AMC 電影院 (AMC) 2021 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the AMC Entertainment Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Webcast. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, Monday, August 9, 2021.

各位好，歡迎收看 AMC Entertainment 2021 年第二季財報網路直播。(接線員指示) 提醒各位，本次會議正在錄音，時間為 2021 年 8 月 9 日（星期一）。

I would now like to turn the conference over to John Merriwether, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

現在我想把會議交給投資人關係副總裁 John Merriwether。請開始。

Thank you, Kevin. Good morning -- or good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to welcome you to AMC's Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Webcast. With me this afternoon is Adam Aron, our Chairman and CEO; and Sean Goodman, our Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝你，Kevin。各位早安——或各位午安。歡迎各位收看 AMC 2021 年第二季財報網路直播。今天下午與我一同出席的有：我們的董事長兼執行長 Adam Aron，以及我們的財務長 Sean Goodman。

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-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 to not place undue reliance 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.

在我把網路直播交給 Adam 之前，先提醒各位，管理層在本次網路直播中所發表的部分評論可能包含前瞻性陳述，該等陳述係基於管理層目前的預期。眾多風險、不確定性及其他因素可能導致實際結果與今日所表達者存在重大差異。其中許多風險與不確定性已在我們最新的公開申報文件中討論，包括我們最近提交的 10-Q。決定公司未來業績的若干因素超出公司控制或預測能力。鑑於任何前瞻性陳述均內含不確定性，提醒聽眾勿過度依賴此等陳述。公司不承擔因新資訊或未來事件而修訂或更新任何前瞻性陳述之義務。

On this webcast, we may reference measures such as adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow, constant currency, among others, which are non-GAAP financial measures. 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 today.

在本次網路直播中，我們可能會提及經調整 EBITDA、自由現金流、固定匯率等指標，這些均屬非 GAAP 財務衡量指標。如需將我們的非 GAAP 指標完整調節至 GAAP 結果，請參閱我們今日稍早發布於公司網站投資人關係專區的財報新聞稿。

After our prepared remarks, there will be a Q&A -- a question-and-answer session. 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.

在我們的準備發言結束後，將進行問答——提問與回答環節。今天下午的網路直播正在錄音，稍後今日可於 amctheaters.com 網站的投資人關係專區收聽重播。

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

接下來我把電話會議交給 Adam。

Thank you, John. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. The second quarter of 2021 was another very important quarter for AMC. We have a lot to talk about on this call as to the considerable progress towards recovery that AMC is making, and we have some real news to break today as well that will be new information to all of you.

謝謝你，John。各位午安，感謝各位今天加入我們。2021 年第二季對 AMC 而言是另一個非常重要的季度。在本次電話會議中，我們有許多內容要談，關於 AMC 在復甦道路上取得的顯著進展；同時我們今天也有一些重大消息要宣布，對各位而言都將是全新的資訊。

Before we go there in detail, I first would like to express a very warm welcome to what, from past experience, makes us believe that more than 10,000 individual AMC investors will be listening live to this webcast, and another warm welcome to the at least hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of our investors who will be listening to replays, reading our press releases at AMC Investor Connect communications or following on Twitter and other social media platforms, our earnings report and the accompanying new news that we'll be discussing later in the call. Realizing that these -- that it is these investors who now actually own control of AMC Entertainment Holdings, for the first time ever, later in this call, we will answer a potpourri of questions that have been submitted to us directly by our shareholders.

在我們深入說明之前，我首先要熱烈歡迎各位。根據過往經驗，我們相信將有超過 10,000 名 AMC 個人投資人即時收聽本次網路直播；也同樣熱烈歡迎至少數十萬、甚至可能達到數百萬的投資人，將透過收聽重播、閱讀我們在 AMC Investor Connect 的溝通訊息或在 Twitter 及其他社群媒體平台上追蹤，來了解我們的財報以及我們稍後在會議中將討論的相關新消息。鑑於正是這些投資人如今實際上首次掌握 AMC Entertainment Holdings 的控制權，我們將在本次電話會議稍後，回答股東直接提交給我們的各式各樣問題。

As to our second quarter performance, I think you can see from the release that was issued after the market closed today, we're making tremendous progress as our business emerges from the impact of COVID-19. This progress can be seen not only in our operating statistics and financial performance but also by the significant strengthening of our balance sheet. AMC is stronger today than it has been at any point since the pandemic forced the closure of all our theaters in March of 2020.

就我們第二季的表現而言，我想各位可從今天收盤後發布的新聞稿中看到，隨著我們的業務逐步走出 COVID-19 的影響，我們正取得巨大的進展。這些進展不僅體現在營運統計與財務表現上，也體現在資產負債表的顯著強化。AMC 如今比自 2020 年 3 月疫情迫使我們關閉所有影城以來的任何時點都更為強健。

Our quarter-ending liquidity at the end of Q2 on June 30 is actually once again at a 100-year high. Now that's precisely what we said on the Q1 call when we reported to you that at March 31, we had $1 billion of quarter-ending liquidity and that was the highest quarter-ending liquidity that AMC had ever had. Well, in Q2, mostly May and June, we raised another $1.25 billion of fresh equity capital, and our cash burn was meaningfully less than we had previously experienced in recently past quarters. So we ended Q2 with some $2 billion of liquidity. That's cash in the bank and undrawn revolver. And just a short 3 months later from our last call, that $2 billion figure is literally double the Q1 mark, a new record, doubling the old record that was set just 91 days prior.

我們在第二季末（6 月 30 日）的期末流動性，實際上再次創下 100 年來新高。我們在第一季電話會議上也曾精確地這麼說過：截至 3 月 31 日，我們的期末流動性為 10 億美元，為 AMC 有史以來最高的期末流動性。而在第二季，主要是在 5 月與 6 月，我們又募集了 12.5 億美元的新股權資本，同時我們的現金消耗也明顯低於近期過往幾個季度的水準。因此我們在第二季末的流動性約為 20 億美元。這包括銀行存款現金以及未動用的循環信貸額度。而距離我們上次電話會議僅短短 3 個月後，這 20 億美元的數字就字面上是第一季水準的兩倍，創下新紀錄，並將僅在 91 天前才剛創下的舊紀錄再度翻倍。

As for our earnings in Q2, thanks to rising attendance, increased ticket prices achieved both through mix changes and actual price increases, soaring food and beverage revenues per patron, a relentless focus on cost containment and the pruning of marginal theaters from our network, our financial results in Q2 were well ahead of our own and consensus third-party expectations. In short, AMC crushed it in Q2.

至於我們第二季的獲利表現，受惠於入場人次回升、透過組合變化與實際調價所帶來的票價提升、每位顧客的餐飲收入大幅攀升、對成本控管的持續專注，以及自我們的網絡中汰除邊際影城，我們第二季的財務結果大幅優於我們自身以及第三方市場共識的預期。簡言之，AMC 在第二季表現非常出色。

You've already seen some of the highlight headline numbers: revenues in Q2 of $445 million; consolidated food and beverage revenues per patron, up 44.1% over that same statistic of the second quarter of 2019, the comparable quarter pre-pandemic; a net loss of $334 million; an EBITDA loss of only $151 million; an EPS loss of only $0.71 per share; gross CapEx expenditures in Q2 2021 of only $17.9 million. These are very strong metrics, across-the-board performance by AMC compared to what many people, ourselves included, thought might happen in Q2 of 2021.

各位已經看到一些重點頭條數字：第二季營收 4.45 億美元；合併口徑每位顧客的餐飲收入較 2019 年第二季（疫情前的可比季度）同一指標成長 44.1%；淨損 3.34 億美元；EBITDA 虧損僅 1.51 億美元；每股盈餘（EPS）虧損僅每股 0.71 美元；2021 年第二季資本支出（CapEx）總額僅 1,790 萬美元。相較於許多人（包括我們自己）原先認為 2021 年第二季可能出現的情況，這些指標顯示 AMC 在各方面都有非常強勁的表現。

And here are more operating statistics that also suggest things are improving at AMC as 2021 unfolds. Overall ticket admissions revenue in the United States in 2021 versus 2019 pre-pandemic -- so this is overall ticket admissions revenue in the U.S., well, it was 13% of what it was 2 years ago in this year's Q1, but it was 29% of what it was 2 years ago in Q2 of '19. And so far, in the first weeks of Q3, we're running 45% of our 2 years ago levels. So Q1, it was 13% of what it was; Q2, 29% of what it was; Q3 so far, 45% of what it was. It's still down but the trend line shows significant improvement. And even that's somewhat misleading because we've reduced so many showtimes at our theaters to save on theater operating expenses, which partially mitigate those revenue declines.

以下還有更多營運統計數據，也顯示隨著 2021 年推進，AMC 的狀況正在改善。以美國整體票房入場收入來看，2021 年相較於 2019 年疫情前——也就是美國整體票房入場收入——在今年第一季僅為兩年前水準的 13%，但在第二季已達到 2019 年第二季水準的 29%。而截至目前，在第三季的前幾週，我們的表現約為兩年前水準的 45%。所以第一季是 13%；第二季是 29%；第三季截至目前是 45%。雖然仍低於過往，但趨勢線顯示顯著改善。而即便如此，這些數字仍有些誤導性，因為為了節省影城營運費用，我們已大幅減少放映場次，這在一定程度上也緩解了收入下滑的影響。

So if instead rather than just looking at ticket admission revenues, if one looks instead at capacity utilization, that's the percentage of seats that we sold as a total of what was available for sale, you'd see that our capacity utilization was 41% in Q1 of 2021, of what it was 2 years ago in Q1. It was 61% of 2 years ago levels in Q2 and 68% of 2 years ago levels so far in Q3. Again, capacity utilization, 41% in Q1; 61% in Q2; 68% so far in Q3. Again, that trend line is pointing up. We certainly have a way to go, but progress is clear. And we should be getting to play a lot more big movie titles in the balance of Q3 and Q4 2021, as contrasted with what was shown in our theaters in the first 6 months of this year.

因此，如果不僅僅看票房入場收入，而改看上座率（capacity utilization）——也就是售出座位數占可售座位總數的百分比——你會看到我們 2021 年第一季的上座率為兩年前第一季水準的 41%。第二季為兩年前水準的 61%，而第三季截至目前為兩年前水準的 68%。再次強調，上座率：第一季 41%；第二季 61%；第三季截至目前 68%。同樣地，這條趨勢線正在上升。我們當然還有一段路要走，但進展十分明確。而在 2021 年第三季剩餘期間與第四季，我們應該能上映更多大型片單，相較於今年前 6 個月在我們影城上映的內容將大不相同。

Incidentally, we see the same, exact positive trends at our European theaters. Let's start with 2021 admission revenues. In Q1 of 2021, it was a pretty bleak 2% of 2019 levels, 2%. In Q2, it was 18% of 2019 levels. But so far in Q3, we're now running at 57% of 2019 levels; 2%, 18%, 57%, clearly an upwards trend. The same holds true for that same capacity utilization statistic in Europe for us. In Q1, our capacity utilization in 2021 was 53% of the 2019 level; in Q2 was 56% of the 2019 level. But so far in Q3, it's 69% of the 2019 level; 53%, 56%, 69%, again up arrows, with ways still to go for sure but up arrows nonetheless.

順帶一提，我們在歐洲的影城也看到同樣、完全一致的正向趨勢。先從 2021 年的入場收入談起。2021 年第一季，入場收入相當慘淡，僅為 2019 年水準的 2%，2%。第二季為 2019 年水準的 18%。但截至目前第三季，我們已達到 2019 年水準的 57%；2%、18%、57%，顯然呈現上升趨勢。同樣地，這也適用於我們在歐洲的那項產能利用率指標。第一季，我們 2021 年的產能利用率為 2019 年水準的 53%；第二季為 2019 年水準的 56%。但截至目前第三季，為 2019 年水準的 69%；53%、56%、69%，同樣是向上箭頭，當然仍有很長的路要走，但無論如何仍是向上箭頭。

Despite the financial and operating results would suggest we're on a path to recovery, I want to assure you there are no victory laps being taken. We are still losing money. We are still burning cash. We're burning less of it but we're using cash, not generating cash. So we're not out of the woods yet. We do still live in a COVID-infected world. But fortunately, we can see a light at the end of this tunnel. Vaccination rates have climbed quickly in 2021. And the counterintuitive result of this new Delta variant is that vaccinations likely will continue to rise, and vaccination increasing is very important for AMC and for the movie theater industry generally. No one has a perfect crystal ball, of course, but based on what we know and what we see today, we currently estimate that AMC's theater level cash flows will turn positive in Q4 of this year, assuming that we all see at least a $5.2 billion domestic box office cumulatively for the year.

儘管財務與營運結果顯示我們正走在復甦的道路上，我想向各位保證，我們並沒有在慶功。我們仍在虧錢。我們仍在燒現金。我們燒得少了一些，但我們是在使用現金，而不是產生現金。所以我們還沒有脫離險境。我們仍然生活在一個受 COVID 影響的世界。但幸運的是，我們可以看到隧道盡頭的光。2021 年疫苗接種率快速攀升。而這個新的 Delta 變異株帶來一個反直覺的結果：疫苗接種率很可能會持續上升；而接種率上升對 AMC 以及整體電影放映產業都非常重要。當然，沒有人有完美的水晶球；但基於我們所知以及今天所看到的情況，我們目前估計，在假設今年美國國內票房全年累計至少達到 52 億美元的前提下，AMC 影城層級的現金流將在今年第四季轉為正值。

Now there are some naysayers who are quick to point out the size of our debt load. What they do not bother to mention, perhaps because it does not fit their narrative, is that we have smartly laddered that debt. We have no debt maturities at all until 2023. And most of our maturities do not come before 2026. This gives us considerable time to deleverage our company to further strengthen our balance sheet and to refinance our liabilities and hopefully in better times.

現在有一些唱衰者很快就會指出我們負債規模之大。他們不願提及的——也許因為不符合他們的敘事——是我們已明智地將這些債務做了期限梯次安排。我們在 2023 年之前完全沒有任何到期債務。而且我們的大部分到期日都不會早於 2026 年。這讓我們有相當充裕的時間來降低槓桿、進一步強化資產負債表，並在希望更好的景氣時期為我們的負債進行再融資。

I'm reminded in all of this that there were those who were absolutely certain -- they just knew, that AMC would file for bankruptcy in calendar year 2020 or early in 2021. At AMC, we proved them wrong. There are those who were sure that our recovery in Q2 would be slower than is the current reality. Again, the Q2 numbers for AMC have proved them wrong as well. But there are those still who continue to forecast the demise of the theatral exhibition business overall or maybe they just want to predict the demise of AMC. They say that streaming is going to beat us. That's their conventional wisdom. Well, a lot of people mock conventional wisdom because so often, it's just plain out wrong.

這一切讓我想起，曾有人絕對篤定——他們就是認定——AMC 會在 2020 年曆年或 2021 年初申請破產。在 AMC，我們證明他們錯了。也有人確信我們在第二季的復甦會比目前的實際情況更慢。同樣地，AMC 第二季的數字也證明他們錯了。但仍有人持續預測整體戲院放映業的衰亡，或者他們只是想預測 AMC 的衰亡。他們說串流會打敗我們。那就是他們所謂的「傳統智慧」。嗯，很多人會嘲笑傳統智慧，因為它往往就是徹底錯誤。

You've likely heard before this mantra, maybe even repeated it yourself, radio was going to kill off movie theaters. TV was going to kill off movie theaters. VCRs was going to kill off movie theaters. DVDs were going to kill off movie theaters. Each time, movie theaters proved resilient. Americans went to a movie theater 1 billion times in 2019. That's 1 billion with a B. And the global box office in 2019 was a record high $43 billion. "Yes, there was a pandemic but now streaming is going to kill off theaters," we breathlessly hear. Well, at AMC, we intend with all of our might and brains and heart and sinew to prove those procrastinators and prognosticators wrong, too.

你可能以前聽過這句口號，甚至自己也重複過：收音機會消滅電影院。電視會消滅電影院。錄影機會消滅電影院。DVD 會消滅電影院。每一次，電影院都證明自己很有韌性。2019 年，美國人去電影院的次數達 10 億次。是 10 億次，B 這個等級。而 2019 年全球票房創下 430 億美元的歷史新高。「是的，曾有疫情，但現在串流要消滅戲院了，」我們急切地聽到這種說法。但在 AMC，我們打算用我們全部的力量、腦力、熱情與毅力，再次證明那些拖延者與預言家也錯了。

I'm now going to turn over the call to our Chief Financial Officer, Sean Goodman, to give you some more insight into the progress we're making. And then I'll come back to break some news before we head to the Q&A. Sean?

我現在要把電話會議交給我們的財務長 Sean Goodman，讓他為各位提供更多我們正在取得進展的洞見。之後在進入問答之前，我會再回來公布一些消息。Sean？

Thanks, Adam, and thank you, everyone, for joining us this afternoon.

謝謝你，Adam，也謝謝各位今天下午加入我們。

As Adam noted, this quarter marked an important and very successful step along our pathway to recovery. Overall, our global attendance in Q2 was more than 3x that of Q1. While this is approximately 77% below 2019's attendance levels, it is only approximately 45% below our 2019 attendance per showing. This is an illustration of how we're actively managing our show times and associated costs to optimize the efficiency of our operations. We have a way to go before the business fully normalizes, but clearly, we are on the right path in making significant progress.

如 Adam 所提到的，本季在我們的復甦路徑上是一個重要且非常成功的步伐。整體而言，我們第二季的全球觀影人次是第一季的 3 倍以上。雖然這大約比 2019 年的觀影人次水準低 77%，但相較於 2019 年的「每場次」觀影人次僅約低 45%。這說明我們正積極管理放映時段及相關成本，以最佳化營運效率。在業務完全正常化之前我們仍有一段路要走，但很明顯，我們正走在正確的道路上並取得顯著進展。

In general, comparison of our results to 2020 and 2019 are not particularly meaningful given that we are still in a ramp-up phase. However, there are certain metrics that are really very encouraging and worth mentioning. Compared to the second quarter of 2019, the domestic average ticket price was up more than 15%, and food and beverage revenue per patron was up nearly 42% to a very impressive $7.91. And this compares to $5.58 during the same quarter of 2019. Similarly, the international average ticket price was up 6%, and food and beverage revenue per patron was up nearly 33% compared to the second quarter of 2019. This food and beverage increase is primarily driven by a significantly higher percentage of guests choosing to purchase our food and beverage concessions. We are continuing to see strength in both average ticket price and food and beverage per patron as we move through the third quarter. Clearly, our guests are celebrating the event of going out to see a movie and enjoying the full immersive theatrical experience, the sights, the sounds and innovative AMC concessions.

整體來說，鑑於我們仍處於爬坡階段，將我們的結果與 2020 年及 2019 年相比並不是特別有意義。不過，有些指標確實非常令人鼓舞，值得一提。與 2019 年第二季相比，美國國內平均票價上漲超過 15%，而每位顧客的餐飲收入上升近 42%，達到令人印象深刻的 7.91 美元。相較之下，2019 年同季為 5.58 美元。同樣地，國際平均票價上升 6%，而每位顧客的餐飲收入相較 2019 年第二季上升近 33%。這項餐飲成長主要是由於選擇購買我們餐飲販售品的來賓比例顯著提高所帶動。隨著我們進入第三季，我們持續看到平均票價與每位顧客餐飲收入的強勁表現。很明顯，我們的來賓正在慶祝外出看電影這件事，並享受完整沉浸式的戲院體驗——視覺、音效，以及 AMC 創新的餐飲販售品。

Let's talk a bit about our balance sheet. As Adam noted, we ended the quarter with $2.023 billion of total liquidity, and this is comprised of $1.811 billion of unrestricted cash and $212 million available under our revolving credit facilities. This record liquidity level was made possible by our equity issuances during the quarter plus the completion of the sale of our remaining equity interest in theaters in Lithuania.

我們來談談資產負債表。如 Adam 所提到的，我們在本季末的總流動性為 20.23 億美元，其中包括 18.11 億美元的不受限制現金，以及在我們循環信用額度下可動用的 2.12 億美元。這一創紀錄的流動性水準，得益於我們本季的股權發行，以及完成出售我們在立陶宛影城剩餘的股權權益。

On average, during the second quarter, our cash burn was $85 million per month. This is a significant improvement from Q1 when the average cash burn per month was $120 million. And this improvement in cash burn is a result of higher gross box office grosses together with our very strong operating performance. And it's particularly noteworthy and an impressive improvement when one considers that our cash interest spend and deferred rent repayments were significantly higher in Q2 than they were in Q1. If we look at cash burn before the payback of deferred rent and debt servicing costs, it was approximately $40 million per month in Q2 versus a burn of $115 million per month in Q1, a very significant improvement. Note that our cash burn numbers are stated after normalizing for the impact of capital raised during the quarter and therefore exclude the proceeds from completion of the sale of our theaters in Lithuania and the equity capital that we raised during the quarter.

平均而言，在第二季期間，我們每月的現金消耗為8,500萬美元。相較於第一季每月平均現金消耗1.2億美元，這是顯著改善。而這項現金消耗的改善，來自更高的票房總收入，以及我們非常強勁的營運表現。特別值得注意且令人印象深刻的是，若考量到我們在第二季的現金利息支出與遞延租金償還金額，均明顯高於第一季，這樣的改善更顯突出。若看在償還遞延租金與債務償付成本之前的現金消耗，第二季約為每月4,000萬美元，而第一季為每月1.15億美元，改善幅度非常顯著。請注意，我們的現金消耗數字是在將本季籌資影響正常化後所呈列，因此不包含完成出售立陶宛影城所得款項，以及我們在本季募集的股權資本。

Regarding capital allocation. We're pursuing a balanced approach to capital allocation, and our priorities are as follows: one, ensuring that we have sufficient liquidity to withstand any bumps along the road and the inevitable volatility as our industry recovers from the impact of the COVID pandemic; two, strengthening our balance sheet by reducing our debt and associated interest costs; three, investing in our business to enhance the guest experience; and four, opportunistically pursuing value-enhancing partnerships or acquisition opportunities.

關於資本配置。我們採取均衡的資本配置方式，優先順序如下：第一，確保我們有足夠的流動性，以承受前路可能出現的任何波動，以及在產業自COVID疫情影響中復甦時不可避免的波動性；第二，透過降低債務及相關利息成本來強化資產負債表；第三，投資於業務以提升賓客體驗；第四，伺機追求可提升價值的合作夥伴關係或併購機會。

With our current solid liquidity position and the recovery that we are seeing in the business, we believe that it is appropriate to carefully deploy our cash in ways that are most beneficial for the long-term future of the business while, of course, we will continue to be ultra-focused on our operating efficiency. This will be right than focusing on short-term monthly cash burn. And what I mean in this regard is we expect going forward that we will choose to pay cash interest as opposed to payment in kind, or PIK, interest. This will avoid any increases in our debt position. We also anticipate taking thoughtful actions to reduce our debt, including the deferred rent balance, all of this with a view to strengthen our company for the future. In addition, we will continue to actively manage our theater portfolio, closing underperforming locations. We've quietly closed more than 74 marginal or money-losing locations over the last 18 months and opportunistically pursuing attractive high-potential locations, which Adam will discuss when he comes back on.

憑藉我們目前穩健的流動性部位，以及我們在業務上看到的復甦，我們認為，在當然仍將持續高度聚焦營運效率的前提下，審慎地以最有利於公司長期未來的方式運用現金是適當的。這將比聚焦短期每月現金消耗更為正確。我在此的意思是，展望未來，我們預期將選擇以現金支付利息，而非以實物支付（payment in kind，或PIK）利息。這將避免我們的債務部位增加。我們也預期將採取審慎行動以降低債務，包括遞延租金餘額；所有這些都是為了強化公司未來的體質。此外，我們將持續積極管理影城組合，關閉表現不佳的據點。過去18個月，我們已低調關閉超過74個邊際或虧損據點，並伺機尋求具吸引力且高潛力的據點；Adam回來時會進一步說明。

Turning to our landlords. At the end of the second quarter, we had deferred rent obligations of $420 million, representing a decline in obligations of approximately $55 million compared to Q1 of 2021. For the second quarter, actual cash rent paid was approximately $55 million more than what is shown on the face of the income statement as we repaid deferred rent. While future cash rent payments will continue to be dependent on ongoing discussions with landlords, we anticipate cash rent paid in the second half of 2021 will be significantly higher than in the first half as we continue to work on reducing the deferred rent balance and we take advantage of opportunities that may arise to, for example, prepay rent in exchange for favorable lease terms.

接著談談我們的房東。在第二季末，我們的遞延租金義務為4.2億美元，較2021年第一季約減少5,500萬美元。第二季實際支付的現金租金，約比損益表表面所呈列的金額多5,500萬美元，因為我們償還了遞延租金。雖然未來現金租金支付仍將取決於與房東的持續協商，我們預期2021年下半年支付的現金租金將顯著高於上半年，因為我們將持續降低遞延租金餘額，並把握可能出現的機會，例如以預付租金換取更有利的租賃條款。

For now, we continue to focus the substantial majority of our capital expenditures on maintenance spend. However, a small amount of growth CapEx could arrive from potential opportunistic high-return investments later on in the year. CapEx for the second quarter was $10.5 million. This is net of landlord contributions. Net CapEx for the whole of 2021 is expected to be in the range of $100 million to $120 million.

目前，我們仍將絕大部分資本支出集中於維護性支出。不過，年內稍晚可能會出現少量成長型資本支出，來自潛在的、伺機而為的高報酬投資。第二季資本支出為1,050萬美元。此數字已扣除房東出資。預期2021年全年淨資本支出將落在1億至1.2億美元區間。

Reflecting on our results and the financial position at the end of Q2, it is quite remarkable just how far we have come in a relatively short period of time. We believe that we are uniquely well positioned for a strong and profitable recovery now that all our theaters are open. We had a backlog of exciting movie titles to be released and we have record levels of liquidity.

回顧我們的業績以及第二季末的財務狀況，我們在相對短的時間內走到今天這一步，確實相當令人驚嘆。我們相信，現在所有影城都已重新開放，我們具備獨特優勢，可迎來強勁且具獲利性的復甦。我們有一系列令人期待、待上映的電影片單，且我們的流動性水準創下新高。

And with that, I'll pass the call back over to Adam.

接下來，我把電話交回給Adam。

Thank you, Sean. I've been saying publicly ever since we raised that life-prolonging additional equity in May and June that it was high time for AMC to start playing on offense again. And earlier on this call, I promised you some news. So here goes quickly on 10 specific items.

謝謝你，Sean。自從我們在5月與6月募集到那筆延續生命的額外股權資金以來，我一直公開表示，AMC早就該重新採取進攻姿態了。而在本次電話會議稍早，我承諾會帶來一些消息。那麼我就快速說明10個具體事項。

One, you already know that with ArcLight and Pacific theaters' decision to permanently shut down. We announced that we've executed 2 leases with Rick Caruso's world-class real estate organization to add to the AMC fleet of theaters 2 of Los Angeles' highest grossing cinemas. The Grove and Americana at Brand were the second and fifth highest grossing theaters in Greater Los Angeles as recently as calendar year 2018. They should open later this month as AMC Theatres. However, I can confirm today that the number is not 2 new theaters for AMC. It might be 10. We actually now have 6 new theater pickups under lease or signed letter of intent, not 2; 3 of those are in Los Angeles, 2 are in Chicago, 1 is in Atlanta. And we also are currently in advanced negotiations to add 4 more, bringing the possible pickups to 10. Eight of the 10 would come from former ArcLight/Pacific locations.

第一，你們已經知道，ArcLight與Pacific影城決定永久歇業。我們宣布已與Rick Caruso的世界級不動產組織簽署兩份租約，將洛杉磯票房最高的兩家影城納入AMC影城版圖。The Grove與Americana at Brand在2018曆年時，分別是大洛杉磯地區票房第二高與第五高的影城。它們應會在本月稍晚以AMC Theatres之名開幕。不過，我今天可以確認，AMC新增影城的數量不是2家。可能是10家。我們目前實際上已有6家新影城在租約之下或已簽署意向書，而不是2家；其中3家在洛杉磯、2家在芝加哥、1家在亞特蘭大。此外，我們也正就再增加4家進行深入談判，使可能新增的數量達到10家。這10家之中有8家將來自前ArcLight/Pacific據點。

Item 2. Speaking of new theaters, in 2021, we will open about a dozen newbuild theaters in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East that were all well underway before COVID struck. I'm happy to report that we do know something about designing beautiful and productive theaters. In the United States, for example, we opened 3 new theaters in 2021. The 2 in Los Angeles, AMC Porter Ranch and AMC DINE-IN Montclair, are already each among the top 25 highest-grossing movie theaters in the entire United States. That puts each of these 2 theaters in the top 1/2 of the 99th percentile of highest grossing U.S. cinemas. And that was achieved in just their first few months of operation, really astounding. Our new AMC DINE-IN theater in Sunnyvale, California also is doing amazingly well. It's in the 94th percentile of highest grossing U.S. theaters.

第二項。談到新影城，2021年我們將在美國、歐洲與中東開出約12家新建影城，這些專案在COVID爆發前就已大幅推進。我很高興報告，我們確實懂得如何設計既美觀又高產出的影城。例如在美國，我們在2021年已開出3家新影城。其中洛杉磯的兩家——AMC Porter Ranch與AMC DINE-IN Montclair——目前各自都已名列全美票房最高的前25家影城之列。這使得這兩家影城各自都位於美國票房最高影城的第99百分位中的前0.5%。而這是在它們營運的頭幾個月就達成的，確實令人驚嘆。我們位於加州Sunnyvale的新AMC DINE-IN影城表現也非常出色。它位於美國票房最高影城的第94百分位。

Item 3. Many of our new individual investors have showered us with great ideas about how we can strengthen and brighten the future of AMC. Among their ideas for AMC are that we show concert movies, professional sporting events, e-sports and gaming events. Wasting no time, we've immediately started to implement on these very good ideas. Our first 2 UFC matchups, which were in July, drew significant attendance to our theaters. Our first 2 concert movies with Chance the Rapper and Halsey will show in AMC Theatres across the country later this month in August.

第三項。我們許多新的個人投資人提出了許多很棒的點子，告訴我們如何強化並點亮AMC的未來。他們對AMC的建議包括：放映演唱會電影、職業體育賽事、電競與遊戲活動。我們毫不浪費時間，已立即開始落實這些非常好的想法。我們在7月舉辦的前兩場UFC對戰，為我們的影城帶來可觀的觀影人潮。我們與Chance the Rapper及Halsey合作的前兩部演唱會電影，將於本月8月稍晚在全美各地的AMC Theatres上映。

We're quite optimistic that this alternative programming can be built into a real revenue opportunity for AMC in future years, and we're chasing it hard. We also hope to engage in meaningful dialogue with professional sports leagues and collegiate sports conferences to see if we can obtain the rights to show more sporting events at our theaters. As for gaming opportunity, indeed, the President of Epic Games is a member of the AMC Board of Directors. And I cannot even count the number of times already that our shareholders have asked us to reach out and partner with GameStop. We're on the case. More to come.

我們相當樂觀地認為，這種替代性內容編排在未來幾年可為 AMC 打造出真正的營收機會，我們正全力以赴追求。我們也希望能與職業運動聯盟及大學體育聯盟展開有意義的對話，看看是否能取得在我們戲院播放更多體育賽事的權利。至於遊戲方面的機會，確實，Epic Games 的總裁是 AMC 董事會成員。而且我已經數不清我們的股東有多少次要求我們主動接觸並與 GameStop 合作。我們正在處理中。後續還會有更多消息。

Item 4. Many of our new shareholders also are quite enthusiastic about cryptocurrency. Some of you may know that my best friend of almost 25 years' duration in Europe, the billionaire, former chairman and owner of Silversea Cruises, formed a SPAC earlier this year called Centricus, and he asked me to join its Board of Directors. SPAC, for those of you who don't know, it stands for a special purpose acquisition company. That's a fancy name for pooled investment capital in search of a company to buy. Ironically, Centricus is under contract to buy a fascinating company called Arqit, A-R-Q-U-I-T (sic) [A-R-Q-I-T], who just happens to be on the very cutting edge of quantum encryption and blockchain technologies. It was initially funded by the British government. Its clients include British Telecom, the European Space Agency and Verizon, among others.

第4項。我們許多新股東也對加密貨幣相當熱衷。你們之中有些人可能知道，我在歐洲有一位相識將近25年的摯友——一位億萬富翁、Silversea Cruises 的前董事長兼所有人——他今年稍早成立了一家名為 Centricus 的 SPAC，並邀請我加入其董事會。SPAC，對於不熟悉的人而言，代表「特殊目的收購公司」。這是一個好聽的說法，指的是匯集投資資本、尋找要收購的公司。諷刺的是，Centricus 已簽約收購一家名為 Arqit 的迷人公司，A-R-Q-U-I-T（原文如此）[A-R-Q-I-T]，而該公司正好站在量子加密與區塊鏈技術的最前沿。它最初由英國政府出資。其客戶包括英國電信（British Telecom）、歐洲太空總署（European Space Agency）以及 Verizon 等。

My role as a Board member is merely to ensure that all laws and SPAC norms are being complied with. When that acquisition of Arqit is completed, which will be soon, I would expect, I will then drop off the Board of Directors. However, to get to this point, I've had to learn more in the past 6 months about blockchain and cryptocurrency than I learned about it in the entire decade before that. This increased knowledge has given me the confidence to tell you all today that AMC is hereby formally announcing on this call that by year-end, we will have the information technology systems in place to accept Bitcoin as payment for movie tickets and concessions if purchased online at all of our U.S. theaters. We also are in the preliminary stage of now exploring how else AMC can participate in this new burgeoning cryptocurrency universe, and we're quite intrigued by potentially lucrative business opportunity for AMC if we intelligently pursue further serious involvement with cryptocurrency. More detail will be shared publicly with you but only if, as and when our plans are more firm.

我擔任董事會成員的角色僅是確保所有法律與 SPAC 的慣例規範都被遵循。當對 Arqit 的收購完成後——我預期很快就會完成——我就會退出董事會。不過，為了走到這一步，我在過去6個月裡對區塊鏈與加密貨幣所學到的，比此前整整10年學到的還多。這些增加的知識讓我有信心在今天的電話會議上正式宣布：在今年年底前，我們將建置完成資訊科技系統，使 AMC 在美國所有戲院的線上購票與餐飲購買可接受比特幣付款。我們也正處於初步階段，探索 AMC 還能如何參與這個新興且快速成長的加密貨幣宇宙；若我們能以審慎且明智的方式進一步嚴肅投入加密貨幣領域，我們對 AMC 可能出現的高獲利商機感到相當好奇。但只有在、並且當我們的計畫更為明確時，我們才會向各位公開分享更多細節。

Item 5. Since we had to do the IT programming to accept Bitcoin anyway, we are simultaneously writing the code right now to accept Apple Pay and Google Pay for online purchases at our U.S. theaters also. These new payment methodologies for us should also be implemented by year-end.

第5項。既然我們本來就必須進行 IT 程式開發以接受比特幣，我們也正同步撰寫程式碼，讓美國戲院的線上購買同樣可接受 Apple Pay 與 Google Pay。這些新的付款方式也應可在年底前導入。

Item 6. Again, speaking of our new shareholders, in June, we introduced a new program called AMC Investor Connect that got a lot of press attention. It's part of AMC Stubs and offers our shareholders who participate full Stubs benefits. We are thrilled that almost 300,000 of our shareholders have already joined. Our goals with the program are simple. We'd like to improve the communications that we have with the people who own AMC, and we also want to convince many of the millions of people who are now our shareholders into becoming avid customers of our theaters as well. Hence, we already have made multiple free and discounted offers to participants in AMC Investor Connect, and we're setting up a program of special advanced screenings for our AMC Investor Connect members. To that end, a very special thank you to Sony Pictures for enabling our first such advanced screening in July, ahead of the scheduled theatrical release of Escape Room: Tournament of Champions.

第6項。再次談到我們的新股東，6月我們推出了一項名為 AMC Investor Connect 的新計畫，獲得了大量媒體關注。它是 AMC Stubs 的一部分，並為參與的股東提供完整的 Stubs 會員福利。我們非常高興，已有將近30萬名股東加入。這個計畫的目標很簡單。我們希望改善與 AMC 股東之間的溝通，同時也希望說服目前數以百萬計、已成為我們股東的人，也成為我們戲院的忠實顧客。因此，我們已向 AMC Investor Connect 的參與者提供多項免費與折扣優惠，並正在為 AMC Investor Connect 會員規劃特別的提前試映活動。為此，我要特別感謝 Sony Pictures，讓我們能在7月舉辦首次此類提前試映，早於《Escape Room: Tournament of Champions》預定的院線上映時間。

Item 7. Also to heighten the information exchange with our new shareholders as well as with the public at large, in April, I started actively tweeting again, which I've not done since my days when running the Philadelphia 76ers back in 2013, when Twitter was my social media platform of choice to interact with sports fans. My Twitter followers have more than coupled since April and now exceed 150,000. But what kind of blows my mind is that according to Twitter Analytics, my tweets, which I write personally, so far have been read more than 72 million times. In addition, I'm actively following almost 2,000 people who appear to be interested in AMC to get a better sense of what they're saying and thinking. I also make it a point to check and read my inbound Twitter feeds personally. There are hundreds and hundreds of replies to any tweet that I publish, which I find give me a more sophisticated and better understanding of what's on the minds of AMC's new owners.

第7項。為了加強與新股東以及廣大大眾之間的資訊交流，我在4月開始再次積極發推文；自從2013年我經營費城76人隊、當時 Twitter 是我與球迷互動的首選社群平台以來，我就沒有這麼做過。自4月以來，我的 Twitter 追蹤者人數已增加到兩倍以上，目前超過15萬人。但真正讓我震撼的是，根據 Twitter Analytics，我親自撰寫的推文至今已被閱讀超過7,200萬次。此外，我也主動追蹤將近2,000位看起來對 AMC 有興趣的人，以更了解他們在說什麼、在想什麼。我也會特別親自查看並閱讀我收到的 Twitter 訊息流。我發布的任何一則推文都會收到成百上千則回覆，而我發現這些回覆讓我對 AMC 新股東的想法有更成熟、也更深入的理解。

Item 8. With labor costs going up in some places around the country, our costs are rising in the United States. We've also noticed that there's appeared to be little price resistance to the increased prices currently being charged at our U.S. theaters. So just last week, we imposed an approximate 5% admissions ticket price increase at many of our U.S. theaters. On average, that's about $0.50 or so of an increase in admissions ticket price. We think consumers will find that palatable, but hopefully, that will meaningfully strengthen the AMC bottom line.

第8項。由於全國某些地區的勞動成本上升，我們在美國的成本正在增加。我們也注意到，對於目前美國戲院所收取的較高價格，似乎幾乎沒有出現價格抗性。因此就在上週，我們在美國許多戲院實施了約5%的票價調漲。平均而言，入場票價大約上調了0.50美元左右。我們認為消費者會覺得這是可接受的，同時也希望這能實質強化 AMC 的獲利表現。

Item 9. There's a lot of talk currently about exclusive theatrical windows or the lack thereof. You all know that AMC was way ahead of this issue, reaching a landmark and historic agreement with Universal in July of 2020 on their concept of premium video on demand. We were pleased then and we're still very pleased now with the outcome of the Universal-AMC agreement. And in our mutually working through that initially contentious issue, AMC and Universal are now very close. In fact, I think we have the best working relationship that we've had together in many years.

第9項。目前關於院線獨家上映期（theatrical window）或其缺乏的討論很多。各位都知道，AMC 在這個議題上早已走在前面，於2020年7月與 Universal 就其「高級隨選影片」（premium video on demand）的概念達成一項具里程碑且歷史性的協議。我們當時對 Universal-AMC 協議的結果感到滿意，現在仍然非常滿意。而在我們共同處理那個起初頗具爭議的議題後，AMC 與 Universal 現在關係非常緊密。事實上，我認為這是我們多年來彼此之間最好的合作關係。

In this same vein, I'm also pleased to announce today that AMC just reached formal agreement with our friends at Warner Bros. to show all of their movies in calendar year '22, importantly respecting an exclusive theatrical window of 45 days prior to home release for all Warner Bros. films. It's no secret that AMC was not at all happy when Warner decided in December to take movies to the home on HBO Max simultaneously with theatrical release. Therefore, it's especially gratifying that Warner is yet again embracing an exclusive theatrical window. And for us at AMC, it's especially pleasing to be working so harmoniously with Warner Bros. once again. We actually are in dialogue, active dialogue with every major studio on this very important topic. We are hearing considerable support in Hollywood that an exclusive theatrical window is an important way to build big and successful movie franchises. Clearly though, this whole subject is quite topical. It's very much a work in progress. We will keep you posted as things turn out.

同樣地，我也很高興在今天宣布，AMC 剛與我們在華納兄弟（Warner Bros.）的朋友達成正式協議。我們將在2022曆年放映他們所有電影，並且重要的是，所有華納兄弟影片在家庭發行前，將尊重45天的院線獨家上映期。眾所周知，當華納在12月決定讓電影在 HBO Max 與院線上映同步於家中上線時，AMC 對此一點也不高興。因此，華納如今再次採行院線獨家上映期，尤其令人欣慰。對我們 AMC 而言，能再次與華納兄弟如此和諧地合作，也格外令人高興。我們確實正就這個非常重要的議題，與每一家主要片廠進行對話、積極對話。我們聽到好萊塢相當多的支持聲音，認為院線獨家上映期是打造大型且成功電影系列的重要方式。不過很明顯，這個主題目前相當熱門。它仍在持續推進中。我們會隨著事情的發展向各位更新。

And finally, 10. I'd like to thank the Board of Directors of AMC for electing me in July to serve as Chairman of the Board as well as CEO of AMC Entertainment. You know all that. And you've also heard that former U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Phil Lader, was elected to serve as the board's Lead Director. It would be no surprise to any of you that we have a highly able, experienced and dedicated Board. I feel fortunate to serve with them all. But the news on this point is that at our first meeting of the Board in my new role, I discussed with the Board that I think it is extremely important that company insiders maintain a significant financial ownership stake in AMC through owned and/or granted shares so that insiders have financial interests that are directly aligned with those of our shareholders. Our Board members already have a policy in place that they must hold any granted shares for at least 1 full year. But there was no such plan currently in place for the company's 19 most senior executives. Therefore, I will be recommending to the Board a new policy.

最後，第10點。我要感謝 AMC 董事會在7月選舉我擔任董事會主席，同時也擔任 AMC Entertainment 的執行長。各位都知道這件事。各位也聽說前美國駐英國大使 Phil Lader 已當選擔任董事會的首席獨立董事（Lead Director）。對各位而言毫不意外的是，我們擁有一個能力卓越、經驗豐富且投入奉獻的董事會。我很幸運能與他們一同服務。但在這一點上的新消息是：在我以新角色參加的第一次董事會會議上，我與董事會討論，我認為公司內部人士透過持有及／或獲授予的股份，在 AMC 維持相當可觀的財務持股部位極其重要，如此內部人士的財務利益才能與股東的利益直接一致。我們的董事會成員已經有一項政策：任何獲授予的股份必須至少持有滿1年。但對公司最資深的19位高階主管，目前並沒有類似的計畫。因此，我將向董事會建議一項新的政策。

Without going through all the nuances -- and it's kind of complex but to simplify it and break it down, I will propose that I as CEO be required to hold a number of owned or granted shares at least equal to 8 years of my salary. In my case, 8 years of my salary would mean that I would be required to have at least a $12 million ownership stake in AMC of owned or granted AMC shares. Sean, our Chief Financial Officer, would be required to hold 6 years of his salary. Our Executive Vice Presidents will be asked to hold 4 years of their salaries in owned or granted shares, and our Senior Vice Presidents will be asked to hold 2 years of their salaries in owned or granted shares. The Board will consider this proposal as new policy at its next regularly scheduled meeting.

不逐一細談所有細節——這確實有點複雜——但為了簡化並拆解說明，我將提案：我作為執行長，必須持有（自有或獲授予的）股份數量，至少相當於我8年的薪資。以我為例，8年的薪資意味著我必須以自有或獲授予的 AMC 股份，持有至少1,200萬美元的 AMC 持股部位。我們的財務長 Sean 則必須持有相當於他6年薪資的股份。我們的執行副總裁將被要求持有相當於其4年薪資的自有或獲授予股份，而資深副總裁將被要求持有相當於其2年薪資的自有或獲授予股份。董事會將在下一次例行會議上把此提案作為新政策加以審議。

At the same time as I am emphasizing share ownership, I'd like to remind you that I have not sold 1 share of AMC stock in the 5 full years I've been running this company even though it represents more than 3/5 of my annual -- when I say it, when stock represents more than 3/5 of my total annual compensation. Other than gifting a small percentage of my AMC ownership stake to my 2 adult children earlier this year, I also did not sell any AMC shares in March when I could have. I did not sell any AMC shares in June when I could have in 2021. I similarly will commit that I do not intend to sell any AMC shares in September of 2021 when I'm legally permitted to do so.

在我強調持股的同時，我也想提醒各位：在我經營這家公司完整的5年期間，我沒有賣出任何1股 AMC 股票，儘管股票占了我年度——我這麼說吧——當股票占我全年總薪酬超過五分之三時也是如此。除了今年稍早我把我 AMC 持股部位的一小部分贈與給我的兩位成年子女之外，我在3月即使可以賣出也沒有賣出任何 AMC 股份。我在6月即使在2021年可以賣出也沒有賣出任何 AMC 股份。同樣地，我也承諾：在我於2021年9月依法被允許賣出時，我也不打算賣出任何 AMC 股份。

But as much as this pains me to admit, in September, I'll be celebrating my 67th birthday. I'm going to be a young, vibrant 67, but hey, it's 67 nonetheless. Two months ago, more than 85% of my net worth was in AMC stock, and proper estate planning for a 67-year-old suggests I should diversify my assets a bit. But I don't want any of you ever to think that I have anything but full confidence in AMC's future. So I will do so under the auspices of the parameters of what is called a 10b5-1 plan, where I pass off all the share trading control of the shares that I own or I'm granted to an independent third-party bank based on parameters of the plan that I only partially set. The plan would not go into effect until towards year-end at the earliest, and only a small percentage of my owned or granted shares could get sold in any 1 month. And that would then be repeated over a period of at least several months. This way, I really have passed on the decision-making to someone else on this important topic.

但儘管這讓我很難啟齒，到了9月，我將迎來我的67歲生日。我會是一個年輕、有活力的67歲，但不管怎麼說，畢竟就是67歲。兩個月前，我的淨資產有超過85%都在 AMC 股票上，而對一位67歲的人而言，適當的遺產規劃會建議我把資產稍微分散一些。但我不希望各位任何時候認為我對 AMC 的未來不是充滿信心。因此，我將在所謂的 10b5-1 計畫的框架下進行：我會把我所持有或獲授予股份的所有交易控制權，交由一家獨立的第三方銀行，依據該計畫的參數執行，而這些參數只有部分由我設定。該計畫最早也要到年底前後才會生效，而且在任何一個月內，能被出售的自有或獲授予股份只會是很小的比例。接著會在至少數個月的期間內重複進行。如此一來，在這個重要議題上，我確實已把決策交由他人處理。

Additionally, whatever is sold or not sold by an independent third party, I still will have millions of AMC shares that either are owned by me personally or have been previously granted to me personally. My economic incentives are very much aligned with yours: to increase shareholder value for all the owners of AMC. What's more, I so fully believe in transparency that I'm letting you all know this well in advance even though current U.S. law does not require me to make this or even any public disclosure now at this time or at any time soon prior to any shares actually being sold.

此外，不論獨立第三方賣出或未賣出任何股份，我仍將持有數百萬股 AMC 股票，這些股份不是由我個人持有，就是先前已授予我個人。我的經濟誘因與各位高度一致：為 AMC 的所有股東提升股東價值。更重要的是，我非常相信透明度，因此我提前很久就讓各位知道這件事，儘管現行美國法律並不要求我現在、或在近期、甚至在任何股份實際出售之前的任何時間點，做出這項或任何公開揭露。

Well, there you go. That's the quarter. That's 10 items of news. Our second quarter was a very encouraging one for AMC. We believe we're in a road to recovery, and we're ever so grateful to our friends and allies who share our passion that AMC's best days should be those that are coming. You can take comfort that our deeper financial reserves allow us to stay the course, to innovate again and to capitalize on the opportunities that we see around us. We fundamentally believe that ours is a future that is bright because there is nothing as magical as seeing dazzling images on a huge silver screen.

好，就是這樣。這就是本季。這就是10項消息。我們第二季對 AMC 來說是非常令人鼓舞的一季。我們相信我們正走在復甦之路上，也非常感謝與我們志同道合、同樣熱愛 AMC、並相信 AMC 最好的日子將在未來到來的朋友與盟友。各位可以放心，我們更深厚的財務儲備讓我們能夠堅持既定方向、再次創新，並把握我們在周遭所看到的機會。我們從根本上相信，我們的未來是光明的，因為沒有什麼比在巨大的銀幕上看到令人目眩神迷的影像更具魔力。

We're now going to turn this call to the questions that were submitted and upvoted with the greatest shareholder interest on the Say Technologies platform, and then we'll take some questions from analysts if we -- if you all can spare us the time. I should point out that this is an experiment, this Say Technologies platform, for us. It works really interestingly, but it only works with some brokerage firms, not all. So many of our U.S. shareholders and especially many of our international shareholders may not have had a chance to ask their questions on this call. Still, we've had quite a bountiful array of questions posed to us to answer. Sean, what's the first question?

接下來我們將把本次電話會議轉到提問環節：先回答在 Say Technologies 平台上、由股東最關注並獲得最多投票支持的問題，之後如果——如果各位願意再撥冗一些時間——我們也會回答一些分析師的提問。我必須指出，對我們而言，這個 Say Technologies 平台是一項實驗。它的運作方式很有意思，但它只支援部分券商，並非全部。因此，我們許多美國股東，尤其是許多國際股東，可能沒有機會在這通電話會議上提出他們的問題。儘管如此，我們仍收到相當豐富的一系列問題等待我們回答。Sean，第一個問題是什麼？

Thanks, Adam. So the first question we have is from Timothy. And the question is, do you have any plans to offer a dividend again?

謝謝你，Adam。我們的第一個問題來自 Timothy。他的問題是：你們是否有任何計畫再次發放股利？

Thank you, Timothy. We appreciate the question. If you look at our path since going public in 2013, AMC paid sizable quarterly dividend every quarter until we got close to the pandemic. And realizing that our liquidity would be stretched, we ceased offering a dividend. There are some commitments that we've made in some of our debt instruments that we cannot pay a dividend until at the earliest about a year from now. Having said that, we do know that dividends are very much on the mind of our shareholders. So we'll take that interest quite seriously when we have the ability to make dividends once again. We'll balance those shareholder desires against the other competing uses of our cash, what opportunities are available in M&A, how much do we need for liquidity, what can we do in the way to deleverage the company, all the priorities that Sean talked about previously.

謝謝你，Timothy。我們很感謝這個問題。如果你回顧我們自2013年上市以來的歷程，AMC 在接近疫情之前，每一季都發放相當可觀的季度股利。但考量到我們的流動性將會吃緊，我們停止發放股利。我們在部分債務工具中做出了一些承諾，使得我們最早也要到大約一年後才可以發放股利。話雖如此，我們確實知道股利一直是股東非常關心的議題。因此，當我們再次具備發放股利的能力時，我們會非常認真看待這份關切。我們會在股東的期待與現金的其他競爭性用途之間取得平衡：併購（M&A）有哪些可用的機會、我們需要多少流動性、我們能如何為公司去槓桿化（降低負債），以及 Sean 先前談到的所有優先事項。

Great. Thanks, Adam. And the next question is from David. The question is, will AMC consider partnering with GameStop to offer more theater experiences via local and national gaming competitions?

太好了。謝謝你，Adam。下一個問題來自 David。問題是：AMC 是否會考慮與 GameStop 合作，透過地方與全國性的遊戲競賽，提供更多戲院體驗？

As I said in my remarks just a few minutes ago, I don't even think I can count the number of times people have asked me if we could partner with GameStop. We're certainly willing to do so. It seems to me it's one of these interesting ideas that flowed in from our individual investors, and we're happy to reach out to GameStop and see if they have any interest.

正如我在幾分鐘前的發言中所說，我甚至數不清有多少次人們問我是否能與 GameStop 合作。我們當然願意這麼做。在我看來，這是從我們個人投資人那裡湧入的有趣想法之一，我們也樂於主動聯繫 GameStop，看看他們是否有興趣。

The next question is from Ryan. The question is, would AMC ever consider reestablishing drive-in theaters. With the current state of the world, it would bring a lot of revenue with little worry for people trying to social distance.

下一個問題來自 Ryan。問題是：AMC 是否會考慮重新設立汽車露天戲院（drive-in theaters）？以目前世界的狀況來看，這能帶來不少營收，同時也較不必擔心人們需要保持社交距離。

Ryan, that's a great question. And the reason I say it's a great question is I asked that same question last July, and we went through an exhaustive analysis of drive-in theaters. And honestly, we came to the conclusion that they're a bad economic idea. It sounds appealing that you stay in your car, but there are 2 problems. Go into a parking lot and look at how much asphalt is needed to put a lot of cars in a lot. The viewing experience at a drive-in theater is not necessarily great because many people are quite far from the screen. Additionally, drive-in theaters are very seasonal. They're not popular in the winter, in colder locations in the United States. And in the summer, in much of the United States, it doesn't get dark before 8 or 9:00 p.m., which means that you really can only use the drive-in screen for one showtime a night. The economics aren't there. It's unlikely that we would go forward. It sounds like it's a great idea, but it isn't actually.

Ryan，這是個很棒的問題。我之所以說它很棒，是因為我在去年七月也問過同樣的問題，然後我們對汽車露天戲院做了非常徹底的分析。坦白說，我們得出的結論是：從經濟角度來看，這是個不好的主意。待在車裡聽起來很吸引人，但有兩個問題。你去停車場看看，要停很多車需要多少柏油地面。汽車露天戲院的觀影體驗未必好，因為很多人離銀幕相當遠。此外，汽車露天戲院非常具有季節性。在美國較寒冷的地區，冬天並不受歡迎。而在夏天，美國許多地方要到晚上 8 點或 9 點才天黑，這表示露天銀幕一晚實際上只能排一個場次。經濟效益不成立。我們不太可能推進。聽起來是個很棒的點子，但實際上並不是。

Thanks, Adam. And the next question is from Terrell. The question is, how is AMC preparing for a possible large-scale COVID surge that could potentially shut theaters down again?

謝謝你，Adam。下一個問題來自 Terrell。問題是：AMC 如何為可能出現的大規模 COVID 激增做準備？這種情況可能會再次迫使戲院關閉。

When I think back over the last year, I think the thing that I'm most proud of is that we prevented a catastrophe at AMC, which so many were predicting. But right there, right up there along with it, I am so proud of the Safe & Clean protocols that we developed in partnership with The Clorox Company and current and former faculty of Harvard University's prestigious School of Public Health. To our knowledge, there's not been a single transmission of COVID to an AMC guest over the last year. And so the first thing that we're doing is staying very strongly committed to our Safe & Clean protocols to continue to operate our theaters safely and cleanly as we go forward.

回顧過去一年，我想我最自豪的一件事是：我們避免了許多人所預測的、會在 AMC 發生的災難。但同樣令我非常自豪的，還有我們與高樂氏公司（The Clorox Company）以及哈佛大學享有盛名的公共衛生學院現任與前任教職員合作制定的 Safe & Clean（安全與清潔）規範。據我們所知，在過去一年裡，沒有任何一例 COVID 傳播發生在 AMC 的觀眾身上。因此，我們正在做的第一件事，就是持續堅定地遵守 Safe & Clean 規範，確保未來我們的戲院能安全、乾淨地營運。

In addition to that, I think we also can hope that there may not be a large-scale COVID surge that would force the kind of lockdown or shutdown that we saw in the United States and countries abroad a year back. Now most scientific experts will tell you that the virus will increase in the winter compared to the summer, but the big change between this winter and last winter is vaccination. And fortunately, the number of vaccinations, especially among the most vulnerable population, has been so extensive that we're optimistic that we won't see the kind of lockdown of society this winter that we saw last.

除此之外，我們也希望不會出現迫使我們再次面臨像一年前在美國及海外各國所見到的那種封城或停業的大規模 COVID 激增。現在多數科學專家會告訴你，病毒在冬季相較於夏季會更容易增加，但今年冬天與去年冬天最大的不同是疫苗接種。幸運的是，疫苗接種數量，尤其是在最脆弱族群中的接種，已經非常廣泛，因此我們樂觀地認為，今年冬天不會出現像去年那樣的社會封鎖。

We also hope that vaccination continues. There is no more important thing that any of you can do to protect yourselves, your families, your friends and the country as a whole. There's nothing more important that you could do to get vaccinated. I know that many of our shareholders are younger, who think that they're invincible. It is true that older people are more susceptible to COVID than younger, but no one is totally invincible against this virus. The solution for AMC is vaccination. I would remind each of you the solution for each of you is vaccination, too. Next question?

我們也希望疫苗接種能持續推進。為了保護你們自己、你們的家人、朋友以及整個國家，沒有任何事情比這更重要。你能做的最重要的事，就是去接種疫苗。我知道我們許多股東比較年輕，覺得自己刀槍不入。的確，年長者比年輕人更容易受到 COVID 影響，但沒有人能對這個病毒完全免疫。對 AMC 而言，解方是疫苗接種。我也要提醒各位，對你們每個人而言，解方同樣是疫苗接種。下一個問題？

Arun asks, are there ways you're considering to reduce the company debt without issuing new shares?

Arun 問：在不發行新股的情況下，你們是否正在考慮有哪些方式可以降低公司負債？

Yes. Some of our debt is trading at a discount. We might be able to buy it back at a discount. Some of our landlords, where we have deferred rent obligations that stretch out for years and years, have indicated to us that they might be willing to take a reduction in what we owe them if we're willing to pay them in cash now. Unfortunately, we do have this $2 billion of quarter-ending liquidity. Once we have satisfied ourselves that we have liquidity, get through COVID no matter what COVID throws at us, we then will be turning to debt reduction and see if there's opportunity there.

是的。我們部分債務目前以折價交易。我們或許能以折價買回。另外，一些房東方面，我們有延後支付的租金義務，期限拉得很長、很多年；他們向我們表示，如果我們願意現在以現金支付，他們可能願意降低我們欠他們的金額。不過，我們確實有這筆 20 億美元的季末流動性。一旦我們確認自身流動性充足、無論 COVID 帶來什麼狀況都能挺過去，接著我們就會著手降低負債，看看是否有機會。

Next question is from Mike. Mike asks, how does AMC plan to combat day and date releases of movies on streaming platforms and theaters?

下一個問題來自 Mike。Mike 問：面對電影在串流平台與戲院同步上映（day and date releases），AMC 打算如何應對？

Well, this is such an important topic, and I addressed it earlier in my remarks that we're especially pleased that Warner Bros. has decided to move away from day and date releases and commit to an exclusive theatrical window as well. We are having private conversations with every major studio in Hollywood on this very important topic. And we're seeing a lot of consensus emerge that an exclusive theatrical window is a good way to build major motion picture franchises. It's a fluid situation. A lot of studios that have experimented with day and date say that they're doing it only in sort of pandemic times. We'll all see how together this plays out.

嗯，這是一個非常重要的議題，我先前在發言中也提到過；我們特別高興華納兄弟（Warner Bros.）已決定不再採取同步上映，並承諾也會提供獨家院線窗口期。

But we know that studios are going to do what's in their financial interest. They're not going to just help out AMC charitably. So we are also making sure that our marketing programs are as vibrant and powerful and as potent as they can possibly be. AMC has been a marketing leader in this industry for the past 5 years, and we've got a few tricks up our sleeve coming. We intend to continue to be a bold pioneer and lead the industry in marketing, hopefully driving audiences to our theaters, hopefully selling more tickets, which then, in turn, hopefully convinces our studio partners that the smartest thing for them to do, give us their movies first and let us help them build their brands.

但我們知道，片廠會做符合其財務利益的事。他們不會只是出於慈善來幫 AMC。因此，我們也在確保我們的行銷方案能夠盡可能地充滿活力、強而有力、並且具備最大效能。過去 5 年，AMC 一直是這個產業的行銷領導者，而我們接下來還有幾招即將推出。我們打算持續大膽開創、在行銷上引領產業，期望把觀眾帶進我們的戲院、期望賣出更多票房，進而期望說服我們的片廠夥伴：對他們而言最聰明的做法，是先把電影交給我們，讓我們協助他們建立品牌。

Next question, would you consider selling AMC merchandise at theaters and on online platforms? I think it would be profitable.

下一個問題：你們會考慮在戲院以及線上平台販售 AMC 周邊商品嗎？我認為這會有利可圖。

We would consider it. This is again one of these ideas I've gotten -- I've received a lot of commentary about in the last few weeks. It's intriguing. It's complicated to send merchandise to 600 retail locations. We have to make sure that it sells, that we can get stock with inventory that makes it a less profitable business than you might think, but we're going to take a hard look at it.

我們會考慮。這同樣是我在過去幾週收到許多評論的一個想法。很吸引人。但要把商品配送到 600 個零售據點是很複雜的。我們必須確保它賣得動、我們能取得合適的庫存；這些因素會讓它成為一門不如你想像中那麼高獲利的生意，但我們會仔細評估。

Next question from Amy. Could live theater and concert events be streamed to theaters? Based on the streaming success of Hamilton, I expect this would be a real seat-filling success.

下一個問題來自 Amy。現場劇場與演唱會活動能否串流到電影院？基於《漢密爾頓》串流的成功，我預期這會是非常能填滿座位的成功案例。

Yes, yes, yes. And yes, Amy, but not Hamilton because that's already come and gone. But we are experimenting right now with these 2 concert movies by Chance the Rapper and Halsey, each of whom has a huge following. And we're already in discussions with major musical entities and talent about whether this could become a permanent line of business for AMC to have this kind of intriguing alternative programming at our theaters. And it's not such a new concept. There's something -- there's a company called Fathom Events that we own 1/3 of, and they've been showcasing some kinds of alternative content at movie theaters for decades, the Metropolitan Opera being the biggest example. But I think there's a real opportunity here and we're going to chase it, the same with sports, the same with gaming. There's really a possibility here to find a new source of revenue that AMC has not tapped before.

是的、是的、是的。而且是的，Amy，但不會是《漢密爾頓》，因為那已經播過、也已經結束了。不過我們目前正在試驗兩部演唱會電影，分別是 Chance the Rapper 與 Halsey 的作品，他們各自都有龐大的粉絲群。我們也已經在與主要的音樂機構與藝人洽談，看看這是否能成為 AMC 的一條長期、固定的業務線，讓我們在戲院提供這類引人入勝的替代性內容。而且這其實也不是什麼全新概念。有一件事——有一家公司叫 Fathom Events，我們持有其 1/3 股權；他們數十年來一直在電影院放映各種替代性內容，其中最大的例子就是大都會歌劇院。但我認為這裡有很大的機會，我們會去追逐它；運動也是如此、電競也是如此。這裡確實有可能找到一個 AMC 以前尚未開發的新營收來源。

Petra asks, can AMC partner up with GameStop for gaming competitions on the big screen?

Petra 問：AMC 能否與 GameStop 合作，在大螢幕上舉辦電競比賽？

I think that question was asked and answered. It takes two to tango. We're willing. We have not reached out to GameStop yet, but we intend to do so.

我想這個問題已經問過也回答過了。跳探戈需要兩個人。我們願意。我們還沒有聯繫 GameStop，但我們打算這麼做。

Mark asks, do you plan on reinstating dividends? They tend to mean a lot to certain type of investors. They could potentially help draw non-ape investors and larger holders.

Mark 問：你們是否計畫恢復發放股利？對某些類型的投資人而言，股利往往非常重要。它們可能有助於吸引非「猩猩」投資人以及更大的持股者。

We've touched on that, too, Mark. And the answer is we know it's important. Sean is a shareholder, too. I'm a shareholder, too. We'd like to get those dividend checks if we could. But we do have to use our -- we do have to adhere to our -- the commitments in our debt instruments, and we do have to use our cash wisely. That's a decision for next year. It's not a decision for today.

Mark，我們也談到過這點。答案是：我們知道這很重要。Sean 也是股東。我也是股東。如果可以的話，我們也希望能收到那些股利支票。但我們確實必須遵守我們債務工具中的承諾，而且也必須明智地運用現金。這是明年的決策。不是今天要做的決策。

Aaron asked, I promise not a sarcastic question, but can you guys make the AMC mascot officially a gorilla?

Aaron 問：我保證不是在諷刺，但你們能否正式把 AMC 的吉祥物定為一隻大猩猩？

Well, AMC has been around for 100 years. We don't actually have a mascot. This is an interesting question. I don't know. I know why you asked it. I think we're probably going to go without a mascot. But I will tell you this. There is a tremendous amount of branding work going on at AMC right now. I said a few minutes ago that we intend to be the best, strongest marketer around. Watch what we're doing with our marketing programs over the coming weeks and months and years. I think you'll be pleased when you see AMC leading the way yet again.

嗯，AMC 已經有 100 年歷史了。我們其實沒有吉祥物。這是個有趣的問題。我不知道。我知道你為什麼會問。我想我們大概會選擇不設吉祥物。但我可以告訴你的是：AMC 目前正在進行大量的品牌塑造工作。我幾分鐘前說過，我們打算成為最優秀、最強的行銷者。接下來幾週、幾個月、幾年，看看我們在行銷方案上做了什麼。我想當你看到 AMC 再次引領潮流時，你會感到滿意。

Next question from Buddy, has AMC considered partnering with a movie studio in order to produce their own films?

下一個問題來自 Buddy：AMC 是否考慮與電影製片廠合作，以製作自己的電影？

Yes, we have and recently. And the notion of making exclusive content is an interesting one. Some of you may know -- not know this, but about 5 years ago, we were in a joint venture -- 6 years ago, we were in a joint venture with another theater operator to co-fund something called Open Road Films. Open Road Films made a movie called Spotlight, which won the Oscar as the best movie of the year a few years ago. So we have some experience with this. The making of movies is a risky business. Movies aren't cheap to make, and they do take capital.

是的，我們有，而且是最近。製作獨家內容這個想法很有意思。你們之中有些人可能知道——或不知道——大約 5 年前（其實是 6 年前），我們曾與另一家戲院營運商成立合資企業，共同出資一個叫 Open Road Films 的項目。Open Road Films 製作了一部叫《驚爆焦點》的電影，幾年前拿下了奧斯卡年度最佳影片。所以我們在這方面有一些經驗。拍電影是一門高風險的生意。電影製作成本不便宜，而且需要資本。

I've made no secret of the fact that I personally thought it would be very wise for AMC to have sold more shares to raise more equity to build up our war chest so that we can entertain some of these more capital-intensive ideas. It was very clear to me in following social media, as I do, that our shareholder base was quite split on that issue. A lot of people thought it was a great idea. A lot of people didn't want to touch it. And I didn't want to go forward with an idea that important where our shareholder base was split and not unified. So we tabled that motion and did not have a shareholder vote on it. But some of these more capital-intensive ideas will require that the company have more capital. So we're watching it. But again, the priorities right now, Sean mentioned before: have liquidity, get through COVID, deleverage, prove the quality of what we offer, look for opportunistic possibilities. Making content is one of the possibilities on our list, but I don't know that we're going to rush into it.

我從不掩飾：我個人一直認為，AMC 若能出售更多股票、籌集更多股權資金來充實我們的「戰備金庫」，以便我們能夠評估一些更資本密集的構想，會是非常明智的。我在追蹤社群媒體（我確實有在看）時非常清楚地看到，我們的股東基礎在這個議題上分歧很大。很多人覺得這是個好主意。也有很多人完全不想碰。我不想在股東基礎分裂、未能團結一致的情況下，推進一個如此重要的想法。因此我們暫緩了該提案，並沒有就此進行股東表決。但其中一些更資本密集的想法，將需要公司擁有更多資本。所以我們會持續觀察。不過再次強調，當前的優先事項，Sean 之前提到過：保持流動性、挺過 COVID、降低槓桿、證明我們所提供服務的品質、尋找機會性的可能性。製作內容是我們清單上的可能性之一，但我不確定我們會不會急著投入。

Our next question from Jonathan, will AMC keep holding viewing parties for mainstream sporting events?

下一個問題來自 Jonathan：AMC 會繼續為主流體育賽事舉辦觀賽派對嗎？

I certainly hope so. We've had very good luck with UFC, and there's every indication that they'd like to see us continue. We've talked before to some of the major professional sporting leagues, and they have not yet been willing to grant rights to movie theater operators to show movies in theaters -- to show sporting events in theaters. I do think the holy grail on this one would be if we could secure 1 of the 4 major leagues -- to secure rights from 1 or more of the 4 major sporting leagues to show live sporting -- live professional sporting events at our theaters.

我當然希望如此。我們在 UFC 方面運氣很好，而且各種跡象顯示他們也希望我們繼續。我們之前也和一些主要的職業體育聯盟談過，但他們至今仍不願意授權給電影院營運商在戲院裡放映——在戲院裡播放體育賽事。我確實認為，這件事的「聖杯」會是：如果我們能從四大主要聯盟中的一個——或多個——取得權利，讓我們能在戲院播放現場體育——現場職業體育賽事。

Also, there are -- there's some collegiate football that draws 100,000 people into football stadiums all over the country. College football would be something else where I think it would be a really powerful draw at AMC. 2 years ago, we experimented showing some NFL games on our theaters -- at our theaters and that's for -- just for 1 year. And I can tell you categorically, seeing an NFL game broadcast on a 40-foot-high screen is just amazing, unbelievable. The quality is so good -- of the image. I know that if we can secure the rights affordably, I think it would be a big hit.

另外，還有——有些大學美式足球賽事，能在全國各地把 10 萬人吸引進球場。大學美式足球也是我認為在 AMC 會非常有吸引力的另一個項目。兩年前，我們曾試驗在我們的戲院播放一些 NFL 比賽——在我們的戲院裡，而且只做了 1 年。我可以非常肯定地告訴你，在 40 英尺高的大螢幕上看 NFL 轉播，真的很驚人、不可思議。畫質非常好——影像品質。我知道如果我們能以可負擔的成本取得權利，我認為會大受歡迎。

Next question is, have you considered expanding AMC to a family entertainment center experience. You could include bowling and arcade, laser tag, parties and family dining.

下一個問題是：你們是否考慮把 AMC 擴展成家庭娛樂中心的體驗？你可以加入保齡球與遊戲機台、雷射槍戰、派對與家庭餐飲。

So this is actually an interesting question, too. And on some of this stuff, we've already experimented a little bit. Obviously, we have family dining at our DINE-IN theaters. We have 70 of them or something around the United States. A couple of years back, we greatly expanded, through what we call AMC Feature Fare, the hot menu items that are normally served at our concession stands, at our non-DINE-IN theaters, trying to get families better dining choices. We put in Freestyle Coca-Cola machines with their 150-ish flavors at all of our theaters in the United States, including all of the Carmike theaters that we bought in the United States. We have a massive investment in Coke Freestyle.

所以這其實也是個有趣的問題。而且其中一些項目，我們已經做過一些小規模的試驗。很明顯地，我們在 DINE-IN 影城提供家庭餐飲。我們在美國大概有 70 家左右。幾年前，我們透過所謂的 AMC Feature Fare，大幅擴充了在非 DINE-IN 影城、通常於販賣部提供的熱食菜單品項，試圖讓家庭有更好的用餐選擇。我們在美國所有影城都裝設了可口可樂 Freestyle 機台，提供約 150 種口味，也包括我們在美國收購的所有 Carmike 影城。我們在 Coke Freestyle 上投入了大量資本。

Similarly, we've experimented with virtual reality through an entity in which we invested called Dreamscape. We have a Dreamscape virtual reality auditorium experience at our -- one of our theaters in Dallas, one of our theaters in Columbus, Ohio. We're opening soon at one of our theaters in Northern New Jersey. It would be pretty inexpensive actually to decommission an auditorium if we have surplus capacity and put in a laser tag parlor, kind of fun. But if you're talking about the full-blown entertainment center, as described in this question, don't underestimate how much capital that -- an idea like that would need, especially if you want to do it not just in 1 theater somewhere but you want to do it at 50 theaters or 100 theaters or 200 theaters. And again, it's ideas like this one why I thought that AMC should raise more capital. Our shareholder base wasn't ready for that yet. So to -- honestly, to do something as you envision, that's going to have to come down the road when we have a larger capital base.

同樣地，我們也透過一家我們投資的實體 Dreamscape，試驗了虛擬實境。我們在——我們位於達拉斯的一家影城、以及俄亥俄州哥倫布的一家影城，設有 Dreamscape 的虛擬實境禮堂體驗。我們也即將在北新澤西的一家影城開幕。如果我們有多餘的產能，要把一個禮堂除役，改裝成雷射槍戰遊樂場，其實成本相當低，還挺有趣的。但如果你談的是本題所描述的那種完整規模的娛樂中心，千萬別低估那——這樣的構想需要多少資本，尤其是如果你不只是想在某個地方的一家影城做，而是想在 50 家、100 家或 200 家影城推行。而且再一次，正是因為有像這樣的點子，我才認為 AMC 應該籌集更多資本。我們的股東基礎當時還沒準備好。所以——坦白說，要做你所設想的那種事情，必須等到未來我們擁有更大的資本基礎時才有可能。

At this point, Sean, I'm looking at my list. I think we've answered a lot of questions.

此刻，Sean，我在看我的清單。我想我們已經回答了很多問題。

Yes.

是的。

And I'm mindful of the time. I'd like to thank our shareholders for sending these in, for voting on them to see which ones we should answer first. This is an experiment for us. If you like this idea, we'll do it again on future calls. But let us know. Having said that, operator, if we could see if any of our analysts have a question. We don't -- we're already over time. It's after 6:00 in the east. So we might only have time for a single question.

我也注意到時間。我要感謝我們的股東把這些問題送進來，並且投票決定哪些問題應該優先回答。這對我們來說是一個實驗。如果你喜歡這個做法，我們未來的電話會議還會再做。但請讓我們知道。話說回來，接線員，如果可以的話，請看看是否有任何分析師要提問。我們——我們已經超時了。東岸已經 6 點過後。所以我們可能只來得及回答一個問題。

Very good. So that question comes from Chad Beynon with Macquarie.

很好。那個問題來自 Macquarie 的 Chad Beynon。

Thanks for all the commentary up to this point. I wanted to ask about some of the metrics you were talking about with respect to industry admission revenue. Adam, you talked about first quarter, 13% of 2 years ago, and now we're up to 45% of 2 years ago. So maybe just kind of a broad question on -- if you have an updated view on where this can get to, whether it's 2022 or 2023. What's changed in your crystal ball? Is it 80%, 90%? Can we get back to peak levels as you've put all these things in your blender?

感謝到目前為止的所有評論。我想問一下你剛才談到、關於產業入場（票房）收入的一些指標。Adam，你提到第一季是兩年前的 13%，而現在我們回升到兩年前的 45%。所以想請教一個比較宏觀的問題——你是否有更新的看法，這個比例最終能回到什麼程度，不論是 2022 或 2023。你的水晶球裡有什麼改變？會是 80%、90% 嗎？在你把所有這些因素都放進你的「果汁機」之後，我們能回到你所說的高峰水準嗎？

Thank you. That's a $64,000 question. And nobody knows the answer for sure, and we're all going to learn it together. We've already put out a number for 2021 that we hope the industry box office can get back to $5.2 billion in 2021, which is actually a fairly sizable recovery in the second half because the industry box office was like $1 billion in the early part of the year, very, very, very low.

謝謝。這是個價值 6 萬 4 千美元的問題。而且沒有人能確定答案，我們都會一起學到結果。我們已經對外提出 2021 年的一個數字：我們希望產業票房在 2021 年能回到 52 億美元；這其實意味著下半年會有相當可觀的復甦，因為年初那段時間的產業票房大概只有 10 億美元，非常、非常、非常低。

If you look at the industry box office, this -- and this, for those of you who don't know the term, the domestic industry box office is the movie theater ticket grosses in the United States and Canada. It's kind of the basic metric of measuring the size of the industry. I went and looked, pre-COVID, meaning starting in 2019, not 2020, the 5 years, 2019 going back, all 5 of them, the box office was greater than $11 billion. The 5 years before that, it was $10 billion. I think it was -- or maybe 6 years was $10 billion or more. And I think 6 of the 7 years before that, it was greater than $9 billion. So literally, for the past 17 years, the box office has been -- first, it was steady at between $9 billion and $10 billion, then it was steady between $10 billion and $11 billion, then it was steady between $11 million and $12 billion. And nobody knows where it's going to be in 2023. I've seen estimates all over the map. I've seen people who think it's going to be $8 billion. I've seen people who think it's going to be $10.5 million. Nobody's crystal ball is good enough to know.

如果你看產業票房——這裡順帶一提，對於不熟悉這個名詞的人，「國內產業票房」指的是美國與加拿大的電影票房總收入。它算是衡量產業規模的基本指標。我回去看了疫情前的數據，也就是從 2019 年開始算，而不是 2020 年；往回數的那 5 年（從 2019 年往回），這 5 年每一年票房都超過 110 億美元。再往前 5 年，票房是 100 億美元。我想是——或者也許是 6 年都在 100 億美元或以上。而在更前面的 7 年裡，我想有 6 年都超過 90 億美元。所以字面上來說，過去 17 年票房——一開始穩定在 90 億到 100 億美元之間，接著穩定在 100 億到 110 億美元之間，然後又穩定在 110 億到 120 億美元之間。但沒有人知道 2023 年會落在哪裡。我看過各式各樣的估計。有人認為會是 80 億美元。也有人認為會是 1050 萬美元。沒有人有足夠準確的水晶球能知道。

So -- but obviously, it's a very important question because we will be more profitable the higher the box offices. So we're -- we know that with the cash that we raised, we could survive in an $8 billion box office for a year or 2 maybe, but we'd sure be much more healthily profitable if the industry box office rises back up to $9 billion, $10 billion, even $11 billion or more in 2023 and 2024. 2022 is probably still going to be a transitional year between the very low $5-ish billion numbers that we're thinking will occur in 2021 and where it's eventually going to settle in 2023 or 2024.

所以——但顯然，這是一個非常重要的問題，因為票房越高，我們的獲利就會越好。所以我們——我們知道，靠我們籌到的現金，即使票房只有 80 億美元，我們也許能撐過 1 到 2 年；但如果產業票房在 2023 與 2024 年回升到 90 億、100 億，甚至 110 億美元或更高，我們的獲利狀況肯定會健康得多。2022 年可能仍會是過渡的一年，介於我們認為 2021 年大約 50 多億美元的低水準，以及最終在 2023 或 2024 年會落定的水準之間。

Okay. Great. And then a quick follow-up and then I'll pass it off. With respect to the food and beverage strength that you saw in this quarter and I think even in the first quarter from a per cap standpoint, can you talk about where that's coming from? Is that the mobile ordering initiative? Is that a mix of products? And then have you taken prices up given some of the commentary that you made with respect to ticket pricing? Have you done the same thing for food and beverage yet?

好的。很好。接著我再快速追問一個問題，然後我就交棒。關於你們本季看到的餐飲強勁表現，以及我想甚至第一季在人均（per cap）指標上的表現，你能談談這是從哪裡來的嗎？是行動點餐的計畫嗎？是產品組合的變化嗎？另外，鑑於你對票價所做的一些評論，你們是否也調漲了價格？餐飲方面你們也做了同樣的事了嗎？

Thank you. Let me first tell you what we think the reason is and then we'll tell you how it's -- how we're getting there. It feels to us like people who have been away from theaters for a year, when they're coming back to the theaters after it's been a long wait and they're so happy and eager to be back at a movie theater that they want the whole experience. They want the whole enchilada. They are splurging. And so there are 4 drivers that are causing our food and beverage revenues to be up so much. And remember, when I say up so much, this is a food and beverage spending at -- in a movie theater experience, quite a mature thing. And AMC was producing more food and beverage revenue than any other major mass operator. But we would have considered a good quarter if our food and beverage spending per patron is up 2% or 3% or 5%. It's up 44% over the pre-COVID levels. And it's coming basically from 4 different things. And it's kind of an equal contributor as to what's driving it.

謝謝。我先告訴你我們認為原因是什麼，然後再說我們是如何——如何做到的。我們的感覺是，那些離開影城一年的人，當他們在長時間等待後回到影城，而且非常開心、迫不及待想回到電影院時，他們想要的是完整的體驗。他們想要「全套」。他們願意多花一點。因此，有 4 個驅動因素讓我們的餐飲收入大幅上升。而且請記得，當我說大幅上升時，這是在——在看電影的體驗中，餐飲消費其實是一個相當成熟的項目。而 AMC 的餐飲收入在所有大型連鎖營運商中是最高的。但我們原本會認為，如果每位觀眾的餐飲消費能成長 2%、3% 或 5%，那就是一個不錯的季度。但現在比疫情前水準高出 44%。而這基本上來自 4 件不同的事情。而且在推動成長的貢獻上，這幾項因素大致相當。

One, mobile ordering is certainly something that people like. We only had mobile ordering in place at about 50 of our U.S. theaters, for example, 2 years ago. And during the shutdown of theaters and COVID, we had time on our hands. So we developed this technology to be able to roll out mobile ordering across the whole of our system. It's now in place at all of our AMC and all of our AMC DINE-IN branded theaters. We also thought it was very helpful for the AMC Safe & Clean protocols because if people are ordering their F&B in advance, there'd be less contact back and forth on payment. So mobile ordering is popular. That's one of the reasons.

第一，行動點餐確實是大家喜歡的功能。例如，兩年前我們在美國的影城中，只有大約 50 家導入行動點餐。而在影城停業與 COVID 期間，我們有更多時間。因此我們開發了這項技術，得以在整個系統全面推行行動點餐。目前已在我們所有 AMC 影城，以及所有 AMC DINE-IN 品牌影城上線。我們也認為這對 AMC Safe & Clean（安全與清潔）規範非常有幫助，因為如果大家事先預訂餐飲（F&B），在付款上就能減少來回接觸。所以行動點餐很受歡迎。這是原因之一。

Next, we did raise prices. That's one of the reasons. Next, when people are going to theaters, they're buying more items. And we just -- we see the statistics every single day, and it's true all across the country. They're buying more stuff. If before they bought a soda, now they buy a soda and a popcorn. If before they bought a soda and a popcorn, now they buy a soda and a popcorn and a candy or they have soda, popcorn and nachos. Or they're opting for some of our more intriguing menu items that we put in place through Feature Fare, my favorite being the flatbread pizzas.

接著，我們確實調漲了價格。這也是原因之一。再來，人們去影城時，購買的品項變多了。我們每天都看到統計數據，而且全國各地都是如此。他們買的東西更多了。如果以前只買一杯汽水，現在會買汽水加爆米花。如果以前買汽水加爆米花，現在會買汽水、爆米花再加糖果，或是汽水、爆米花加玉米片（nachos）。或者他們會選擇我們透過 Feature Fare 推出的更吸引人的菜單品項；我最喜歡的是薄餅披薩。

And the fourth factor, which is really encouraging for us, is that more people are actually going to the concession stand and buying from us, the concession stand. There are many people, a lot of people who go to a movie theater -- like when I say a lot of people, I mean like hundreds of millions of people a year who go to movie theaters not just in AMC, but go to movie theaters and don't buy anything at the concession stand. They buy no food and beverage. All they buy is a movie ticket, and that's the experience they get. What we're -- what we've seen as people are returning to cinemas is more and more people are going to the concession stand. They're buying food and beverage products because they want the whole experience.

第四個因素，對我們來說非常令人鼓舞的是，實際上有更多人會去販賣部並向我們購買。有很多人——我說很多人，是指每年有數億人去看電影——不只是在 AMC，而是去各家影城，但不會在販賣部買任何東西。他們不買任何餐飲。他們只買電影票，得到的體驗也就僅止於此。而我們看到的是，隨著人們回到電影院，越來越多人會去販賣部。他們會購買餐飲產品，因為他們想要完整的體驗。

It's already 12 after the hour. We've run long. I would like to thank you all for joining us on this call and webcast today. I have something very simple to say. Ladies and gentlemen, see you at the movies. See you at an AMC theater sometime soon.

現在已經過整點 12 分鐘了。我們超時了。我要感謝各位今天加入我們的電話會議與網路直播。我有一句很簡單的話要說。各位女士先生，電影院見。希望不久後在某家 AMC 影城與各位再見。

And that does conclude our call for today. And we thank everyone for participating, and you may now disconnect.

以上即為我們今天的電話會議內容。也感謝各位的參與，現在您可以掛線。