AMC, Movie Theater Stocks Fall on Report of Potential Bankruptcy for Cineworld

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AMC

Entertainment, Cinemark, and other movie theater stocks tumbled on Friday after The Wall Street Journal reported that

Cineworld Group

was getting ready to file for bankruptcy.

The British cinema company, which owns Regal Cinemas, on Wednesday said that despite recovering attendance, admissions have stayed below expectations due to a limited slate of films to watch. It is now evaluating strategic options to generate liquidity and restructure its balance sheet, the company said.

Cineworld didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the Journal report.

Cineworld (ticker: CINE) stock tumbled 60% on the London Stock Exchange. In U.S. trading, Cinemark (CNK) stock was down 2.2%, while

AMC

(AMC) was down 4.3%. Marcus (MCS) lost 2% and

IMAX

(

IMAX

) fell 3.6%.

On Thursday, AMC issued a statement saying that while Cineworld’s Wednesday statement predicted low levels of theater admissions until November, AMC is confident about movie demand for the fourth quarter and calendar 2023. CEO Adam Aron said, though, that the film slate at AMC in the third quarter is expected to be relatively weak, as the company had said earlier.

“Let’s not get over our skis in being too optimistic about third quarter numbers,” Aron said during a call to discuss AMC’s earnings this month.

Write to Karishma Vanjani at [email protected].