NCMI Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

Motley Fool Transcribing, The Motley Fool

Wed, May 13, 2026 astatine 10:47 AM CDT 27 min read

Image source: The Motley Fool.

DATE

Tuesday, May 12, 2026 astatine 5 p.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chief Executive Officer — Thomas Lesinski

• Chief Financial Officer — Ronnie Ng

Full Conference Call Transcript

Thomas Lesinski: Thank you, Chan, and bully afternoon, everyone. We admit you joining america for our archetypal 4th 2026 net call. We entered the twelvemonth with beardown momentum from the vacation period, some successful attendance and advertiser demand, and our archetypal 4th played retired mostly arsenic we anticipated. Our results reflected emblematic seasonality, heightened contention tied to the Winter Olympics, and the interaction of the 1-week displacement successful the fiscal calendar that we highlighted past quarter. Adjusting for that timing difference, gross would person accrued modestly year-over-year, driven by moviegoer enthusiasm for container bureau hits astatine some ends of the quarter.

On a reported basis, NCM delivered full gross of $34 cardinal and adjusted OIBDA of antagonistic $10.5 million, some wrong the guidance ranges we provided past quarter. In presumption of the archetypal quarter, the home container bureau grew astir 25% year-over-year, with attendance crossed our web reaching 83 million, up 15% versus the anterior year. The spread to the broader container bureau chiefly reflects the 1-week calendar displacement successful our fiscal play and the interaction of the Winter Olympics, neither of which impacted the archetypal 4th of past year. Adjusting for that displacement and including Spotlight successful the anterior year, attendance would person been up astir 18% connected a comparable basis.

Within the quarter, show was anchored by carryover spot from 4th fourth tentpoles, including the caller Avatar and SpongeBob movies, earlier picking up successful the last 2 weekends, powered by Project Hail Mary and aboriginal contributions from the Super Mario Galaxy Movie. The precocious 4th acceleration reinforces our presumption that 2026 is shaping up to beryllium a much accordant and durable twelvemonth for theatrical accumulation and positions america good arsenic we participate into the 2nd quarter. That momentum carried into our advertizing results. Demand remained healthy, with 6 advertisers spending astatine oregon supra the $1 cardinal people connected cinema campaigns successful the quarter.

Total advertizing gross was $31.9 million, astir successful enactment with the anterior year, driven by spot successful insurance, media, automotive, and the pharmaceutical categories. This level of advertiser engagement is simply a testament to the worth of NCM's industry-leading inventory and our demonstrated quality to present measurable, impactful outcomes for brands. We stay focused connected strategically expanding the breadth and prime of our inventory, unlocking caller opportunities to deepen our engagement with advertisers. In April, we announced a concern to deploy ample integer displays successful high-impact lobby placements crossed 77% of AMC theaters nationwide, focusing connected its highest postulation locations.