The diversified cinema and real estate company Reading International, with operations and assets in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, announced its results for the second quarter ended June 30. President and CEO Ellen Cotter said, “Our second quarter operating results were strong, with $65 million in global total revenue and $1.8 million of global operating income, delivering the best performance since the fourth quarter of 2019. Our global cinema business delivered operating income of $4.5 million, which is also the highest since the fourth quarter 2019, driven by a significantly stronger movie slate, including the phenomenal theatrical release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which has grossed $1.3 billion in Worldwide Box Office to become the second highest grossing animated picture of all-time.
“The Angelika in New York City realized a house record for the highest grossing opening week ever with director Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, reinforcing our confidence in our specialty business. And, looking forward to the third quarter, in July 2023, our global circuit delivered the highest monthly total cinema revenue in the company’s history, due to the unprecedented success of Barbenheimer, the double feature of Barbie and Oppenheimer. As we begin to return to pre-pandemic Box Office levels, we remain optimistic about the future of the cinema exhibition industry.”
Cotter continued, “Our real estate business contributed to the second quarter’s operational success by delivering $5.2 million in revenue and $1.3 million in income, which also represents the highest quarterly real estate revenue and operating income since the fourth quarter of 2019, driven primarily by the new rental stream from the Petco lease at 44 Union Square in New York City and the continued solid performance of our Australian real estate portfolio.”
Cotter concluded, “Despite the current challenging inflationary environment, we are focused on addressing multiple debt maturities in 2023 and 2024. Additionally, we are monitoring the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes and potential impacts to the 2023 and 2024 movie release schedules. To address these liquidity pressures, we are working with our lenders to restructure certain debt facilities and we have selected certain real estate assets for potential monetization and listed them for sale. We continue to believe that our ‘two business/three country’ diversified business structure will enable us to deliver greater returns for our stockholders in the future.”