AMC 電影院 (AMC) 2018 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, greetings, and welcome to the AMC Entertainment Third Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note that this call is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to John Merriwether. Please go ahead, sir.

各位女士、先生，大家好，歡迎參加 AMC Entertainment 2018 年第三季財報電話會議。(接線員指示) 請注意，本次電話會議將被錄音。此刻，我想把會議交給 John Merriwether。先生，請開始。

Thank you, Ari. Good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to welcome you to AMC's Third Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. With me this afternoon is Adam Aron, our Chief Executive Officer and President; and Craig Ramsey, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝你，Ari。各位下午好。歡迎各位參加 AMC 2018 年第三季財報電話會議。今天下午與我一同出席的有：我們的執行長兼總裁 Adam Aron，以及執行副總裁兼財務長 Craig Ramsey。

Before I turn the call over to Adam, let me remind everyone that some of the comments made by management during this conference call may contain forward-looking statements, which 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 public filings, including our most recently filed 10-K and 10-Q.

在我把電話交給 Adam 之前，先提醒各位，管理層在本次電話會議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的公開申報文件中討論，包括我們最近提交的 10-K 與 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.

決定公司未來業績的若干因素超出公司可控制或可預測的能力範圍。鑑於任何前瞻性陳述所固有的不確定性，提醒聽眾不要對這些陳述過度依賴。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的義務。

On this call, we may reference measures such as adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin and constant currency, which are non-GAAP financial measures. For a full reconciliation of our non-GAAP measures to GAAP results, please see our third quarter earnings release issued earlier today.

在本次電話會議中，我們可能會提及如調整後 EBITDA、調整後 EBITDA 利潤率及固定匯率等指標，這些均為非 GAAP 財務衡量指標。如需我們非 GAAP 指標與 GAAP 結果之完整調節表，請參閱我們今日稍早發布的第三季財報新聞稿。

In conjunction with our third quarter earnings release, we encourage you to review the CFO commentary for the 2018 third quarter that we published this afternoon on our website in tandem with the earnings release. After our prepared remarks, there will be a Q&A session.

配合我們的第三季財報新聞稿，我們也鼓勵各位查閱我們今天下午在公司網站上與財報新聞稿同步發布的 2018 年第三季財務長評論。在我們的準備發言結束後，將進行問答環節。

This afternoon's call is being recorded and webcast replay will be available in the Investor Relations section of our website at amctheatres.com later today.

今天下午的電話會議將被錄音並進行網路直播，稍後今日在 amctheatres.com 網站的投資人關係專區將提供重播。

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

接下來，我把電話交給 Adam。

Thank you, John. Good afternoon, everybody. We're very pleased that you've joined us for a review of our third quarter results and an update on several key initiatives.

謝謝你，John。各位下午好。我們非常高興各位加入我們，一同回顧第三季業績並更新幾項關鍵計畫的進展。

Let me begin by simply and clearly saying that we are so thoroughly encouraged by AMC's performance in the third quarter of 2018. Company-wide, we achieved the highest third quarter attendance ever for global AMC, driven primarily by an 8.6% surge in attendance at our U.S. theaters. Despite U.S. and European admissions revenue that was essentially flat year-over-year for the quarter, food and beverage revenue globally was up 6.5%. Other revenues globally were up 33.5%.

首先，我想簡單且清楚地說，我們對 AMC 在 2018 年第三季的表現感到非常振奮。在全公司層面，全球 AMC 創下歷來第三季最高的觀影人次，主要由美國影城觀影人次大增 8.6% 所帶動。儘管本季美國與歐洲的票房收入年增率基本持平，全球餐飲收入仍成長 6.5%。全球其他收入成長 33.5%。

This all led to our reporting ahead of consensus adjusted EBITDA for the quarter of $142.4 million. That figure was significantly ahead of our internal expectations going into the quarter. And when combined with our stellar first half results, 9-month year-to-date adjusted EBITDA for all of AMC now stands at $665.1 million, which is up a dramatic 24.5% over the first 9 months of 2017. $665.1 million of adjusted EBITDA this year so far versus $534.3 million of adjusted EBITDA last year so far. That's an increase of $130.8 million. Can I repeat that figure for emphasis? AMC's adjusted EBITDA is running more than $130 million ahead of last year for the same 9-month time period. Accordingly, we can now say with high confidence that from an adjusted EBITDA standpoint, full year 2018 will be a record year for AMC, the best ever in AMC's 98-year history exhibiting movies.

這些表現使我們本季公布的調整後 EBITDA 為 1.424 億美元，高於市場共識預期。該數字也顯著高於我們在進入本季時的內部預期。再加上上半年亮眼的成果，AMC 前 9 個月累計調整後 EBITDA 目前達 6.651 億美元，較 2017 年前 9 個月大幅成長 24.5%。也就是說，今年迄今調整後 EBITDA 為 6.651 億美元，相較去年同期為 5.343 億美元。增加了 1.308 億美元。我可以為了強調再重複一次這個數字嗎？在相同的 9 個月期間內，AMC 的調整後 EBITDA 較去年高出超過 1.3 億美元。因此，我們現在可以非常有信心地表示，從調整後 EBITDA 的角度來看，2018 全年將成為 AMC 的創紀錄年度，將是 AMC 98 年電影放映歷史上最佳的一年。

Breaking down our third quarter results by segments. We were pleased with our third quarter results in the United States. Total domestic revenues grew 5.9% to $895.6 million. On our last quarterly call, we highlighted a shift in our strategy to boost attendance to increase long-term ticket revenues overall both for AMC, and importantly, for our studio partners as well. We did exactly as predicted.

按業務分部拆解我們第三季的結果。我們對美國市場第三季的表現感到滿意。美國本土總收入成長 5.9%，達 8.956 億美元。在上一季的電話會議中，我們強調我們已調整策略，透過提升觀影人次來推升長期整體票房收入，這不僅有利於 AMC，更重要的是也有利於我們的片商合作夥伴。我們確實如預期般做到了。

In attendance, AMC outperformed the industry domestically, growing domestic attendance per screen by 9.1%, which was more than 400 basis points better than the industry. We did so even while under pressure from a soft quarter for IMAX and 3D. As an aside, fortunately, both of these formats have already turned around, and both are booming with us at AMC so far in the fourth quarter.

在觀影人次方面，AMC 在美國本土的表現優於產業平均，每銀幕本土觀影人次成長 9.1%，比產業高出超過 400 個基點。即便 IMAX 與 3D 在本季表現疲弱、對我們造成壓力，我們仍達成上述成果。順帶一提，幸運的是，這兩種格式已經回溫，而在第四季迄今，兩者在 AMC 都呈現強勁成長。

But turning back to Q3. An ancillary benefit of our strategy to drive attendance, domestic food and beverage revenue increased 8.3%, and domestic other revenue was up by more than 50% above prior year levels. We continue to do a good job managing our expenses. Despite an increase in film rent related to the success of the quarter, total operating expenses as a percent of revenue improved 60 basis points compared to last year.

但回到第三季。作為我們推動觀影人次策略的附帶效益，美國本土餐飲收入成長 8.3%，而美國本土其他收入較去年同期水準成長超過 50%。我們持續在費用管理方面做得很好。儘管因本季表現亮眼而帶動影片租金上升，但營運費用占收入比重較去年改善 60 個基點。

While adjusted EBITDA declined domestically 2.4% to $105 million, taking into account onetime items in the predicted A-List launch impact in the third quarter, domestic adjusted EBITDA would have grown by more than 11%, and margins would have expanded by 90 basis points compared to the third quarter of last year. Even with all this, let us not forget that for the first 9 months of 2018, U.S. adjusted EBITDA is now up by a stunning $115.0 million. We're on an extremely good path in the United States.

儘管美國本土調整後 EBITDA 下滑 2.4% 至 1.05 億美元，但若將我們先前預期第三季 A-List 上線影響中的一次性項目納入考量，美國本土調整後 EBITDA 其實將成長逾 11%，且相較去年第三季，利潤率將擴大 90 個基點。即便如此，也別忘了，2018 年前 9 個月，美國調整後 EBITDA 現在已大幅增加 1.15 億美元。我們在美國正走在一條極佳的道路上。

Europe improved sequentially compared to the second quarter of 2018, but still delivered mixed results, mostly because the industry box office was down 3.5% in the Odeon-served countries. While the industry box office was up 17.3% in the Nordic-served countries, we're so much larger across Europe than in Scandinavia and the Baltics. And on a constant currency basis, our revenue internationally was flat and our adjusted EBITDA internationally declined 2.5%.

歐洲相較 2018 年第二季呈現逐季改善，但結果仍然好壞參半，主要原因是 Odeon 服務的國家之產業票房下滑 3.5%。雖然在北歐地區所服務的國家，產業票房成長 17.3%，但我們在歐洲的整體規模遠大於在斯堪地那維亞與波羅的海地區的規模。此外，以固定匯率計算，我們的國際營收持平，而國際調整後 EBITDA 下滑 2.5%。

Also impacting these results was a nearly 2% decline in the average number of screens in operation during the quarter as we purposely took screens offline for theater recliner renovations. Even so, we are very excited about our prospects for Europe. Over the long term, as you know, the movie industry has grown at a faster pace in Europe than in the United States.

同時影響這些結果的，還包括本季營運中的平均銀幕數量下滑近 2%，因為我們刻意將部分銀幕暫停使用，以進行影廳躺椅翻新工程。即便如此，我們對歐洲的前景仍感到非常振奮。長期而言，如各位所知，歐洲電影產業的成長速度一直快於美國。

More importantly, our initial new build theaters in the Nordic states and our theater renovations in the U.K., Spain and Italy are performing way ahead of our already robust expectation. And then there's our new theater in Riyadh, which opened in April. It boasts of very happy patrons and of one of the most financially successful screens in our entire global network. Looking at Europe overall, 9-month adjusted EBITDA is up $15.8 million internationally.

更重要的是，我們在北歐各國的首批新建影城，以及在英國、西班牙與義大利的影城翻新，其表現遠遠超出我們原本已相當強勁的預期。此外，我們在利雅德的新影城已於 4 月開幕。該影城擁有非常滿意的顧客，且其中一個銀幕是我們全球網絡中財務表現最成功的銀幕之一。就整體歐洲而言，前 9 個月國際調整後 EBITDA 增加 1,580 萬美元。

What makes our financial results for the third quarter so especially satisfying is that they come after conscious decisions to investment spend in the quarter to bolster AMC's future performance. And we told you about these investments in advance of the quarter. As but 3 examples among many in the quarter, we cleared away yet another piece of old litigation dating back to 2015. It was settled on mutually agreeable terms but all of that cost was charged against Q3 EBITDA. That is now 3 consequential losses from 2015 or earlier that we have put in the rearview mirror, 2 that we settled and 1 that we won outright in court.

第三季的財務結果之所以格外令人滿意，是因為這些成果是在我們本季有意識地做出投資支出決策、以強化 AMC 未來表現之後所取得的。而且我們在本季開始前就已向各位說明這些投資。舉本季眾多例子中的三個例子：我們清理了另一項可追溯至 2015 年的舊訴訟。該案以雙方可接受的條件和解，但相關成本全數計入第三季 EBITDA。至此，這已是我們將 2015 年或更早的三項重大損失拋諸腦後：其中兩項已和解，另一項則在法庭上完全勝訴。

Two, we will soon talk later in this call about the runaway success of A-List. But just as we predicted, we did modestly subsidize A-List in its initial few months to launch the program and acquire a robust membership.

第二，我們稍後在本次電話會議中將談到 A-List 的爆炸性成功。但正如我們所預期，為了在計畫推出初期啟動方案並取得強勁的會員基礎，我們在最初幾個月確實對 A-List 進行了小幅補貼。

And three, in the quarter we also invested in our people, which boosts morale and increases retention by accruing for higher compensation expense to nearly 1,000 of our managers across the company, whose bonuses will be higher this year than last, thanks to their hard work in delivering our much improved operating performance.

第三，本季我們也投資於員工：透過為全公司近 1,000 名管理人員提列較高的薪酬費用，提升士氣並提高留任率；由於他們辛勤工作、帶來我們營運表現的大幅改善，他們今年的獎金將高於去年。

In the third quarter, we also made meaningful strategic progress in just about every area of our company: more recliner-equipped theaters renovated in U.S. and in Europe, some with just stunning financial returns; more IMAX and Dolby screens deployed with the whopping price premiums they come in; greater consumer reliance on our website and smartphone app; new more intriguing menus in the works for our concession stands and Dine-In Theaters; an Oracle accounting system installed in Europe to strengthen the IT backbone of the circuits we acquired abroad; carefully managing operating expense per patron all across our system. But the biggest advancement we made in the quarter were in marketing, especially, but not limited to, our AMC Stubs and A-List programs. More detail can be found in our press release and accompanying CFO commentary that were issued after the market closed today.

第三季，我們也在公司幾乎每個領域都取得了具意義的策略性進展：在美國與歐洲翻新更多配備躺椅的影城，其中一些帶來令人驚豔的財務報酬；部署更多 IMAX 與 Dolby 銀幕，並享有其帶來的可觀票價溢價；消費者更依賴我們的網站與智慧型手機 App；為我們的販賣部與 Dine-In 影廳規劃更新、更具吸引力的菜單；在歐洲導入 Oracle 會計系統，以強化我們海外收購院線的 IT 骨幹；並在整個系統中審慎管理每位觀影人次的營運費用。但本季我們最大的進展是在行銷方面，尤其是（但不限於）我們的 AMC Stubs 與 A-List 計畫。更多細節可參閱我們在今日收盤後發布的新聞稿及隨附的 CFO 評論。

Before taking your questions though, I'd especially like to give you more color on 4 topics: first, the box office. We really should take a moment to celebrate the roaring hot consumer appeal of the films now being released. Over the years, we've articulated the case that AMC would continue to succeed because looking with a much longer lens and quarter-to-quarter, over the past 2 decades, the industry-wide box office has been solid, steady and growing. That notwithstanding, last summer's brief slump spooked some investors, and over our repeated data-laden protests for the contrary, a bear case incorrectly emerged that theaters were a quaint anachronism in an era of streaming.

不過在回答各位提問之前，我特別想就四個主題提供更多說明：第一，票房。我們確實應該花點時間慶祝目前上映電影對消費者所展現的火熱吸引力。多年來，我們一直闡述 AMC 將持續成功的理由：以更長期、而非僅逐季的視角來看，過去 20 年整體產業票房一直穩健、穩定且持續成長。儘管如此，去年夏天短暫的低迷仍讓部分投資人感到不安；即便我們多次以大量數據反駁，市場上仍錯誤地出現一種看空論點，認為在串流時代，電影院只是過時的遺物。

Well, you know what's happened so far in 2018. The year-to-date domestic industry box office through quarter end was the best in history. October domestic box office was the best October ever, and the year-to-date domestic box office through yesterday, November 7, is up 10.0% year-over-year. When the dust settles at year-end, 2018 should be yet another record year, the third time that has happened in the past 4 years. And based on the film slates on the queue for 2019 and 2020, we anticipate a healthy industry ahead.

但各位也知道 2018 年迄今發生了什麼。截至季末為止，今年迄今美國本土產業票房創下歷史最佳。10 月美國本土票房創下史上最佳 10 月，而截至昨天（11 月 7 日）為止的今年迄今美國本土票房，年增 10.0%。待年底塵埃落定，2018 年應會再度成為創紀錄的一年，這將是過去 4 年中第 3 次出現此情況。並且根據 2019 與 2020 年排隊待上的片單，我們預期產業前景將維持健康。

So here we are, just exactly as AMC predicted. The partnership between studios and exhibitors continuing to be a tight bond, creating an industry that is strong, relevant, large, growing and smashing record after record after record. Hooray for Hollywood and the makers of our local language content overseas.

因此，我們如今正如 AMC 所預測的那樣。片商與放映業者之間的合作關係持續緊密，打造出一個強勁、具相關性、規模龐大、持續成長，並且一再打破紀錄、再破紀錄、再破紀錄的產業。為好萊塢以及海外本地語言內容的製作者喝采。

Second, we continue to see high-ROI projects right before our eyes that generate internal organic growth. We continue to invest in our strategic initiatives, which include recliner seating, enhanced food and beverage offerings and premium large-format experiences.

第二，我們仍持續看到就在眼前、能帶來內部有機成長的高投資報酬率（ROI）專案。我們持續投資於我們的策略性計畫，其中包括躺椅座位、強化的餐飲服務，以及高端大型格式的觀影體驗。

On the domestic front, during the third quarter, we installed recliner seating at a dozen more U.S. theaters, 5 of them former Carmike theaters. This brings the total number of theaters in the U.S. who offer recliners, including Dine-In Theatres and Dolby Cinema auditoriums, to 288 locations with just less than 2,800 screens or about 45% of our theaters and 30% of our screens in the total domestic circuit.

在美國本土方面，第三季我們在另外十多家美國影城安裝了躺椅座位，其中有 5 家是原 Carmike 影城。這使得美國境內提供躺椅座位的影城總數（包含 Dine-In Theatres 與 Dolby Cinema 影廳）達到 288 個據點、略少於 2,800 個銀幕，約占我們美國影城總數的 45%，以及美國總銀幕數的 30%。

And to exclude from consideration, however as we do, the AMC classic branded theaters, which by definition of the brand are not candidates for expensive recliner seating renovation, then in the AMC-branded theaters and in the AMC Dine-In branded readers, about 70% of the theaters and about 50% of the screens are already reclined. That means that within the legacy AMC circuit, we continue to lead the industry. And even with that, we still have clearly identified high-ROI opportunity in our sites, especially with some low-hanging fruit in theaters that came to us in the Carmike acquisition.

然而，若如我們一貫作法將 AMC Classic 品牌影城排除在外（依品牌定義，該等影城並非適合進行昂貴躺椅座位翻新之對象），則在 AMC 品牌影城以及 AMC Dine-In 品牌影城中，約 70% 的影城與約 50% 的銀幕已配備躺椅座位。這表示在傳統 AMC 影城版圖內，我們仍持續領先業界。即便如此，我們在各據點仍清楚辨識出高 ROI 的機會，尤其是來自 Carmike 併購而來的影城中，仍有一些「低垂果實」可快速取得成效。

Internationally, during the third quarter, we nearly doubled the number of recliner theaters in Europe. This brings us now to the total of 17 theaters in the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy featuring recliners. Four more renovated theaters get completed in the fourth quarter, which will bring the total number of theaters in Europe with our signature recliner seating to 21.

在國際方面，第三季我們在歐洲的躺椅影城數量幾乎翻倍。目前我們在英國、西班牙與義大利共有 17 家影城配備躺椅座位。第四季還會完成另外 4 家翻新影城，屆時歐洲採用我們招牌躺椅座位的影城總數將達到 21 家。

So that consumers can spot our theater enhancements, our renovated theaters in the U.K., for example, are being rebranded as Odeon Luxe theaters, L-U-X-E. One of the most anticipated Odeon Luxe reopenings happens next month at our London flagship and throughout years home to the royal family, the majestic Odeon Luxe Leicester Square. This iconic theater will have a drop-dead gorgeous new interior, about 1,000 luxury leather seats across 5 screens, including almost 400 power reclining seats.

為了讓消費者能辨識我們的影城升級，例如在英國，我們將翻新後的影城重新品牌化為 Odeon Luxe 影城，L-U-X-E。最受期待的 Odeon Luxe 重新開幕之一將於下個月在我們的倫敦旗艦店登場——多年來作為王室御用之地的宏偉 Odeon Luxe Leicester Square。這座指標性影城將擁有令人驚豔的全新內裝，5 個銀幕共約 1,000 個豪華皮革座椅，其中包含近 400 個電動可躺式座椅。

It will also feature the U.K.'s first Dolby Cinema with Dolby Vision laser projection and Dolby Atmos sound. Over the last 82 years, this marquee theater, the Odeon Leicester Square, has hosted over 700 European film premieres. And with its breathtaking gut-to-the-studs facelift, this Grand Oldham will make a major brand statement for Odeon and is on the verge of setting a new unparalleled standard for theaters all across Europe. We also continue to grow our footprint in Europe as well, having opened one new-build theater in the third quarter and 5 more new-build theaters to open before the end of this year.

它也將設置英國第一座 Dolby Cinema，配備 Dolby Vision 雷射投影與 Dolby Atmos 音效。在過去 82 年間，這座招牌影城——Odeon Leicester Square——已舉辦超過 700 場歐洲電影首映。隨著其令人屏息、徹底翻新的大改造，這座歷史悠久的殿堂將為 Odeon 做出重大的品牌宣示，並正準備為全歐洲影城樹立全新且無可匹敵的標準。我們也持續擴大在歐洲的版圖，第三季新開出 1 家新建影城，並且在今年年底前還將再開出 5 家新建影城。

We continue to expect -- and when it's all counted up, our worldwide net CapEx for 2018 will be between $450 million and $500 million. You should expect a similar CapEx range for 2019 because as we've been telling you for years now, the financial results of our theater renovations are real, especially in Europe where they've been almost unimaginably strong. It's no accident that our EBITDA is up $130 million year-over-year in the first 9 months of 2018.

我們仍預期——在全部統計完成後——2018 年我們全球淨資本支出（CapEx）將介於 4.5 億至 5 億美元之間。2019 年你也應預期類似的資本支出區間，因為正如我們多年來一直告訴各位的，我們影城翻新的財務成果是真實存在的，尤其在歐洲，其表現幾乎強到令人難以想像。我們在 2018 年前 9 個月的 EBITDA 年增 1.3 億美元，絕非偶然。

Subject 3. We are so immensely satisfied that we welcomed a new strategic Investor Day AMC in the third quarter when private equity giant, Silver Lake, a global leader in technology investing, made a $600 million investment in AMC in the form of 2.95% senior unsecured convertible notes due in 2024.

主題 3。第三季我們非常滿意地迎來 AMC 的一位新的策略性投資人日（Investor Day）——全球科技投資領導者、私募股權巨頭 Silver Lake 以 2024 年到期、2.95% 的高級無擔保可轉換公司債形式，對 AMC 投資 6 億美元。

The proceeds of those notes, as you know, were used to repurchase approximately 24.1 million shares of Class B Common shares from Wanda and to pay $1.55 per share special dividend to all shareholders of record as of September 25. Actually, sales record as of -- yes, as of September 25, right. As part of this transaction, we were able to repurchase Wanda shares at a discount to the then trading price and do so in an orderly fashion benefiting all shareholders and minimizing downward volatility.

如各位所知，該等債券的募集資金用於向萬達回購約 2,410 萬股 B 類普通股，並向截至 9 月 25 日登記在冊的所有股東支付每股 1.55 美元的特別股利。其實，登記日是——對，9 月 25 日，沒錯。作為本次交易的一部分，我們得以以低於當時交易價格的折價回購萬達持股，並以有序方式完成，讓所有股東受益並將下行波動降至最低。

For the next 2 years, Silver Lake also has the right of first refusal to purchase any additional shares if Wanda chooses to sell more of its AMC holdings, a pressure reliever for us that has been created. Although we've also been informed that no such further Wanda share sale is on the horizon.

在未來 2 年內，若萬達選擇出售更多其持有的 AMC 股份，Silver Lake 亦享有優先承購權（right of first refusal），這為我們提供了一個已建立的「壓力釋放閥」。不過，我們也被告知，並沒有任何進一步出售萬達持股的計畫在進行中。

Speaking personally, I've had a 20-year close-up exposure to some of the best in the world of private equity and I've always enjoyed working with smart people. What I'm about to say may seem odd coming from a CEO perhaps, but I'm almost giddy that Silver Lake is now in AMC's boardroom. Silver Lake is in full agreement with our company's strategy. They've added value wherever they've been. Their investments have returned mightily and their confidence in AMC's future speaks volumes as to the shareholder value we are striving to create.

就我個人而言，我近距離接觸全球頂尖私募股權業者已有 20 年，我一向樂於與聰明的人共事。我接下來要說的話，從 CEO 口中說出或許有點奇怪，但我幾乎興奮得不得了，因為 Silver Lake 現在已進入 AMC 的董事會。Silver Lake 完全認同我們公司的策略。他們在所到之處都能創造價值。他們的投資帶來了可觀回報，而他們對 AMC 未來的信心充分說明了我們正努力為股東創造的價值。

Accounting sometimes being a quirky thing, I also need to mention that their convertible notes investment has created a new derivative liability reported on in the press release today that gets charged to our net income, although not to our EBITDA, and will get marked-to-market each quarter going forward for the next 2 years.

會計有時相當古怪，我也需要提到：他們的可轉債投資產生了一項新的衍生性金融負債，已在今日新聞稿中揭露；該負債會計入我們的淨利（但不影響 EBITDA），並將在未來 2 年每季按市價（mark-to-market）重新衡量。

It is entirely a noncash charge that will get settled through a balance sheet adjustment about 2 years from now. Ironically, the charge goes up as the AMC share price rises. And the mark-to-market liability conversely would decrease if the AMC share price were to fall. You should know that it's there, but as we tend to be valued on EBITDA, and this is strictly a noncash issue, we're expecting the markets to look past this derivative. And as a further reason to pay scant attention to the quarterly movement in the derivative, if the fourth quarter of 2018 had ended last night, the entire charge to earnings in Q3 from this derivative already would have been completely reversed.

這完全是一項非現金費用，約 2 年後將透過資產負債表調整方式結算。諷刺的是，AMC 股價上漲時，該費用反而會增加。相反地，若 AMC 股價下跌，按市價衡量的負債則會減少。各位應該知道它的存在，但由於我們通常以 EBITDA 來估值，而這純粹是非現金項目，我們預期市場會忽略這項衍生性金融工具。此外，作為不必太在意該衍生性金融工具每季波動的另一個理由：如果 2018 年第四季昨晚就結束，那麼第三季因該衍生性金融工具而計入損益的全部費用，早已會被完全沖回。

And finally the fourth topic. It's time to talk Stubs and A-List. In the release we issued earlier this week, we told you that AMC Stubs just hit 17 million member households, up from 2.5 million member households only 2.5 years ago. Stubs members represent more than 40% of AMC's entire U.S. clientele, now pacing at a run rate of more than 100 million AMC Movie tickets sold annually.

最後是第四個主題。現在該談談 Stubs 與 A-List 了。在我們本週稍早發布的新聞稿中，我們告訴各位，AMC Stubs 的會員家庭數剛突破 1,700 萬戶，較僅 2.5 年前的 250 萬戶大幅成長。Stubs 會員占 AMC 全美客群的 40% 以上，目前按年化速度計算，每年售出的 AMC 電影票已超過 1 億張。

It gives us a customer database rich with account-by-account moviegoing histories and habits. And as a smart marketer should, we are e-mailing or texting Stubs members with individually tailored customized communications well more than 1 billion times annually to promote their continued loyalty and patronage of AMC.

這讓我們擁有一個內容豐富的客戶資料庫，包含逐一帳戶的觀影歷史與習慣。而如同精明的行銷人員應做的，我們每年透過電子郵件或簡訊，向 Stubs 會員發送超過 10 億次、依個人量身打造的客製化訊息，以促進他們持續對 AMC 的忠誠與消費。

One of the biggest successes we have ever seen is our new VIP tier of Stubs, our new A-List program. Sometime this weekend, possibly Sunday, probably Saturday, A-List will cross 500,000 enrolled paid members. You all recall that we hoped we could hit 500,000 members at the end of a full year in operation. We'll do that number instead in 4.5 months.

我們見過的最大成功之一，是 Stubs 的全新 VIP 等級，也就是我們新的 A-List 計畫。就在這個週末的某個時間，可能是週日，但更可能是週六，A-List 的已註冊付費會員將突破 50 萬人。各位都記得，我們原本希望在完整營運滿一年時達到 50 萬會員。但我們將在 4.5 個月內就達成這個數字。

At $20 a month per member, that's a run rate of $120 million per year of annual recurring revenues in admission tickets coming from a program that did not exist 4.5 months ago. And that's before you add in continued impressive new member growth, the approximate price increase averaging 10% nationally that we just announced for 2019, the tens of millions of dollars of food and beverage buying that A-Listers are buying or the full retail ticket price coming from family and friends as they're coming along with A-List members.

以每位會員每月 20 美元計算，這相當於每年 1.2 億美元的年化經常性收入（來自入場票券），而這個計畫在 4.5 個月前根本還不存在。而這還未包含：持續亮眼的新會員成長、我們剛宣布 2019 年全美平均約 10% 的票價調漲、A-List 會員購買的數千萬美元餐飲，以及會員攜同家人朋友前來時所帶來的全額零售票價收入。

Having said that, as others have sadly demonstrated to their peril, getting volume at unacceptable prices is a blunder. AMC does not intend to repeat their mistakes. Sustainability is important to us and crucial to our members because they want A-List to prosper and to offer consumers real value for years to come. That's one reason among many that our monthly price is more than double that of our competitors even prior to the price being raised next year in 15 states and the District of Columbia.

話雖如此，正如其他業者不幸以慘痛代價所證明的，以不可接受的價格換取量能是一種失策。AMC 無意重蹈他們的覆轍。永續性對我們很重要，對會員也至關重要，因為他們希望 A-List 能夠蓬勃發展，並在未來多年持續為消費者提供真正的價值。這也是眾多原因之一，讓我們的月費即使在明年於 15 個州與哥倫比亞特區調漲之前，就已經是競爭對手的兩倍以上。

Many of you seen the failure of others in the space have been guessing pretty wildly, in some cases, about A-List's financial impact on AMC. While we won't routinely be sharing all these numbers with you on every quarterly call, since A-List is so new, we want to be very transparent with you now so you can see why we are so enthusiastic about what all this can mean to AMC. There are 8 key early learnings from A-List.

你們許多人看到同業在此領域的失敗後，對 A-List 對 AMC 的財務影響做了相當大膽的猜測，在某些情況下甚至相當離譜。雖然我們不會在每次季度電話會議上例行性地與各位分享所有這些數字，但由於 A-List 非常新，我們現在希望對各位非常透明，讓你們看見為何我們對這一切可能為 AMC 帶來的意義如此振奮。關於 A-List，有 8 項關鍵的早期學習。

One, with 500,000 members now and more coming, there already is and over time there's going to be even more meaningful annual recurring revenues coming from this audience. A-Listers are currently generating almost 1 of every 10 AMC theater visits in the United States. But of course, the vast majority of AMC guests will come through our doors the old-fashioned way even with A-List, one ticket bought at a time.

第一，目前已有 50 萬名會員且仍在增加，這個族群已經帶來、且隨時間推移將帶來更具意義的年度經常性收入。目前 A-List 會員幾乎貢獻了美國境內 AMC 影城每 10 次到訪中的 1 次。但當然，即使有 A-List，AMC 絕大多數的來客仍會以傳統方式走進我們的大門——一次買一張票。

Two, 49% of A-List members were not previously members of AMC Stubs, which confirms market research that we're doing weekly, which also is indicating that there's a ton of incrementality in moviegoing and a ton of incrementality in moviegoing at AMC coming from this A-List population.

第二，49% 的 A-List 會員先前並非 AMC Stubs 會員；這印證了我們每週進行的市場研究結果，也顯示這個 A-List 族群帶來大量的增量觀影需求，以及大量在 AMC 的增量觀影。

Three, A-List appeals to all age groups, but especially intriguing to us, it's intriguing to millennials. 27% of A-Listers are 30 years of age or under. This is a group that many have thought long and hard about how to pull this younger generation into theaters, an age group which has been somewhat elusive to theater operators in the recent past.

第三，A-List 對所有年齡層都有吸引力，但對我們而言特別值得關注的是，它對千禧世代很有吸引力。27% 的 A-List 會員年齡在 30 歲或以下。這個族群是許多人長期思考如何把年輕世代拉回影城的一群人；而在近年來，這個年齡層對影城營運商而言一直有些難以觸及。

Four, we previously said publicly to you that we were going to have to subsidize early A-List heavy users, estimating about $15 million for launching and subsidizing the program in 2018, showing up mostly in lower prices per ticket consumed and excess film rental cost from incremental visitation. Happily for us, our member acquisition launch and subsidy costs are running more than 50% less per member than we had originally modeled, therefore, increasing the lifetime profitability of each member and allowing us to add more members than we originally expected without great pain.

第四，我們先前已公開表示，對於早期 A-List 的重度使用者，我們將需要提供補貼；我們估計 2018 年推出並補貼該計畫約需 1,500 萬美元，主要反映在每張被使用票券的單價較低，以及因增量到訪而產生的額外影片分帳（片租）成本。令我們欣喜的是，我們的會員獲取、啟動與補貼成本，按每位會員計算比原先模型低了 50% 以上，因此提高了每位會員的終身獲利能力，也讓我們能在不承受太大壓力的情況下，新增比原先預期更多的會員。

And even with these new members being far greater than we expected, thanks to their early subsidy being reduced, they're bringing along of full revenue tickets from family and friends, the food and beverage purchases that they make, we generated $142.4 million of adjusted EBITDA globally in the third quarter of 2018. We similarly are not concerned that early A-List subsidies will unduly affect Q4 EBITDA generation for all the same reasons.

即使這些新會員數遠超我們預期，因為早期補貼降低，他們也帶來了家人與朋友購買的全額票券收入，以及他們自身的餐飲消費；因此我們在 2018 年第三季全球產生了 1.424 億美元的調整後 EBITDA。基於同樣的原因，我們也不擔心早期 A-List 補貼會對第四季 EBITDA 的產生造成過度影響。

Five, we also previously said to you publicly that once we were through the launch subsidy period in 2018 and a breakeven year in 2019, we expected that commencing in 2020, we would see incremental EBITDA from A-List of $15 million to $25 million per year per 1 million members if average visits in 2020 and, for that matter, beyond, were 2.5 visits per month per member. We now believe that with soaring membership, A-List will not breakeven in 2019. Instead, it actually will be accretive in 2019, a year ahead of schedule.

第五，我們先前也公開向各位表示，一旦度過 2018 年的推出補貼期，以及 2019 年的損益兩平年度，我們預期自 2020 年起，若 2020 年（以及其後）每位會員每月平均到訪為 2.5 次，則 A-List 每增加 100 萬名會員，每年可帶來 1,500 萬至 2,500 萬美元的增量 EBITDA。我們現在相信，隨著會員數快速攀升，A-List 在 2019 年將不會只是損益兩平。相反地，它在 2019 年實際上將具增益效果（對獲利有正面貢獻），比原定時程提前一年。

Six, implied in our prior public comments, we modeled heavy usage early, and that it would take about a year for A-List member visitation to settle down to 2.5 visits per month such that the program could be generative. And on this point, here may be the best news of all. We are tracking A-List visitation in excruciating detail.

第六點，如同我們先前公開評論中所暗示的，我們在模型中假設初期使用量會偏高，並且大約需要一年時間，A-List 會員的到訪頻率才會回落並穩定在每月 2.5 次，如此該計畫才能產生正向貢獻。而在這一點上，這可能是所有消息中最好的。我們正以極其細緻的程度追蹤 A-List 的到訪情況。

Speaking in round numbers, just as we thought, new members are averaging about 3.4 visits in their first full calendar month of membership. But far favorable to our expectations, by month 2 in the program, they are already down to 2.8 visits; and by month 3, down to 2.7 visits. If this trend continues, as other proprietary data in our possession also suggests that it will, we now believe that they could get down to the modeled 2.5 average visits per month before that full year transpires.

以概略數字來說，正如我們所預期，新會員在入會後第一個完整曆月平均約 3.4 次到訪。但比我們預期更有利的是，到了計畫的第 2 個月，他們已降至 2.8 次；到第 3 個月，降至 2.7 次。若此趨勢持續下去——而我們掌握的其他專有數據也顯示確實如此——我們現在相信，在滿一年之前，他們就可能降至模型所假設的每月平均 2.5 次到訪。

Seven, not because we needed to but instead because of the incredible demand we're seeing for A-List, which has been so strong, we just announced a price increase for 2019 new members and for renewing 2018 members 12 months after they join, of 10% in 10 states and the District of Columbia and 20% in 5 states, including some of our most important, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and California. No increase was instituted in the 35 states where the cost of living is the lowest and where we sensed consumers could be more price sensitive.

第七點，不是因為我們有必要，而是因為我們看到 A-List 的需求驚人且非常強勁，我們剛宣布：對 2019 年新會員，以及 2018 年會員在加入滿 12 個月後續約者，在 10 個州與哥倫比亞特區調漲 10%，並在 5 個州調漲 20%，其中包含我們最重要的一些市場：紐約、新澤西、康乃狄克、麻薩諸塞與加州。在另外 35 個生活成本最低、且我們判斷消費者可能對價格更敏感的州，則未實施任何調漲。

At full run rate, which won't start until next autumn at the earliest, this price increase alone is worth more than an additional $20 million to AMC of added contribution per year per 1 million members. Or it provides us a healthy and protective cushion, offsetting, if for some odd reason, movie visitation troughs out at 2.7 visits per month instead of 2.5, although we still do believe 2.5 is the correct predictor.

以全面運行的水準來看——最早也要到明年秋季才會開始——僅此一項漲價，對 AMC 而言，每 100 萬名會員每年就可增加超過 2,000 萬美元的額外貢獻。或者說，它為我們提供了一個健康且具保護性的緩衝；即便出於某些奇怪原因，觀影到訪的谷底停在每月 2.7 次而非 2.5 次，也能加以抵銷，儘管我們仍相信 2.5 才是正確的預測值。

And point eight. If you pore through the message boards and social media postings as we have done, you'd see that AMC Stubs A-Listers just love A-List, how easy it is to use, the many program benefits it offers and the consumer transparency and stability of our offering even at more than double the price of what others are charging. This is a cake and eat it too program. Our guests are happy, AMC is happy. And as a result, A-List is sparking considerable new royalty to AMC and will, starting in 2019, produce significant additional EBITDA for us.

第八點。如果你像我們一樣仔細翻閱留言板與社群媒體貼文，你會看到 AMC Stubs A-List 會員就是喜歡 A-List：它使用起來多麼容易、提供的各項計畫福利，以及我們的方案即使價格是他人收費的兩倍以上，仍具備對消費者而言的透明度與穩定性。這是一個兩全其美的計畫。我們的顧客很滿意，AMC 也很滿意。因此，A-List 正在激發對 AMC 相當可觀的新忠誠度，並且自 2019 年起，將為我們帶來顯著的額外 EBITDA。

In summary, in A-List, we have an incredible winner. At current volumes and current pricing, we're seeing $120 million in annual recurring ticket revenues from a program that isn't even 5 months old, but of course both membership volumes and pricing are continuing to rise. And perhaps more important than anything else, we are absolutely intent on running this program profitably.

總結來說，A-List 是一個令人驚豔的贏家。以目前的規模與定價，我們看到一個甚至還不到 5 個月的計畫，就已帶來每年 1.2 億美元的經常性票房收入；當然，會員規模與定價仍在持續上升。而或許比其他任何事情更重要的是，我們絕對堅持要以獲利的方式來營運這個計畫。

Sustainability is the relevant buzzword that's applicable here. Many in our executive and management team have considerable experience with programs like this. AMC has been running one successfully in the United Kingdom for several years. And we are constantly, and I mean constantly, monitoring all the variables that are needed for success with A-List. Our people are just all over this program, as am I, we're literally living it 24/7.

「永續性」是此處適用的關鍵流行語。我們的高階主管與管理團隊中，許多人對這類計畫有相當豐富的經驗。AMC 在英國已成功營運類似計畫多年。而且我們持續——我是說持續不斷——監控 A-List 成功所需的所有變數。我們的團隊對這個計畫投入極深，我也是，我們幾乎是 24/7 生活在其中。

And as a final thought to the quarter and to the year 2018. In Q3, we posted solid numbers and made enormous strategic advances that will help AMC progress for years to come. And from an adjusted EBITDA perspective, we are on the cusp of reporting the best full year results for 2018 in our company's almost century-long history. We know what's coming in 2019. We're excited for the year ahead as well. There you go. That's the fulsome report. It's time for your questions.

最後，對本季以及 2018 年做個收尾。在第三季，我們繳出穩健的數字，並取得巨大的策略性進展，將在未來多年幫助 AMC 持續前進。從調整後 EBITDA 的角度來看，我們正站在門檻上，即將公布 2018 年可能是本公司近百年歷史中最佳的全年成果。我們知道 2019 年將會到來什麼。我們也對接下來的一年感到振奮。就是這樣。以上是完整報告。現在開始提問。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Kannan Venkateshwar from Barclays. We're not hearing anything from that line. Our following question comes from Eric Handler of MKM Partners.

(接線員指示) 我們的第一個問題來自 Barclays 的 Kannan Venkateshwar。我們在那條線上沒有聽到任何聲音。下一個問題來自 MKM Partners 的 Eric Handler。

Couple of things quick. First, with regards to A-List, I'm just curious what's the impact on food and beverage sales? Are you seeing anything that's different from non-A-List members?

有幾點快速請教。第一，關於 A-List，我想了解它對餐飲（食品與飲料）銷售的影響是什麼？你們看到與非 A-List 會員相比有任何不同嗎？

Yes, thanks, Eric. And we'll give you as many follow-ups as you want. The number one is buying food, that's a good thing. And since they're coming with such a surge in volume, it is the A-List population that's helping to drive this 8.6% domestic increase in attendance, not the only program that's driving attendance, but certainly one of them. They are buying food. One of the things that we have figured out quickly is while they're buying food, they're not buying quite as much food as the typical more casual AMC guest. Some had speculated that, oh, well, they're not paying anything to get into the theater, so they can spend more on food because it's less painful in the wallet. As it turns out, in reality, what we learned in the first 3 or 4 months, if you're coming 2 or 3 times a month in the movie theater, there's just almost so many vats or troughs of popcorn that you can eat. You can only consume so many giant boxes of Raisinets before you just don't want to look at more food. So they're buying food, they're buying food at about $4 a pop instead of $5 a pop. And what that's caused us to do immediately is turn our F&B organization and get it to focus on what is it that we can sell to this population who may not want the vast quantities that we judicially have sold to justify our higher prices. So we're looking at interesting new menu items that we think will appeal. And we're pretty sure we can get the spending per head to rise over time. But we're not in the business of just looking at revenues per patron, we're looking at the business of revenues total. And with the increase in attendance, we do have an increase in total F&B sales, and that's what we've learned in the first 4 months.

是的，謝謝你，Eric。你想追問多少我們都可以回答。第一點是他們會買食物，這是好事。而且由於他們帶來如此大幅的量能成長，推動美國本土出席人次成長 8.6% 的，正是 A-List 人口——當然不是唯一推動出席的計畫，但肯定是其中之一。他們確實會買食物。我們很快就發現一件事：雖然他們會買食物，但買的量沒有一般較為偶爾來訪的 AMC 顧客那麼多。有人曾推測，喔，反正他們進戲院不用另外付錢，所以可以把更多錢花在食物上，因為對荷包比較不痛。但事實上，我們在前 3 到 4 個月學到的是：如果你一個月來戲院 2、3 次，你能吃的爆米花桶或爆米花槽幾乎也就那麼多。你能吃下的超大盒 Raisinets 也有限，吃到某個程度你就不想再看到更多食物了。所以他們會買食物，但每次大約花 4 美元，而不是 5 美元。這也促使我們立刻調整餐飲組織的重點，去思考我們能賣什麼給這群可能不想要我們以往為了支撐較高定價而「一貫」銷售的大份量產品的客群。因此我們正在研究一些有趣的新菜單品項，我們認為會更有吸引力。而且我們相當確信，隨著時間推進，人均消費可以提高。但我們的業務不只是看每位顧客的收入，我們看的是總收入。隨著出席人次增加，我們的餐飲總銷售也確實增加，這就是我們在前 4 個月所學到的。

Great. And then as you think about the disparity of prices that you have had and maybe you can talk about the AMC Classic versus the standard AMC Theatres, are you seeing anything geographically or by market where the membership is working better than other places?

很好。接著，當你思考你們過去的票價差異時，也許你可以談談 AMC Classic 相較於標準的 AMC Theatres，你是否看到在地理區域或不同市場上，會員方案在某些地方比其他地方運作得更好？

Sure. The -- geographically, the biggest surprise to us is that this program is popular all over the United States. We always expected it would be strong in our large urban markets, especially where we have high market share, cities in like of New York, where we have in excess of a 40% theater market share and Manhattan is an example. But it's working all over the country. So that's the first learning. The second learning is that if you take that spread of 50 states and the District of Columbia, we were able to put out a press release that said we were holding the line on pricing because we were not increasing the price in 35 of the 50 U.S. states. Well, as it turns out, fully 1/3 of our A-list customers are in the New York area, Boston area and California. New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, California. Another 1/3 are in those 10 states that got the second tier of price increase and 1/3 of our clientele is in the remaining 35 states. And we know that the people who are joining in the 35 states are essentially paying a price per month that is 2x, double the price of a single movie ticket in their theaters. In New York, however, where the prices of tickets are so much higher in movie theaters, they're not currently paying 2x the price of a single-movie admission. They're getting a much better deal. And so when we looked at how we would price the program, back in June, we decided that for simplicity and given the competition we are facing, we should just blow out with one national price, and we obviously picked the price point with under $20 for its initial launch. But we always had at the back of our mind that we would tier these prices across the country. As I said earlier in my prepared remarks, based on the cost of living in these markets, New Yorkers are used to paying more for things than people are used to paying in Oklahoma City. And so we took prices up by 20% in California and New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, in Massachusetts, up 10% in other big mass markets. Another thing that we've learned is that we took no flak on Monday when we put out this announcement about price increase. You should read the Reddit message boards about A-List that our competitors. They're fans of A-List because it offers them so much value. And one of the things that we did to make sure that we get the higher price that is going in place is we also promised these people more amenities at the AMC Theatres, more amenities at the AMC DINE-IN theaters. So we announced on Monday, as well, for example, that we're rolling out reserved seating to 100% of our AMC-branded and AMC DINE-IN branded theaters, not in our AMC Classic theaters but the AMC and AMC DINE-IN theaters. We also announced that in the so-called tier 1 cities in LA, San Francisco, San Diego, New York metro, Boston metro, we're just going to roll out in the first half of '19 mobile ordering of food and beverage, so that you can order -- preorder your food and drink on your smartphone app or on the website, and it will either be ready for you for pickup at the concession stand at the theater ready and waiting for you when you get there or alternatively in our recliner-equipped theaters actually delivered to your seat. We're doing this already at 52 of our theaters. It's been a big success. And it's actually driven $1.25 spending increase per patron from those patrons who've used the mobile ordering service. Now the percentage of people using mobile ordering service is small, so it's not going to translate to $1.25 a pop across the entirety of the population. But it sets another thing that we can do to provide good service for our guests, fill these AMC Theatres rich with amenities and capture patronage profitably as a result. The last thing I'd add on price -- the last thing I want to add on pricing is in the United States for a long time now, no good deed goes unpublished -- unpunished, actually unpublished and unpunished. I heard some people react to our price increase on Monday that maybe we needed to do that because somehow the financial impact of A-List was negative to AMC. As I've tried to relay on the call today, the financial impact at AMC is really just every bit as much as we expected, except more favorable. The membership is growing faster. The visitations are coming down to reasonable levels more quickly. We think the problem -- the program will be accretive a year ahead of schedule. And we're kind of amazed how big the program has become so quickly. So the reason we took the price increase is not because we have to but because we're able to. It's simply a matter of demand and supply, and demand is very strong right there, right now out there, and we want to capitalize on that.

當然。就地理分布而言，對我們最大的驚喜是，這個方案在全美各地都很受歡迎。我們原本一直預期它會在我們的大型都會市場表現強勁，特別是在我們市占率高的地方，例如紐約這類城市；我們在那裡的影城市占率超過 40%，曼哈頓就是一個例子。但它在全國各地都運作得很好。所以這是第一個學到的。第二個學到的是，如果你把 50 個州加上哥倫比亞特區的分布攤開來看，我們曾能發布新聞稿表示我們在票價上守住底線，因為我們在美國 50 個州中的 35 個州沒有調漲價格。然而事實證明，我們足足有 1/3 的 A-List 客戶在紐約地區、波士頓地區以及加州。也就是紐約、新澤西、康乃狄克、麻薩諸塞、加州。另外 1/3 在那 10 個被調到第二級價格上調的州，而我們剩下 1/3 的客群在其餘 35 個州。我們也知道，在那 35 個州加入的人，基本上每月支付的價格約為其影城單張電影票價的 2 倍，也就是雙倍。但在紐約，由於電影票價高得多，他們目前支付的並不是單次入場票價的 2 倍。他們拿到的是更划算的交易。因此，當我們回頭看該如何為這個方案定價時，在 6 月時我們決定，為了簡化並考量我們面臨的競爭，我們應該先以一個全國統一價格推出，而且很明顯地，我們在初次上市時選擇了低於 20 美元的價位。但我們一直在心裡想著，未來會把這些價格在全國做分級。如我先前在準備好的發言中提到，基於各市場的生活成本，紐約人習慣為各種事物支付更高的價格，相較之下，奧克拉荷馬市的人就不一樣。因此我們在加州以及紐約、新澤西、康乃狄克、麻薩諸塞把價格上調 20%，在其他大型大眾市場上調 10%。我們學到的另一件事是，週一我們發布這項漲價公告時，幾乎沒有受到抨擊。你應該去看看 Reddit 上關於 A-List 的討論板，那些是我們競爭對手的。他們是 A-List 的粉絲，因為它提供了很高的價值。而我們為了確保能夠落實更高的價格，也承諾這些人在 AMC Theatres 會享有更多設施與服務，在 AMC DINE-IN 影城也會有更多設施與服務。所以我們也在週一宣布，例如，我們將把劃位座位（reserved seating）推廣到 100% 的 AMC 品牌與 AMC DINE-IN 品牌影城——不包含 AMC Classic 影城，而是 AMC 與 AMC DINE-IN 影城。我們也宣布，在所謂第一級城市（tier 1 cities），包括洛杉磯、舊金山、聖地牙哥、紐約都會區、波士頓都會區，我們將在 2019 年上半年推出餐飲的行動點餐，讓你可以在手機 App 或網站上點餐——預先點好你的食物與飲料；到影城時，要嘛在販賣部取餐，餐點已經準備好等你；或者在我們配有躺椅的影廳，直接送到你的座位。我們已經在 52 家影城這麼做了。成效非常好。而且實際上，對使用行動點餐服務的觀眾而言，每位顧客的消費增加了 1.25 美元。目前使用行動點餐服務的人占比仍小，所以不會讓整體人群都平均增加每人 1.25 美元。但這也提供了另一個我們能做的事情：為賓客提供良好服務，讓這些 AMC Theatres 充滿各種設施與服務，並因此以獲利的方式吸引客流。最後我想補充一點關於價格——我最後想補充的是，在美國很長一段時間以來，做了好事也不一定有好報——其實是「不會不被懲罰」，我剛剛說成「不會不被公開」又「不會不被懲罰」。我聽到一些人對我們週一的漲價反應說，也許我們之所以需要漲價，是因為 A-List 對 AMC 的財務影響不知怎地是負面的。但正如我今天在電話會議上試著傳達的，A-List 對 AMC 的財務影響，基本上完全如我們預期，甚至更有利。會員成長更快。到訪次數也更快下降到合理水準。我們認為這個方案將比原定時程提早一年開始帶來增益（accretive）。而且我們也有點驚訝，這個方案竟然在這麼短時間內就變得如此龐大。所以我們調漲價格的原因不是因為我們不得不這麼做，而是因為我們做得到。這純粹是供需問題；此時此刻需求非常強勁，我們希望把握這個機會。

Okay. And then just one quick thing. The mobile food and beverage ordering, is that only through Atom Tickets? Or are you doing something on your own?

好的。然後再快速問一件事。行動端的餐飲點餐，是只透過 Atom Tickets 嗎？還是你們自己也有在做？

No, no, no. We're doing that on our website and our smartphone app. Just to size all this because I -- there was enough in my script, I didn't want to bore you with everything. But what's happened to online ticketing in the last 2 years is phenomenal. If you go back 4 or 5 years ago, Fandango was doing 10% to 15% of our total ticketing, AMC was doing 5% and everybody else combined was doing 1%. Fast-forward to today. Fandango is doing 10% to 15% of our ticketing. Everybody else, including Atom Tickets, is doing 1% to 2% of our tickets. By the way, we like Atom Tickets, we're an investor in Atom Tickets. But AMC is doing more than 30% of all the ticketing for AMC Theatres in the United States online either on our website or our smartphone apps. There's been an explosion of usage of our proprietary website and smartphone app, which we think is a very good thing for us, and we make money from it, too.

不，不，不。我們是在我們的網站和智慧型手機 App 上做。我稍微交代一下整體規模，因為我——我的講稿內容已經夠多了，不想用所有細節讓你覺得無聊。但過去 2 年線上售票的變化非常驚人。如果你回到 4、5 年前，Fandango 佔我們總售票量的 10% 到 15%，AMC 佔 5%，其他所有加起來只有 1%。快轉到今天。Fandango 仍然佔我們售票的 10% 到 15%。其他所有（包括 Atom Tickets）合計只佔我們票量的 1% 到 2%。順帶一提，我們喜歡 Atom Tickets，我們也是 Atom Tickets 的投資人。但 AMC 在美國的 AMC Theatres 線上售票（不論在我們網站或智慧型手機 App）已經佔了超過 30%。我們自有網站與智慧型手機 App 的使用量出現爆發式成長，我們認為這對我們非常有利，而且我們也能從中賺錢。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question is from [John Smith of CLS].

(接線員指示) 下一個問題來自 [CLS 的 John Smith]。

Congrats on a great quarter and huge success on the AMC Stub. One question on the free cash flow. Why did you guys not generate any cash this quarter? It seemed almost like $130 million burn. And it seems like even though EBITDA is up massively year-over-year but our cash flow is significantly down and you barely can pay any dividend and have to sell assets. So what should we be thinking about the cash flow?

恭喜本季表現亮眼，AMC Stub 也非常成功。我有一個關於自由現金流的問題。為什麼你們這一季沒有產生任何現金？看起來幾乎像是燒掉了 1.3 億美元。而且即使 EBITDA 年增大幅上升，但我們的現金流卻明顯下滑，你們幾乎付不起股利，還得賣資產。所以我們應該如何看待現金流？

Yes, it's Craig Ramsey. I would characterize it, as you stated, you have to sell assets. But frankly, what -- if you went back and were to kind of follow our calls over the last year or so, you'd find that we were required to sell -- or the biggest asset we have sold over this period of time was related to one of our acquisitions and our requirement to sell our investment in National CineMedia. And so we have, for several years and including 2018, have been selling to satisfy that DOJ mandate. And the idea is we wanted to reinvest the proceeds from the sale of those securities quickly into high-return theater-level strategic initiatives, most notably the reclining theaters that Adam talked about. So what you're seeing in the cash flow, I'm not sure exactly what formula you're looking at, but you're seeing an elevated amount of CapEx because we're reinvesting sales of assets that were not required because of the CapEx investments, but were mandated. And as a result of our desire to reinvest, those proceeds were the result of that. Is that helpful?

是的，我是 Craig Ramsey。我會像你說的那樣來描述：你們必須賣資產。但坦白說，如果你回頭去看、並追蹤我們過去一年左右的電話會議，你會發現我們被要求出售——或者說，在這段期間我們出售的最大資產，與我們其中一項併購以及我們必須出售在 National CineMedia 的投資有關。因此，我們多年來（包括 2018 年）一直在出售，以滿足司法部（DOJ）的命令要求。我們的想法是，希望把出售這些證券的所得，迅速再投資到劇院層級、報酬率高的策略性計畫上，最主要就是 Adam 提到的可躺式座椅影廳。所以你在現金流看到的情況——我不確定你看的是哪一種計算方式——但你看到的是資本支出（CapEx）偏高，因為我們正在把資產出售所得再投入；而這些資產出售並不是因為資本支出投資而「需要」出售，而是被要求（mandated）出售。因此，基於我們想要再投資的意圖，這些支出對應的資金來源就是那些出售所得。這樣有幫助嗎？

I'd pop in and say it a slightly different way. In the way that you worded the question, I mean there's nothing wrong in the way you worded the question, but the way you worded the question, the implication is sort of that the situation forced us to do -- to sell assets or that we couldn't afford to pay dividends. We look at it pretty differently. We began a 12-month period last August saying that we had found assets that were owned by our company that we thought were nonstrategic, that we could sell without pain. And in fact, we said we found $400 million of them. We actually found $500 million, $550 million, I think, $550 million of them. And we were able to sell those assets profitably.

我補充一下，用稍微不同的方式說。就你提問的措辭而言——你的措辭沒有問題——但那樣的表述隱含的意思有點像是情勢逼得我們必須——必須賣資產，或是我們付不起股利。我們的看法很不一樣。我們從去年 8 月開始的一個 12 個月期間就說過，我們發現公司持有一些我們認為屬於非策略性（nonstrategic）的資產，可以在不造成痛苦的情況下出售。而且我們當時說我們找到了 4 億美元的這類資產。實際上我們找到了 5 億、5.5 億美元——我想是 5.5 億美元。而且我們能夠以獲利的方式出售這些資產。

You guys have done a great job on the asset sales, full credit to that. But without asset sales, would there be a dividend payment?

你們在資產出售上做得很好，這點完全值得肯定。但如果沒有資產出售，還會有股利發放嗎？

Well, of course there would be. But let me just remind you of all the things that we did. So there were 3 inflows of cash as you look over the past year. You had $550 million from asset dispositions. Using last year's numbers, $823 million of EBITDA. And then you had $600 million inflow from Silver Lake. The question is what then were we got to do with all of that cash because we only had debt service of about $260 million and cash taxes are pretty small. And this is where we've been allocating capital and trying to allocate capital as wisely as we can. We have done essentially 4 things: number one, we've grown our footprint by adding theater locations. That's the smallest use of capital but we have added theaters. And our plans are to continue to add theaters in the years ahead. Two, we decided to have -- to pay a robust dividend. We're not only paying a dividend that's yielding in excess of 4%, which is way more than the 1% to 2% average dividend paid by most other companies on the NYSE, but we also just paid a $155 million special dividend just 6 weeks ago to all shareholders. We also bought back about 500 -- no, about -- right around $500 million of stock not only from Wanda but also through open market purchases in the open market between September of '17 and June of '18. So we returned cash to shareholders. And third, we have so many high ROI projects that we believe we can profitably reinvest the cash flow, the free cash flow that we're generating and reinvest it back in our business and get a much higher return for our investors by reinvesting in initiatives. That's why we're renovating theaters like crazy in Europe. That's why we're redoing the ODEON Leicester Square. That's why we're doubling the number of Dolby Cinema locations in the United States and on and on and on. So that's where -- that's the money that's coming in. That's the money that's going out. And in so doing, we're growing the company, we're returning cash to shareholders, and we're reinvesting in the business to drive future growth.

當然會。不過我提醒你一下我們做過的所有事情。所以，回顧過去一年，你會看到有 3 個現金流入來源。第一，你有 5.5 億美元來自資產處分。以去年的數字來看，EBITDA 是 8.23 億美元。然後還有來自 Silver Lake 的 6 億美元資金流入。問題是，面對這些現金，我們接下來要怎麼運用，因為我們的債務償付大約只有 2.6 億美元，而現金稅負也相當小。這就是我們一直在進行資本配置、並盡可能明智配置資本的地方。我們基本上做了 4 件事：第一，我們透過新增影城據點來擴大版圖。這是最小的一項資金用途，但我們確實新增了影城。而且我們的計畫是在未來幾年持續新增影城。第二，我們決定支付——支付一個相當可觀的股利。我們不僅支付殖利率超過 4% 的股利，這遠高於紐約證交所（NYSE）多數公司 1% 到 2% 的平均股利水準，而且我們在 6 週前才剛向所有股東支付了 1.55 億美元的特別股利。我們也回購了大約 500——不，大約——接近 5 億美元的股票，不僅是向萬達（Wanda）回購，也包括在 2017 年 9 月到 2018 年 6 月期間於公開市場進行的回購。所以我們把現金回饋給股東。第三，我們有非常多高投資報酬率（ROI）的專案，我們相信可以把我們正在產生的現金流、自由現金流，獲利地再投資回到公司，透過再投資這些計畫，為投資人取得更高的報酬。這就是為什麼我們在歐洲大規模翻新影城。這就是為什麼我們在整修 ODEON Leicester Square。這就是為什麼我們在美國把 Dolby Cinema 的據點數量加倍，等等等等。所以這就是——資金的流入來源。這就是資金的流出去向。而透過這樣做，我們在壯大公司、把現金回饋給股東，同時也再投資於業務以推動未來成長。

Our next question is from Jim Goss of Barrington Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Barrington Research 的 Jim Goss。

Adam, I was wondering if the comments you made earlier were meant to imply that the concessions uplift is totally offsetting the obligation to the studios even in the initial pricing and A-List even before you had the price increase?

Adam，我想請教一下，你先前的評論是否意在表示，即使在最初定價以及 A-List（甚至在你們調漲價格之前），餐飲讓利（concessions uplift）的提升已經完全抵銷了對片商的分成義務？

Oh, yes, yes. Look, A-List is already a profitable program because if you take the $20 that's coming in, plus the concession purchases and less the food costs, of course, and you deduct out the film rent splits that are going to the theaters, that's a positive number. The issue is not -- is it a profitable program? It is a profitable program. The issue is trying to compare that program to what a subset of those consumers might have done if we didn't have A-List. Because if we didn't have A-List, some of those ticket buyers wouldn't be buying tickets at all. Some of those ticket buyers would still be buying tickets at AMC. They'd be coming less frequently, they'd be buying fewer tickets but we'd get a higher price per visit. We might get a higher F&B spend per visit. And so our goal isn't just to have a profitable program. It's to make sure that the profitability of that program gives us incremental EBITDA above and beyond what that population would have given us in the absence of that program. And that's where we said -- this subsidizing users and stuff, again, they're not unprofitable. It's just that compared to what it would have been if there were no A-List program at all, we might have made slightly more money. Now we're right in line, and we estimated this thing that we're going to take about $15 million in A-List in 2018. Well, the membership is double what we expected, which is a high-class problem. But you could have assumed from that, that our acquisition costs would have doubled. But fortunately for us, because the members are pouring in so easily readily, our acquisition cost per member, our subsidy per member is much less than we appeared it might be. And the fact that the early use of subsidies are much lower on a per head basis is -- just happens to neatly offset the doubling of the membership. So I think we're right in line with this program still costing us about $15 million of EBITDA in round numbers in 2018. But that's '18. Come to '19, we -- as I said on the call, we thought this thing was just going to be a breakeven program in '19. Again, I don't mean breakeven whether it's profitable or unprofitable. I mean breakeven about against what we all turn it would have been, hypothetically, if there was no program and all people were just buying tickets one at a time. We now think because the membership is still coming in so fast that we're going to make money on this thing in '19. And again, not -- making money, I'm not describing as whether it's a profitable or unprofitable program, it's already a profitable program. I'm talking about what would those consumers have done anyway, what kind of moneys will we have gotten from them anyway? Our goal is to get more, not less.

喔，是的，是的。你看，A-List 本來就是一個已經獲利的方案，因為如果你把進來的 20 美元，再加上餐飲購買、當然要扣掉食品成本，然後再扣除要付給片商的影片租金分成，那會是一個正數。問題不在於——它是不是一個獲利的方案？它確實是獲利的方案。問題在於，試著把這個方案與「如果我們沒有 A-List，那其中一部分消費者原本會怎麼做」來做比較。因為如果沒有 A-List，有些買票的人根本就不會買票。有些買票的人仍然會在 AMC 買票。他們來的頻率會更低、買的票會更少，但我們每次到訪能收到的票價會更高。我們每次到訪的餐飲（F&B）消費可能也會更高。因此，我們的目標不只是要有一個獲利的方案。而是要確保這個方案的獲利能力，能讓我們取得「增量 EBITDA」，高於且超過在沒有這個方案的情況下，那群人本來會帶給我們的 EBITDA。這也就是我們所說的——補貼用戶之類的事情，再說一次，他們並不是不獲利。只是相較於「如果完全沒有 A-List 方案」時可能的結果，我們或許本來可以多賺一點。現在我們大致符合預期；我們估計 2018 年 A-List 這件事大約會讓我們少約 1,500 萬美元（約數）的 EBITDA。嗯，會員數是我們預期的兩倍，這算是高級的煩惱。但你也可以因此推論，我們的獲客成本也會翻倍。不過對我們而言幸運的是，因為會員非常容易、很快就湧入，我們每位會員的獲客成本、每位會員的補貼，遠低於我們原先看起來可能會發生的水準。而且早期使用所需的補貼在「人均」基礎上低很多——剛好可以很巧妙地抵銷會員數翻倍的影響。所以我認為我們仍大致符合預期：2018 年這個方案讓我們付出的 EBITDA 成本約為 1,500 萬美元（約數）。但那是 2018 年。到了 2019 年，我們——正如我在電話會議上說的——原本以為 2019 年這會是一個打平（breakeven）的方案。再說一次，我說的打平不是指它本身是獲利或虧損。我指的是相對於我們都認為在假設沒有這個方案、所有人都只是一次買一張票的情境下，本來會是什麼結果——在那個基準上打平。我們現在認為，因為會員仍然以非常快的速度加入，2019 年我們會在這件事上賺到錢。同樣地，我說「賺到錢」不是在描述它本身是獲利或虧損的方案——它本來就已經是獲利的方案。我在談的是：那些消費者本來就會怎麼做？我們本來就能從他們身上拿到多少收入？我們的目標是拿到更多，而不是更少。

And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think initially, you had indicated something -- that something like 10% uptake of your attendees going into a subscription program would be sort of a normalized eventual percentage in your past history. I'm wondering if it's -- is this doing more than what you would have expected it to do? And what share of your attendance do you expect will come from A-List members when you get to the part where it levels off, assuming it levels off?

如果我沒記錯的話，我想一開始你們曾表示過某件事——大概像是：依你們過去的經驗，最終會有約 10% 的觀影人次轉入訂閱方案，會是一個較為常態化的最終比例。我想問的是——這個表現是否超出你原本的預期？以及當它進入趨於平穩的階段（假設會趨於平穩）時，你預期你們的觀影人次中，有多少比例會來自 A-List 會員？

Right. Just to show you how -- if you want to know why we're optimistic and enthusiastic about this thing, on the call we launched it, we said give us a year, we can get to 500,000 members. Give us 2 years, maybe we can get to 1 million members. We don't know we can actually get there. And that based on our experience in Europe, this thing would cap out at about 10% of our clientele, and that 90% would come in the old-fashioned way one ticket at a time. It's 4.5 months into the program, we've already hit 500,000 members. There's no evidence it's going to anywhere close to stop anytime soon. So hard to imagine we won't hit 1 million. When I don't know, but we're sure we'll get there. We're already at almost 10% of our members -- I'm sorry, 10% of our guests at theaters are coming under the guise of A-List, domestically that is. And it's only 4.5 months into the program and they're still signing up in droves. So I wouldn't be shocked if we had members at a rate of 50,000 to 100,000 a month going forward, probably more months, I don't know. It could be 3 months, it could be 10 months, it could be 18 months. There's a lot of potential here. So now where do we think it caps out? I thought it was going to cap out between 0.5 million and 1 million members and 10% of our clientele. Now I'm thinking it may cap out between 1 million and 2 million members and maybe it caps out at 15% to 20% of our clientele. I still think this thing -- this program -- eventually, we'll get this program to a point where people are paying about 2x a normal movie ticket to go -- to be a member of A-List. We're pretty close to that now depending upon the market that you're in, which means that if you're going to less than 1 movie a month, this program is not for you. But the whole ethos of this program is if you're going to this -- the theaters once a month now, once in a quarter now, once in a quarter times now, well, pay for 1.5 to 2x and then have the flexibility to go no times, 1x, 2x, 5x, 12x, if you want. And you've already heard me say, we think it'll average out at about 2.5 visits per. I think we're going to -- I -- just based on everything that we've seen so far, we have a lot of potential here for this thing to really amount to a couple of million tickets a month. And that's a very encouraging thing for us because of the central driving difference in AMC Stubs A-List versus all the other stuff that's out there from third-party operators. I'm not talking about Cinemark's Movie Club, I'm talking about the other stuff. We're going to run our program profitably. We're already charging double the price, and we're getting that price. And so as A-List grows, this is a very good thing for AMC. As I said in the call, just take 500,000 members at $20 a month times 12 months, you're already at $120 million a year program and that doesn't include food. That doesn't include take-along tickets. And it doesn't include the price increases coming in '19 and any subsequent price increases in the future. It doesn't include all the take-along tickets that they're buying at full revenue. This thing has the potential to be a very lucrative program for AMC. And also if that's not enough, there were people a year ago who were writing us off, as I said in my prepared remarks, as an anachronism. That the youth of today stream and they don't go to theaters. All these challenges for cinemas, well, not anymore because 27% of our A-Listers are under the age of 30 and they like this program and they're coming to our theaters. And our theaters are booming with attendance and the box office is booming overall. There's a linkage between the 2. So I mean, we could -- we just couldn't be any more positive about what AMC Stubs A-List means for us in 2019 and 2020. And it didn't -- it's not costing us anymore in 2018 than we predicted to you when we launched the program back in June.

對。只是想讓各位看看——如果你想知道為什麼我們對這件事感到樂觀且充滿熱情，在我們推出它的那通電話會議上，我們說給我們一年，我們可以達到 50 萬名會員。給我們兩年，也許我們可以達到 100 萬名會員。我們不知道是否真的能做到。而且根據我們在歐洲的經驗，這項計畫大約會在我們客群的 10% 左右見頂，另外 90% 仍會以傳統方式一次買一張票進來。這個計畫才進行 4.5 個月，我們就已經達到 50 萬名會員。沒有任何跡象顯示它會在短期內接近停止成長。所以很難想像我們不會達到 100 萬。我不知道會在什麼時候，但我們確信會達到。我們現在已經接近我們會員——抱歉，是我們在美國本土的影城來賓中，有 10% 是以 A-List 的名義進場。而且這才 4.5 個月，他們仍在大量註冊。所以如果接下來我們每月新增會員以 5 萬到 10 萬的速度成長，我也不會感到意外，可能還會持續更多個月，我不知道。可能是 3 個月，可能是 10 個月，也可能是 18 個月。這裡有很大的潛力。那麼我們現在認為它會在哪裡見頂？我原本以為會在 50 萬到 100 萬名會員之間見頂，並占我們客群的 10%。現在我認為可能會在 100 萬到 200 萬名會員之間見頂，並且可能在我們客群的 15% 到 20% 見頂。我仍然認為這件事——這個計畫——最終我們會把它推進到一個程度，讓人們為了成為 A-List 會員所支付的費用，大約是一般電影票價的 2 倍。依你所在的市場而定，我們現在已經相當接近這個水準，這也意味著如果你每月看不到 1 部電影，這個計畫就不適合你。但這個計畫的核心精神是：如果你現在是每月去一次——或現在是每季去一次——或現在是每季去幾次，那就付 1.5 到 2 倍的費用，然後擁有彈性：你可以選擇不去、去 1 次、2 次、5 次、12 次，只要你想。而且你也聽我說過，我們認為平均下來大約每人 2.5 次到訪。我認為我們將會——我——就目前看到的一切而言，這裡有很大的潛力，讓這項計畫真正達到每月數百萬張票的規模。這對我們非常鼓舞，因為 AMC Stubs A-List 與市面上其他第三方業者方案之間，有一個核心驅動的差異。我不是在談 Cinemark 的 Movie Club，我是在談其他那些方案。我們會以獲利的方式來營運我們的計畫。我們已經收取雙倍的價格，而且我們也拿得到這個價格。因此，隨著 A-List 成長，這對 AMC 來說是非常好的事情。正如我在電話會議上所說，只要拿 50 萬名會員、每月 20 美元、乘以 12 個月，你就已經有每年 1.2 億美元的計畫收入，而且這還不包含餐飲。這不包含攜伴票。也不包含 2019 年的漲價以及未來任何後續的漲價。也不包含他們以全額收入購買的所有攜伴票。這項計畫對 AMC 來說有潛力成為非常賺錢的方案。而且如果這還不夠，一年前還有人如我在事先準備的發言中所說，認為我們已經不合時宜。他們說現在的年輕人都在串流，不去影城。影城面臨這些挑戰——但現在不一樣了，因為我們的 A-List 會員中有 27% 年齡在 30 歲以下，他們喜歡這個計畫，也正在來我們的影城。我們的影城觀影人次蓬勃成長，整體票房也在成長。兩者之間存在連結。所以我的意思是，我們——我們對 AMC Stubs A-List 在 2019 與 2020 年對我們的意義，實在不可能更正面了。而且在 2018 年，它並沒有比我們在 6 月推出該計畫時向各位預測的成本更高。

And one for Craig, some non-A-List question. The change in lease accounting that's coming up, any thoughts on that and any different approach to our property financing that you might have as a result or maybe there's no impact? But what are you thinking?

還有一題問 Craig，這是一個非 A-List 的問題。即將到來的租賃會計變更，你對此有什麼看法？以及因此在我們的不動產融資上，你可能會採取不同做法嗎？或者其實沒有影響？你怎麼想？

Really, Jim, it's really not a third quarter topic. It's one that we're really looking forward to addressing with you all as we meet for the February and March, early March quarterly call or end of year 2018 call, get into next year, then we'll be prepared to address all these questions.

Jim，坦白說，這真的不是第三季的議題。我們非常期待在 2 月與 3 月（3 月初）的季度電話會議或 2018 年度年終電話會議上，進入明年時再與各位一起討論；到那時我們會準備好回應所有這些問題。

And we're well aware that this is going to be a subject where we needed to do a lot of educating of The Street. Well, it's a 2019 challenge, not a third quarter 2018 challenge. But actually we're all over the subject, and we're thinking hard about it.

我們也非常清楚，這將會是一個需要對華爾街進行大量教育的議題。嗯，這是 2019 年的挑戰，不是 2018 年第三季的挑戰。但其實我們對這個議題掌握得很全面，也正在深入思考。

Our next question is from Ryan Sundby of William Blair.

下一個問題來自 William Blair 的 Ryan Sundby。

I guess, Adam, starting with the -- I think you said, 50% less in acquisition and subsidy cost. If we break it apart, is it -- are you seeing that more on the acquisition side, the consumer is just more primed than you thought they would be to subscription? Or is it more on the subsidy side?

我想，Adam，先從——我記得你說過，獲客與補貼成本降低了 50%。如果把它拆開來看，是不是——你看到更多是發生在獲客端，也就是消費者對訂閱制的接受度比你們原先預期更高、準備更充分？還是更多是在補貼端？

I'd say it's about half and half. First, it's so many members have poured in that we didn't expect would pour in. That's probably because they were primed to -- they made -- the concept was not new on June 26, right. I mean, people have heard of this before. Others ran into difficulty. And we didn't expect to have 1 million members in 4 months and especially at double the price point of the competition. So that's part of the reason. But an equal part of the reason and maybe even more so is we thought it was going to take a full year to get from 3.5 visits per month to 2.5 visits per month, and we were prepared to subsidize these people as they went down that curve. And just so we're clear as to why the visitation will come down over time. When you join this program on day 1, you are hip, baby. I mean, you are -- you're not joining 6 months before you're going to show up at a theater. You're signing up for the program and you're going tonight or you're going tomorrow night. So practically within the first 72 hours, you've seen your first movie. And most people smile when they come out of an AMC theater. It is a very pleasant experience. And they come back, so a lot of people having gone to their first A-List movie, come back frequently. And in the first month, they're practically coming, not quite, but they're practically coming once a week. That's not really reasonable that you're going to keep up that pace over the course of a year. Now some people will but not all. And what's more common is you'll go every other week. Some will go more, some will go less. It'll average out at 2.5 a month. We thought it was going to take a full year to get to that point. It's taken like 2 months to get from 3.5 to 2 -- 3.4 is the number, not 3.5, but it's taken like a month or 2 to get from 3.4 visits to 2.7 visits. That's a much steeper ramp down the curve than we had feared. And therefore, our subsidy goes down. And they're much closer to that 2.5 number earlier in the modeling period. And those 2 factors, more members coming in against the same marketing cost, and they're going -- they're starting strong just as we thought, but they're settling down to what we might call reasonable visitation. When I say reasonable, it's good for them, it's good for us. They're not paying for 2.5 movies. We're getting in for 2.5 movies, everybody's happy. But the fact that they're getting to a reasonable level of visitation more quickly, add those 2 factors together, that's why our acquisition and subsidy cost per member is half of what we thought.

我會說大概各占一半。首先，加入的會員數量湧入之多，超出我們原先預期。這可能是因為他們對——他們已經被「預熱」了——這個概念在 6 月 26 日時其實已不新鮮，對吧。我的意思是，人們之前就聽過這類方案。其他業者遇到了困難。而我們沒預期在 4 個月內就有 100 萬名會員，尤其是在價格點是競爭對手兩倍的情況下。所以這是其中一部分原因。但同等重要、甚至可能更重要的另一部分原因是：我們原本以為要花整整一年，月均觀影次數才會從 3.5 次降到 2.5 次，而我們也準備在他們沿著那條曲線下降的過程中提供補貼。我再說清楚為什麼隨著時間推移，觀影頻率會下降。當你在第 1 天加入這個方案時，你很潮、很有勁。我的意思是——你不會在打算 6 個月後才去看電影時就先加入。你是報名這個方案，然後今晚就去，或明晚就去。所以實際上在前 72 小時內，你就已經看了第一部電影。而且大多數人走出 AMC 影城時都會面帶微笑。那是一個非常愉快的體驗。他們會再回來，所以很多人在看完第一部 A-List 電影後，會很頻繁地回來。在第一個月，他們幾乎是——還不到，但幾乎是——每週來一次。但你不太可能在一整年都維持那樣的節奏。當然有些人會，但不是所有人。更常見的是你會每兩週來一次。有些人更多，有些人更少。平均下來會是每月 2.5 次。我們原本以為要花整整一年才會到那個水準。但從 3.5 降到 2——其實數字是 3.4，不是 3.5——但從每月 3.4 次降到每月 2.7 次，只花了大概 1 到 2 個月。這比我們擔心的下降斜率要陡得多。因此，我們的補貼也隨之下降。而且在模型期間更早的時點，他們就更接近 2.5 這個數字。把這兩個因素合在一起：在相同的行銷成本下有更多會員加入，以及他們一開始如我們預期般很強勁，但很快就回落到我們所稱的「合理」觀影頻率。我說合理，是對他們好、對我們也好。他們並不是在為 2.5 部電影付費。我們是以 2.5 部電影的成本在運作，大家都很開心。但因為他們更快達到合理的觀影水準，把這兩個因素加總起來，這就是為什麼我們每位會員的獲客與補貼成本只有原先預期的一半。

Got it. Yes, that makes sense. I guess now that kind of moved off the 1 pass and 1 price concept, does that open the door to a broader range of passes, either formats or frequency? Or is this kind of model you want or you just have it kind of the same path but scaled for cost of living?

了解。是的，這很合理。我想既然現在某種程度上已經不再堅持「一種通行證、單一價格」的概念，這是否會為更廣泛的通行證組合打開大門，例如不同格式或不同使用頻率？還是說你們想要的就是這種模型，只是依照生活成本做相應的縮放？

Well, I said on the last call that we were going to launch 1 product with 1 price nationwide but that we'd already scoped out internally 6 different programs. And it's only been 4.5 months, and we've already announced that we're going to 3 tiers of pricing around the United States. There are so many more creative ideas we have to try to generate more profit for AMC from this population. Here's the but. If you do too much too fast -- I'm not talking about price now, I'm talking about complexity of product. If you do too much too fast, all you do is wind up confusing the consumer, and therefore, limiting your own sales because someone who, confronted with a simple offer says yes, and they buy. And someone confronted with a complex offer says, "Huh, I got to think which one I want," and they go off and they don't buy at all. And some of them come back and buy but some of them never come back. So part of the art of being good marketeer is balancing all of the complexity in your brain and my brain with -- and everybody else's brain, for that matter, with keeping the program simple enough that the consumer can just easily say, "Yes, I want -- that's -- I get it. That sounds good to me. I want it. I'm buying." And so I think we have got to pace ourselves in not rolling out too much, too quick that will confuse the customer. But there's a whole array of stuff that we've been thinking about that's in the works. I mean very quietly in this announcement on Monday, we announced we were lowering the average age from 18 to 16. That opens up the door to younger teens being able to be A-List members. It is vital in a program like this. I mean, I say over and over again, we're not going to make the foolish mistakes that others have foolishly made. So we're very insistent on getting ID from everybody as they come into a theater. And so here's an obvious one, it's kind of a no-brainer. As soon as -- if you're under the age of 16, you can't get a government-issued ID in the United -- photo ID in the United States. So if we want to make sure we're protected against fraud, we're going to have to have photo ID for people under 16 if we want to extend the average age of A-List members under 16. There's a way to do that. It's photo upload, right? So and it's currently being programmed. So that if a parent can upload a photo of their child to a safe, secure database, so that when the child shows up in a theater, they can flash a telephone and show us that the picture is them, then we can lower the age from 16 to something lower. That's an idea that's in the works. It's an obvious idea that every parent ought to give every one of their kids, I mean like their teenage kids or their 23-year-old kids Stubs membership for either 3 months, 6 months, 9 months -- not Stubs, I mean A-List, an A-List membership for 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 12 months and put it in a stocking stuffer as a gift from mom and dad. You would be amazed how much IT program is required to turn the current A-List program into being capable of being gifted. Because right now, the architecture of the A-List infrastructure is that if you gift A-List to somebody, you're giving them your credit card and they're going to renew for the rest of eternity on your credit card until your credit card expires. But that program is already underway, so that sometime in 2019, we'll be able to introduce a gifting component. And there are so many more -- you articulated a few just in your question. This thing will -- we said on Monday, this is a permanent part of our marketing. We believe we're going to make a lot of money from it. We know the consumers like the program. We know this will bring millennials in the world of cinema and especially in the world of AMC. And so we'll be rolling out enhancements over time, but not too fast that we confuse people and undermine our own strong consumer response that we're getting right now.

嗯，我在上一次電話會議上說過，我們原本打算在全國推出 1 個產品、1 個價格，但其實我們內部已經規劃了 6 種不同的方案。而且才過了 4.5 個月，我們就已經宣布要在美國推出 3 個價格層級。我們還有很多更有創意的想法，想要嘗試從這個族群為 AMC 創造更多利潤。但重點在這裡。如果你做得太多、太快——我現在不是在談價格，我是在談產品的複雜度。如果你做得太多、太快，結果只會把消費者搞糊塗，進而限制你自己的銷售，因為面對簡單的方案，有人會說「好」，然後就買了。但面對複雜的方案，有人會說：「嗯，我得想想我要哪一個」，然後就走開，最後根本不買。其中有些人會回來買，但也有些人再也不會回來。所以，成為優秀行銷人員的一部分藝術，就是在你腦中、我腦中——以及其他所有人的腦中——所能承載的複雜度，與把方案維持得足夠簡單之間取得平衡，讓消費者可以很容易地說：「是的，我要——就是這個——我懂了。這聽起來不錯。我要它。我買了。」因此我認為，我們必須掌握節奏，不要推出太多、太快，以免讓客戶困惑。不過，我們一直在思考、正在進行中的事情其實有一整套。我的意思是，我們在週一的公告裡其實很低調地宣布，我們把平均年齡門檻從 18 歲降到 16 歲。這就為更年輕的青少年成為 A-List 會員打開了大門。在這樣的方案中，這點至關重要。我一再強調，我們不會犯別人曾經愚蠢犯過的錯。所以我們非常堅持，所有人進戲院時都要出示身分證件。那麼這裡有個很明顯的點，幾乎不用想。只要——如果你未滿 16 歲，在美國你就拿不到政府核發的身分證——帶照片的身分證。所以如果我們要確保能防範詐欺，並且想把 A-List 會員的平均年齡門檻延伸到 16 歲以下，那我們就必須讓 16 歲以下的人也能提供照片身分證明。這是有辦法做到的。就是上傳照片，對吧？而且目前正在開發中。也就是說，如果家長能把孩子的照片上傳到一個安全、受保護的資料庫，當孩子到戲院時，他們可以出示手機，讓我們看到照片確實是本人，那我們就能把年齡從 16 歲再降到更低。這是一個正在推進的想法。還有一個很明顯的想法：每位家長都應該給每個孩子——不管是青少年孩子，或是 23 歲的孩子——買一個 Stubs 會員資格，為期 3 個月、6 個月、9 個月——不是 Stubs，我是說 A-List，買一個 A-List 會員資格，為期 3 個月、6 個月、9 個月、12 個月，當作爸媽送的禮物塞進聖誕襪裡。你會驚訝，為了讓目前的 A-List 方案具備「可贈送」的能力，需要多少 IT 開發。因為現在 A-List 的基礎架構是：如果你把 A-List 送給別人，你等於把你的信用卡交給對方，而他們會用你的信用卡無限期續訂，直到你的信用卡到期為止。但這個專案已經在進行中，因此在 2019 年的某個時候，我們將能推出贈送功能。而且還有更多——你在問題裡也提到了幾個。我們週一說過，這將成為我們行銷的一個永久部分。我們相信我們會從中賺到很多錢。我們知道消費者喜歡這個方案。我們知道這會把千禧世代帶回電影世界，尤其是帶回 AMC 的世界。因此我們會隨時間推出強化功能，但不會快到讓人困惑，進而削弱我們目前正在獲得的強勁消費者反應。

Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Just a couple of quick ones on international. If we adjust Q1 for pro forma Nordic, that is 3 straight quarters here of decent attendance declines. But yet the EBITDA is up quite a bit. So any color there around either the declines in Europe but also, what's improving profitability. And then any color, if you want to kind of provide it around the potential IPO and Odeon and why not move forward with that.

是的，這很有道理。關於國際業務我再快速問兩個。如果我們把第一季按備考口徑（pro forma）納入 Nordic 的影響來調整，那麼這裡已經是連續 3 個季度出席人次出現不錯幅度的下滑。但 EBITDA 卻上升了不少。所以能否談談歐洲出席人次下滑的情況，以及獲利能力為何在改善。另外，如果你願意的話，也請談談潛在的 IPO、Odeon，以及為什麼不推進那件事。

I'll take the first one and then let Craig add on. Sometimes things are just the way they are. A year ago, the box office was struggling in the United States and the box office in Europe was booming. This year the box office in the United States is booming and the box office in Europe has been struggling. Most of the attendance issues in Europe have been local language films made overseas that have not resonated the same way they did in Germany and Italy in prior years. That's a big factor. Having 2% of our screens out of service while we renovate theaters is a big factor. Some people think the World Cup is a factor. It probably was. I mean a lot of people are watching soccer, or I should more properly say football. But you can't look at our company or our industry quarter-to-quarter. You got to have a more medium-, long-term mindset. If you look back last year, Europe was booming. If you look back over 20 years, over 10 years, Europe has been growing faster than the box office has been growing in the United States. We're pretty sure that we made a good bet in Europe because of the long-term growth of the market. But more so than that, the other thing that's happening that's starting to drive profitability for us in Europe is the fact that we're bringing recliner theaters online, and the revenues at these theaters are going up geometrically. I didn't say arithmetically, I said geometric, like up. The -- we had 7 renovated theaters at the end of '17. We're going to have 21 renovated theaters at the end of '18. We're renovating a whole bunch of theaters in '19. That also is starting to become a compelling reason for EBITDA growth, which after all was the very thesis of why we bought Odeon in the first place. The thesis behind buying Nordic other than it's very well-run circuit, was all the new-build theaters in their queue and those new-build theaters have been coming onstream. The theater we opened in central Oslo in the beginning of this year is already the highest grossing movie theater in the entire country of Norway. So the investment thesis in Nordic is also panning out to be true. I'll come back to the IPO in a second, but, Craig, do you have anything you wanted to add in Europe?

我先回答第一個，然後再請 Craig 補充。有時候事情就是如此。一年前，美國票房表現疲弱，而歐洲票房卻很旺。今年美國票房很旺，歐洲票房則一直在掙扎。歐洲多數的觀影人次問題，來自於一些在海外製作的本地語言電影，沒有像前幾年在德國與義大利那樣引起共鳴。這是一個很大的因素。我們在翻新戲院期間，有 2% 的銀幕暫停服務，這也是一個很大的因素。有些人認為世界盃也是因素之一。很可能是。我的意思是，很多人在看足球，或者更準確地說是 football。但你不能用逐季的角度來看我們公司或我們這個產業。你必須用更偏中期、長期的思維。如果回頭看去年，歐洲是很旺的。如果回頭看 20 年、10 年，歐洲票房的成長速度一直比美國票房成長更快。我們相當確定，基於市場的長期成長，我們在歐洲下了一個很好的賭注。但更重要的是，另一個正在發生、也開始推動我們在歐洲獲利能力的事情，是我們正在把躺椅影廳（recliner theaters）陸續上線，而這些影城的營收正在以幾何級數上升。我不是說算術級數，我說的是幾何級數，就是往上跳。我們在 2017 年底有 7 家翻新完成的影城。我們在 2018 年底會有 21 家翻新完成的影城。我們在 2019 年還會翻新一大批影城。這也開始成為 EBITDA 成長的一個很有說服力的理由，而這畢竟正是我們當初收購 Odeon 的核心投資論點。收購 Nordic 的投資論點，除了它是一個經營得非常好的院線之外，還在於他們排程中有許多新建影城，而這些新建影城也正在陸續投入營運。我們今年年初在奧斯陸市中心開幕的那家影城，已經是挪威全國票房最高的影城。所以 Nordic 的投資論點也正在被證明是正確的。我等一下再回到 IPO 的問題，不過 Craig，你在歐洲這部分還有什麼想補充的嗎？

Yes, the only thing I'd add to that in Europe, and it was kind of an idea we had and talked about with the management team at the time of the acquisition. But at some point, we felt the need and the opportunity would be there to kind of rationalize their territorial overhead structure above the theater, 6 territories and could you rationalize that and do some combining of functions and consolidation. You can't eliminate them all because of language and other differences. But we thought there would be opportunity. This management team has taken it very aggressively kind of ahead of schedule is beginning to make actually some -- you're seeing some costs being put into the business as part of that structure. We're doing it over time and there are some costs coming in to generate longer-term savings. And I think at the -- that's helping margins a little bit now. And I think it will prove to be very beneficial as we get through that restructuring in Europe where those initial investments that we're making out will begin to pay off.

是的，我在歐洲這部分唯一想補充的是，這其實是我們在收購當時就有的想法，也曾和管理團隊討論過。但在某個時間點，我們覺得會有需要、也會有機會，去某種程度上合理化他們在影城之上的區域管理間接費用結構——他們有 6 個區域——是否能把它合理化，做一些職能合併與整併。你不可能全部取消，因為語言和其他差異的關係。但我們認為會有機會。這個管理團隊非常積極地推動，而且有點超前進度，開始實際做一些——你會看到為了這個架構而把一些成本投入到業務中。我們會逐步進行，會先有一些成本投入，以換取較長期的節省。我認為在——這現在對毛利率/利潤率有一些幫助。而且我認為，當我們完成歐洲的這項重整時，這些前期投入將開始帶來回報，證明會非常有利。

Yes. Let me give you a specific example. We had a whole overhead structure running our theaters in Spain, where we're the largest cinema operator in Spain. We had a whole overhead structure running our theaters in Italy, where we're the largest cinema operator in Italy. In the last few months, Spain and Italy got merged as to one region, essentially a 50% reduction in overhead. So that's -- there's more that's coming, as Craig described, over the next couple of years. On the question of the IPO. There are a lot of good reasons to do the IPO, there are a lot of good reasons not to do the IPO. We've been saying now for a year that we're studying it and the timing was most likely first half '19. If we made the decision to go, which we hadn't made the decision to go. Well, if you look at our first half numbers in Europe, they're not great. It's just not logical to do an IPO off of mediocre numbers. You're not going to get a very good price for the shares that you sell. Combined that with the returns on the recliner-equipped theaters, 7 of them as of December, 17 of them as of now, 21 of them as of December, potentially double that by the end of next year. We're seeing great early signs out of these renovated theaters but investors in Europe, especially in the London Stock Exchange, tend to be a "prove it to me" investing community as opposed to "we're ready to buy on the dream." So we're hearing over and over again that they'd love to see a full year of numbers coming out of these renovated theaters. And then we want to get paid on the revenue and profitability of these theaters prior to renovation we can go now. And if we want to get paid on the strength of the dramatically improved numbers post renovation, we should wait a while. The combination of the European numbers being soft and wanting to get paid for the renovations rather than just giving that value all away in the IPO to the shareholders to be, I -- we now think that prudence suggests that without making a decision go or no go, we certainly have made the decision we should not go now. So highly unlikely we'll go in the first half of '19. Having said that, we did all the necessary work to prepare for it. We went back and prepared 3 years of IFRS financial statements. You're going to see an $8 million charge, if I'm not mistaken, in the third quarter of 2018 that we booked for M&A costs. That's to go back and build all these historic years of financial statements so that we'll be ready to go on a moment's notice if we decide to move forward with the IPO. So we've done the work and there's a lot of benefit aside from the IPO from having an IFRS standard in accounting. And so we're really glad that we now have all our books in IFRS in Europe. And as we go forward in Europe, we'll make sure that we continue to use IFRS accounting. But I think the -- let's shift off the timing of an IPO to second half '19, first half '20, if in fact, we decide to go at that time.

是的。我給你一個具體例子。我們在西班牙有一整套管理間接費用架構來營運影城，而我們是西班牙最大的影城營運商。我們在義大利也有一整套管理間接費用架構來營運影城，而我們是義大利最大的影城營運商。在過去幾個月裡，西班牙和義大利被合併為同一個區域，基本上讓間接費用減少了 50%。所以——接下來還會有更多，正如 Craig 所描述的，在未來幾年會逐步推進。關於 IPO 的問題。做 IPO 有很多好理由，不做 IPO 也有很多好理由。我們現在已經說了一年，我們正在研究這件事，而時點最可能是在 2019 年上半年。前提是我們做出要推進的決定——而我們尚未做出要推進的決定。但如果你看我們歐洲上半年的數字，並不理想。用平平的數字去做 IPO 並不合邏輯。你賣出的股票不會拿到很好的價格。再加上配備躺椅的影廳所帶來的回報：截至 2017 年 12 月有 7 家，截至目前有 17 家，到 12 月會有 21 家，到明年年底可能翻倍。我們從這些翻新影城看到很好的早期跡象，但歐洲投資人，尤其是倫敦證券交易所的投資人，往往是「你先證明給我看」的投資社群，而不是「我們願意為夢想買單」。所以我們一再聽到，他們很希望看到這些翻新影城完整一年的營運數字。然後我們希望在翻新前的營收與獲利能力上就能獲得合理估值，那我們現在就可以做。但如果我們希望在翻新後大幅改善的數字強度上獲得合理估值，我們就應該再等一段時間。歐洲數字偏弱，再加上我們希望把翻新的價值反映在估值上，而不是在 IPO 時把這個價值都讓給未來的股東——我們現在認為，審慎起見，在尚未做出要不要做的決定之前，我們至少已經做出一個決定：現在不應該做。所以在 2019 年上半年進行的可能性非常低。話雖如此，我們已經完成所有必要的準備工作。我們回頭編製了 3 年的 IFRS 財務報表。如果我沒記錯，我們在 2018 年第三季會認列一筆 800 萬美元的費用，並歸類為併購（M&A）成本。那是為了回頭建立這些歷史年度的財務報表，讓我們一旦決定推進 IPO，就能隨時就緒。所以我們已經把工作做完了；而且除了 IPO 之外，採用 IFRS 會計準則本身也有很多好處。因此我們很高興，現在歐洲的帳務都已經採用 IFRS。而且未來在歐洲，我們會確保持續使用 IFRS 會計。不過我認為——我們把 IPO 的時點改為 2019 年下半年、或 2020 年上半年，前提是到時候我們確實決定要做。

Our final question is from Eric Wold of B. Riley & Company.

我們最後一個問題來自 B. Riley & Company 的 Eric Wold。

And I apologize for bringing it back to A-List. But obviously, you gave a lot of learning about stuff that you learned over the past couple of months of having A-List. And admittedly, in a quarter where 3D and IMAX were down significantly year-over-year. I guess maybe one, talk about what you've seen so far even in this environment in terms of the upgrade choice by your members and kind of what you assume in your current profitability outlook for next year in the model into next year in a slate that looks a lot more compelling for those 2 formats. And then I guess, secondly, you kind of talked about not wanting to have too many options, too many choices, too many changes that confuse patrons? So that's the case kind of announcing the price increases recently kind of with a 12-month guarantee for members prior to January 9, does that lessen your ability to make any further adjustments over the next year should things go adverse to your current planning?

也很抱歉又把話題拉回到 A-List。但很明顯，你們在過去幾個月推出 A-List 的過程中，分享了很多你們學到的經驗。而且坦白說，在一個 3D 和 IMAX 同比大幅下滑的季度裡。我想第一個問題是，談談即使在這樣的環境下，你們目前看到會員在升級選擇上的情況，以及你們在目前對明年獲利展望的模型中，對明年（片單看起來對這兩種格式更具吸引力）在這兩種格式上的假設是什麼。然後第二個問題是，你們提到不希望有太多選項、太多選擇、太多變動，讓觀眾感到困惑？所以在這種情況下，最近宣布調漲價格並對 1 月 9 日之前加入的會員提供 12 個月保證，這是否會降低你們在未來一年內、若情況不利於目前規劃時進一步調整的能力？

That's a lot of questions, Eric. Let me do the last one. I can't remember them all. Craig, let's answer the last one first. We gave a 12-month price guarantee on pricing and benefits to the people who joined this year because there were a lot of people who had flirted with subscription programs in the United States, and they were really getting whipsawed by their subscription companies with constant change in the program. I mean changes week after week after week. And if you just read the message boards, boy, it was really infuriating to consumers. So we thought that we should act and look like a responsible $5 billion company would act. So we said, if you join A-List, like relax, you're not going to have your price or your benefits changed to your detriment in less than a year. Just like "Come to the theaters, enjoy the movies and don't sweat it." But that guarantee that we put in place was only for people who joined by January 9, 2019. We also announced on Monday, that we're -- well, we believe, I mean before I say what we announced, we believe that we in fact have achieved in the marketplace exactly what we set out to achieve, that we were reliable, we were predictable. We treated consumers the right way. And they played this back to us over and over again in all these chat rooms and message boards on these subjects. So mission accomplished. Now we don't think that you need to give a 12-month guarantee to everybody forever because we've already established the principle that AMC is going to treat the customer fairly the way the customer deserves to be treated. So we announced on Monday that if you joined by January 9, 2019, I guess technically, if you join by January 8, 2019, you still get a 12-month price and benefits guaranteed going forward. If you join after January 9, on or after January 9, 2019, we promised you 3-months' notice on any pricing change or benefits change because that's reasonable notice to a consumer. And we're not going to do it all that often anyway. So there's no reason to tie our own hands to have to wait 12 months to make a change. And yet we do think it's fair to consumers to give them warning, notice, lead time before we do anything at all to change the program. So again, and this goes back into the guise of they're happy and we're happy. We're still treating them the right way. We're not going to pull rugs out from underneath anybody. But we only have 3 months to wait before a program change starting in '19 rather than 12 months. That was one of your questions. Next of your questions on premium format usage, which includes PRIME at AMC, Big D, RealD 3D, IMAX and Dolby. We said we're not going to release all these numbers all the time, but we're going to be very transparent in this call because we want you to understand exactly what -- where we are. So the last time I looked, we were running about 26% of our attendance was in all 5 of those premium formats. We had modeled it. You asked how do we model it, what were expectations. We had modeled it 22%. So while it's a little higher, not much higher. And going into '19, as we've done our internal budgets for '19, we've remodeled the premium formats to rise slightly because there are so many big movies coming in 2019 that are great to watch in a premium format. Fortunately for us, we have so much excess capacity in our premium format auditoriums that the fact that A-List people are showing up for IMAX Dolby Prime, 3D, Big D, we got plenty of room to handle them. I know there's another question in there but what was it that I missed?

Eric，你問了很多問題。我先回答最後一個。我不可能全部都記得。Craig，我們先回答最後一個。我們之所以對今年加入的人提供 12 個月的價格與權益保證，是因為美國有很多人曾經嘗試過訂閱制方案，而他們的訂閱公司不斷更改方案，讓他們被折騰得很厲害。我是說一週又一週又一週地改。如果你去看留言板，天啊，這真的讓消費者非常惱火。所以我們認為，我們應該像一家負責任的 50 億美元公司那樣行事。因此我們說，如果你加入 A-List，放輕鬆，你的價格或權益不會在不到一年的時間內被改到對你不利。就像是「來戲院、享受電影，別擔心。」但我們設立的那個保證只適用於在 2019 年 1 月 9 日之前加入的人。我們也在週一宣布——嗯，在我說我們宣布了什麼之前，我們相信我們其實已經在市場上達成了我們原本想達成的目標：我們是可靠的、可預期的。我們以正確的方式對待消費者。而消費者在各種聊天室與留言板上，一再把這點回饋給我們。所以任務完成。現在我們不認為需要永遠對所有人都提供 12 個月保證，因為我們已經建立了一個原則：AMC 會以顧客應得的方式公平對待顧客。所以我們在週一宣布，如果你在 2019 年 1 月 9 日之前加入——我想嚴格來說，如果你在 2019 年 1 月 8 日加入——你仍然可以享有往後 12 個月的價格與權益保證。如果你在 1 月 9 日之後加入，也就是 2019 年 1 月 9 日當天或之後加入，我們承諾任何價格或權益變更都會提前 3 個月通知，因為這對消費者而言是合理的通知期。而且我們本來也不會那麼頻繁地調整。所以沒有必要把自己的手綁住，必須等 12 個月才能做出變更。但我們確實認為，給消費者預警、通知與準備時間，在我們對方案做任何變更之前，是公平的。所以再一次，這也回到「他們開心、我們也開心」的概念。我們仍然以正確的方式對待他們。我們不會在任何人腳下突然抽走地毯。但從 2019 年開始，方案變更前我們只需要等待 3 個月，而不是 12 個月。這是你其中一個問題。你下一個問題是關於高端格式的使用情況，其中包括 AMC 的 PRIME、Big D、RealD 3D、IMAX 和 Dolby。我們說過不會一直公布所有這些數字，但在這通電話裡我們會非常透明，因為我們希望你了解我們到底處於什麼狀態——我們在哪裡。所以我上次看的時候，我們大約有 26% 的觀影人次是在這 5 種高端格式中。我們在模型裡做過預估。你問我們怎麼建模、預期是什麼。我們原本建模是 22%。所以雖然略高，但也沒有高很多。而進入 2019 年，隨著我們做 2019 年的內部預算，我們把高端格式的占比重新建模為小幅上升，因為 2019 年會有很多大片，非常適合用高端格式觀看。對我們來說幸運的是，我們的高端格式影廳有很大的閒置容量，所以 A-List 會員來看 IMAX、Dolby、Prime、3D、Big D，我們有足夠的空間可以容納。我知道你還有另一個問題，但我漏掉的是哪一個？

No, I think we're good, Adam.

不，我想我們可以了，Adam。

We do think that it's interesting that still 3/4 of the people coming to the 4.5 million movies that they've seen since June, 75% of it is still coming in regular old 2D auditoriums. So we believe that the current visitation is manageable. Craig, do you want to jump in?

我們確實覺得很有意思的是，自 6 月以來他們已經看了 450 萬場電影，但來觀影的人之中仍有 3/4——也就是 75%——仍然是在一般傳統的 2D 影廳。所以我們相信目前的到訪量是可控、可管理的。Craig，你要補充一下嗎？

No.

沒有。

And by the way, I think you're the last question. Maybe there's one more. But while you guys have asked a lot of A-List questions, the fact that we can answer them, I hope you're noticing we really do know this program cold, we know these numbers cold, we're watching them like a hawk. What you don't know is that we were prepared to make lots of other program changes if we were in trouble going into 2019. If we were in trouble would be if acquisition costs were too high, if subsidy costs were too high, if frequency was too high, if it wasn't ramping down from the mid-3s like we expected to start into the mid-2s, we had lots of roads we could have gone down to make A-List attractive to the consumer and still profitable for us. And we just didn't need to because this program is just a smash hit. And I sure hope we're convincing you with that because we know that to be true. And we know there's a lot of fear out there that since others have stumbled in this area, we too could stumble. That's not going to be the case.

順帶一提，我想你是最後一個提問者。也許還有一位。不過，雖然各位問了很多 A-List 的問題，而我們能夠回答這些問題，我希望你們注意到，我們確實對這個方案瞭若指掌，對這些數字也非常熟悉，我們像鷹一樣緊盯著它們。你們不知道的是，如果我們在進入 2019 年時遇到麻煩，我們原本已準備好做出許多其他的方案調整。所謂遇到麻煩，可能是獲客成本太高、補貼成本太高、使用頻率太高，或者沒有像我們預期那樣從 3 次出頭逐步降到 2 次出頭；我們其實有很多路可以走，既能讓 A-List 對消費者更有吸引力，同時也能讓我們仍然獲利。但我們根本不需要那麼做，因為這個方案就是一個大成功。我非常希望我們已經用這些內容說服了你們，因為我們知道這是真的。我們也知道外界有很多擔憂：既然其他人在這個領域曾經跌跤，我們也可能會跌跤。但那不會發生。

Mr. Aron, there are no further questions. Would you like to make some closing comments?

Aron 先生，沒有其他問題了。您想做一些結語嗎？

I sure would. Thank you, operator. Thanks, everybody, on the call. For those of you in the Disney call right now and you're listening to this on a replay, we missed your questions but we know you still listen to call or read the transcript. Obviously, we're around to talk to anybody individually after the call. And we thank you for your time today but more importantly, we hope you share with us our enthusiasm. 2018 is going to be a record year for our company. 2019 is looking really strong, especially because we have marketing programs like Stubs and A-List, which position AMC very well for the future.

當然想。謝謝接線員。也謝謝各位參與電話會議的朋友。如果你們此刻正在參加迪士尼的電話會議，並且是透過重播收聽這段內容，我們錯過了你們的提問，但我們知道你們仍會收聽電話會議或閱讀逐字稿。當然，會後我們也願意與任何人進行一對一的交流。感謝各位今天撥冗參與；更重要的是，我們希望你們能與我們分享這份熱情。2018 年將會是我們公司創紀錄的一年。2019 年看起來也非常強勁，尤其是因為我們有像 Stubs 和 A-List 這樣的行銷方案，讓 AMC 在未來具備非常好的定位。

With that, we thank you for your time. It was nice speaking with you.

最後，感謝各位撥冗。很高興與各位交流。

Thank you. That concludes today's conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝各位參與。各位現在可以掛線。