💥Apes on and off screen💥
Party like its 2020, y'all!
👍 Winners of the Week+ 👍
1. AMC Entertainment Holdings ($AMC).
What a stunning turn of events.
A little over a week ago the movie theater company issued yet another lackluster quarterly earnings report…
…showing that almost everything is down YoY. Notably, US market attendance fell 5.8%, and average screens fell 3%. The company’s CEO, Adam Aron, stated that Hollywood strikes are impacting box office numbers. It doesn’t help that at worst, there’s “super hero fatigue” after years of dependence upon super heroes or, at best, a decrease in supply to come from the likes of Marvel and Star Wars (as Disney aims to get back to quality rather than quantity).
That said, all eyes are on Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman in Deadpool 3 coming later this summer because, already, the “summer” box office is underwhelming. High hopes for the Ryan Gosling vehicle, The Fall Guy, appear to have been misplaced as the film limped to just $49.7mm in its first two weeks of release. He’s got nothing on a bunch of CGI apes, it seems. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the 10th installment in a 56-year-old film franchise, made ~$57mm in its opening weekend domestically and $129mm in total. Even with this “hit,” the box office is down 22.4% YOY. 😬
Which had Mr. Aron focused on downside:
"Looking ahead, we're committed to continuing our efforts to reduce debt, extend debt maturities, and bolster our cash reserves as opportunities arise."
Little did he know that an opportunity would swiftly appear. Enter f*cking Roaring Kitty who, without even mentioning AMC (or Gamestop for that matter), sent the market into a frenzy simply by posting this on X:
Here’s what “sent the market into a frenzy” looks like in stock chart form:
And you know who just conveniently happened to have an open at-the-market equity offering? That’s right, Mr. Aron, the luckiest motherf*cker on the planet. This is from a May 14, 2024 Reg FD Disclosure:
On May 13, 2024, AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. completed its previously disclosed “at-the-market” equity offering launched on March 28, 2024. AMC raised in aggregate approximately $250 million of new equity capital through the sale of 72.5 million shares, before commissions and fees, at an average price of approximately $3.45 per share.
Homeboy pounced!