What's up boys and girls, how you doing we've got the uh. Let me turn this down. Switch this to desktop audio, so you guys can hear that that should be good all right for the time being, it's just music playing so we'll keep that a little quieter. In the background that way, you guys uh, aren't too distracted but hope you're all chilling.

I think that this would be a very interesting earnings call. The the game plan for the day is very simple: uh drop some freaking, some gorillas in the chat for uh for amc earnings, we're just gon na be listening to this and as we're going, i'm gon na be writing down uh. All the talking points that i find to be interesting, uh here on microsoft. Whiteboard that way we can come back and sort of analyze.

Whatever is talked about uh if you're hopping in late. You can see what i personally believe to be uh. The main points of uh the call are and uh we'll go from there we'll go from there. So that's sort of the game plan good to see you kevin dang y'all going nuts.

Can i have some yummy amc popcorn stop in one at your uh, your local location, man. That's that's the way. That's the way of the jedi go johnny's, yeah baby, it doesn't say i'm live on youtube. I think it does.

I mean we're live right now. Aren't we thanks man? I've got a little bit of a bed head. My hair is finally long enough. Somebody just said uh dig the hat uh.

This is the the hat that i got from uh college. St john's university. Go johnny's go johnny's, men live, breathe, die johnny's, that's the way, that's the way. That's the way we rock i'm gon na turn that off for now as well.

That doesn't seem very important for what we're talking about yeah. I don't know i mean i don't think people would be in here. If it didn't say i was live kind of confusion confused you have a blue dot. What's the blue dot yeah rachel, the mustache is coming in nice.

I haven't had to trim it up in a little bit uh. The only thing i've been shaving is my neck. I said it's been a game changer i i enjoy being able to to not worry about uh the beard for a minute. It's a game changer for sure i know slow mode, slow mode sucks.

But when we get this many people in here it can be hard to read so uh slow things down. Yo yeah, i'm 24.. This is a freaking bop of an elevator jam right here. What a happy looking guy the hell hey give me my give my stuff back.

What great talking points right here, i'm actually pretty excited for this guys. This would be an interesting uh, interesting earnings call i expect uh. I expect this to be a a pretty big surprise, we'll see more crim jamer i've been slacking. The last last two weeks drop, some f's drop, some f's for the slacking.

I haven't been putting out any crim jamers stuff in a minute. He grew the beard in like three days: impressive. No i've had it for a minute. I haven't shaved for like three weeks, it's been a while it's been a while is that ken griffin after he hears amc earnings, call definitely that's the face of all the jokers out there who uh, who, who think that you're gon na pee? Who knows who knows what'll happen? It's great elevator, music, great overview, music, sean! Absolutely! This is some high-tech man.

These are the boxes, i'm looking to check off right, um, big nuts, i'd like to see um. Some big nuts moves right check that box i'd like to see more talk on nfts and a potential partnership, hopes and goals, hopes and ambitions that would be sick. I'd like to hear an update on their debt. That would be sick.

There's one more thing that oh yeah yeah yeah future expansions, how they're planning on expanding the movie theater franchise. This is sort of the the four things in which i'd like to hear talked about outside of just revenue and earnings per share. We already know about positive ebitda that already came out uh, which is a good sign, obviously that we can hopefully expect some good things to come for uh for our girl, amy and future quarters uh, as they do continue to fundamentally improve and stack their balance sheets. We do know that uh amc is sitting on the most cash that they've had in quite some time, uh and now i'd like to see it put to use, then that isn't terrible right.

They are pushing that debt to the right. We should make that very clear right. Debt has got pushed uh to uh further notice. I don't know if that's that's really the way that you say it, but they expand it on time.

The amount of time that it's gon na take for them to uh to pay that off. They do have extra time to pay off that debt, which is uh a huge thing for sure. I'm very happy to see that uh, but i'd also like to see them sort of tackle that a little bit, so they have more freedom to uh sort of tell short sellers to piss off right short sellers legs that they can stand on right now, the all The argument all the argument is this too much debt. All of them argue the same thing even with the company, fundamentally improving, even with the positive ebitda i mean i got to tell you guys.

I saw this article uh about amc earnings that i just couldn't help, but laugh at it was so goofy. I think it was from somebody a news source called entrepreneur. Entrepreneur definitely spelled that wrong. Look at this amc stock doesn't look any better, even if it posts a great q4 today.

What kind of stupid garbage is this? That's so dumb, that's silly dividend says mike uh mike they can't issue dividends until they clear off debt. That's uh! That's something that definitely has to take place, but like look at these look at these goofy chickens results today after the market closes, while they're expected to be positive, that won't save amc stock. Tell me you're, biased without telling me you're, biased early february, has suggested amc's best year from a financial perspective was 2018. When revenues were 5.5 billion dollars, with 250 65 million on operating profits, uh blah blah blah blah blah they go on and on and on and on.

But i i think you can kill this short thesis and this this idea that that amc is just never going to be anything better than what it was by wiping out debt. You wipe out that debt. You have all the the room in the world to expand in whatever sort of way that you'd like to. So, let's see what happens, i i just want to show you guys this goofy ass article.

I mean what what else does a great q4 mean? You know uh, it doesn't look any better, even if it posts a great q4. I mean that's literally what the quarterly checkups are. It's there to tell you whether or not the company is doing good things from a quarter to quarter basis, so you can't get a checkup. You know i don't know what the what the hell you're talking about.

You said if it's a good quarter, it's still bad. That's literally, that's only what this is. Only you and jesse pinkman from breaking bad can touch. My wife tits says harry harry.

Let me tell you, i will not be taking you no, i'm kidding. I won't be taking you up on that, but i appreciate the honesty. Thanks dude, oh yeah see uh mcgyver, it happens, every quarter, man, it happens. Every quarter just does not matter, does not matter what their earnings look like.

They're, always just going to get shot on every earnings. Every every quarter. Amc gets shot on for both a price perspective and uh and a media perspective because of exactly uh the narrative that they're trying to paint. That's it, i'm not out of the mozart, yet i'm just on leave.

They don't have to wipe out all the debt right. They don't have to wipe out all the debt, but a good chunk of it would be huge they're, still not a lot of money. Man we'll see how much now, i'm sure adam will talk about it. That'll be a talking point but uh that helped out a lot that help out a lot.

A lot am i drinking popcorn butter. This is the uh, the gamer sup pineapple mango flavor. I've got it in my favorite booby cup tastes good. It's just a hit of caffeine.

It's healthier than energy drinks. I'm trying to lay off of uh the monsters uh this. This is probably a little bit better for me. So uh tastes, good wakes me up gets me.

Amped gets me juiced for the day. Uh! That's the way that we're gon na rock and roll new merch yeah dude. I would buy some merch by the way check this out guys. This is pretty sick lisa.

If you're watching right now, lisa, i appreciate you and even if you're, not mad props, to lisa. She sent me this bob saggett hoodie. She made this herself uh, knowing that i was a fan of bob saget. She put this together.

It just says bob saget. It's got some blue roses. Uh, it's pretty sick. It's pretty cool! It's cool to see this man i'll be wearing this uh quite a bit, i'm sure.

So, thank you, lisa. Why is my top monitor off? Let's turn this back on, i feel like we should be dancing who wants to get a who wants to get in an elevator and and dance with me to this. This music, i feel like this - is some slow dancing, stuff i'd, slow dance to this. Perhaps a monster in a pinch of winter, green long cut was always my breakfast of champions.

When i was in the field in the marines bone collector, i got off of chew a while ago i was uh. I was always a grizzly, a grizzly wintergreen guy myself. I did long cut for a while, then i switched to pouches and then from pouches i quit and i got on the vape. I pretend that's a little better for myself uh, but i did the same thing.

Man. Whenever we'd have uh field, training exercises would be out in the field, uh energy drinks and chew. That was it uh, but in the field actually we had a guy. His name was gabe.

He was a really cool dude. He uh he always brought uh uh redman. It's like the leaves and we'd all we'd, all pinch from that, which was always a ton of fun. There were some great memories that were made there.

You always felt like dog, but you know you made some some good memories for sure. The only thing i don't like about this hat is it's flat. I prefer when they're curved a little bit. I try to curve it, but it doesn't quite hit the same.

I'm trying to show that school pride man do a strip tease says jacob jacob pope. I i mean, if you want me to i: could i can roll up my sleeves a little bit here for you watch this watch this? Oh yeah? Oh there's, the sleeves here different baby, oh man, meeting sound is very quiet. I've got a low right now, i'm going to turn it up once they start talking. I appreciate that big j thanks man, it's great, to see you here, it's great to see you here, like i said before in case you're, just tuning in people have been hopping in sporadically throughout uh.

The last couple of minutes. Uh, the the game plan is very simple: we're just going to be listening, i'm going to have very little to say during the call, because i do not want to miss things right as it's going, i'm just going to write down stuff that i want to remember. Uh then, if you're hopping in late or you just want to look back on whatever was talked about, you'll see it on your screen right here, you'll be able to keep up uh just fine with whatever. Whatever talking points there were during the actual call here.

So uh we're gon na keep that up for you we're just waiting for the actual call to start once it does start uh i'll, be pretty quiet. You guys can just listen and uh i'll kind of discuss sort of the the points of contention afterwards uh. So we can all sort of reflect on what's been happening. Look at the charts, that's some goof! Let's look at it! Huh! Let's see what came out three key things: bull market, his earnings come out.

Let's see if anything's on twitter, it is kind of strange they haven't released anything yet i'm also kind of weirded out by that. I did not expect for uh for them to just not have this out. By now i mean it is pretty goofy where the heck did he get that are they beat look at this goof? What in the hell? That's some goofy stuff, uh dumping, because not on time. No, i saw the volatility yeah.

That's some! That's nuts! That's some crazy volatility. Uh the volume is definitely bumping up with that. That's some wild wild volatility right now. Looking at this, it looks like the earnings and revenue did just come out, i'm trying to find the actual article uh so that i can also tweet this out.

For those who would like to see it. Uh live blog, follow amc's q4 earnings in real time. Uh 201 pm pst uh. Where is this? Maybe there's a link here? If anyone has a link, let me know you can drop into chat.

I'd gladly. Uh gladly take that. Oh here we go. Fourth quarter of 2021 represented strongest quarterly results in two full years.

Uh total revenues for and uh by the way, you also have to keep in mind that the last uh one of those years is an asterisk because of uh obvious reasons right. The obvious reason is that kovid completely wiped out the revenue so uh, but it is so strong. It's good to see. Total revenues for the fourth quarter grew to uh 1.17 million compared to 162.5 million for the fourth quarter of uh 2020.

So did grow right compared to a year prior once again, that's an asterisk net loss for the fourth quarter, improved to 134.4 million, including a non-cash impairment charge related to long-lived assets of 77.2 million compared to a net loss of 946.1 million for the same quarter a Year ago, which has an 800 million dollar uh improvement, that's phenomenal! That's a great improvement compared to a year prior back when uh, when the covet restrictions were were starting to lift i mean things were really uh getting a little bit better. It's crazy to think that covet has been around for so long now. I remember when i was still on the track team and they shut down indoor nationals. We're gon na go watch a couple.

People uh reverse your camera image. I think my camera image is good. That's an improvement uh fourth quarter adjusted ebitda improved 487 86.7 million dollars to 152 59.2 million compared to an adjusted ebitda loss of uh 327.5 million for the fourth quarter of 2020 uh generated non-gaap 224 uh 0.4 million dollars call it that quick available liquidity and cash. This is actually interesting check this out.

This is the conference operator. Welcome to the amc, entertainment's 4th quarter 2021 earnings conference call as a reminder. All participants are in a listen only mode and the conference is being recorded after the presentation. There will be an opportunity to ask questions to join the question queue.

You may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference? Call? You may signal an operator by pressing star and 0.. I would now need to turn the conference over to john merriweather. Vice president investor relations, please go ahead.

Thank you and good afternoon. Everyone i'd like to welcome you to amc's. Fourth quarter year. End 2021, 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. Several of the factors that will determine the company's future results are beyond the ability of company 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 ebitda, 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 positive operating cash flow, and this is not a situation where we only narrowly achieved these important markers.

Our positive ebitda in 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 cove enforced 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 were 19.63, some 25.5 percent 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 yeah! Let's clean that up come on 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., that rich greenfield call-out 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's spider-man 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. People were battling.

Omicron fears, no less, but it wasn't just spider-man venom 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, dr 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 grue, 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 have 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 hundred and sixty four point: six million dollar improvement over q3 2021's ebitda loss of 5.4 million dollars and a 486.6 million dollar improvement over last year's. Fourth quarter: ebitda loss of 327.5 million. This positively. The job was achieved in both europe at 61.3 million dollars and the u.s at 97.9 million dollars, and second, we achieved positive operating cash generated an on gap measure of point 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 sort of 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 than 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 derby 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 cents. 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 20.46 up 24.5 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 spend 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. To mark, for example, our q4 attendance of 60 million guests represents 65 percent of q4 2019's attendance, but 87 percent 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 305 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 pursue 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 2020, and it was 70.4 million dollars in 2021.

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 evidence 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 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 seventeen thousand dollars. No, you did not hear me wrong. Seventeen thousand dollars every single spiderman slinging his wiener around by now.

No, you did not hear me in just a few months from our first ever with sony. In november, we have already launched four separate nft programs, one of which is supporting what is surely 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 months or so. Nfts are not just interesting commander 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 only with studios and separately by ourselves on our own to create future nfp offers to enhance the overall engagement with our guests and importantly, in 2012, we will look to further monetize some of what is now our nascent nfc activity there. It is, for example, selling some of these nfts in addition to giving them away free and getting a commission on the transfer of our entities, 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 of our 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 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 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. 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.

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 popcorn stuff 4a in 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 that makes you 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 that 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 theater perfectly popcorn into the market, one in convenience stores and in other food service Venues there you go 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 media. Is the big one and assists with other initiatives to broaden and transform our company colin has an outstanding track record in brand management and innovation at pepso 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 watch out baby is on its way five additional theater editions additional that shouldn't have been additional Theater locations, oh 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 inadequate. 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 our 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 talented executives with superb individuals to carry our legacy forward. We'll have new leadership highly experienced already internal within the company to run our u.s theater operations. In addition, in choosing our new cmo elliott, 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 in 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 check. Anyone saw that coming 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 same scene. 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 Over to q, a i would like to make a few specific observations about our enthusiastic and avid shareholder base. They really care about amc and they're, not shy with their advice.

I believe it or not. I tend to read a few thousand of their short comments on twitter each week and the feedback that we are getting has greatly helped me to run this company. It's greatly helped me to run their company. I'm also pleased that more than 615 000 individuals have self-identified as amc shoulders in joining amc investor connects a program that we launched in the last days of june of 2021.

It's our special communication and rewards program designed especially and only for our shareholders, also in the fourth quarter of 2021, i personally hosted two sold out early movie screenings for our shareholders in new york and los angeles. More such screenings that i personally host and personally attend will be planned around the country throughout 2022. At the la screening back in december, one of our investors screamed from the audience, we're not leaving he said, and indeed he appears to be right right now. There are several data sources to reconcile, but as best we can tell we have about the same number of individual shareholders now, as we had a year ago at this time in the neighborhood of 4 million individual investors who care about amc's future.

If you exclude index funds who have no choice but to own and hold amc, shares individual retail investors, investors would seem to own more than 90 of our officially issued 516 million shares as of today. Indeed, as it is often said about amc on twitter retail, our shareholders asked me every day on twitter speaking of twitter, to speculate about their theories on the trading of amc stock, as well as on natural or unnatural pressures on it exactly as we said last july, We have no reliable information on naked, shorting or so-called fake shares or so-called synthetic shares. So, even as we are well aware of your thoughts legally, we simply are unable to make any further public commentary on these topics. One thing that i'm particularly proud of we kept our word to our shareholders in 2021.

It is widely known that we are essentially out of more common shares that could be issued to the public in any quantity. Although a decade ago, our board did authorize the potential issuance of preferred shares if we say 90 percent. Some of you were anxious about this whole topic, and so i gave you my word back in the early summer of 2021 that we would sit on the sidelines for the balance of the full year 2021 on the equity issuance, and that is exactly what we did. We kept our word.

Some of you, then speculated that we would rush to immediately issue new shares to the public early interesting new year started. It is already march again we have not done so retaining your support, leading your company, smartly and well. Keeping our word to you. These are extremely important to us, they're extremely important to me at amc.

That's the report. This. The fourth quarter was a spectacular one for amc, the strongest in two years, sean. Let's now turn to questions, starting with questions from our shoulders.

I do hope we'll take some securities analyst questions as well. Thank you, adam and the first question is: can you give us an update on the popcorn initiative, uh sure um? As i said in my prepared remarks, we sold 50 tons of it on a good day. We know something about popcorn hoping for our brand, has credibility and will have credibility in the market uh for people who buy and consume popcorn, so we're taking this initiative very seriously. I talked about hiring ellen copaykin.

Who's got substantial brand management and innovation and and innovation experience at pepsico at free delay and at hostess brands. Uh she's got a lot of grocery experience, as i she's she's already on board. She joined us in mid-february she's in charge of this whole effort. Among other projects - and we are going full bore - i expect that, hopefully with ubereats, we will launch a food delivery program uh in this beginning.

As early as the second quarter of this year, depending upon which city you happen to be in we'll roll it out around the country over the second and third quarters, primarily possibly the fourth quarter in some of our smaller markets, as for grocery, many of you may Not know this, but grocery stores tend to restock their shelves twice a year in february and in september. Obviously february is behind us. So our our goal is to catch the september reshelling efforts and to get amc, theaters privately popcorn in a supermarket or convenience store near you in the fall of 2022. thanks adam and the next question is: are there other food and beverage initiatives in the pipeline? For example, expanded offerings concessions to go, etc absolutely um.

We fancied ourselves as an innovator in fnb and of the large theater operators. Amc has had the highest food and beverage sales per patron for years now, uh. That continues to be the case and part of it comes from we doing it well in our theaters part of it comes from our innovation. Just a couple of weeks ago, we launched impossible nuggets the plant-based alternative to chicken nuggets which are selling briskly.

We constantly are putting new menu items in our theaters. We constantly are putting specialty movie themed drinks at our more than 350 bars around our u.s theaters themed, the major movies that are coming out. But beyond that, some of you may recall that about four years ago we launched something called feature fair and we were way ahead of the competition in our view as to the menu variety that amc offered in future fair because of cobin, we had to strip that Way back uh uh it was. It was a challenge just to open our theater cnbc stupid jeremy, with a full uh variety of menu items, as we had when everything was going like a swiss watch back in 2018 or so.

Having said that, uh we're building back up in terms of menu, variety and our concession stands and in our dine-in theaters, we're still challenged with labor shortages and supply chain disruptions, so we're picking and choosing very carefully what items we bring back into our theaters. We want to make sure that if we promise a guest, a high quality, f and b experience that the people are working in, our theaters can deliver it. Having said that, we certainly seem to be succeeding. Uh sean, as you said in your prepared remarks, our food and beverage sales per patron are up 35 year over year.

That's a stunning increase uh, i'm very proud of what our f b organization is pulling off uh. You last asked about to go questions when we introduce the popcorn to go. Um uh uh products at our theaters we'll also have other to go 90 percent, including other delivery to home through reads and alike as well. So it's all coming more more big projects and more big goals for 2022.

great. Thank you very much uh. The next question is: can you give us an update on alternative content? Alternative content is something that we are very intrigued by we've dabbled in it. So far to gauge consumer response uh some of the people who track us closely know that we had wwe events.

We had ufc events, we showed directv sunday ticket for two years of the last three showing professional football games. Out-Of-Market football games on sundays. We've had several concerts one as recently as two nights ago: uh uh, kanye west, i'm just distracted now, yeah thinking about 90 dude uh in imax theaters around the country um. We have uh we're showing some old movies uh.

We just had a very successful re-showing of the 50th anniversary of the godfather. I think that was in our dolby cinemas and we've just agreed with warner music to look really hard together at which of their concert, artists. We can bring to amc theaters, but the big coin here is sports rights, and we all know that if amc is going to make a real splash in alternative content, if we can secure the rights for major, professional and collegiate sporting events, not to mention these others, Like wwe and ufc that getting professional colleges 46 is something that has great potential, it's much easier said than done uh. We have begun dialogue with leagues uh, but it's something that we're looking at hard next question: um: what is the time frame to bring premium formats to the recent theater acquisitions uh? I'm so proud of the partnership that amc has with imex and that it has with dolby cinema we're imax's, i think largest customer in the world outside of china, we're certainly their largest china, a partner here in the united states.

We have an exclusive relationship with dolby cinema here in the united states uh we had 150 or so uh plfs five years ago, amc globally, no attack of dilution now has uh over 400 and we continue to want to grow it. We're in active dialogue with eight with both imax and dolby right now, uh how we can grow our business with each of those great companies. I have every expectation that we are going to increase the number of our plfs and, in the case of imex in particular, increase the number of laser-equipped imax auditoriums around the amc system, uh one of the things that we've done as we've looked at bringing new theaters Into our system is see if we can add plfs to those theaters and, for example, the grove and americana brand in la which already are the 30 highest grossing movie theaters in the united states. Neither one is either an imax or a dolby cinema auditorium we're going to put an imax and adobe cinema cinema and our house brand, which is called private amc, we're going to put three of them into the grove three of them in the americana brand.

We're looking at other theaters as well to see where we can add imax, uh or dolby locations in terms of timing, and once you get permitted it's kind of six to twelve months to get them constructed permitting, can go fast or slow depending upon the locality uh. So i you know if i had to pick a date, i would say about a year and after we add a theater to our network, we ought to be well underway with imex or dolby or private amc locations. Great. The next question is: what are the plans to monetize the opportunity from nft and cryptocurrency? Here's a good question.

Look: this is a big opportunity for us um. As i said in my prepared remarks about nfps. We've already done four programs. Since november uh, already 800 000 nfts um have been made available to consumers.

One was spider-man movie one with dune one. With the batman movie, we offered an i own amc nft to our shareholders enrolled in amc investor connect. This is all good for us. We have tended to give them away free.

So far, we will continue to give some away free, especially if that drives a closer bond with the company or if it drives attendance to our theaters, where we'll make money, selling tickets and concessions. But i also think it's possible for for good and important and special nfts to sell them to the public, and i also know for a fact that on some of these nft programs, we already are and will be on future programs. Collecting a commission on the resale of those nfts as they get resold for cryptocurrency we're cats. Now uh, we start with dogecoin and shiva inu in a couple of weeks uh.

We know there are a lot of consumers who are very keen on those cryptocurrency market. We expect that our market share amongst that audience will grow when we can take cryptocurrencies. In addition to that, the one that uh you know well sean, because we've talked about at great length.