Attendance fell by 12.8% year over year as a sluggish summer at the domestic box office caused Cineplex’s Q3 revenues to decline by 1.5%.
Across all areas of its business, the cinema chain reported overall Q3 revenues of $370.4 million, down from $376.0 million a year ago, with overall attendance for the three months ended Sept. 30 dipping to 16.8 million, compared with 19.2 million last year.
On the box office front, Cineplex reported a year-over-year decrease of 11.3% ($20.9 million), with revenues falling to $164.5 million in Q3 of 2017, from $185.4 million the prior year.
Among the biggest draws at the 2017 box office were It (which took more than $20 million over the summer), Dunkirk (more than $20 million) and Spiderman: Homecoming (around $30 million) and Despicable Me 3 (around$24 million). Last year, Suicide Squad (around $30 million), The Secret Life of Pets (around $30 million), Star Trek Beyond (more than $15 million), Bad Moms (more than $10 million) and Jason Bourne (around $17 million) were among the biggest draws.
Adjusted EBITDA fell by 12.6% to $58.8 million for the quarter, compared with $67.3 million the prior year.
There were some bright spots in the quarterly as Cineplex reported that, despite the decrease in attendance, customers are spending more money per person in theatres than last year. Box office revenues per patron were $9.81 for Q3, up 1.7% from $9.65 last year, while concessions revenues per patron were $6.01 for Q3, up 5.6% from $5.69 million a year ago.
Elsewhere in the report, Cineplex said its media revenues decreased 11.1% to $39.9 million, which the company attributed to a decline in cinema advertising and the timing of digital signage installations.