Boxoffice - October 2018

INVESTOR RELATIONS
CINEMA ACROSS
THE STREET
by Rob Rinderman
Rob Rinderman is an avid follower
and fan of the cinema
and exhibition businesses.
He has assisted many public
and privately held companies
with communications
and business development
consulting services for over
two decades and written as a
freelance journalist covering
these industries since 2015.
AMC
In a corporate news announcement issued in
late September, exactly three months after the
launch of its Stubs A-List membership program,
AMC announced that A-List membership had
grown to more than 380,000 moviegoers.
This represents a 120,000 subscriber increase
in total membership over its most recent six-week
period (mid-August to late September), which is
traditionally a slower time at the domestic box
office for the entire industry.
In the same press release, AMC Entertainment
noted that more than 45 percent of its A-List
members were not previously signed up to its
AMC Stubs loyalty program. AMC also projected
that its U.S. attendance for the full 2018 calendar
year is on pace to achieve a year-over-year increase
for the first time since 2015, excluding the positive
impact from its Carmike Cinemas acquisition.
Early Stubs A-List program analysis indicates
that incremental moviegoing frequency among
members after joining the program is significant.
AMC also recently announced that its 12-month
protection guarantee from the date of a member’s
enrollment against any increases in A-List monthly
pricing has been broadened to all A-List members
enrolling anytime in 2018, including no pricing
or benefits changes within a member’s initial 12
months after joining the program.
AMC expanded A-List’s flexibility and convenience
by allowing its members to obtain their
tickets through AMC’s ticketing partners, Fandango
and Atom Tickets. A-List members may secure
a ticket reservation that is applied as one of their
three movies per week. Because A-List members
receive the benefits of AMC Stubs Premiere, the
typical online ticketing fee is waived.
In mid-September, AMC announced an agreement
with leading tech investor Silver Lake pursuant
to which AMC issued $600 million of senior
unsecured convertible notes due 2024, bearing
interest at 2.95 percent and convertible into AMC
Class A common shares at $20.50 per share, before
giving effect to a $1.55 per share special dividend
payable to AMC Class A and Class B common
shareholders of record as of September 25, 2018.
A portion of the proceeds from the Convertible
Notes has been used to repurchase approximately
24.1 million AMC Class B Common shares from
Dalian Wanda Group (“Wanda”), which represents
roughly 32 percent of the AMC Class B common
shares held by Wanda, at a price of $17.50 per
share. Giving effect to this transaction, Wanda
now owns just shy of 51.8 million AMC Class B
Common shares.
IMAX
IMAX Corporation and Universal Pictures
recently announced that the companies have
expanded their growing partnership with a new,
multiyear, multipicture deal. The IMAX release
of each movie will be digitally remastered into the
98 BOXOFFICE ® OCTOBER 2018