Cinemark reported record third-quarter revenue on November 3, 2026, as theater operators approached a holiday season with differing expectations for Thanksgiving and December. Its earnings improved, while StoneX analyst Michael Hickey forecast lower Thanksgiving ticket sales than in the previous two years.
Box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian put domestic ticket sales through November 1 at approximately $8.46 billion, up 20.1% from the comparable period in 2025. That would leave about $1.54 billion needed to reach $10 billion for the year, a level last reached in 2019.
Gower Street Analytics also raised its 2026 global box-office forecast to $35.7 billion. In its October 30 update, the firm highlighted what it described as a record domestic summer and a record August globally.
Cinemark reports record third-quarter revenue
Cinemark said revenue for the quarter ended September 30 rose 23.5% from $857.5 million a year earlier to approximately $1.06 billion. The total was its highest for a third quarter and its second-highest quarterly revenue overall.
The company reported the following results, with dollar figures rounded to the nearest million:
| Financial measure | Third quarter 2026 |
|---|---|
| Revenue | $1,059 million |
| Concession revenue | $414 million |
| Total net income | $124 million |
| Adjusted EBITDA | $268 million |
| Free cash flow | $66 million |
| Cash at quarter-end | $556 million |
Cinemark said premium large-format box-office revenue across XD, IMAX and ScreenX rose 50% from a year earlier to an all-time high. Worldwide concession revenue per patron reached a third-quarter record of $6.50.
Worldwide attendance reached 63.7 million patrons, compared with 54.2 million a year earlier. Cinemark’s average ticket price increased to $8.33 from $7.93 over the same period.
Net income attributable to Cinemark was $122.8 million, compared with $49.5 million a year earlier. That measure excludes income attributable to noncontrolling interests, which is included in the total net income shown above.
Cinemark generated $136 million in cash from operations during the quarter and reported $70 million in capital spending, including investments in new theaters, recliner upgrades, laser projector conversions and premium amenities.
Thanksgiving expectations trail recent years
Hickey expects the 2026 Thanksgiving box office to fall below the holiday’s performance in 2024 and 2025. Disney’s Hexed and Universal’s Focker-In-Law form part of the holiday lineup, with Hexed scheduled for November 25.
Hickey projects Hexed to generate $35 million to $45 million over its three-day opening weekend and $50 million to $70 million over the five-day holiday. His three-day forecast is below the approximately $140 million opening for Moana 2 in 2024 and $100 million for Zootopia 2 in 2025.
The outlook follows a quiet Halloween weekend. Studio estimates put domestic ticket sales for the October 30–November 1 period at roughly $56 million. That softer weekend contrasts with the higher year-to-date total cited by Dergarabedian.
December releases underpin analysts’ forecasts
Disney’s Avengers: Doomsday and Warner Bros.’ Dune: Part Three are scheduled to open in North America on December 18. Sony’s Jumanji: Open World is scheduled for December 25 in the United States, adding another franchise release near year-end.
Hickey expects those three films to generate more than $1 billion in combined domestic ticket sales during the fourth quarter. For comparison, he put the fourth-quarter domestic gross for Avatar: Fire and Ash in 2025 at roughly $270 million. Both figures concern receipts within the quarter rather than lifetime totals.
Dergarabedian said the December 18 weekend could potentially exceed $400 million across the domestic marketplace. That projection covers the overall weekend across films, rather than a single title.
Roth analyst Eric Handler said fourth-quarter ticket sales were running ahead of his forecast, while identifying the final two weeks of December as particularly important to the quarter’s outcome.
AMC extends debt maturities
AMC Entertainment announced on October 5 that it had completed a $3.97 billion refinancing of existing debt. The company said the transactions extended most major maturities to 2031 and 2033.
At June 30, AMC reported approximately $3.85 billion in corporate borrowings and a stockholders’ deficit of about $1.45 billion. Those balance-sheet figures describe the company’s position before the October refinancing, rather than its position following the transactions.
Premium screenings have also featured in AMC’s results. Chief executive Adam Aron said on the company’s second-quarter earnings call that premium and extra-large auditoriums represented about 8% of its screens but generated more than half of AMC’s opening-weekend ticket revenue for The Odyssey.
AMC scheduled its third-quarter results for November 4, while IMAX scheduled its report for November 5. The reports will show the companies’ third-quarter performance before the year-end releases contribute to their results.
