我們的許多電影院營運商同事都參與了我們與泰勒絲和碧昂絲的合作。我們預計，今後我們在這一領域的一些活動將僅在 AMC 地點獨家舉行，而其他活動將在我們整個行業內合作共享。

Second, let's talk briefly about the success of AMC's retail Popcorn initiative which just now has celebrated its 1-year anniversary. Initially offered exclusively at Walmart with ready-to-eat popcorn at just 550 locations, but within weeks thereafter, we introduced our microwave popcorn varieties, and we expanded to some 2,600 Walmart stores as well as to walmart.com. Sales have been brisk and more and more retailers have decided to carry our branded popcorn for the home.

其次，讓我們簡單談談AMC零售爆米花計劃的成功，該計劃剛剛慶祝了一周年。最初，沃爾瑪僅在 550 個地點專門提供即食爆米花，但幾週後，我們推出了微波爐爆米花品種，並將業務擴展到約 2,600 家沃爾瑪商店以及 walmart.com。銷售旺盛，越來越多的零售商決定在家中銷售我們的品牌爆米花。

Today, AMC's Perfectly Popcorn is now sold at 6,500 points of distribution or nearly 12x as many locations as when we first launched a year ago. We've added amazon.com as well and grocery juggernauts Publix and Kroger to our distribution channels, and we are ambitiously pursuing further growth, adding more grocery chains as we look ahead later this year and next.

如今，AMC 的 Perfectly Popcorn 在 6,500 個經銷點出售，數量幾乎是我們一年前首次推出時的 12 倍。我們還將 amazon.com 以及食品雜貨巨頭 Publix 和 Kroger 添加到我們的分銷渠道中，並且我們正在雄心勃勃地追求進一步增長，在今年晚些時候和明年展望未來時，將增加更多食品雜貨連鎖店。

The third topic to discuss today is our exploding food and beverage sales numbers, which lead the industry among major operators in the United States. Naturally, we are pleased that the New York State legislature, just weeks ago, agreed to allow movie theaters to serve alcohol, a ban that has been in place for almost a century, believe it or not. This means for us that we can have lucrative liquor sales at 30 more AMC Movie theaters across the state of New York.

今天要討論的第三個主題是我們爆炸性的食品和飲料銷售數量，在美國主要營運商中處於行業領先地位。當然，我們很高興紐約州立法機構幾週前同意允許電影院提供酒精飲料，不管你信不信，這項禁令已經實施了近一個世紀。這對我們來說意味著我們可以在紐約州另外 30 家 AMC 電影院進行酒類銷售，利潤豐厚。

Beyond that, our culinary team continues to work passionately on innovative in-theater food and beverage offerings. For example, on more than 400 AMC theaters across the country in the United States, we've just added new fresh donut hole offerings in multiple flavors, to sweeten the moviegoing experience. The Baker's Dozen shareable donut holes come in 3 heavenly flavors, cinnamon Sugar, strawberry and our proprietary peanut butter blend created in partnership with PB2. Every serving comes with a container of warm icing to make each bite even sweeter and add just a few calories to this neat little offering at AMC.

除此之外，我們的烹飪團隊繼續熱情地致力於創新的戲院內食品和飲料服務。例如，在美國全國 400 多家 AMC 影院，我們剛剛添加了多種口味的新鮮甜甜圈產品，讓觀影體驗更加甜蜜。 Baker's Dozen 共享甜甜圈洞有 3 種天堂般的口味：肉桂糖、草莓以及我們與 PB2 合作開發的專有花生醬混合物。每份食物都配有一盒溫暖的糖霜，讓每一口都更加甜美，並為 AMC 的這款精緻小產品添加了一些卡路里。

These things might look like donut holes to our guests, but to us, they look like incremental dollars. We expect to sell a lot.

這些東西對我們的客人來說可能看起來像甜甜圈洞，但對我們來說，它們看起來像是增量美元。我們預計會賣很多。

Similarly, we're innovating at our 50 dine-in theaters as well, where guests are served a more comprehensive food and beverage menu. We've added 4 entirely new offerings, new artisan pizzas with 5 different topics, 2 new chicken sandwich choices, each nestled on a toasted brioche bun. Our new caesars salad chicken to complement our already popular cobb salad. And last, but certainly not least, again, to satisfy those sweet tooth or teeth, we have introduced milkshakes in 5 flavors, including chocolate with ghirardelli chocolate syrup, vanilla, strawberry, peanut butter with a REESE'S peanut butter sauce, and an Oreo shake with Oreo cookie pieces, mixed in.

同樣，我們也在 50 家堂食影院進行創新，為客人提供更全面的食品和飲料菜單。我們增加了 4 種全新產品、具有 5 個不同主題的新手工披薩、2 種新雞肉三明治選擇，每種產品都位於烤奶油蛋捲麵包上。我們新推出的凱撒雞肉沙拉與我們已經很受歡迎的科布沙拉相得益彰。最後，但同樣重要的是，為了滿足那些愛吃甜食的人，我們推出了5 種口味的奶昔，包括巧克力配吉拉德利巧克力糖漿、香草、草莓、花生醬配里斯花生醬，以及奧利奧奶昔與奧利奧餅乾塊混合在一起。

It's no accident that AMC food and beverage leads the way in our industry. We devote substantial resources to imaginatively understanding the flavor palette and the diverse tastes and appetites of AMC moviegoers.

AMC 食品和飲料在我們行業中處於領先地位絕非偶然。我們投入大量資源，以富有想像力的方式了解 AMC 電影觀眾的口味組合以及多樣化的口味和胃口。

The fourth topic to discuss quickly, at our European theaters, we have just introduced an intriguing innovation, which we've named XL. We have branded more than 60 of our larger screen auditoriums but screens that would not necessarily qualify as a premium large format. We've given them an XL name, XL for extra large, of course, and gently nudge into the market, a small premium price in these auditoriums. We're watching the success of this new product very closely to see if we should expand the concept further in Europe and/or to our U.S. theaters as well.

第四個要快速討論的主題是，在我們的歐洲影院，我們剛剛推出了一項有趣的創新，我們將其命名為 XL。我們已經為 60 多個大螢幕禮堂打上品牌標識，但這些螢幕不一定符合優質大螢幕的標準。我們給它們起了一個 XL 的名字，XL 代表特大號，當然，並輕輕地推向市場，在這些禮堂中價格稍高一些。我們正在密切關注這款新產品的成功，看看我們是否應該在歐洲和/或美國影院進一步擴展這一概念。

And finally, fifth, we are taking our AMC Investor Connect program very seriously, both to reward our shareholders and to stimulate added patronage at our theaters from the more than 1 million members in this program.

最後，第五，我們非常認真地對待我們的 AMC Investor Connect 計劃，既是為了獎勵我們的股東，也是為了刺激該計劃中超過 100 萬會員對我們影院的更多惠顧。

In the summer of 2021, AMC launched AMC Investor Connect, a first-of-its-kind program in which our shareholders were invited to enroll so that we could engage directly with them. Investor benefits to our retail shareholders through AMC Investor Connect, have included shareholder inclusive promotions, NFTs, free or discounted items, invitation to special screenings and communications directly from me as CEO of the business.

2021 年夏天，AMC 推出了 AMC Investor Connect，這是一項史無前例的計劃，邀請我們的股東加入，以便我們可以直接與他們互動。透過 AMC Investor Connect 為我們的零售股東提供的投資者利益包括股東包容性促銷、NFT、免費或折扣商品、特別放映邀請以及我作為公司首席執行官直接進行的溝通。

Our continued commitment to AMC Investor Connect recognize the important role that our retail shareholders have played in getting AMC through these past difficult COVID and strike impacted years and the program is designed to provide them with truly exclusive rewards and benefits. Especially knowing that there are many retail shareholders listening to this webcast right now, can I remind you all that at 7 p.m. local time tonight, in our IMAX Dolby Cinema and AMC Prime auditoriums. We are offering a special advanced screening of Disney's stunning new movie, that's right, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which opens to the general public this weekend. We hope you enjoy it.

我們對 AMC Investor Connect 的持續承諾認識到我們的散戶股東在幫助 AMC 度過過去受新冠肺炎和罷工影響的困難時期所發揮的重要作用，該計劃旨在為他們提供真正獨特的獎勵和福利。特別是知道現在有很多散戶股東在聽這個網路廣播，我可以在晚上7點提醒大家一下嗎？當地時間今晚，在我們的 IMAX 杜比影院和 AMC Prime 禮堂。我們將為迪士尼令人驚嘆的新電影《猩球崛起》提供特別提前放映，該電影將於本週末向公眾開放。我們希望你喜歡它。

Now it's time to take your questions. But before I do, here are our final thoughts on the first quarter and our near and longer-term prospects. In the first quarter, AMC exceeded all expectations, a quarter that admittedly was impacted by last year's Hollywood strikes. The second quarter's box office, while likely -- will be sequentially stronger and bigger than Q1, but it will still too be impacted by the strikes of last year and will fall significantly below last year's second quarter because last year's second quarter just happened to be the single strongest quarter in all of 2023.

現在是時候回答您的問題了。但在此之前，以下是我們對第一季以及近期和長期前景的最終想法。第一季度，AMC 超出了所有人的預期，這一季度無疑受到了去年好萊塢罷工的影響。第二季度的票房雖然有可能會比第一季連續更強和更大，但它仍然會受到去年罷工的影響，並且將大大低於去年第二季度，因為去年第二季度恰好是這是2023年全年表現最強勁的一個季度。

However, when we speak again in August after the second quarter is in the books, based on what we know today, we believe that the summer box office will be strong, healthy and growing. AMC is poised handsomely to benefit as our moviegoing audience will be thoroughly entertained next summer by titles playing at an AMC theater near you, including Disney's Deadpool and Wolverine, and Universal's Despicable Me 4 and Twisters.

然而，當我們在第二季完成後在八月再次發言時，根據我們今天所了解的情況，我們相信夏季票房將強勁、健康和成長。 AMC 有望從中受益匪淺，明年夏天，我們的電影觀眾將在附近的AMC 影院欣賞到精彩的電影，其中包括迪士尼的《死侍》和《金剛狼》，以及環球影業的《神偷奶爸4 》和《龍捲風》。

And looking beyond just the summer, we similarly are excited about what we anticipate for the fourth quarter with such blockbusters titles as Warner Bros. Joker, [Fallia 2], Universal's Wicked, bringing to the screen with the Broadway musical that is run for decades and more, like Disney's Mufasa: The Lion King and Sony's Venom: The Last Dance. I could go on and on and on about the movies that are coming in 2024. But not only are we confident about in the second half of 2024, we are also literally enthralled about an accelerating box office recovery as we head into 2025 and on into 2026.

展望夏季之外，我們同樣對第四季的預期感到興奮，華納兄弟的《小丑》、《Fallia 2》、環球影業的《魔法壞女巫》等大片將與這部運行了數十年的百老匯音樂劇搬上銀幕還有更多，像是迪士尼的《木法沙：獅子王》和索尼的《猛毒：最後之舞》。我可以不停地談論 2024 年上映的電影。

The box office in 2025 should be materially stronger than it has been in several years. AMC continues to be resilient, leveraging innovation as well as hard and smart work to navigate through these turbulent times. We have positioned ourselves not only to survive in troubled waters, but also to thrive as our industry grows. And as we look at 2025, we believe that our industry will again grow. We think the future, therefore, looks very bright.

2025 年的票房應該會比過去幾年大幅成長。 AMC 繼續保持彈性，利用創新以及勤奮和聰明的工作來度過這個動蕩的時代。我們不僅要在渾水中生存，還要隨著產業的發展而蓬勃發展。展望 2025 年，我們相信我們的產業將再次成長。因此，我們認為未來看起來非常光明。

With that, Sean, let's move to questions.

肖恩，接下來我們開始提問。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from the line of Jim Goss with Barrington Research.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Barrington Research 的 Jim Goss。

All right. Adam, regarding your discussion about food and beverage initiatives, clearly, dollars are more important than margin percentages. But I wonder if you could talk about how you think in terms of introducing items and the pricing attached to those items and where you feel the food and beverage margin should settle in. It slipped a little bit in the last quarters for some of the reasons that have taken place.

好的。亞當，關於您對食品和飲料計劃的討論，顯然，美元比利潤率更重要。但我想知道您是否可以談談您在引入商品和這些商品的定價方面的想法，以及您認為食品和飲料利潤應該穩定在哪裡。發生的事情。

So Jim, we're picking up increased food and beverage sales, sort of staggering numbers. Pre-pandemic, routinely, food and beverage sales per patron were about $5 ahead of AMC. I'm using the domestic numbers as a placeholder, not the European numbers. European numbers are a little bit less than the U.S. numbers. And they shot up to around $8 to $9 a head post-pandemic. So we're looking at a huge increase.

吉姆，我們的食品和飲料銷售正在增加，這是一個驚人的數字。疫情爆發前，每位顧客的食品和飲料銷售額通常比 AMC 領先約 5 美元。我使用國內數字作為佔位符，而不是歐洲數字。歐洲的數字比美國的數字略少。大流行後，它們的價格飆升至每頭 8 至 9 美元左右。所以我們正在看到巨大的成長。

And our F&B margins are in the low 80s. I know it varies item by item and quarter-by-quarter. But my rule of thumb is about 82% of incremental food and beverage sales flows to the bottom line. So when we pop a $4 increase in food and beverage spending over where we were a few years ago, like -- that's a huge driver of income for us. And it's one of the reasons that our revenue per patron is up so much. It's one of the reasons our profit per paper numbers are up so much. And it really comes from 3 factors -- or maybe I should say, 4 factors.

我們的餐飲利潤率在 80 左右。我知道每個項目和每個季度都會有所不同。但我的經驗法則是，大約 82% 的食品和飲料銷售增量都流入了利潤。因此，當我們的食品和飲料支出比幾年前增加 4 美元時，這對我們來說是收入的巨大推動力。這也是我們每位顧客的收入大幅成長的原因之一。這是我們每篇論文的利潤大幅增加的原因之一。它確實來自 3 個因素——或者我應該說，4 個因素。

One, we have slightly and only slightly raised the prices on our F&B products. Second, though, more and more people are stopping at our concession stands and buying food and beverage items from us. There is no rule that says you have to buy food or drink when you come into movie theater. You can just buy the ticket, go to your chair, enjoy it, enjoy the movie and leave. But what we have seen over the last couple of years is that we're doing a much better job in capturing more people to stop at the concession stand by.

第一，我們略微提高了餐飲產品的價格。其次，越來越多的人在我們的小賣部停下來向我們購買食物和飲料。沒有規定說你進入電影院時必須購買食物或飲料。你可以買票，走到你的椅子上，享受它，欣賞電影，然後離開。但過去幾年我們看到，我們在吸引更多人駐足特許站方面做得更好。

The third factor is they're buying more items. So where they -- where someone used to buy one item, maybe they're buying two. If they're buying a drink and a popcorn and maybe they're buying a third item as well. If they are buying three items before, now they're stocking up and buying four. If there are more and more people in the party maybe more people in the party are taking items individually in the theater. And then the fourth item, and this is one of the issues that might affect food and beverage margins a little bit. Our merchandise sales at the concession stands, which are not as high a margin as 82%, but they're still very attractive margins.

第三個因素是他們購買更多的物品。因此，在過去有人購買一件商品的地方，現在可能他們會購買兩件。如果他們購買飲料和爆米花，也許他們還會購買第三種商品。如果他們之前購買三件商品，那麼現在他們會囤貨併購買四件。如果隊伍中的人越來越多，可能會有更多的人在劇院裡單獨拿東西。然後是第四項，這是可能會稍微影響食品和飲料利潤的問題之一。我們在特許攤上銷售的商品，利潤率雖然沒有82%那麼高，但仍然是非常有吸引力的利潤率。

3 or 4 years ago, we didn't have any merchandise sales at our concession stands, like literally 0. In calendar year '23, we had $54 million of merchandise sales just at our U.S. theaters. So that might affect the margins a little bit. But as I said, this whole area has been one of staggering success for us. We've given our food and beverage organization more staffing, more resources to run our F&B business. We've asked them to launch innovative new products in our theaters at our dine-in theaters and our concession stands at our regular theaters. And so far, so good.

三、四年前，我們的特許攤位上沒有任何商品銷售額，幾乎為零。所以可能會稍微影響利潤。但正如我所說，整個領域對我們來說是取得了驚人成功的領域之一。我們為我們的餐飲組織配備了更多的人員和資源來經營我們的餐飲業務。我們已要求他們在我們的影院、堂食影院和常規影院的小賣部推出創新的新產品。到目前為止，一切都很好。

We're quite optimistic that this growth will continue. And that the margins are going to stay real high. I have often said you can do very well when you're selling air and water, air being popcorn and water being Coca-Cola. So this -- the whole industry has been pretty successful in improving its F&B numbers over the last few years. But AMC has really led the way, we've outpaced everybody else.

我們對這種成長將持續下去非常樂觀。而且利潤率將維持在很高的水平。我常說，當你銷售空氣和水時，你可以做得很好，空氣是爆米花，水是可口可樂。因此，整個行業在過去幾年中在改善其餐飲數量方面非常成功。但 AMC 確實處於領先地位，我們超越了其他所有人。

Okay. And just one other one. If we use the Billie Eilish concert as a -- pre-recorded concert as an example. Is this something you think you could then share with cinema competitors? Or would that -- is that just a one and done sort of thing? Or could you do a limited run at AMC like every Wednesday or something of that nature to take advantage of it, but not interfere with your first run theater or first-run films?

好的。還有另外一件。如果我們以 Billie Eilish 演唱會作為預錄演唱會為例。您認為您可以與戲院競爭對手分享這些內容嗎？或者說——這只是一件已經完成的事嗎？或者你可以在 AMC 進行有限的放映，例如每週三或類似的活動來利用它，但不會幹擾你的首映劇院或首映電影？

When you talk about every Wednesday, that means 52 Wednesdays.

當您談論每個星期三時，這意味著 52 個星期三。

Well, or not necessarily -- some pattern.

嗯，或者不一定——某種模式。

No, I know. But I say with 9 Grammys and 2 Oscars, there aren't 52 Billie Eilishs. So I don't -- and it's a tremendous amount of work to get these artists to agree to showcase their talent in our theaters. But that having been said, I don't think we'll be doing 52 a year then. But I do think that we'll be doing several per year. Even a onetime listening event is lucrative for us on a per screen basis. And of course, the Taylor Swift and Beyonce concert films were enormous for AMC. They represented more than 15% of our total profitability for the year last year, if you look at the EBITDA they generated.

不，我知道。但我想說，擁有 9 座葛萊美獎和 2 座奧斯卡獎的比莉艾利許還沒有 52 座。所以我不——要讓這些藝術家同意在我們的劇院展示他們的才華需要做大量的工作。但話雖如此，我認為我們不會每年做 52 次。但我確實認為我們每年都會做幾次。即使是一次性的聆聽活動對我們來說在每個螢幕上都是有利可圖的。當然，泰勒絲和碧昂絲的演唱會影片對 AMC 來說意義重大。如果你看看他們產生的 EBITDA，他們占我們去年總獲利能力的 15% 以上。

I do think that many of the -- I do think that -- well, I don't think, I know from having talked to so many people who are either the artists themselves or representing the artists that there's a lot of interest in the movie industry generally based on what we pulled off collectively, for Taylor and for Beyonce, I would expect several major projects a year. I'm really excited about this listening event for Billie Eilish because it's not a concert film. It's her new album release, which they put some visuals to. Is it possible that a lot of major artists will look to movie theaters as an intriguing way to launch their albums and to get garner extra publicity and fan interest, especially in auditoriums equipped with something that's industry-leading as Dolby Atmos sound.

我確實認為，我確實認為，嗯，我不認為，透過與這麼多藝術家本人或代表藝術家的人交談，我知道人們對電影業通常基於我們共同取得的成就，對於泰勒和碧昂絲來說，我預計每年會有幾個重大項目。我對比莉艾利甚的這次聆聽活動感到非常興奮，因為這不是一部音樂會電影。這是她的新專輯發行，他們添加了一些視覺效果。許多主要藝術家是否有可能將電影院視為推出專輯並獲得額外宣傳和粉絲興趣的一種有趣方式，尤其是在配備行業領先的杜比全景聲 (Dolby Atmos) 音效的禮堂中。

Our -- we put together the Billie Eilish thing with pretty tight timing. So it really wasn't practical to try to take this one to our competitors. But the success of Taylor and Beyonce was that we did take it to our competitors. It wasn't just an AMC thing. It was an industry thing. We had a very good market share, but it was -- it was an industry-wide effort. And we're going to be working very hard with our fellow movie theater operators through AMC Theaters distribution, our digital platform to offer experiences not only at AMC, but also to take them to our competitors' theaters as well.

我們的——我們把 Billie Eilish 的事情放在一起的時間非常緊迫。因此，嘗試將這項產品帶給我們的競爭對手確實不切實際。但泰勒和碧昂絲的成功在於我們確實把它帶給了我們的競爭對手。這不僅僅是 AMC 的事。這是一個行業的事。我們擁有非常好的市場份額，但這是整個行業的共同努力。我們將透過 AMC Theaters 發行平台與我們的其他電影院營運商非常努力地合作，我們的數位平台不僅在 AMC 提供體驗，而且還將它們帶到我們競爭對手的影院。

So I really think it's an industry-wide opportunity, but AMC is blazing a new trail and we're way out in front. And the summer, yes, some of them will wind up doing ourselves alone exclusively. And others, we will certainly take to our competitors. I got to say this is one circumstance where our competitors have been fabulous to work with. We fight like cats and dogs all year long, but on pulling off Taylor Swift and pulling off Beyonce, so many of the names that you would recognize as major theater chains in the U.S., in Canada, in Mexico, Europe and globally, we are our best possible partners in this effort, and we would expect to be able to bring more such experiences to them, either later in 2024 or in 2025.

所以我真的認為這是一個全行業的機會，但 AMC 正在開闢一條新路，我們遙遙領先。是的，到了夏天，他們中的一些人最終會獨自度過。而其他方面，我們肯定會向我們的競爭對手提供。我必須說，在這種情況下，我們的競爭對手合作得非常愉快。我們一年到頭都像貓和狗一樣打架，但在擊敗泰勒·斯威夫特和碧昂絲之後，我們在美國、加拿大、墨西哥、歐洲和全球範圍內都知道是主要連鎖影院的名字，我們是我們希望能夠在2024 年稍後或2025 年為他們帶來更多此類體驗。

The next question comes from the line of Alicia Reese with Wedbush Securities.

下一個問題來自韋德布希證券公司的艾麗西亞·里斯 (Alicia Reese)。

I'm looking at the dynamics around market share and film rent. And so I'm just looking at -- there are a few titles in the quarter that drove most of the box office, particularly domestically. And a lot of that coming from Dune, which presumably led your market share gains in the quarter as you have the largest footprint of IMAX screens, and that played very well on IMAX. But I'm wondering if you could talk at least qualitatively about the dynamics that drove your film rent substantially lower year-over-year.

我正在研究市場份額和電影租金的動態。所以我只是關注——本季有幾部影片推動了大部分票房，尤其是在國內。其中很大一部分來自《沙丘》，它可能在本季度引領了您的市場份額增長，因為您擁有最大的 IMAX 螢幕，並且在 IMAX 上表現出色。但我想知道您是否可以至少定性地談論一下推動電影租金同比大幅下降的動力。

Sure. I'll throw in something and Sean will take it in addition. If you look at the first quarter there were fewer big blockbuster films and more middle-sized films that were in our theaters that did really well. And if you look at the -- we've never really disclosed our deal studio by studio. But they tend to be on sliding scales where studios command a higher film rent on higher grossing films. And the fact that there were so many middle size and smaller films that led the way in the first quarter, that explains a lot of why the film rent reduction was achieved by AMC. You want to add anything?

當然。我會丟一些東西，肖恩會另外拿走。如果你看第一季度，你會發現我們戲院上映的大片較少，而表現出色的中型影片較多。如果你看一下——我們從未真正逐個工作室地披露過我們的交易。但它們往往是按比例浮動的，製片廠對票房收入較高的電影收取更高的電影租金。事實上，第一季有如此多的中小尺寸電影引領潮流，這在很大程度上解釋了AMC為何實現電影租金降低。你想添加什麼嗎？

Yes. So I'll just give you a little bit more color. So when we look at the number of titles that we played in Q1 2024, over $5 million, we had 41 in Q1 versus 35 in Q1 2023. And obviously, the box office was lower in '24 than 2023. So yes, Dune was the biggest title of the quarter, no significant. But after Dune, the box office per title went down quite significantly. And so it's exactly as Adam says, when the firms have a lower gross showing that certainly impacts our film rent favorably.

是的。所以我會給你多一點顏色。因此，當我們查看2024 年第一季播放的遊戲數量（超過500 萬美元）時，我們第一季有41 款遊戲，而2023 年第一季有35 款。要低。 所以，是的，《沙丘》是本季最大的標題，沒什麼意義。但在《沙丘》之後，每部作品的票房大幅下降。因此，正如亞當所說，當公司的總放映量較低時，肯定會對我們的電影租金產生有利的影響。

There are no further questions on the audio line. I would like to turn the call back to management for retail shareholder questions.

音頻線上沒有其他問題。我想將電話轉回給管理階層，詢問散戶股東的問題。

Thank you, operator. Okay, Sean. So what questions have come in from our retail shareholders?

謝謝你，接線生。好吧，肖恩。那麼我們的散戶股東提出了哪些問題呢？

So the first question is related to market share as well. And the question says that AMC has been growing market share in the U.S. market, while at the same time, closing underperforming theaters. So can you comment about what we can attribute the success to? And do we see this market share growth as sustainable as the industry recovers?

所以第一個問題也跟市佔率有關。問題是，AMC 在美國市場的市佔率一直在增加，但同時，卻關閉了表現不佳的戲院。那麼您能否評論一下我們將成功歸因於什麼？隨著產業的復甦，我們認為這種市場份額的成長是否可持續？

Sure. So yes, it's a pretty impressive trick to increase your market share when you're closing 100 theaters. But that's exactly what we did. And part of it is -- and as you mentioned in your earlier remarks, our 70 basis point improvement in market share with a higher market share growth that was achieved by any of the 50 largest movie theater circuits in the United States. That's very encouraging for us.

當然。所以，是的，當你關閉 100 家影院時，這是一個非常令人印象深刻的增加市場份額的技巧。但這正是我們所做的。部分原因是——正如您在之前的演講中提到的，我們的市場份額提高了 70 個基點，美國 50 家最大的電影院中的任何一家都實現了更高的市場份額增長。這對我們來說非常鼓舞人心。

Part of it is because we think our theaters are in good shape. Part of it is because we think we've got very strong marketing, which I will talk about later. But also what's really interesting is that the theaters that we are closing were our older, more tired theaters, buildings that were sort of at the end of their 20- or 30-year useful lives that weren't grossing all that much. And the theaters that we opened were shiny new ones in great locations, usually open with reclining seats to start. And as it turns out, its incredible but true, the 60 theaters that we opened outgrossed the 169 theaters that we closed. So we're replacing older, tired unsuccessful theaters with thriving ones. And some of the ones that we've opened are amongst our -- literally, our highest grossing, most profitable theaters in all of Europe and in all the United States.

部分原因是我們認為我們的劇院狀況良好。部分原因是我們認為我們的行銷非常強大，我將在稍後討論。但真正有趣的是，我們要關閉的劇院都是較舊、較陳舊的劇院，這些建築在 20 或 30 年的使用壽命即將結束時，票房收入並沒有那麼高。我們開設的劇院都是嶄新的、位置優越的劇院，通常一開始就設有可躺的座位。事實證明，我們新開的 60 家影院的票房超過了我們關閉的 169 家影院，這令人難以置信，但卻是事實。因此，我們正在用蓬勃發展的劇院取代陳舊、疲憊、不成功的劇院。我們開設的一些劇院是我們在整個歐洲和美國票房最高、利潤最高的劇院之一。

Terrific. And the next question is about AMC Cinema Suites. Question here is looking for an update on Cinema suites? And is there a chance that we release these products on the retail channel?

了不起。下一個問題是關於 AMC Cinema Suites 的。這裡的問題是尋找有關影院套件的更新嗎？我們是否有機會在零售通路上發布這些產品？

So Cinema Suites is doing great. we're very pleased. As you all know, I think it was in the fourth quarter of 2023. We unveiled a proprietary house brand of premium gourmet candies, chocolate covered peanuts, chocolate covered raisins, chocolate covered almonds, chocolate covered pretzels. Four different SKUs.

因此，Cinema Suites 的表現非常出色。我們非常高興。眾所周知，我想那是在 2023 年第四季。四種不同的 SKU。

We say they're premium gourmet candies because they have a lot more chocolate. And we tend to charge the same price for Cinema Suites as we charge what I might call regular branded candies in the range those loves. They've been selling well. We've been -- they're nicely ahead of expectations. We've had no problem with the supply chain in getting these delivered to us in quantity. And I would think that we would, in fact, take them to the retail market at some point going forward. Exactly when, I don't know. It's not the highest priority. There are other things that are higher on the list of things to do to make more money for AMC, but Cinema Suites has done great. We're glad we did it.

我們說它們是優質美味糖果，因為它們含有更多的巧克力。我們傾向於對電影套房收取相同的價格，就像我們對那些喜歡的範圍內的我所說的常規品牌糖果收取相同的價格。它們一直賣得很好。我們一直——他們遠遠超出了預期。我們的供應鏈在將這些產品大量交付給我們方面沒有遇到任何問題。我認為，事實上，我們會在未來的某個時候將它們帶到零售市場。具體什麼時候，我不知道。這不是最高優先級。為了讓 AMC 賺更多錢，還有其他更重要的事情要做，但 Cinema Suites 做得很好。我們很高興我們做到了。

Great. And then the next question is about our capital expenditure. Can we provide some color on AMC's CapEx spend, where are we allocating the money?

偉大的。下一個問題是關於我們的資本支出。我們能否提供一些關於 AMC 資本支出的信息，我們將資金分配到哪裡？

Well, since your nickname around here is Dr. Know and you're the one who is responsible for capital -- and we've done everything in our power not to spend capital expenditures at the moment because our preference has been to build up our cash reserves for a rainy day. Why don't you answer the CapEx question?

好吧，既然你在這裡的綽號是“知道博士”，而且你是負責資本的人——我們已經盡一切努力不花資本支出，因為我們的偏好是建立我們的資本支出。之需。為什麼不回答資本支出問題？

Thanks, Adam. Well, it's true we are very disciplined in our capital spend, particularly during this recovery period. But the good news is that AMC has a very large number of high-return investment opportunities. Right now, we're prioritizing those investments that maintain our existing buildings, our existing equipment, our IT capabilities so that we can continue to provide the best possible guest experience.

謝謝，亞當。確實，我們在資本支出方面非常嚴格，尤其是在這個復甦時期。但好消息是AMC擁有非常多的高回報投資機會。目前，我們優先考慮維護現有建築、現有設備和 IT 能力的投資，以便我們能夠繼續提供最佳的賓客體驗。

But we're always allocating our capital to the best risk-adjusted return opportunities, and we continue to do that. When I look to the future, and I see the sort of the pipeline of attractive investment opportunities we have, they include our premium large-format auditoriums, sight and sound upgrades, automation of the guest experience, theater seating, et cetera.

但我們始終將資本分配給最佳風險調整回報機會，我們將繼續這樣做。當我展望未來時，我看到了我們擁有的一系列有吸引力的投資機會，其中包括我們的優質大型禮堂、視聽升級、賓客體驗自動化、劇院座椅等等。

So again, there are many very attractive opportunities, but now around 75% of our capital spend is really focused on retaining the assets to continue to provide the best possible guest experience.

再說一次，有很多非常有吸引力的機會，但現在我們大約 75% 的資本支出實際上集中在保留資產上，以繼續提供最佳的賓客體驗。

Thank you, Sean. And I might add that I think the priority of spending has been maintenance CapEx first because we have to keep our theaters in decent shape. But to the extent that we have additional monies in the door, our priority has been to use that to build up our cash reserves.

謝謝你，肖恩。我想補充一點，我認為支出的首要任務是維護資本支出，因為我們必須保持戲院的良好狀態。但就我們手邊有額外資金而言，我們的首要任務是利用這些資金來建立我們的現金儲備。

My comments in my earlier prepared remarks that cash is king. It's a serious comment. I do believe that one of the reasons why AMC has defied gravity the last 4 years and surprised a lot of people who thought we might run into trouble but we didn't is that we build up our cash reserves intelligently.

我在之前準備的發言中說，現金為王。這是一個嚴肅的評論。我確實相信，AMC 在過去 4 年裡能夠克服地心引力，讓很多人感到驚訝，他們認為我們可能會遇到麻煩，但我們沒有遇到麻煩，原因之一就是我們明智地建立了現金儲備。

But having said that, there are so many interesting ways that we could reinvest in the business. And I personally think the most lucrative of those ideas is, as you said, the increased premium large-format screens. I hope that we can add more IMAX screens and build more silver screens. We are the largest IMAX exhibitor in the world outside of China. We're the largest Dolby Cinema exhibitor in the world. We have about half of the IMAX locations in North America. We have all the Dolby Cinema locations in North America, those auditoriums do extremely well. And if we can wrestle up some capital expenditure money to do it, adding more of them is a great idea.

但話雖如此，我們可以透過許多有趣的方式對業務進行再投資。正如您所說，我個人認為這些想法中最有利可圖的是增加優質大尺寸螢幕。我希望我們能增加更多的IMAX銀幕，建造更多的銀幕。我們是中國以外世界上最大的 IMAX 放映商。我們是世界上最大的杜比影院放映商。我們在北美擁有大約一半的 IMAX 影院。我們在北美擁有所有杜比影院，這些影廳的表現非常出色。如果我們能夠籌集一些資本支出來做到這一點，那麼增加更多資本支出就是一個好主意。

Agreed. Next question here is related to debt. The investor asks with a significant amount of debt maturing in 2026, 2 years from now, what is the company doing to address this debt that is maturing and reduce the overall debt level?

同意。下一個問題與債務有關。投資者詢問，大量債務將於 2026 年（即 2 年後）到期，公司正在採取哪些措施來解決這些即將到期的債務並降低整體債務水平？

So in terms of reducing the debt level, we have done, I think, a phenomenal job over the last few years of paying down debt and other deferred obligations like deferred rent. We since in the last 2 years roughly, we paid off almost $1 billion of long-term debt and other deferred obligations, which is encouraging. We've done that in part by buying a lot of debt back in the open market at a discount, which means you're doing it at a profit, which is also good.

因此，在降低債務水平方面，我認為，過去幾年我們在償還債務和延期租金等其他遞延債務方面做得非常出色。大約在過去兩年裡，我們償還了近 10 億美元的長期債務和其他延遲債務，令人鼓舞。我們在某種程度上是透過在公開市場上以折扣價買回大量債務來做到這一點的，這意味著你可以獲利，這也很好。

Still realizing we are playing a capital allocation game of reducing debt, buying in debt versus investing in the business through CapEx versus building up our cash reserves. It's a bit of an art form, which actually saw in your pneumatics this process day to day. But -- and we paid off or reduced so much of our debt and obligations. It is kind of staggering to me that we had to borrow about $2 billion to survive COVID.

仍然意識到我們正在玩一場資本分配遊戲，減少債務，購買債務，透過資本支出投資業務，而不是建立我們的現金儲備。這有點像一種藝術形式，實際上在您的氣動裝置中每天都看到了這個過程。但是——我們還清或減少了很多債務和義務。令我震驚的是，我們必須借債約 20 億美元才能度過新冠疫情。

And yet if you look today at our net debt, AMC's net debt today is less than it was just prior COVID. So how is it possible that we had to borrow $2 billion to survive, and yet we have less debt today than we had going into COVID. And the answer, of course, is because we raised a lot of equity and we paid down debt, which is important for us to do.

然而，如果你看看我們今天的淨債務，AMC 今天的淨債務比新冠疫情之前要少。那麼，為什麼我們必須借債 20 億美元才能生存，而我們今天的債務卻比新冠疫情爆發時還要少。答案當然是因為我們籌集了大量股本並償還了債務，這對我們來說很重要。

Looking forward, we still have about $4.5 billion of debt, not much matures before 2026, but there are huge maturities in 2026. And I can assure everyone listening to this call today is that the management of this company, which has been pretty smart in how we've navigated ourselves through the pandemic here before and a leveraged balance sheet without a lot of EBITDA here before, that same management team is wholly focused on the debt maturities that are due in 2026. This is not something that we're going to look at next year or the year after that.

展望未來，我們仍有約45 億美元的債務，在2026 年之前到期的不多，但2026 年到期的債務很大。管理層在我們之前是如何度過大流行的，以及之前沒有大量 EBITDA 的槓桿資產負債表，同一個管理團隊完全專注於 2026 年到期的債務到期。明年或後年。

We've been working with our Board of Directors and our investment banks for almost a year now in discussing the smartest ways to extend the maturities of our 2026 debt into future time periods. The good news is that we have lender syndicates who generally like AMC, have worked with us before, are working with us now. I'm hopeful that we will come to some conclusion. That will allow us to push out the debt maturities from 2026 into future periods.

我們已經與董事會和投資銀行合作近一年了，討論將 2026 年債務期限延長至未來時期的最明智方法。好消息是，我們有貸款財團，他們通常喜歡 AMC，以前曾與我們合作，現在正在與我們合作。我希望我們能得出一些結論。這將使我們能夠將債務到期日從 2026 年推遲到未來的時期。

There's nothing to announce yet because there's nothing that's final or done yet. There's no agreement that's imminent like it's going to be announced in a day or a week, but it has our highest attention. We know about our obligations going forward. we intend to refinance, if at all possible, and we're hopeful that we can do so on attractive terms.

目前還沒有什麼可以宣布的，因為還沒有任何事情是最終的或完成的。雖然沒有像一天或一周內宣布那樣迫在眉睫的協議，但它引起了我們的最高關注。我們知道我們未來的義務。如果可能的話，我們打算進行再融資，並且希望能夠以有吸引力的條件進行再融資。

Absolutely agreed. And then the last question that we have is relating to the upcoming shareholder meeting. There's a question here. I would like to vote at the upcoming shareholder meeting, but how do I vote? I've not received any proxy information.

絕對同意。我們的最後一個問題與即將召開的股東大會有關。這裡有一個問題。我想在即將召開的股東會上投票，但我該如何投票？我沒有收到任何代理資訊。

Well, I do hope you -- I mean I hope you all do vote for those of you who own shares that is, I hope you all do vote. In prior years, voting numbers at AMC have been pretty low because it has been having of some retail investors not to vote. I would remind everybody, this is a chance to have your voices be heard. We pay attention to what you say in the shareholder votes. We act accordingly. You know that I reduced my own compensation this year in response to what shareholders were saying in the so-called say -- say-on-pay vote. So we really do want you to vote.

好吧，我確實希望你們——我的意思是我希望你們都投票給那些擁有股票的人，也就是說，我希望你們都投票。前幾年，AMC 的投票率一直很低，因為一些散戶不投票。我想提醒大家，這是一個讓你們的聲音被聽見的機會。我們關注您在股東投票中的言論。我們採取相應行動。你知道，我今年減少了自己的薪酬，以回應股東在所謂的薪酬發言權投票中的言論。所以我們真的希望您投票。

We want to care what you're thinking. You -- but the way you vote is you go to your broker where your shares are held and you get the proxy materials from your broker. If you haven't received proxy materials yet, I know that I've received mine as an AMC shareholder from several different brokers. But if you haven't received yours you should call your broker, you should ask for your proxy materials. We do have a proxy adviser, a solicitor here in the United States called DF King. You can call DF King if you would like help.

我們想關心您的想法。你——但你投票的方式是你去你的股票持有的經紀人那裡，你從經紀人那裡得到代理材料。如果您還沒有收到代理材料，我知道我已經從幾個不同的經紀人處收到了我作為 AMC 股東的代理材料。但如果您還沒有收到您的代理材料，您應該致電您的經紀人，索取您的代理材料。我們確實有一位代理顧問，一位在美國稱為 DF King 的律師。如果您需要協助，可以致電 DF King。

There's a toll-free number that's been set up, 1-800-859-8511, let me repeat that 1-800-859-8511. If you hold your shares through DRS, you get your proxy materials from the registrar, Computershare. And I just might add, since I note that we have many international shareholders who listen to these webcasts. We do know that voting in shareholder meetings for American companies is not as easy, abroad as it is in the United States. And in some cases, it is impossible because some overseas brokerages do not facilitate getting proxy materials to shareholders.

我們已經設定了一個免費電話號碼 1-800-859-8511，讓我重複一遍 1-800-859-8511。如果您透過 DRS 持有股票，您可以從註冊商 Computershare 取得代理資料。我想補充一點，因為我注意到我們有許多國際股東收聽這些網路廣播。我們確實知道，美國公司在國外的股東大會投票並不像在美國那麼容易。而在某些情況下，這是不可能的，因為有些海外券商不方便向股東取得代理資料。

And we have discussed this at length, there is literally nothing that we can do as a single lister in the New York Stock Exchange to do anything about that. All we can do is suggest to you that you change brokers and change from a broker who will not get you proxy materials to a broker who will get you proxy materials.

我們已經詳細討論過這個問題，作為紐約證券交易所的單一上市公司，我們對此無能為力。我們能做的就是建議你更換經紀人，從不會給你代理材料的經紀人換成會給你代理材料的經紀人。

But as I said, we encourage you to vote. It's a good thing. And the shareholder meeting is coming not too far from now. With that, I think you're telling me we're done with questions?

但正如我所說，我們鼓勵您投票。這是一件好事。距離股東大會召開也不遠了。說到這裡，我想你是在告訴我我們已經問完了問題嗎？

So we're going to thank you all for joining us today. I leave you with two simple thoughts. As we look at the box office for the end of this year and for next year, and into 2026, the box office looks spectacular compared to what we've suffered with in 2020, '21, '22, and '23. And the second thing I'll leave you with is, not too late, it's only 5:00 Central, 6:00 East. At 7:00 local time all across the country in our premium large formats is a special advanced screening of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. It should be a pretty big movie this weekend. With that, thank you all for joining us today.

因此，我們要感謝大家今天加入我們。我留給你兩個簡單的想法。當我們審視今年年底、明年以及 2026 年的票房時，與 2020 年、21 年、22 年和 23 年的票房相比，票房看起來非常驚人。我要告訴您的第二件事是，還不算太晚，現在只有中部 5:00，東部 6:00。當地時間 7:00，我們在全國各地以優質大格式放映《猩球崛起》的特別提前放映。這個週末這應該是一部相當大的電影。在此，感謝大家今天加入我們。

Thank you. This concludes today's conference. You may now disconnect your lines at this time. Enjoy the rest of your day.

謝謝。今天的會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。享受你一天剩下的時間。