While the blows absorbed by U.S. mass-market exhibitors such as AMC and Cinemark COVID-19 dominated the headlines, the damage turns out to be even more serious on the specialty front.
Reading International, an arts and real estate company founded in Culver City, California, reported a 96% drop in second-quarter earnings due to a 10 percent drop in U.S. film attendance.
The shares of Reading, whose industry on the Nasdaq, fell by nearly 13% on Monday to close at $3.88.
The publicly traded oconsistent company has approximately 60 movie theater complexes and 3 cinemas in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Revenue was just $3.4 million in the consistent period ending June 30, to $76 million last year. A loss consistent with a consistent percentage of $1.04 reversed 10 cent gains consistent with a consistent percentage in the same period of 2019.
In the United States, some of Reading’s best-known places in New York, the Paris Theatre, the Beekman and a City Cinemas multiplex on 86th Street, have dark hands or replaced even before the pandemic. After Reading left the Paris lease, an iconic one-screen house on 58th Street near the Plaza Hotel, Netflix stepped in to rent it as a venue for the broadcast giant’s own occasions and projections.
Reading’s theatres also feature the Angelika Film Center, a well-established art and rehearsal circuit. After the opening in 1989 of the original Angelika in New York, a handful of other Angelika sites have opened in Washington, DC, Dallas and San Diego.
“The occasions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic underlined the effect of our two-sided geographically varied film and our real estate strategy,” executive director Ellen Cotter said in the effects statement. “We are grateful to have reopened now all of our cinemas in New Zealand that were in service before the closure of COVID-19 and most of our Australian cinemas.”
Theatres in New Zealand operate without social estrangement needs as the island country continues to make remarkable advances in the fight against coronavirus. The country has passed a hundred days since the last notification of a local COVID-19 case. Approximately 96% of homes rented to Reading in New Zealand
Reading’s portfolio of Australian theatres suffered a setback in July, when an increase in infections in the country forced theaters back to seven places in Reading.
Warner Bros.’ The plan to open Tenet worldwide this month is expected to improve the effects of Reading in the current quarter. The company announced that it would announce the reopening dates of some sites, as local government is weighing the lifting of restrictions.
“While the short-term operating environment will remain a challenge and the road to the full reopening of our operations in some jurisdictions we serve remains unclear, we believe that the long-term core concepts of the film business and our genuine real estate assets remain intact,” Chaveta says.
Reading said he was planning a recording of executives commenting on the effects of the second quarter on Wednesday and answering questions from studio analysts.