Cinemark Holdings Inc. (CNK) on Wednesday reported a first-quarter loss of $59.6 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier.
The Plano-based company said it had a loss of 51 cents per share.
The results missed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of six analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 14 cents per share.
The movie theater owner posted revenue of $543.6 million in the period, which also missed Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $562.9 million.
Cinemark shares have fallen 53% since the beginning of the year. The stock has decreased 58% in the last 12 months.
“As a direct result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, we were forced to close all of our theaters in the middle of March, which had a significant impact on our first quarter results, and continues to impact us today,” said Mark Zoradi, Cinemark CEO. “We are looking forward to welcoming our guests and team members back to our theaters and are pleased to have now shifted our attention to domestic re-opening, which we plan to initiate in a multi-phased approach beginning June 19.”_
Cinemark plans to begin reopening U.S. movie theaters on June 19. It said in a Wednesday filing that it believes it has enough cash to last it the rest of the year, even if its theaters remain shut.
Cinemark on Wednesday said it’s taking a slew of measures to tempt back moviegoers as it reopens. Those include discounting and vigorous cleaning protocols for theaters, like disinfecting seats in the mornings and before each showtime. It will also require employees — but not customers — to wear masks and will stagger showtimes to thin out crowds.
The company also said it would stay in the black even if local governments only allow it to sell half of its seats to keep customers separated. Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi said that even “below that level,” the chain’s theaters can be “very, very profitable.”
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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on CNK at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CNK