Mum, hello, hello, hello. We are here for the special installment of amc, q1 2022 earnings announcement, so we already have some of the numbers i'll be going over that and yes amc. The tldr version of this is they beat expectations beat expectations. Yes, you heard that right, then, if you want we'll get into some of the specific numbers and in about 13 minutes.

So if you're watching this not live, feel free to skip ahead to the actual call, which will be getting underway very very very shortly now before we get into all the numbers that we already know just because the sec filing is currently live. Help me out. Let's get all the apes in here that we possibly can don't forget to destroy the like button, then hey join up with the moon game by hitting that subscribe button. All that stuff is completely completely free and also check out.

What's pinned to the top of chat, i'm talking about public no payment for order flow, no market makers. We know that is no bueno, so check out. What's pinned to the top of chat, it's in the description of the video, but you get free money and you don't have to worry about basically citadel and virtu screwing you up on the trade now with all that out of the way um. Let me go over the numbers amc, the expected earnings per share was a loss of 67 cents and fortunately there was a narrower than expected loss.

This was a good thing. It ended up being a loss of 52., so 52 versus 67, as that's good revenue was expected to be 743.4 million dollars and it ended up coming in at 785.7 million. So on the top and the bottom line amc beat in q1 of 2022.. Now, in terms of admission revenue, let's get into some of the nitty gritty - it was 443.8 million and then year over year, like a year ago, it was 69.5 million.

So quite a jump up in terms of food and beverage. It was 252.5 million, and a year ago it was 50.1 once again a jump up now, a interesting thing that we heard in the last earnings and then they're talking about in this one - and i would say it's really the only negative mark against amc in this Particular earnings because last earnings they were looking to go ebitda positive. Now, if you want to know what ebitda is, it is earnings before interest taxes, depreciation and amortization, uh earnings before that. So basically it is your like your operating performance, it's a caveat for cash flow.

They were looking to go positive this quarter and there was a great improvement year over year. Last year it was 294.7 million, a loss of 295 million, and this last quarter it was a loss of 62.. So there was a great improvement like we're getting close to getting back to zero, but in the last quarter they were like they were hopeful and their reach goal was to get positive on this quarter. We didn't see that quite, but we are getting very, very close and based on the trajectory i mean like doctor, strange just crushed it 185 million in opening weekend.

So things are looking good and it looks like for q2. It will go ebitda positive. So those are the top level numbers and the top level on top of those top numbers is the fact that, yes, they did beat earnings, so we are going to get underway in a little less than 10 minutes with the call. Let me make sure i have this up-to-date of where it should be all right, they're playing music in the background and it's honestly a bit annoying um.

So we have that up and we're ready to rock. I just wanted to give you all that all that information all that info and we could switch it over to here in the meantime. This is what i was talking about: uh public. The code is matt up to 70 of free stock, no payment for order flow.

No market makers um it's a brokerage that you can trust far more than robin hood, weeble and the likes of those players. It is a commission free brokerage, so you're still going to get all your stong traits for free and on top of it it is also more of a social media thing. So you can see, for example, what i'm in and if you go to mine, you're, going to see that i'm in amc, gme, prog, draftkings, corsair a few others. But you can see also what i'm in your friends are in so make sure to check that out.

As we're waiting for this to get rocking today, upst had earnings and they got murked down. 37.4 usp t got crushed right now. Gme is up 0.7 volatility, picking up in post market and the spy got destroyed. Today, the overall market dropped 3.2 percent.

The queues dropped, 3.9 percent and the russell dropped free 4.2. It was a brutal, brutal, bloody day in the market and for those of you who don't tune into the morning stream. Just so you know um. We were talking about this quite a bit and i don't know if we're really out of the woods yet tomorrow there might be a relief out if you're, watching this in real time on the evening of monday may 9th on tuesday, the 10th there's such thing called Turn around tuesday when there's a brutal sell-off on monday, the odds tell you it's pretty good for a turnaround tuesday, that's exactly why we call it turnaround tuesday, but for those of you who don't watch the morning show i want to call out to all of you In a special little note here that wednesday morning, 8 30 a.m et an hour before the market opens we're gon na get the cpi report the consumer price index report, which is basically what's inflation this time around.

Most recently, it came in at 8.5. They are looking for a drop off in inflation down to 8.1. That's the expectation, we're gon na find out if that's real or not on wednesday morning. So what i'm looking for over the next two days is most likely somewhat of a relief bounce tomorrow on tuesday and then wednesday, i'm just looking for crazy volatility.

I don't know if it's to the upside - i don't know if it's to the downside, but i am looking for insane volatility. So i want to call that out to all of you who maybe miss the daily shows tom nash, hey matt, happy to see you doing great tom. I hope you're having a great great day and hey man shoot me a dm would love to bring you on to a show one of these days just to chop it up like. I know, you've been really really into what's going on with palantir.

So more than happy to discuss that with you, we could talk about the fed. We could talk about russia and oligarchs and all that stuff. But tom would love to uh hey here's, your public invitation to come on the show one of these days and we could chop it up for a bit we'd love to see. What's going on in your world would love to learn about what's happening with palantir? I'm sure a lot of other people would as well all right.

We have about seven minutes to kill seven minutes, seven minutes. What should we do for seven minutes? Seven minutes we could do a poll. I guess we could do a poll. What do we want to do? A poll on a poll uh spy tomorrow, spy tomorrow, green red? Oh, you know what's crazy right now, just for the fact that we're trying to kill some time um a big event is currently happening in the world of crypto.

The ust to the usd pairing usdt basically came unpegged from a dollar. This is a big deal because it's not supposed to happen, as you can see, pretty much always hangs out at a dollar dollar: dollar, dollar, dollar, dollar, dollar, and today we saw a sell-off not supposed to happen, because you know when you're pegged to something it should Pretty much always be that value, but we're seeing an anomalous event right now. So a quick shout out to the crypto world uh that right now a dollar no longer equals a dollar. So i just wanted to keep you all.

I mean it's weird and i know a lot of people aren't paying attention to this. Like 99.9 percent of the world is not paying attention to this, but the fact that this peg came unpegged ridiculous, ridiculous, ridiculous ridiculous. Some people are asking for ortex as we go into earnings and hey. I like i like to do what you guys ask so for today, monday may 9th at market close.

The short interest on amc is estimated to be 19.6, with a cost to borrow oddly low of 1.7, when the utilization is jacked up at 100. The shares on loan is 133 million. These are the core numbers. I also wanted to share something with you right here.

Let me see if i could find this uh hold on one. Second, this is a pretty crazy video uh. Let me bring this up. I think unusual wales tweeted out, but i know he copied it from someone.

So let me see uh someone, my apologies. I don't know who the original poster is. I know that unusual wales took this down, but i just want to share this video with all of you, the mean traders who bought the amc's and the pelotons and the game stops. They haven't, they haven't sold out yet so a lot of folks are saying these guys lost a lot of money.

Many of them are still in the market. Some of them really don't know what they're doing because they're not as who started when they were born, and they don't really know much about stocks. We can't figure out when the real bottom of the overall market is that our 401ks are invested in, because the mean guys are still there. They don't know when to exit, maybe very, very interesting.

Thank you darcy. Thank you. Karen for your input on the old stonk market uh, this is actually very very funny because she's wrong. Does that mean that she should be attacked no, but her take is also it's not in a like.

It's not subjective. This is objective, so her argument is that meme stock traders don't know what they're doing well that's wrong, because retail traders are not a monolith. There are people who are new to the market and obviously they've just started their journey, so they have quite a bit to learn, but then there's also people who are market veterans and i would guarantee know an exponential more amount about trading than she does so. First of all, that's a bad take! Second of all, let's get into really what she's saying of we don't know when it's bottom, because meme stock traders haven't sold.

First of all, if you think that it's because of meme stock traders that the s p 500, a 50 trillion dollar entity hasn't bottomed because people are diamond handing, would you say her amc, piton and gme? I don't think she realizes that she's arguing about a drop in the bucket type of a scenario, and on top of that, even if she was right, she should be thankful, because that means what she was referring to her 401k and other people's 401ks would be bottoming. At a higher value, so no matter how you splice this up, she shouldn't be trading retail traders as a monolith. There are people who know way more than she does amc and jimmy and piton were the three that she listed. But even if you look at all the meme stocks, they are not having an impact on the 50 trillion dollar really overall economy in terms of where is it going to bottom or not, and even if it did, even if this panda bear is wrong on that Estimate she should be thankful because she, like she said, they're, not selling, so no matter how you splice it up.

This is a bad take and it's crazy because that's mainstream media, but you have to ask yourself: is it really that crazy? Because i feel like mainstream media has been wrong at every single juncture in this entire saga hang on. I want to make sure that i'm not all right. It's still in the background music. Still the background music.

Are you a? Are youtubers allowed to disclose their amc position? Yes, i am long on amc. I am long on gme. I have no options, no calls no puts. I just have shares of amc and of gme.

I don't know it off the top of my head, but i have a four figure share amount of amc and a three figure share amount of gme, and i mean i'm literally on a cheating brokerage that discloses it on public. You can see it, i don't know if other, i don't think other people are on public. Maybe they are. Maybe they aren't.

I don't know that's up to them. I choose to disclose it to you. Let me close this poll, this music, 53 percent of you thinking. It's gon na be a green day tomorrow, interesante interesante all right.

Let's get going amc currently trading at 1291 up 3.35 percent, the amc, entertainment first quarter, 2022 earnings, let's get rockin all participants will be in lesson only mode. Should you need assistance? Please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key, followed by xero. After today's presentation there will be an opportunity to ask questions to ask a question. You may press star, then one on your telephone keypad to withdraw your question.

Please press start into. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to john mary weather. Vice president of capital markets and investor relations.

Please go ahead. Thank you. Sarah good afternoon, i'd like to welcome everyone to amc's. First quarter 2022 earnings webcast with me this afternoon is adam aaron, our chairman and ceo and sean goodman, our chief financial officer.

Before i turn the webcast over to adam. Let me remind everyone that some of the comments made by management during this webcast may contain forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectations, numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those that might be expressed today. Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in our most recent public filings, including our most recently filed 10k and 10q. Several of the factors that will determine the company's future results are beyond the ability of the company to control predict in light of the uncertainties inherent in any forward-looking statements.

Listeners are cautioned to not place undue reliance on these statements. The company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events on this webcast, we may reference non-gaap financial measures such as adjusted ebitda operating free cash flow operating cash burn operating cash generated, among others, for a Full reconciliation of our non-gaap measures to gaap results. Please see our earnings release posted in the investor relations section of our website. After our prepared remarks, there will be a q a session.

This afternoon's webcast is being recorded and a replay will be available in the investor relations section of our website at amc theaters.com later today, with that i'll turn, the call over to out thank you john good afternoon, everyone and thank you for joining us today, following on The heels of our progress throughout 2021 amc's first quarter of 2022 marked yet another milestone, thanks in part to sony's, uncharted and warner brothers. The batman - it was our best first quarter in two years, and we exceeded market expectations with a more than five-fold or 637 million dollar improvement in revenue and an almost 80 percent or 233 million dollar improvement in adjusted ebitda compared to the same quarter of a year Ago, what a difference a year makes we are especially encouraged that when they did come to our theaters, our guests have been spending like never before, with revenues per patron through the roof at amc up 34 above pre-pandemic norms and meaningfully higher than was seen at our Largest competitors during our last earnings webcast, we noted the timing of when big movies would release this year, not because of streaming and not because of coveted peers among patrons, but rather solely because of what titles would open. When we told you in our last call that the first quarter of 2022 would be the softest quarter of this year and that box office numbers would improve sequentially as the year progressed, this view remains exactly how we see this year unfolding with an improving box office And improving financial performance at amc, each and every successive quarter, but the real news of the day is the 187.4 million dollar domestic opening and the 450 million dollar global opening of disney's doctor strange. This one was the biggest movie opening of 2022 and the second biggest opening of the pandemic pandemic era.

Second, only to spiderman no way home, let me say it again to all those who doubted the consumer appeal of movie theaters. Dr strange dr strange, dr strange, dr strange, and not only is the movie clearly a big hit. I'm also absolutely pleased to report to you that amc over performed for this movie on opening weekend with a 26 percent domestic market share comes considerably higher than our historic 22 percent domestic market share norms. Given that amc is the largest movie theater company in the world, we can say to our shareholders with some glee and delight that the resilience of movie theaters is right now on clear display and that the future of the cinema is bright.

Indeed, we've already kicked off the second quarter with sonic who raced his way to the highest domestic opening weekend of all time for a video game at adaptation and has thus far generated nearly 350 million dollars of worldwide box office revenue. And, as i said just a moment ago, this past weekend, dr strange dr strange, dr strange, dr strange, but we believe this is just the tip of the iceberg for what's to come in this summer and the balance of 2022.. What an array of compelling and exciting film titles lies ahead for the rest of the year. We are just two and a half weeks away from the premiere of my personal favorite, paramount and top gun top and tom cruise's long-awaited and highly anticipated top gun maverick.

I saw the movie in a private screening for exhibitors a few weeks ago. It is just stunning, in my view, it's a cinematic masterpiece and, oh my. Are we going to sell tickets for top gun maverick at amc? The second quarter also will include such crowd. Pleasers.

As universal's jurassic world dominion and for audiences, young and old, back from infinity and beyond pixar's light year later in the year in the second half, we have one amazing title after another, especially including baz, luhrmann's, brilliant biopic of elvis starring tom hanks as colonel parker, along With illuminations minions, the rise of gru marvel's, thor love and thunder jordan peel's latest original edge of your seat, horror, flick, nope and brad pitt's action-packed thriller bullet train. The movies keep coming in 2022, we'll finish the year with warner brothers dc comics based black adam starring, dwayne, the rock johnson and three more disney films, which are sure to be monstrous hits, including the animated strange world and two highly anticipated 10th pole disney sequels marvel's Black panther wakanda forever and james cameron's avatar 2, the sequel to avatar at the time of its original release, the highest worldwide grossing movie of all time. I've had the privilege of spending some time with the brilliant james cameron and his producing partner john landau, and have seen actual footage from avatar 2, which is just glorious. I can tell you with certainty that movie audiences are going to be mesmerized by their return to pandora.

As a result, the entire movie industry is going to end 2022 in grand style. It's just so very clear in our eyes, just as nicole kidman proclaimed in our ever so successful television advertising, which has attained a cult-like status moviegoers are so eager to return to the magic offered at amc theaters. They want dazzling images on a huge silver screen. They want to immerse themselves in stories that are perfect and powerful.

They want to enjoy comfortable recliner seating, a bucket of buttered popcorn and a coke. They want more imax and dolby cinema screens at amc that are offered by any other movie exhibitor and for just a few hours they want to escape. They want to escape the news: the internet, war, politics, inflation, interest rate hikes, their phone and the interruptions that inevitably come when at home. So there is no confusion at amc.

We are very optimistic about the outlook for the 2022 box office that we believe could be close to double that of 2021 and four times that of 2020.. No one is a perfect crystal ball, but our hope and current expectation is that the fourth quarter of 2022 will finally reach or will get close to pre-pandemic levels of revenue. Some on wall street and some in the press have been filling our heads for two years. Now about the rise of streaming and the corresponding end of theaters, this won't be the first time or the last time that conventional wisdom will be proven to be filled with so much folly and so very wrong.

Movie theaters have been central, the cultural fabric of america and the world for more than a century, and their promise and potential remains resilient and real. Many of us on this call can remember the revealing and clarifying language that came out of the 1992 presidential campaign when james carville said it's the economy stupid well for the movie theater business, it's the movies, stupid and oh, do we have hit movies now coming to An amc theater near you i'll be back in a few minutes to provide some strategic updates and take your questions, but now i'll turn the call over to our cfo sean goodman sean. Thank you adam and thanks everyone for joining us this afternoon. During the first quarter.

We welcomed 39 million guests to our theaters around the world. This is a very significant increase from the seven million guests that we entertained in the same period last year and our q1 2021 sorry, our q1 2022 attendance generated revenue of 785.7 million dollars. This is more than five times the 148.3 million dollars of revenue that we had in q1 of 2021.. In addition, our q122 adjusted ebitda improved by 233 million dollars to a loss of 61.7 million dollars, and this compares to a loss of 294.7 million dollars in q1 of 2021..

Clearly we're making meaningful progress along our recovery path, while q1 revenue and attendance were well below. Pre-Pandemic levels: this is precisely as we predicted in our most recent quarterly earnings call, knowing that the timing of when the big movies would be released this year. We said, then, that the industry box office would rise markably in calendar year 2022, but that most of the strength would occur in the second half of 2022.. In q1 we saw that the box office momentum built as the quarter progressed and q2 has started off strong.

Just as fast, we can look at the robust doctor strange opening. Indeed, consumers are flocking to the theaters once again, we're very encouraged by the compelling upcoming forms mate and our consistently very strong post pandemic operating performance that reflects our laser focus on both the guest experience and profit improvement initiatives to grow and enhance the business first quarter. Consolidated revenue per patron was twenty dollars and eleven cents. That's thirty.

Three point: seven percent higher than pre-pandemic q1 of 2019 consolidated admissions revenue per patron was up 23.9 and consolidated food and beverage revenue per patron was up 40 percent. Both of this is compared to the first quarter of 2019. in our domestic business admissions revenue per patron, increased by 28.5 compared to pre-pandemic q1 2019 and our international business achieved a 15 increase. The admissions revenue per patron growth was driven by guests, increasingly choosing to upgrade to the very best possible sight and sound experiences that can only be found at our premium.

Large format offerings such as imax, derby, cinema and amc, prime plf for premium large format. Attendance represented 16 of our domestic attendance in q1 of 2022 compared to 13 in the first quarter of 2019 and in our international markets, q1 2022 plf attendance represented nine and a half percent compared to 8.1 in the first quarter of 2019.. In addition, we also benefited from an overall favorable showtime mix, coupled with pricing adjustments, including blockbuster and opening weekend pricing from a food and beverage perspective. We continue to enjoy exceptionally strong food and beverage revenue per patron, as our guests enjoy the full outside the home entertainment experience that is offered at amc in our domestic markets.

Food and beverage spend per patron in the first quarter was 7.52, that is, 43.7 percent higher than the average spend in pre-pandemic q1 2019 and in the international business. Food and beverage spent per patron was four dollars and forty cents, and that is 35 percent higher than pre-pandemic q1 of 2019, our significant food and beverage. Our performance continues to be primarily driven by an increase in the proportion of guests choosing to enjoy our industry-leading food and beverage offerings that are made easy and convenient to purchase through the amc. App consolidated.

Other revenue per patron in q1 2022 increased by 82.4 percent compared to the same period in 2019, with domestic other revenue per patron, increasing 93.5 percent and international other revenue per patron increasing by 61.9 percent. These statistics reflect an increasingly higher percentage of guests that are choosing to reserve their seats and to order their food and beverage in advance, using our industry-leading website and app together with the benefit of diversification initiatives that we've deployed, such as renting our theaters during off-peak times. To businesses and government organizations for meetings or other events in an ongoing effort to enhance efficiency, we continue to be extremely agile in adjusting payroll hours and flexing show times to reflect the market demand and to optimize our efficiency, for example, our q120, our q1 domestic attendance Of 25.8 million guests represented 46.9 of q1 2019 attendance, but it also represented 71 of q1 2019's attendance per showing moving to cash and liquidity. We ended the quarter with a liquidity of approximately 1.4 billion dollars, comprised of 1.165 billion dollars of cash and cash equivalents and 211 million dollars of undrawn credit facilities as anticipated and and as discussed during last quarter's webcast cash burn.

This quarter was adversely impacted by normal seasonal q1 working capital needs. Our working capital almost always comes under pressure during q1, following a strong q4 holiday box office, and this year was no exception. Operating cash burn, representing cash burn before debt servicing costs and before deferred, rent payback was 223.9 million dollars, and this compares to 321.6 million dollars in q1 of 2021.. Looking ahead, we expect our cash burn to improve sequentially through the year, with q2 being better than q1, but still relatively weak, but with the second half of 2022 being substantially better than the first half with positive operating cash generation by the fourth quarter.

Regarding capital allocation, we continue to pursue a balanced and very disciplined approach to capital allocation. Our priorities remain unchanged, one ensuring that we have sufficient liquidity to manage through the recovery phase of our business. Two strengthen our balance sheet by reducing our debt and associated interest costs. Three invest in our business to enhance the guest experience and four opportunistically pursue value, enhancing initiatives, including those that lead to diversification of our business.

So far this year we have been very active in allocating capital to enhance shareholder value, as we previously reported earlier this year. We completed a highly successful capital, raising issuing 950 million dollars of seven and a half percent, firstly, notes as a result of this transaction, we were able to repay high interest debt that was raised at the height of the pandemic and thereby reduce our annual interest expense At the same time, we extended our debt maturities by between three and four years during the first quarter of 2022, we also repaid approximately 45 million dollars of deferred rent, reducing our deferred rent balance to approximately 272 million dollars. We expect to further reduce this deferred. Rent balance during 2022 by another, approximately 125 million dollars, and we continue to work on other attractive opportunities to strengthen our balance sheet and enhance our financial flexibility actively.

Managing our theatre portfolio is ongoing at amc, as we add new high performing locations and eliminate low performers. All with the goal of improving guest satisfaction and optimizing our overall profitability during the quarter, we added three new theaters and we closed 12.. This brings the total number of locations closed since the pandemic began to 95 and the total number of new locations opened to 33. For a net reduction of 62 locations through q1 2022.

In addition, in early april, we announced the acquisition of seven formerly bowtie cinema locations in connecticut, upstate, new york and annapolis maryland and last month we announced a significant investment to dramatically upgrade the sight and sound experience at amc through the installation of laser projection equipment. At three and a half thousand auditoriums in the us through 2026., this equipment has a value of approximately a quarter of a billion dollars. Although our upfront capital investment, is minimal based on our agreement with our partner cenaric and this new projection equipment is also environmentally friendly and comes along with meaningful operating cost benefits. Net capex, including landlord contributions in q1, was 34.2 million dollars and for 2022 separate and apart from any m a activity, we're expecting net capex to be in the range of 150 to 200 million dollars.

Finally, in mid-march, we announced our investment in high craft mining. As a result of this investment of 27.9 million dollars, we recorded a mark to market gain of 63.9 million dollars in the first quarter of 2022. This is based on the share price of highcroft on march 31st, the theatre operating enhancements and efficiency. Optimization initiatives implemented over the last two years have positioned us very well, and we continue to focus on initiatives to grow.

Our revenue increase. Our efficiency enhance the guest experience and diversify our business, all with the goal of growing shareholder value and ensuring our success in a post covered environment and with that i'll pass the call back over to adam. Thank you sean before we open up this webcast to questions. I'd like to update you on some of our key strategic initiatives to enhance value for amc and for our shareholders.

Let's start with our strategy at amc, which can best be described with three unmistakable words: recovery, agility transformation, you'll hear this almost as a mantra. A lot from us as we move forward as for recovery over the last five quarters. Our financial performance has clearly indicated that amc is on a glide path to recovery from the impact of covet 19. for sure in 2020, kovid took amc to our knees, but like the plot in any great fight movie in 2021, amc got up off the canvas dusted Ourselves off steadied ourselves and started to play on offense.

Again, we get stronger and stronger as each day passes and pretty soon we'll be back to normal punching away, as you would expect from the number one player in theatrical exhibition, we're not where we want to be or need to be yet, but we now see it In our future, 2021 was a better year than 2020.. 2022 will be a better year than 2021, and we already believe that, given the expected movie, slate 2023 will be a better year than 2022. Our focus remains sharp, on guiding amc to a successful and lasting recovery. From the impacts of the pandemic, at the same time as we're working to produce that recovery, we recognize that our industry is filled with change, so we must be agile and nimble in managing through that change.

If 2020 and 2021 have demonstrated anything, it's that the management team at amc is expert in navigating our way through uncharted waters, no matter what the world has thrown at us, we have risen to each and every challenge. Therefore, i have every confidence looking forward. That amc will continue to cope well as we bob and weave and adjust our course as may be required, no matter what change may lay ahead. Our agility is the bedrock of which our salad foundation is built and which, in the end, should see us through taken as a whole.

Amc has demonstrated a remarkable ability and achieved a remarkable track record of navigating successfully through change. At the same time, armed as we have been by our shareholders with more than a billion dollar war chest, we also will be looking for a transformational and value-creating metamorphosis of what amc is it's not enough for us just to bring back the amc of pre-pandemic 2019.. Several of us on this call have noted that amc shares have traded above historic fundamentals of that old amc, but you under underestimate us, and you underestimate us mightily if you do not think we are looking to change amc, to make it a bolder and grander enterprise. You do not understand if you do not think we are seeking out new and exciting opportunity.

Our high crop mining investment is a perfect example. Some were stunned by our announcement because it did not align with their preconceived notions about amc or what they thought were our core competencies, but during the pandemic, amc demonstrated a keen insight into how companies could rescue themselves from liquidity challenges. That is the expertise that we brought to highcroft and so far so good at a time when the nasdaq is off nine percent. In overall value, our investment in high crop mining has increased by more than 30 percent.

As of friday's closing price, as i've said before, those who think of amc just in terms of the company that existed pre pandemic are looking through a rear view mirror to the past. Instead of looking through the front windshield towards the future. There is a myriad of opportunity out there as we build a new amc and grow our way through value, creating initiatives. There will be more high crops ahead, not gold or silver mining per se, although i must say that gold and silver mining was a fun way to start, but we will also be looking for more value-creating investments, where amc can continue to share our expertise and talents For sure, though, we plan to be deliberative and disciplined in investing in opportunities to enhance our existing business or to diversify into previously unexplored markets or into industries where we can use our bold thinking.

Penchant for innovation and capital raising experience to unlock value for amc and for our shareholders. In addition to talking about our strategy, i also would like to share a quick update on a few previously announced initiatives. First, popcorn. We continue on the path to enter the attractive.

Multi-Billion dollar retail popcorn industry expected for later this year, move aside orville redenbacher. You have a new competitor right now we're in the midst of focused research and product testing, among other popcorn related concepts. Later this year, you'll be able to order and have delivered your home. Our amc feature fair and classic menu items, including, of course, amc perfectly popcorn, flatbreads, pretzel, bites and other snack items.

This service will be piloted in key markets such as chicago this summer, with plans to launch system-wide in the united states in the fourth quarter of this year. We are also developing, as you know, a line of microwave and ready-to-eat popcorn products to be sold at grocery stores and other outlets, so that customers can enjoy our unique and differentiated popcorn, offering in the comfort of their homes again, hopefully launch the consumers before year. End. Second, a comment on a branded credit card.

Discussions are now underway by amc with potential banking partners about the launch of a co-branded credit card aimed at amc, shareholders and moviegoers. Within a year of today, we will aim to place a significant number of these cards into the market. Our hope, too, is that this can be a quite lucrative business opportunity for amc. Third, on nfts and cryptocurrency, we have eight different nft programs that either already have been launched or are in the works.

They've already helped us to stimulate the sale of movie theater tickets for movies like spiderman, no way home dune and the batman, or to increase the effectiveness of other amc programs. Like amc investor connect, which now has some 665 000 enrolled members we'll continue to explore. How nfts can drive increased profitability for amc going forward? As for cryptocurrency with great fanfare, we now expect a wider rate. We now accept a wide array of cryptocurrencies for online payments at amc.

The same it programming that was required for us to accept cryptocurrency also enabled us to accept other payment types, including apple pay. Google pay paypal, bitpay and venmo among others taken together. These various new payment options impressively recently represented about 35 percent of our total online payments. Fourth, a comment on our pricing actions.

Amc has taken in the past a number of big smart and innovative steps on theater ticket and food and beverage pricing. Just look at our revenues per patron in q1, which have been well on the march with obvious positive results. We have been guided in the past by a simple philosophy we charged more when there was peak demand and we charged less when demand was soft. So far, that rational view of the laws of supply and demand has worked well for amc and fifth investments in our theatrical exhibition business during 2021, and so far during 2022 we acquired one third of the former arclight pacific theater circuit, located in major metropolitan markets, like Los angeles, san, diego washington, dc and chicago, and we acquired about three-fifths of bow, tie cinemas locations, mostly in connecticut, along with upstate new york and annapolis maryland when we add amc's expertise, unique guest offerings and industry leading loyalty programs.

These new theater locations begin to soar as an example. Our mid-2021 acquisitions of the grove, 14 and americana at brand 18, both in the los angeles market, have consistently ranked among the 30 highest grossing movie theaters in the entire united states. Since joining the amc family - and we are not done yet - we will continue to explore adding high profile, interesting, potentially profitable, theaters to the amc network, but we're not just acquiring new theaters we're. Also investing in upgrading our fleet of theaters amc is committed to significantly grow.

The number of imacs and dolby cinema locations in the months and years ahead. We are the leader in premium large format screens and we intend to keep our advantage. Our advantaged position intact, secure and growing in addition to plfs our first major broad scale, projector upgrade since the transition to digital was announced three weeks ago by amc, as we introduced a new premium format, laser amc where we will begin deploying the latest laser projection technology. In our theaters in some 3500 auditoriums across the united states over the next several years with this upgrade amc, moviegoers can expect improved picture contrast, maximum picture brightness and more vivid color, in short, a much better viewing experience that will get moviegoers off their couches at home And into our theaters, as i conclude, i like to make a special comment to our avid, enthusiastic and passionate retail investors who have embraced amc with gusto over the past year and a half as an example.

There is one group of particularly committed amc shareholders who sent me a binder, then followed up by an email that were filled with about 1 000 different ideas for amc. Looking more broadly, the ideas keep coming and keep flowing to amc from our shareholder base. I think it is well known that i write my tweets myself and i actively read my inbound twitter feed, so literally thousands and thousands of times. I have personally seen your observations and advice.

I see your frustrations with your perceptions of how the market works or does not work. Your anxiety over the number of so-called delta delivery shares or your alarm over something that, by its very name, sounds ominous in dark trading pools. And i hear the advice coming in twitter, post after twitter post. That comes from our approximate 4 million retail investors, who own the vast vast vast majority of our 516.8 million issued shares your ire and anger, directed at short sellers is evident.

I hear your suggestions that we should call for more market regulation by government or that we should take more company action by issuing a cash gift card or nft dividend and here's how some of you actually want to donate money to help us build up our treasury And or pay down our debt and that's just a few of the countless suggestions and pieces of advice. I have received day in and day out, not surprisingly much of the advice that comes in conflicts, with the the advice that others of you share and while most comes in constructively, some comes in with hostility or laced with threats. Most is well intended, but some might be hurled at us with an intent of actually harming me or the company, possibly even coming in from short sellers or others motivated by malevolent intentions. All i can say to all of this is this: i greatly appreciate that you care so deeply also running a company with such broad interest.

As amc is an art form, not a science. There is real wisdom required in knowing what to do and knowing what not to do in knowing when to do it and knowing when not to do it. Having said that, you should not interpret silence as in action. We are constantly exploring the smartest courses of action and i promise you that we will pounce, but only when the timing is right.

Being human, we will not always thread the needle perfectly, but for certain know this we're doing our best and even with my well-disclosed and advanced stock sales, i still have an interest in 2.9 million amc shares that is 793 9974 shares that i own outright and 2 Million 100 076 granted, but am but unvested, am sheer amc shares. In addition, my every incentive is to think and to act like a shareholder to maximize the long-term value of amc shelters, because, like you, that's what i am. I am an amc shareholder above all else. In summary, our first quarter of 2022 was encouraging.

Our liquidity position remains strong. The film slate is compelling and we're playing on the offensive as we grow and diversify our business while we're still in a recovery phase. The outlook is positive. Indeed, in our view, oh and one last thing, dr strange, dr strange, dr strange, dr strange, go see it amc just put a very big weekend on the books and we're highly optimistic that it's a harbinger of things to come.

And if you want to know what's to come top gun maverick memorial day weekend, then jurassic world dominion and then more and more and more and more 22 2022 has me filled with excitement sean now, let's turn to questions starting with questions from our shareholders thanks adam. So we have a few questions to start relating to the upcoming shareholder meeting. Uh, specifically there's questions about uh people's voting materials when they will be received. What is on the docket for voting at the shareholder meeting and there's a question about? Will international shareholders be allowed to vote uh at this meeting? Uh.

Thank you for the question uh. Our shoulder meeting is scheduled for june 16th at 2 p.m. Central time it'll be held here in our offices in leawood kansas, the suburb of kansas city, you all are invited you, those of you with shoulders anyway. Those of you who are shareholders are invited to attend in person.

If you wish, we filed all the proxy papers with the sec on april 29th, you can access those proxy papers if you haven't already seen them by going to the investor relations section of the amc, theaters.com website. Look at the financial performance tab, it's all there. As for voting materials, you should usually allow about two weeks or so for brokerage firms to get the proxy materials to you as a shoulder at amc. If you do not receive proxy materials by mid-may, you definitely should contact your broker or our proxy solicitor df king, who is a special toll-free number for amc shareholders at 1-888-625-2588.

That number again is 1-888. There are three issues up for a vote at the annual meeting. One is the the election of directors of some members of our board, who are up for re-election. Another is a non-binding likely to be available in stores.

You know, as i said in my prepared remarks, our hope is that we can be there in the fourth quarter of this year. 2022. There's a lot of action behind the scenes uh, including discussions with various major retailers and um. The one thing i know is that our microwave and ready popcorn is going to be a strong competitor.

Our brand resonates with consumers, we're known for popcorn. I've had lots of ideas submitted by shareholders that we should include something called a golden ticket with our packaging. That's a great idea and i'm sure that we will sort of like cracker jack as a gift in every box. I wouldn't be surprised if we have some benefit relating to amc, theater movie, going in every box of our purpley popcorn.

You know, let's hope we can get there in the last trimester of 2022.. One of the many questions that or sorry one of the many suggestions that we've had is relating to amc, merchandise and there's a question of: when can people expect to be able to purchase amc merchandise? So the suggestion of amc merchandise is also a good idea and we've tested some either at our theaters or online we've. Had you may recall, we had a ghostbusters ambulance that we sold out of. We had batman, cowl popcorn holders that we sold out of um and, what's very clear to us, is the merchandise is going to work for us, we're in the process of figuring out now how to make amc, branded merchandise and movie themed merchandise available to our guests.

Whether at theaters or online, look for that to unveil the consumers sometime in the second half of 2022., so people are asking what sort of marketing and initiatives are being done when we acquire new theater locations. Well i'll answer the question of what we're doing in a second, but let me start by saying it sure is working. Look at what's going on at the grove and americana at brand uh out in l.a. These were good and strong uh theaters for arc light is why we took them into our and pacific.

That's why we took them into our network, but their performances soared in our watch. There are like 5 000 movie theaters in the country, and these two have consistently been performing in the top 30. ever since we took them over in terms of what we do. The first thing that we look at is: how can we upgrade the product? Uh bring amc service levels and amenities into the theaters that we acquire we'll be doing the same thing at the bowtie theaters in connecticut, upstate, new york and annapolis that we did out west.

In the case of some of our theaters, we're going to be installing imax locations or dolby cinema locations or both beyond improving the product, uh we're also bringing our loyalty programs to these theaters amc stubs. Our our frequent movie going program, amc, stubs, a-list our monthly subscription program, we're also, then, as we convert uh customers from these theaters into our loyalty programs. We're then communicating with them frequently, certainly on a weekly basis to let them know. What's coming at amc, we're adding to all this local marketing through social media, including paid media, and, as i said, it's all working really well so far and i might add we're not done we're going to add more high quality theaters to our network throughout 2022.

Some questions about dividends, uh when will amc, pay a dividend? Well, i've seen suggestion after suggestion that you'd like to see us pay a dividend. I think we've announced publicly previously that our current debt documents prevent us from paying a cash dividend prior to june of 2023. So this is not really a decision for today. This is a decision for a year down the road another one of the many suggestions.

Um will amc, make its own movies. You know this. One is a particularly interesting topic. Several years ago, amc owned 50 percent of open road films, where we did make our own movies and in fact, got the oscar in 2016 for the best picture of the year with spotlight.

And i have to say that there are a lot of conversations that are underway now, with various movie makers uh about whether we should repeat uh our activity in prior years of making our own content. It is something that's on the list, we're thinking very hard about it. We've had very serious conversations with some very well-known movie studio executives, major movie directors, uh, and it is. It is something that has our attention with our recent uh.

Can i just add, while we're on the subject um, but even if we were to make our own movies um now's a good time to put in a a good word to our long-standing studio partners. Hollywood is turning out great products again and it's finally being released exclusively uh in theaters uh for an exclusive, theatrical window and um. We just i just want to say how grateful we are to the likes of you name. It disney universal warner.

Brothers, sony, paramount, lionsgate. All the makers of movies - and it does raise the question: can we convince some of the streamers to introduce their movies to some of their movies theatrically as well? We have had conversations over the years with netflix, amazon and apple. We we continue to make it very clear that we would be very pleased to show some of their bigger, better movies, but in doing so we have to respect our long-standing industry partners, the major studios. We can't have one set of rules for the major studios in a separate set of rules for streamers, but if we can convince the streamers that it's in their interest uh to show movies theatrically, that might be another yet another way of getting more movie product into Our theaters so with our recent uh acceptance of cryptocurrencies and other forms of payment people want to know uh.

To what extent are these new forms of payment being accepted, including dogecoin, bitcoin, etc? So you know this was only put on our radar screen by our shoulders and there was just enormous interest in it, and so we went down the path of uh doing the programming required to accept cryptocurrency. And what we found is that the same programming that was needed to accept cryptocurrency is the exact same programming that we needed to accept apple pay. Google pay paypal, a whole bunch of other payment types and it's been a massive home run for us, while crypto itself is modest in usage. When you take all of those new payment types that we introduced for amc as a result of our exploring crypto um, you know again, it's in the neighborhood of a third of our total online ticketing is now being paid for in all these various alternate payment methods.

So i would say this whole endeavor has been a massive success for us and, of course the holy grail is uh. Do we actually ever consider launching a cryptocurrency of our own uh? We've said publicly that we're intrigued by that notion. We're studying that notion. Uh the biggest issue that we want to make sure that we um uh get exactly right is that we believe the regulatory environment around cryptocurrency will radically change during 2022 and 2023.

And we want to make sure that if we do embrace issuing cryptocurrency rather than just accepting cryptocurrency, that we anticipate the new regulatory climate well and we stay on the right side of the law, people are interested in our plans with respect to nfts. Up until now, we've been largely using them for promotional purposes, there's questions as to whether amc would look to sell nfts in the future. So that also is an interesting question that also was put on the radar screen by by our shower base. I said in my earlier remarks that we have eight crypto, eight nft programs either already been launched or in the works and once we we historically know sorry, we've only had four of these programs so far, but uh historically we've been giving away these nfts.

We did an interesting uh poll on twitter saying, should we continue to give them away free or should we sell them and the results of that poll in very round numbers, or you know three fifths or two thirds said, keep giving away free, but a healthy percentage Said we should sell some nfts to generate some funds uh. So who knows exactly what we'll do going forward? Maybe we'll do a mixture of both some nft programs. We will give away free and others we'll sell, but we are exploring very carefully and thinking very hard about how to maximize the profitability possibilities that could accrue to amc from our interest in nfts, and i would say that, with respect to our competition, we're way out. In front of any other movie, theater exhibit or anywhere on the planet, we've issued literally hundreds of thousands more nfps than anyone else.

There's broad ranging question here about how we keep amc relevant with the strength of streaming. Well, like i do think, that's playing out before our very eyes. If you look at the pandemic, the period when movie theaters were shut. Studios played around with every possible variation of um of theatrical release, including taking some movies to the home, simultaneous with theatrical release.

In other cases, just taking movies to the home and not releasing them in theaters overall, i i think we've convinced hollywood, that the way to optimize their profitability is for them to support their streaming services, but also to support theatrical exhibition. Uh theatrical window has returned. That's good for the future and relevance of movie theaters beyond that, though, if you really look at the darker times for revenue generation over the past 24 months, it's been because there just wasn't a lot of good movies coming out and it wasn't so much the quality Of movies, that was bad, it was the quantity of movies that was depressed, uh, what's happened of late, it started in the fourth quarter of 2021 uh finishing up with a huge hit in spider-man, no way home third biggest movie of all time. Then we saw uncharted and the batman in the first quarter now we're seeing doctor strange in the multiverse of madness top gun mavericks around the corner.

Jurassic world dominion is around the corner. The summer is filled with movies. The fall christmas comes avatar too. I really do think that you know, among the biggest things we can do to assure our relevance is to make sure that we have a steady parade and cavalcade of major movie titles with broad consumer appeal that are being released released by studios beyond that, then amc.

We ourselves, we have a further obligation on top of just having good movies at our disposal and we are absolutely committed to being innovators in theatrical exhibition, keeping the quality of our theaters high. As i said, we're investing uh sufficient funds to get a quarter of a billion dollars of laser projection equipment into our theaters coming sun. Coming down soon, we've got uh more imax locations coming more dolby cinema locations coming uh. We are going to continue to make our food products more enticing at amc, as we look ahead so take all that together combine it with the fact that people have been going to movie theaters for a century uh, i'm just certain of one thing in life: the Movie theater industry has an entry at amc as a company, we will be relevant and we will take whatever actions.

We need to stay relevant as we look ahead and and finally um question about our partnership with dreamscape and our plans with respect to that partnership. Will amc consider more dreamscape locations, for example? Well, for those who don't know what dreamscape is it's a really innovative virtual reality product? We opened up three dreamscape locations, one in new jersey, one in ohio, one in texas to test them. The product is spectacular. The economic returns are okay, they're, not spectacular, but they're.

Okay, we're told that there are changes in the technology coming with vr that will make it more affordable to introduce more uh dreamscape locations. So, with respect to dreamscape, specifically, we will see, but it the fact that we were willing to embrace dreamscape three or four years ago. I think is yet another signal of amc's willingness to embrace alternate content, and this summer we experimented with a variety of interesting concepts showing concert movies. Some live some on tape.

We we showed wwe and ufc events in our theaters for two of the past three years.