Movie theater stocks soar after record-breaking Memorial Day box office

CNBC

6 days ago

Shares of movie theater companies soared on Tuesday following a record-breaking Memorial Day Weekend at the domestic box office.
AMC saw its stock jump more than 20%, while shares of Marcus Theatres' parent company Marcus Corporation climbed 8% and Cinemark stock leaped 2.5%.
The tandem releases of Disney's live-action "Lilo & Stitch" and Paramount's "Mission Impossible — The Final Reckoning" alongside holdovers Disney and Marvel's "Thunderbolts*," Warner Bros.' "Sinners" and "Final Destination Bloodlines" led to an estimated $326 million haul, the highest Memorial Day box office ever, according to data from Comscore.
It is also more than double the $132 million in ticket sales collected last year during the same period.
"Everything came together at the right time with two eagerly anticipated, positively reviewed tentpoles courting a diverse range of audiences," said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. "This record holiday frame continues a box office winning streak which began in the spring and has now grown into bona fide momentum for what will likely be a $4 billion-plus summer at domestic cinemas thanks to a string of promising blockbusters on the slate."
AMC, Cinemark and Marcus Theatres each posted their best Memorial Day Weekend ticket revenues of all time, as well as record food and beverage sales for the holiday.
"Finally it would appear that our industry has turned a corner," Adam Aron, CEO of AMC, said in a statement. "Since early April, weekend after weekend, moviegoers have been demonstrating their preference for theatrical moviegoing. A record-setting Memorial Day holiday is yet another sign of the continued strength and relevance of moviegoing in 2025."
"Lilo & Stitch" tallied $183 million during the four-day frame, leading the pack, while the eighth installment in the Mission Impossible franchise scooped up $77 million. "Final Destination Bloodlines" took in $23.9 million, "Thunderbolts*" added $11.8 million and "Sinners" snared $11 million, Comscore reported.
The combination of new product and strong carryover from previously released films fueled the weekend, Chad Paris, chief financial officer at Marcus Corp, told CNBC.
"This is the first time this year where I would say we've had a fulsome amount of product for the weekend," he said. "And we're now getting into the stretch in the calendar where we'll have a steady cadence of product releases and across genres, a lot of different products for people to go see."
Over the summer period, which ends Labor Day Weekend, the domestic box office will see the release of Universal's live-action version of "How to Train Your Dragon," a new Disney and Pixar feature "Elio," the hotly anticipated "Jurassic World Rebirth," Warner Bros.' "Superman" reboot, and Disney and Marvel's "The Fantastic Four: First Steps."
In between these tentpoles are a slew of low-and-mid budget films across genres like horror, drama, comedy and sports.
"Every other studio and every other movie on the horizon over the next few weeks are going to ride a wave and benefit from the performance of the past couple of months," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. "We're going to have one hell of a summer and if Memorial Weekend is any indication, we're certainly looking at a $4 billion plus summer at potentially $4.2 billion plus and that's great news after a summer of 2024 that failed to reach that milestone."