Do hello, hello, hello, let's get going, i am prepped, i am ready. I am ready for the amc. Q4 earnings announcement, it's gon na get underway in just under 30 minutes, but i figured hey. What's the point of me sitting around not really doing much when we're actually seeing some positive reaction in the post-market trading of amc right now, as we're heading up to that meeting? It's up about two percent trading at 1870 and we know there's an important level at 19 and then past that 2025.

So i wanted to start it right out of the gate and get kind of jacked up with all of you, as any announcements or anything are coming in before the meeting. Obviously i'll be going over that with you. But in the meantime we have some apish music and i just thought we could all kind of sit here. Mess around have a good time before that meeting actually gets underway, which we are ready for.

I have it pending right here about 13 minutes until we're gon na get going uh whatever this is the event lobby will open all right. I'm guess i'm waiting for the event lobby, whatever that is so i'll, just keep that off the screen here. So i can join asap. I have all the earnings we have some, they just dropped like a merch store here we have a lot to go over and i'm excited i'm just jacked up.

So i wanted to get rocking early with all of you, cool people and, in the meantime, here's a little bit of a little bit of a song for all of you cause we're holding on forty life. Getting them tended so soon don't be mistaken. The apes won't be shaking or breaking because we're going to the moon day very soon, gon na wake up on the moon brand new yacht and the mcdonald's in my living room, bright, yellow, lamborghini, 50 meter swimming pool champagne every day, fam. What you do wan na hang one or two: oh, you got a mansion two! Oh that's right, held on tight jack titties every night.

We was in way back when they tried to chop it down to ten and she's had enough of these villains, but the eggs were rebelling cause we never be selling until we sent it to heaven now we'd be out there, yelling hey screw. You kenny brought my wife a minivan to share with the boyfriend, but i pull up in the benz played saying olive cranes going on an airplane. Don't think we'll be back again celebrating every day like it's, your birthday screw kenny cause we're holding on for delight, we'll, be mistaking the apes won't be shaking or breaking because we're going to the moon expectation, probably more manipulation. If you did, your creation of a crooked operation brought more while it was low, got more dips in trader joe's.

Oh, you thought that we let go what the hell you take us for holla. If you spend your life in squalor, we don't claim to be scholars. We, the smooth brain dummies and we never stood totally yeah. We do this for love and we do this for our honor.

A follower of living ain't got nothing on us. We the planet of the apes anymore, as we trust m-o-a-s-s. Oh hell, yes, gon na, send it into space, go fire up the jets done. My dd call me out and john rocket man.

This is the way gon na be girliana's ground control to major time. We bout to have liftoff call us neil eight strong gon na keep holding on screw kenny cause we're holding our foot in life. Getting damn teddy, so soon don't be mistaken. The ace won't be shaking no breaking because we're going to the moon don't be mistaken.

The apes won't be shaking or breaking because we're going to this music is by the gorillas, the grillionaires, the grillionaires and that's called to the moon, make sure you check them out. They also have this awesome song, i'm just looking for more news on it: financial advice, crayons every day with my friends, i think about kenny in his ivory tower shaking in his lilly bones, as the eggs overpower must suck to lose to a monkey so dumb. But you made your bed and you got nowhere to run i'd love to be a fly on the wall when it makes the price fall and he watching as we keep on more. You forgot we on the floor blind two hours old, like stop breaking the law money.

We don't need another fan, because we huddled through hard times is money all right, all right, all right, let's get after it all right before we get into the specifics that i have written down a little bit of uh the numbers that you should be paying attention To listening for and of course, we could be talking about this throughout when they're talking and also i'll, do a recap of kind of my takeaway at the end of it, but before we get into those specifics, i want to know from all of you right now: Hey, do you think they're gon na? Do you think they're gon na beat, or are they gon na miss easy thumbs up diamonds? If you think they're going to be, if you're not feeling that optimistic, i don't know, do a thumbs down or something like that. But i am very very curious about all of your thoughts like what's your gut feeling going into this. It's gon na go down in about 20 minutes and i just want to see all them comments. What do we have going on be beat diamonds thumbs up thumbs? Up thumbs up thumbs up thumbs up all right, we're seeing a lot of positivity a lot of positivity.

I like that. I, like that, a lot all right. If you haven't already um, i know some people, i believe, are doing this on like a twitter, spaceball, but obviously you're here on youtube and i don't think other people are doing it. So, let's let the community know that we're here and there's a place to hang out and have good times with.

If you haven't already hit that like button, because that's gon na get this promoted to other people. So they come in here and like party with us, and let us know that there's still a strong, strong amc community so definitely drop a like button. If you haven't already there's 2 000 people in here, there's no reason we can't have 5 000 likes. I mean, if they're allowed, to have synthetic shares.

Why can't we have synthetic likes? Also, if you guys are on something like twitter grab the link post, it amc amc party, hashtag, amc party, something like that. We have to show the good vibes. We have to show that everyone's stoked for still what's going on and there's very much retail investors who are not backing down from this fight. I like that, as soon as we do it, they're like.

Oh i like synthetic likes and then we see gigantic jump all right and i'm already getting some of the the tags. Yeah just take the link tweet it out there. Let the twitter sphere know let the reddit sphere know: let's let wall street know. Let's let mainstream media know that people still very very care very much care about what is going on here.

I'm excited, i think, there's a solid shot, solid, solid, shot, all right. Looking to go ebitda positive, oh, i just saw a good question. Uh. I got a question - probably i guess in just the stream before this one um.

So there is a difference between going positive on the quarter and going positive in terms of like ebitda. So ebitda is earnings before like depreciation, um taxes, interest and what else is in that formula, some other, like amortization, i think uh, but it's another important like fundamental metric that people are looking at and on this quarter talking about expectations, the expectation from wall street from The fancy analysts that have the pedigrees on the wall and allegedly know what they're talking about, even though they're as often right as they are wrong, they're looking for purely on an earnings per share basis, a loss of 25 cents in the last quarter in q3. Remember we're getting the report for q4, the one that ended in december 31st. 2021 last quarter q3.

It was a loss of 44. and then q4 of the year before, where we are now basically q4 of 2020.. That was a loss of 3.15. So we went from a loss of 315 to a loss of 44 to an expectation of a loss of 25, but we're also looking to go ebitda positive, which, in the last earnings announcements we were told, was possible.

If we got over 2 billion in box office - and i think it came in at like 2.1 2.2 um - so that's awesome - definitely awesome on the year because that's the end of the year we're looking at a total year, loss of two dollars and 80 cents and Compared to the year before that, we're looking at 16 and 15 cents, so a loss of 16.50 per share to up to 280 a lot still lost, but obviously becoming quite a bit more narrow, um. So positive developments there in terms of revenue on the year just below 2.5 billy is the expectation and in the final quarter, we're looking at somewhere in the range of 1.09 to 1.11 uh billy uh. So, as you can see, pretty pretty dominated in the final quarter and that's exactly what we've been kind of prepped for all year, that's what we've been told is from one to two would be a small improvement. Two to three would be a massive gap and then three to four would be another additional small improvement relative to three.

So the big jump was two to three and then three to four, like four got, even better uh, i'm sure we're going to be hearing a lot of rhetoric about their expansion. They are acquiring more theaters, but particularly from like arc-like stuff, like that. So i'm sure they're going to be announcing more theater acquisitions, we're expected to hear more about the kind of initiation of their popcorn sales business. I would be very, very surprised if we don't hear more about nfts.

We know that they're really getting their toes wet with nfts, so i'm expecting. I hope that they shed a little bit more light on that um. There is a good chance that they're gon na be kind of like potentially like i'm looking at this. Some merch um amc, theaters movie merch.com and they have all of this batman stuff, which is why more so, i'm thinking about the nfts, because there is the batman nfts given out to some people, so um it'll be exciting to hear about popcorn nfts, maybe some merch Stuff, obviously, theater expansion and maybe they're going to hit us with something completely new.

Maybe i don't know like just you never ever know right now, because you can tell that the leadership team is very much listening to suggestions potential business suggestions from the public. Obviously, now that we know retail is the dominant dominant owner, the dominant dominant player in amc, so you never know when a surprising thing is going to be announced, so i'm kind of looking for a surprise. I think that's going to be awesome, but i think the the big thing to look for is just like the headlines that would lead to amc like q4 b of just like beating s expectations, we want a narrower than expected loss of 0.25. It would be awesome if they went positive on earnings per share and we're looking for a quarter revenue over.

I believe i have written down 1.1 billy, 1.11 billy. So that's what i'm looking for out of the gate. Uh. What else do we have going on and you never yeah? Some people are bringing up some really good points of like connections with like other companies, maybe some business ventures together.

All that stuff is very, very much on the table, speaking of which that will be getting underway. Now we are a couple minutes out right here, hang on all right, i have it in my ears, um. They always just play that weird elevator music beforehand uh. So i have it, we are ready to rock.

Let me turn the volume up just so it's not too soft we're ready to rock. We are ready to rock. I have it right here. I'm excited, i'm excited, let's do this.

Let's do this thing, oh man, any other breaking news going into it. I just thought something i don't know, i'm just stacked up jacked up jacked up, i think really hoping for something uh a thousand likes to do shots live. I mean we're almost over a thousand likes that would be. I would need to have the shots to do it.

We're easily gon na crush a thousand. Aren't we we're like pretty much at a thousand right now, a thousand higher higher higher you guys think set like there's 3 000 of you in here set make your goal 2999. Just like allow one person to not hit that like button set set a real goal. You guys can do it, you guys can do it.

Uh amc currently trading at 1850 and just to give everyone a reminder of where we are in terms of more of like the metrics, as we just have a little bit of time to kill right now. I just wanted to show you amc some interesting things. First of all, i'll start with the shorts. Just so you know uh estimated short interest.

20.16 utilization continues to be at 100 shares on loan, almost 116 million uh the cost to borrow 1.38. But what i really wanted to show you was right boom here today, the day of earnings short squeeze type, three recommended holding two average return. If you've taken all of these trades in the past 21 on average, it triggers triggers about two and a half times a year. So what this is first of all type, one type, two type, three, those don't relate to severity or strength, it's just a different type.

Don't think of one two or three as better or worse? That's not how ortex does it it's literally looking at a different aspect of data, so basically what it's doing is taking into data historic events and saying hey, we're recognizing another pattern that we've seen previously and it leads to this. So basically, it's saying previously, whatever is going on in their data breakdown, they're saying there might be a short squeeze if you've taken this trade every single time it's fired. Historically, the average return per trade was 21 essentially and the recommended holding is a two-day. So basically, this is saying going into earnings a short-term hold to me.

It's saying that they're pretty freaking bullish on the earnings now, obviously, is this a guarantee? No, no! It's not a guarantee. It's just saying. If, if history was to repeat, they think there's an advantage to being long on amc right now, um there's a reason to be bullish on amc right now, so once again short squeeze signal fired from ortex. We know the short interest over 20 percent utilization maxed out uh interesting things going on in the data set short term hold right as we come into this earnings announcement.

I just find that very, very, very interesting uh and then just if for anyone, who's joining right. Now, if you want to take a quick screenshot of this or something short interest - 20.16 utilization 100 - and i also want to show you some other things that maybe we haven't talked about in a hot hot minute - the average age. This is something we haven't talked about, but i just want to give everyone a friendly neighborhood reminder that on average just the average, the average short has been betting against amc for 77 days, as in two and a half months, the average short has been betting against Amc, yes, they've been paying that cost to borrow when you look at this cost of borrower. Just so you know, this is an annual rate, that's not per day um.

If you want to know the daily rate, you would basically take this by the position and then i guess divided by roughly, like 250. That's about how many training days there are um, but anyway this is an annual rate. Just so you know um. I digress, but overall you can tell they've been in this.

This isn't like, of course, there's new shorts and all that stuff, but they've been in this play for quite a while two and a half months, they've been holding it and really we're not that far off from like at one point the high 80. What else do we have here? This was 79, so it seems like it just we're almost running into the resistance, and i wonder if we're just going to break through this time, if we were to do some technical analysis exclusively on the line of the average age of these shares on loan shares. On loan remember the process of shorting: you take the share on loan to be able to go short. You don't have to go short, but then also, what's the point of paying a fee, to borrow those, if you don't want to go short, that's why the shares on loan is pretty pretty close to what the actual short shares are because, like it's, it's not like You're going to get an excessive amount that are out on loan that aren't legitimately shorter.

That would just be literally a waste of money. So i just wanted to give you those metrics, and i also wanted to give you the metrics of the expectations, clear expectation. Roughly 1.1 billion in revenue and uh estimated loss of 25 cents per share, we're looking for a narrower than expected loss, maybe even going positive, and obviously we want to be on revenue among anything related to nfts, maybe some metaverse. We know in the world of crypto their bitpay development they're going to be expect accepting doge and cheap um within this month march of 2022.

If you're watching this live um and we're going to be hearing about popcorn um, i know they're going to probably talk a little bit. Some of the people who have been at amc for a while there's some like fancy schmancy people who ended up um stepping down from their position that was in this sec filing uh. So sean goodman is the cfo he's taken over some other positions. They had some new joins, they had some other people leaving so there's a little bit.

A tiny amount of leadership switch up. I'm sure we're going to be hearing about that. But overall i want to know the core numbers, the earnings per share, the revenue, and i want to just know. If there's going to be something new and exciting, we know that they very much do listen to us, the retail investing public and i just wonder if they've been working on something in the background, so some optimism there and i think we're also.

This is a very small thing, but i think we're going to get a little bit of information related to um, adam aaron's, vesting schedule and like when he's gon na be getting uh a majority of his stocks, which we know he just vested some of him from His like grant plan in february - we know some more is in march and i'm just curious if they're gon na give us any particular updates on that dividend is possible or not it's possible, but it's hyper hyper unluckily unlikely! You don't really get a dividend commonly. If your company has debt and yet right now, amc has debt there's a little bit, i believe, due in 2023, most of it is gon na be due 2026 and later um, but still it's one of those things of. Why would you pay a dividend when you could pay off some of your debt? That's commonly considered to be a better fundamental business move uh. So i can't say it's it's possible.

I just don't think it's likely whatsoever whatsoever. What else do we have? What else? Let your questions fire as we're getting rocking. I have it up and i'm ready to go. It's just the elevator music.

This should get underway in about five minutes. Five minutes uh share dilution possible now, not in 2021. They don't no um. Well, i guess technically, it is to a very, very small degree uh.

They don't have many more other shares approved to be able to dilute. They would have to like ask us for the right to do that and if you remember the last time this all happened. Um, it wasn't even voted upon because the general reception - two of it was a negative one, but it's not they don't even have a group of shares right now approved that they could do that with. There were some previously approved, but it was a small amount like i think it's like sub 50 000..

So for that to happen once again, that would be like a proposal like it would be a proposal to us and then everyone who owns it. Your brokerage would send you a thing to vote on um. I don't think it's likely um, no matter what right it tells you, no matter what twitter tells you, no matter. What youtube tells you i think too many people are like.

Why would we delude ourselves when we're looking for the price to go higher? Did earnings happen no about to play out in a couple minutes about four minutes? Rocking rocking rocking dividend has to be paid by shorts for the shares every share, shorted plus it aids in figuring out actual shares in the market, but once again it's for the one shorted, it's still a bigger financial investment on the side of the business um. If you're short, yes, you will have to pay that, but that it's not as if they pay all of the dividend. If they do, everyone would enter offer a dividend literally, every single quarter, it's still quite a bit of a financial burden on the actual company, but it is right to say that if they do do a dividend, the shorts at that moment in time would pay all Right, we are about three minutes out folks, let's get more people in here if you haven't already help out with the algorithm get this video in front of as many people as you possibly can destroy annihilate take off the face of this earth that, like button break As many mice as you need to annihilating it, but we're about to get going and we got ta get as many people as we can in here to let the world know that the apes are not going anywhere shout out to harambee. What else do we have? What else do we have um? This doesn't necessarily really connect to this, but if, if you're watching this live just so, you know there's another important announcement tonight related to the overall market.

President joe biden will be having his state of the union address at 9, 00 pm and obviously he's going to be touching on a myriad of things, but it's going to strongly relate to what's going on in ukraine right now in putin's invasion once again, 9 p.m. E.T, i'm sure there's going to be many many people in the political sphere streaming that and giving their commentary if that's something that you're interested in 9 p.m, 9 p.m, which you could check the futures market. You could also roughly see like what's going on in the crypto market um. If it's swinging up or down hang on.

Let me see if there's any new filings filing three one filing three one: okay. 2022. 2022. 214..

I was just wondering if they put out any new filings cool website. I myself got tickets to see batman saturday, i'm excited with robert pattinson batman, rachel rachel that actually really hurts your like voice to do hurt your voice. To do so is amc. Now a fundamental play um, i don't know if i would call it that, because, if you're looking at the value of a company, i think it's important to look at the fundamentals.

It's important to look at the technicals. It's important to also look at what i would argue is like some form of i guess community support. So when you're saying is it a fundamental play, it sounds like you're saying, like is all of its value, currently derived from just its fundamental like status, and i don't think so because i think uh, especially like that community aspect is something that, like really like. Clearly comes into play when you're getting its value when you're trying to compute its market cap, i don't think you can exclusively look at its fundamentals.

Its fundamental situation is improving. That aspect of the equation is definitely trending in the right direction. Um, but i think it whoa whoa, something must have just come out yeah. We got some news, something had to just come out uh.

Where is it not seeing it there something some crazy volatility. Hang on, what's the news breaking news amc: where is it? Where are we? Where are we something nuts is going on? Where is it? Someone got some piece of information. Look at that spike of volatility, some trading volume. Where is the amc report? I guess we're just waiting: did it not come out? I think the world is just like awkwardly waiting, wait and wait and wait and i'm not seeing an sec filing yet either and also this was supposed to start at five and i'm just hearing the elevator music in the background nope, they almost got me.

They pause it. I thought they were about to start. Things are getting spicy spicy, spicy, spicy, spicy spicy stop loss assassinated. Let's get going, let's get going man, they really do need a revenue beat by 1 million in epsb by 8 cents.

That's your guess! What's everyone's guess, what's the what's, your the expectations for earnings per share is a loss of 25 cents. Everyone comment what your guess on earnings per share is expectations, a loss of 25 cents, all right. We have it right. There um it's coming in reported here i'll just retweet, this um reported is a loss of 11 cents and reported is a revenue of 1.17 billion, so earnings per share beat is a narrower than expected loss and the revenue also beat by man .06.

I, like that sweet looking good it beat earnings per share revenue, amc beat ding ding ding ding ding first hurdle cleared. I like that. I like it. I like it, i like it, it wasn't a miss, it was a beat.

It was less of a negative number. That's referred to as being a narrower than expected loss. That's good! We beat on earnings per share, we beat on revenue, like i said. First hurdle crossed dope, dopey dope, dope dope.

All right shout out, i'm also getting a bunch of tags shout out to everyone. Who's posting this on twitter. Let's just blow this up, let's get everyone in here we already crossed the first hurdle. This is a big old party.

Let's get more and more, let's do the old party all right did they file it here? Three, where is the sec filing? Let me track down the sec filing for all of you, beautiful apes. Let's go, let's go, let's go all right! They're still, i guess, they're a little late to today's meeting, still a little bit late man, i'm stoked that we beat uh, let's find this okay, so we beat there great great great, ongoing event. Let's do this thing. Amc news, eight hours, eight hours, all right.

Of course, mainstream media is not going to be on this right away, which means it is up to us fear not. We could track it down only mode and the conference is being recorded after the presentation. There will be an opportunity. More importantly, right here, uh amc holdings net loss 134.4 sales 1.17 beat all right, so they beat across the board.

Earnings per share was a loss of 11 when they expected 26. great amc says does not expect need to borrow under revolver lines during next 12 months. Amc bookings for new batman movie, opening this weekend very strong ancient liquidity, what better than 1.8 billy amc's? Fourth quarter boom you're in 2021, right there, great stuff 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. Several of the factors that will determine the company's future results are beyond the ability of companies to control or 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 the webcast we may reference non-gaap financial measures such as adjusted evidence, free cash flow, operating cash burn and 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. Earlier today, 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 adam.

Thank you, john good afternoon. Everyone thank you for joining us today. The fourth quarter of 2021 saw amc, putting up on the board significant milestones of progress, sending a crystal clear message to one and all that amc is moving well along the path to recovery for the first time in the two years since covet 19 descended upon us All in early 2020 in the fourth quarter of 2021 amc achieved positive ebitda and we generated a positive called it operation, positive ebitda, 100. What's going on where we only narrowly achieved these important markers, our positive ebathon, the quarter was almost 160 million dollars up a breathtaking 487 million dollars over the fourth quarter of a year ago.

This led to non-gaap operating cash generated of more than 220 million dollars in the just completed quarter. In addition, we ended the year with a record-setting year-end liquidity of approximately 1.8 billion dollars enough to provide amc with more security in case the return to normal box office levels takes longer than some might expect, and importantly, it also gives us the flexibility to go on The offensive as we work to create the amc of the future 2021 was another year of sequential and continuous recovery and improvement, as was the case after coven forced the closure of all of our theaters. In march of 2020, the industry and especially amc box office grosses improved each and every quarter of 2020 and each and every quarter of 2021 as theaters reopened. As the number of release film titles increased as the overall film slate became, more varied and appealing, and especially throughout 2021, as coveted vaccination counts, soared with the industry and amc's box office growing each quarter so too, our financial results at amc improved each quarter as well As i look at the recently completed fourth quarter, i am especially pleased that we hosted roughly 60 million guests at our theaters in the u.s europe and the middle east, 60 million people enjoyed watching a movie at amc in q4, 60 million people.

I am similarly pleased that our average total revenues per patron at amc in the quarter we're 19.63 some 25.5 higher than the same statistic in our pre-pandemic q4 of 2019.. It's our understanding that this is considerably higher than that of any other major theater operator. None of this is accidental. We worked our tails off to get people back in theaters and our job is not yet done.

We are not yet where we want or where we need to be. That will continue to take time and it will continue to take sustained and imaginative effort on our part, but even so you can see and you can taste and you can feel it - that amc seems to be on a positive glide path to recovery. There is so much conventional wisdom floating around that movie. Theaters cannot coexist and cannot thrive in a world of streaming.

What a load of cr cow dung, fair! I cleaned that up nicely what a load of cow dung in a world where the consumer's appetite for content is so voracious that it seems to be sufficient to. Let us all prosper. It's our view at amc that movie theaters, and especially our company as a leader as the leader in the movie theater industry, have a very bright future. The problem with conventional wisdom is that conventional wisdom is so often just utterly wrong.

Remember the breathless reporting that amc would file for bankruptcy in 2020, wrong. Remember that otherwise highly respected experts were calling for the amc share price to fall to two dollars, one dollars or even a penny by february or march of 2022. Now, for all the lawyers listening in i'm making no prognosis for the future, i'm looking only retrospectively, but those experts gravely underestimated amc and, with the full benefit of hindsight, we can now happily say because now it's a simple matter of fact, they were wrong. They were wrong.

They were wrong reflect on the remarkable success of sony, spiderman no way home, currently the third highest grossing movie of all time. Think about that for a moment, the third highest grossing movie ever and even though it was released at a time when people were battling omicron fears, no less, but it wasn't just spider-man then, and bond eternals ghostbusters. They were all part of the highest north american box office that we've seen in two full years at more than 2.1 billion dollars in the quarter, and that was more than 50 percent higher than the industry box office. Just one quarter earlier in q3 of 2021..

Looking to 2022, the 2022 film slate is expected to be significantly stronger than 2021s with warner's. The batman opening later this week, for which advanced bookings are very strong. The second quarter slate also includes marvel's doctor strange universal's, jurassic world dominion. Paramount and tom cruise are blessing us with a long awaited top gun, maverick and then there's pictures light year later in the year.

We have titles such as minions the rise of gru, thor love and thunder, and i fully expect disney literally to dazzle us both with marvel's black panther wakanda forever and james cameron's avatar 2. The sequel 2 in inflation adjusted dollars the single highest grossing movie of all time couple great films with much of the industry coalescing around an exclusive 45-day theatrical window in the united states. That is infinitely better for amc than when the movie industry flirted with day and date, simultaneous release of films to theaters and the home experimentation in 2021. As we look forward to the full calendar year of 2022 and reckoning that no one is a perfect crystal ball.

But we think that the overall domestic industry box office, which is a good place holder for the size of our industry, both here in the united states and abroad, could be nearly double that of 2021, and that makes us an amc bullish about our continued progress. Two notes of caution stating the obvious inflationary, cost pressures, labor shortages and potential supply chain disruptions, continue to exist, and if you watch the news, you are well aware, sadly, that there is a war in full bloom on the continent of europe. These challenges all will need to be carefully managed. Additionally, a year ago, we spoke to you about a sequentially improving year in 2021, with each quarter expected to be better than the previous one, and that is exactly how 2021 turned out merely because of the timing of big movie releases in 2022.

We expect that 2022 could follow a similar path with the first quarter being the low point of the year and meaningful sequential improvement being achieved as the year progresses. In short, our expectations are for a q1 that is well above 2021 q1 levels, but nonetheless it will be a relatively weaker q1, coupled with a strong and reassuring full year performance for all of 2022. As you look at amc know that we remain focused on recovery and transformation, we remain focused on innovation and managing through change. We are determined to continue with bold and dazzling marketing initiatives, all the while maintaining our discipline cost controls as well as cash conservation and potentially cash raising strategies i'll be back in a few minutes to provide some updates on specific key advances for amc and to take Your questions, but right now i'll turn the call over to our chief financial officer, sean goodman, sean thanks adam and thank you to everyone uh for joining us on the webcast this afternoon.

The fourth quarter represented a very important landmark along our path of recovery. The 60 million guests that we welcome to our theaters around the world during the fourth quarter resulted in consolidated revenue of 1.17 billion dollars, that's up 53 percent from q3 of 2021 and it's more than seven times the 162.5 million dollars of revenue we had in q4. Of 2020., this resulted in two very important accomplishments. During the fourth quarter.

First, we generated positive, adjusted ebitda for the first time in two long years of 159.2 million dollars. This represents a 164.6 million dollar improvement over q3 2021's ebitda loss of 5.4 million dollars and a 486.7 million dollar improvement over last year's. Fourth quarter: ebitda loss of 327.5 million dollars. This positive ebijah was achieved in both europe at 61.3 million dollars and the u.s at 97.9 million, and second, we achieved positive operating cash generated a non-gaap measure of 224.4 million dollars.

This represents average operating cash generated of approximately 75 million dollars per month during the fourth quarter, and this compares to an average operating cash burn of approximately 75 million dollars per month during the first half of 2021.. The fourth quarter proved to be a very good illustration of the working capital dynamics of our business with growth in the business is also accompanied by working capital benefits. Note that operating cash generated and operating cash burn. These are measures meant to represent total cash flow before debt servicing costs and before deferred, rent payments.

A gap reconciliation table is included in today's earnings release. The strong results in q4 were driven by consolidated revenue per patron of 19.63. This is 25 and a half percent higher than q4 of 2019 and a resulting solid contribution dollars per patron of 13.44. This is 32 higher than q4 of 2019.

Note that i'm defining contribution dollars per patron as total revenue, less form exhibition costs and food and beverage costs on a per patron basis. This tremendous growth in both revenue and contribution dollars per patron was across both our domestic and our international markets and reflects strength in average, ticket prices, food and beverage spent and other revenue per patron. The strength in average ticket price has been helped by a high utilization of our premium large format offerings such as imax and dolby cinema. This reflects our guests increasingly wishing to experience going to the movies as a special immersive event, and thus they are more and more selecting to upgrade to the best possible sight and sound experiences available.

The percentage attendance at premium formats was 17 in q4 2021 compared to 12 in q4 2019. In addition, relative to 2019, we benefited. We benefited from a favorable showtime mix with a higher percentage of evening, and weekend shows, coupled with pricing adjustments that we were able to take during the course of 2021 from a food and beverage perspective. Throughout the year we have enjoyed exceptionally strong food and beverage revenue per patron, as our guests chose to enjoy the full outside the home entertainment experience offered at amc.

Overall, our consolidated food and beverage spend per person in the fourth quarter was 6.37. This is 35 percent higher than the spend in q4 of 2019.. Our significant outperformance in this area compared to 2019, continues to be primarily driven by an increase in the proportion of guests choosing to enjoy our industry-leading food and beverage. Offerings made easy and convenient to purchase through the through our app that allows one to order food and beverage when purchasing tickets in advance of arriving at the theater.

Our total revenue, our total other revenue in q4, 2021 decreased by only six percent, so decreased by. Only six percent compared to the same period in 2019. This despite a 36 decrease in the number of guests, served. Other revenue primarily represents fees associated with online ticket purchases, screen advertising and theater rental revenue.

Online ticket revenue per patron benefited as an increasingly higher percentage of our guests, chose to reserve their seats and order food and beverage in advance, utilizing our industry-leading website and app screen. Advertising revenue also continued to increase during the course of 2021, as the box office improved, and we also benefited from revenue diversification initiatives such as renting our theaters during off times to businesses and government organizations for meetings and other events in our domestic markets. Revenue per patron in the fourth quarter was twenty dollars and forty six cents up twenty four point: five percent from q4 of 2019. This was driven by a 35 increase in food and beverage spent per patron, coupled with a 17 increase in average ticket price and a 40 increase in other revenue per patron in our international markets.

Revenue per patron for the fourth quarter was 17.90 up 28 from 2019.. This was driven by a 32 increase in food and beverage spent per patron, coupled with a 20 increase in average ticket price and a 55 increase in other revenue per patron. In an ongoing effort to enhance efficiency, we have been extremely deliberate in adjusting payroll hours and flexing show times to adjust to the market demand. For example, our q4 attendance of 60 million guests represents 65 percent of q4 2019's attendance, but 87 of q4 2019's attendance, showing this increase in attendance per showing enhances our efficiency and allows us to effectively manage cost pressures.

Moving over to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with a record year in liquidity of 1.8 billion dollars. This is comprised of 1.592 billion dollars of cash and cash equivalents and 209 million dollars of undrawn credit facilities. During the fourth quarter of 2021, we repaid approximately 61 million dollars of deferred rent, reducing our deferred rent balance down to 315 million dollars.

In total, we have been able to reduce our deferred rent balance by approximately 155 million dollars during the last nine months of 2021.. We expect to further reduce the deferred rent balance during 2022 by approximately 150 to 200 million dollars. Looking closer at the balance sheet, and particularly our debt position, it is worth noting that last month we completed a highly successful capital raising we issued 950 million dollars of seven and a half percent first lien notes. As a result of this transaction, we were able to fully repay high interest debt that was raised at the height of the pandemic.

The end result is a reduction in our annual interest, expense by approximately 30 million dollars, an extension of our debt maturities by between three and four years as the new debt has a maturity date of 2029 and enhanced financial flexibility. Overall, this was a really terrific transaction for amc and we continue to actively consume attractive opportunities to further strengthen our balance sheet, lower interest costs and increase our operating and strategic flexibility regarding capital allocation. We continue to pursue a balanced and disciplined approach to capital allocation. Our priorities remain unchanged, one ensuring that we have sufficient liquidity; two strengthening our balance sheet by reducing our debt and associated interest costs and extending maturities three investing in our business to enhance the guest experience and four opportunistically pursuing value enhancing initiatives, including those that lead to Diversification of our business during 2020 and 2021, we focused our capital expenses expenditures almost entirely on maintenance of the existing fleet.

Net capex, including landlord contributions, was a hundred and thirty point two million dollars in twenty twenty, and it was seventy point, four million dollars in twenty twenty one. Both of these are significantly less than in 2019, when capex included spend associated with the enhancement of our fleet. Predominantly through seating upgrades for 2022 separate and apart from any m a activity, we expect capex to be in the range of 150 to 200 million dollars, as we begin to invest in the growth enhancement and extension of our business. As part of our ongoing efforts to optimize our theatre portfolio during the quarter, we opened or added three new theatres and closed five.

So this brings the total number of locations permanently closed during the last two years to 83 and the total number of new locations opened to 30 for a net reduction of 53 locations. Both actions, closures and openings serve to increase our adjusted ebitda collectively. The older, somewhat tired theaters that we closed or money loses, while the beautiful new theatres that we are bringing into our system are expected to be extremely strong. Performers positively, impacting our overall profitability going forward.

We'll continue to actively manage our portfolio, adding new high performing locations and eliminating lower performance all with the goal of improving guest satisfaction through improvements to the inherent quality and appeal of our fleet of theatres, as well as optimizing our overall profitability. The operating improvements and efficiency. Optimization initiatives implemented over the last two years have allowed us to nicely capitalize on the box office growth in the fourth quarter, we're very pleased with the results for q4, but we are in no way complacent as we begin 2022, we are still in a recovery phase And we will continue to focus on revenue, growth, efficiency and enhancement, initiatives to build our business and ensure our success in a post-covert environment, and with that i will pass the call back over to adam. Thank you sean before we open up this webcast to your questions.

I'd like to update you on recent actions, we've taken to enhance our business and highlight some strategic initiatives that will that will better position our company, as we hurl into what we believe is a much more promising future for amc. A strong current of innovation runs deep throughout amc's dna. We have led in the elevating of movie, going to a truly unique and desirable out of home experience and we set the standard for so many transformative changes in our industry. We'll continue to do so, but in 2022, 2023 and beyond, we also expect to transform our company into becoming something much greater than solely a movie theater operator.

Let's quickly look at seven of the initiatives and innovations already or soon to be underway. One nfts during q4 amc became the first theatrical exhibition company to collaborate with a studio partner to offer an exclusive non-fungible token or nft to reward moviegoers for their amc. Attendance amc worked closely with our partners at sony to launch the spider-man nft, and the success was undeniable. 86 000 nfts were fully subscribed within hours and ultimately, these nfts have been sold on secondary markets, some of them that that is, but some of them have been sold in secondary markets for as much as 17 000.

No, you did not hear me wrong. Seventeen thousand dollars for a single spider-man nft by now in just a few months, from our first effort with sony in november, we have already launched four separate nfc programs, one of which is supporting what is sure to be the new blockbuster movie. The batman which opens this week in total, more than 800 000 nfts, have already been made eligible by amc for consumer collection in just three three months or so. Nfts are not just interested in comment commemorative collectibles, but are also seen as drivers of attendance for amc at our theaters and growth in box office revenues for our studio partners.

We expect to continue both jointly with studios and separately by ourselves on our own to create future nft offers to enhance the overall engagement with our guests and importantly, in 22, we will look to further monetize some of what is now our nascent nfc activity, for example, Selling some of these nfts, in addition to giving them away free and getting a commission on the transfer of our nfts. When and if they're later resold, two cryptocurrency. We continue to explore opportunities to both provide convenience and to create value for our guests through the use of cryptocurrencies. Last year we introduced last year being 2021.

We introduced the capability to accept payments in bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash and litecoin, using our website and mobile. App later this month in march, we will introduce the ability to transact and to make amc online payments in dogecoin and shiba inu that on our website with mobile app functionality following a few weeks thereafter, we continue to explore how else amc can participate in the burgeoning Crypto universe - and we remain quite intrigued by the potential business opportunity - we've been looking for some time at potentially issuing our own cryptocurrency, but that will depend on how the regulatory frameworks surrounding cryptocurrency unfold more to come. If, as and when, we have something more concrete to share as a side note a benefit over having to program cryptocurrency functionality for our website and mobile app amc also picked up the capability to accept apple pay, google pay and paypal online. Incredibly, in just a few months, these latter three forms of payment along with cryptocurrency, already constitute more than 15 percent of our online ticketing activity, as was seen in the fourth quarter of 2021..

Three variable pricing: a few years ago, at some of our us theaters amc successfully raised weekend pricing above midweek levels. Currently, our prices for the batman which opens this week are slightly higher than the prices we're charging for other movies playing in the same theaters. At the same time, this is all quite novel in the united states, but actually amc has been doing it for years in our european theaters. Indeed, in europe we charge a premium for the best seats in the house, as do just about all other sellers of tickets.

In other industries, i think sports events concerts and live theater, for example, that has not commonly been a practice heretofore in the united states. If you look at our year-over-year pricing success, as was demonstrated in the q4 numbers, you will see that amc has been a bold thinker in the area of pricing, one who is willing to take risk and one who is willing to lead and one who sees considerable Upside opportunity for us ahead if we continue to be imaginative, four amc perfectly popcorn our foray into the multi-billion dollar popcorn industry during 2022 is on track. Remember, amc knows something about popcorn. On a peak day, we sell 50 tons of the stuff we plan to make our freshly popped, popcorn available through food delivery to home services, allowing consumers to enjoy a slice of the amc experience while entertaining at home.

We also plan to sell to go packages of popcorn at our theaters, for takeout and or for pickup. Beginning later this year we will begin selling freshly made real amc, theaters perfectly popcorn and other movie treats at select mall retail locations around the united states, and i think the biggest opportunity here of all is that amc is working actively an opportunity to offer pre-packaged and Or ready to pop microwavable amc theaters perfectly popcorn in supermarkets, in convenience stores and in other food service venues around the country. As we recently announced, we recruited ellen copacan to fill the newly created position of vice president of growth strategy, where she will lead our initiatives. Related to the sale of popcorn outside the traditional in theater channel and assist with other initiatives to broaden and transform our company ellen has an outstanding track record in brand management and innovation at pepsico at frito-lay, and it hosts his brands and her skill set combined with Her significant grocery experience will be a tremendous asset to us as we roll out our popcorn initiatives and explore other innovations in 22.

watch out. Orville redenbacher baby, a considerable competitor with a popcorn brand that truly resonates with consumers is on its way five additional theater editions. Additional that shouldn't have been additional theater locations during 2021 and early in 2022 we acquired seven high-profile and strategic theaters, including six former arclight pacific theaters, there's about a third of their circuit, located in major metropolitan markets, like los angeles, san, diego chicago and washington dc. Adding the magic of the amc, product and marketing strategies to existing high-profile theater locations has proven to be a winning formula.

Our mid-2021 acquisitions of the grove 14 and america americana at brand 18, both former arclight pacific theaters, both in the los angeles market, have under amc's leadership and management, both ranked among the 30 highest grossing movie theaters in the entire united states. Out of some 5 000 theaters in the country since joining the amc family in mid-summer, theater landlords, real estate owners around the country recognize that amc is a theater operator of choice and we continue to be in active and constant discussions regarding potentially picking up additional highly Attractive locations that can enhance our portfolio transition costs can be modest and often subsidized by landlords, not always, but sometimes we find opportunity to pick up theaters at a mere one to two times projected ebitda, even counting in and factoring in their transition costs. Similarly, we have looked at buying some or all of several smaller movie theater circuits. Now some sellers have price expectations that make their approach to us dead.

On arrival. On the other hand, we are seeing up other opportunities where we think we can grow our theater count. Attractively with quality theaters in strong potential markets and do so at three to four times our projected cash flows. These are bargain prices.

We will continue to be highly disciplined in our approach, though, but put it all together. There is opportunity in them. Thar hills watch this space for more announcements, as amc continues to grow next, a branded credit card. Some of you may have seen two completely voluntary and well-earned executive retirements announced yesterday afternoon and that we are seamlessly backfilling.

These two very talent executives with superb individuals to carry our legacy forward, we'll have new leadership, highly experienced already internal within the company to run our us theater operations. In addition, in choosing our new cmo elliot hamlisch of windham hotels and resorts, starwood hotels and resorts deloitte consulting in american express not to mention an mba from the harvard business school, we have someone bringing to his new amc position, considerable experience with co-branded credit cards with Approximately 4 million shareholders and 25 million households in our amc stubs program. I think there is significant potential profitability for amc if we launch our own co-branded credit card and that will become yet another high priority for amc 2022. You may recall that, back in the early 1990s, i was the chief marketing officer of united airlines and managed its co-branded credit card with what is now chase.

I've seen firsthand the spectacular profitability that can accrue to a company that has a successful co-branded credit card launch and finally, recovery, agility and transformation. These three words are the mantra for amc in 2022 and 2023, as our fourth quarter results indicate. We continue to be in a state of recovery and our focus remains on bringing to fruition a successful, full and lasting recovery from the impact of the pandemic. At the same time, we realize that we will need to be agile to achieve that goal, because, admittedly, our industry is in a time of robust change, but agility is something that we've demonstrated.

Amc is pretty good at. Let's just say that at amc we have steered this ship through the most uncharted of uncharted waters in the recent years. So we're not worried about the need for us to adapt our business model as we go forward to cope well as change unfolds around us. But some people following us look too narrowly.

They think our aim is merely to bring back the company that existed back in 2019 pre-pandemics and they look at the value of that company and project a falling grace for us at amc going forward. But i want to make very clear to everybody on this call. Our ambition is much more grand than that. Our shareholders have armed us with 1.8 billion dollars of year-ending liquidity, and there may be creative ways for us to raise even more monies.

I keep on getting offers from our shareholders, for example, that they want to chip in and help us pay down our debt. I don't know exactly that. That's in the cards, but i do admire their passion and dedication to amc. Nonetheless, they've shown it over and over and over again still with 1.8 billion dollars of cash and under on revolver at our disposal.

That can be used to outlast this pandemic, to pay down debt, to innovate within our core and related businesses and for transformative m a we encourage those of you who look at amc to do so, boldly because within amc we are thinking boldly before turning the call.