Earnings Labs

The Marcus Corporation (MCS)

Q3 2015 Earnings Call· Thu, Mar 19, 2015

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning everyone and welcome to The Marcus Corporation Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. My name is Whitley, and I’ll be the operator for today. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. We will conduct a question-and-answer session towards the end of this conference. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Joining us today are Greg Marcus, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Doug Neis, Chief Financial Officer of The Marcus Corporation. At this time, I’d now -- I’d like to turn the program over to Mr. Neis for his opening remarks. Please go ahead, sir.

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · B. Riley. Please proceed

Thank you very much, appreciate it. Welcome everybody to our fiscal 2015 third quarter conference call. Bear with me as usual as I need to begin by stating that we plan on making a number of forward-looking statements on our call today. Forward-looking statements could include, but not be limited to statements about our future revenues and earnings expectations, future RevPAR, occupancy rates and room rate expectations for our Hotels & Resorts division, our expectations about the quality, quantity and audience appeal of film products expected to be made available to us in the future, our expectations about the future trends in the business group and leisure travel industry and in our markets, our expectations and plans regarding growth in a number and type of our properties and facilities, expectations regarding various non-operating line items on our earnings statement and our expectations regarding future capital expenditures. Of course, our actual results could differ materially from those projected or suggested by our forward-looking statements. Factors, risks and uncertainties, which could impact our ability to achieve our expectations, are included in the Risk Factor Section of our 10-K and 10-Q filings, which can be obtained from the SEC or the Company. We'll also post all Regulation G disclosures when applicable on our Web site at www.marcuscorp.com. So with that behind us, let’s talk about our fiscal 2015 third quarter and first three quarter results. As you can see, it was another very good quarter for us, led by our second straight quarter of record operating results from our theater division. And nearly identical to our second quarter what makes this a special quarter for us is that we’ve produced these results during a 13 week period when the National Box Office numbers were essentially flat. So it wasn’t if we had an…

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · B. Riley. Please proceed

Thanks, Doug. I’ll begin my remarks today with our theater division. We’re obviously thrilled to be reporting another record quarter for this division, once again significantly outperforming the industry. Clearly, the investments we’re making in our theaters are making a difference. And when you combine those investments with our innovative marketing and pricing initiatives, the result is record breaking attendance in our theaters during a time when the industry as a whole reflects an overall decrease in attendance. Doug shared the numbers with you. Not only are we over indexing the nation as a whole, the numbers we’re getting from Rentrak suggest that we were once again the top performing theater circuit among the top 10 chains in the United States. And keep in mind, that the numbers we reported today were despite the fact that we had numerous auditoriums out of service during the quarter at three more theaters where we were adding our DreamLounger seating. I think one of questions we answered during this recently completed quarter was whether we’d continue to outperform the industry after we had lapped the one-year anniversary of our $5 Tuesday rollout as well as the one-year anniversary of our initial four DreamLounger locations. Clearly, the answer to that question was yes. The next four theaters we added DreamLoungers last May were among our top performing theaters this quarter. But I will tell you that our first four locations combined, also continued to grow and contributed to our outperformance. In addition, our $5 Tuesday program continued to be a contributor to our stellar results with Tuesdays this year outperforming comparable Tuesdays last year, during the same quarter. And well there is no question that our DreamLounger recliner seat locations have been key contributors to these great results. I will tell you that during…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Eric Wold with B. Riley. Please proceed.

Eric Wold

Analyst · B. Riley. Please proceed

Thank you and good morning. Couple of questions. I guess one on the theater side, obviously great outperformance in terms of attendance in box office relative to the industry as well as the strength on concessions gains. On the concessions I know its difficult to gauge this least accurately, but any sense of -- if those concessions gains are been driven by a greater percentage of your attendees buying something at all or is it more the same number of people buy from -- just buying more of it?

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · B. Riley. Please proceed

Well, look I think you have to -- I don’t think we have the exact breakout of how many people. So you have to understand there is a certain rule of the industry don’t know, because one person maybe buying from more than one person. But that being said, I think our team is executing -- and they continue -- always been very good at executing and they continue to get -- they just get better and better at driving sales than using techniques to drive sales. So, they’re able to do that. Also with the ancillary food and beverages, the new food and beverage options that we’re putting in, we know that that’s -- that gives us greater bandwidth and attracts more people. But I can tell you specifically that we’re selling more to more people, I bet I can't tell you exactly.

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · B. Riley. Please proceed

We do know that anecdotally you see customers, now that we -- for example, the Take Five Lounges you’ll see someone who maybe had popcorns and soda or something like that during the movie, then stop off afterwards and go to the Take Five. So there you’re getting a greater share of wallet in those situations. And so, there’s no question those ancillary outlets that we have are contributing in that way.

Eric Wold

Analyst · B. Riley. Please proceed

No, thank you. And then secondly on the hotel resort side, you mentioned you're evaluating your number of proposals or your options to monetize some of those assets. How would you characterize that? Is that more of a kind of a proactive effort on your parts or more reactive? Are you actively kind of going out there looking to possibly shop some of those assets and see what the demand is, is it more kind of reacting to potential incoming bids that come your way?

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · B. Riley. Please proceed

I would say that nobody just rolls -- nobody is rolling around throwing bids in over the transom, so I would tell you it’s active.

Eric Wold

Analyst · B. Riley. Please proceed

Perfect. Thank you, guys.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed.

David Loeb

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

Good morning, gentlemen.

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

Hi, how are you?

David Loeb

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

Doing well, thank you. I had a few kind of following up on some of those. Let's just start with hotels since that's where the last question ended. Can you give us the RevPAR number for the quarter, including Chicago, just to help us with modeling?

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

Sure, I’ll be happy to do that. Let me just grab that here for you. For the quarter, we’re up 1.8%, year-to-date we’re up 4.6%. So you can see, it’s more pronounced -- the difference between the numbers I provided and those it’s more pronounced in the quarter clearly, in the winter months in Chicago without a brand under construction.

David Loeb

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

And that would have been both, occupancy and rate impact from Chicago, but more occupancy?

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

It would be both.

David Loeb

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

Okay. On Milwaukee, it doesn’t, you are still getting occupancy gains. And Greg, I heard you about the fourth quarter expectation that one hotel will -- you didn't say Milwaukee, but one hotel will have a tough comp just because of something that doesn't recur. But it doesn't look like supply is particularly hurting your ability to fill those rooms in the Milwaukee market. Any thoughts on that or on the outlook over the next several quarters with the supply growth slowing but still more coming on in the future?

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

A few things. I’ll start with a reminder about a lyric, money can't buy you love, but in Milwaukee it can. I think if you look at the Milwaukee market what you’d see is that, we have been very aggressive to keep rooms filled and we do that with rate, so we’re buying the love there. But it’s a better successful strategy for us too. And when you look at, again I’ve talked about this on prior calls, when you look at the Milwaukee market you see what's going on with supply, the market -- well this market is not keeping up with the national markets at all as a whole. The new property seemed to be doing well. Our properties are doing well because we’ve invested and we’ve -- as we always have. The properties in the market, I call them the legacy properties, they are not doing this well. And that’s the dynamics and so but -- so it’s a competitive market.

David Loeb

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

So, you’re holding market share and at some -- and that’s hurting your ability to raise rates, but you’re still holding market share and maybe even gaining a little bit. Is that a good summary?

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

Yes, I’d say we’re probably -- yeah, I’d say we’re holding market share.

David Loeb

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

Okay. That’s great. On the theater side and I know you talked a little bit about this. But I guess as you're looking ahead, the summer lineup looks really strong, the fourth quarter maybe a little tougher comparisons from last year. But I guess I'm wondering if you can give us an idea about how the trade-off sort of teases out with the loyalty program really kicking in better food and beverage versus film lineup. Do you think you're getting essentially same store growth all things equal, like film lineup not being a factor from all of this and can that continue as you continue to lap -- now that you have a million members for example as you continue to lap the rollout of that program and some of the other discounting programs?

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

Well, we have a really smart team of people, not [indiscernible] thinking about that exact question every single day, and they seem to be pretty good at it. Look, obviously it becomes more challenging, that’s -- I’m not going to tell you its not, but I have a lot of confidence in their abilities. These have been -- we continue to look for new ways to innovate and be innovative with the industry and to take advantage, and some of these things will build on themselves. If you think about it to the extent David, loyalty -- the loyalty program, that’s something that just as we said it sort of ads infancy and where that does go and what does that drive? That’s just starting really, how we can monetize that. And I think what you -- I hope and I think what you’ll see as we move forward is that, it’s not just one thing, its not just $5 Tuesday, its not just DreamLounge, its not just loyalty. We just keep executing on putting a number of strategies in place and continuing to drive our performance, but it will get more challenging, that’s -- you’re accurate

David Loeb

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

And do those smart people have a way to quantify that the impact of lets just say this last couple of 100,000 new loyalty members on attendance?

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

Yes, they do have some ways, and I will tell you that competitively I’m not necessarily going to share everything in terms of how some of these things have -- I’m not going to give you numbers for example.

David Loeb

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

Totally fair.

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

But look, don’t -- I agree with Greg in terms of just scraping the surface on some of these things, because ask your cohorts in crime that, that live here in this market and they’ll tell you that their seeing things for a ladies night series on Monday nights where we’re bringing back different films. Well we have never -- how could we ever promote that in the past. Now all of a sudden we’ve got a list of people that we can contact and talk to, and so I think we’re really kind of scraping the surface of ways to take to the non-peak times and promote into it or if we see a certain time period where we think a particular genre might be missing in the film lineup that’s being produced by Hollywood. We can in turn say, all right we’re missing that genre or missing that family film, lets come up with something that we can show, and then now we’ve got a way to promote it. That’s very interesting.

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

And I think and what Doug is alluding to David, and we can't model it. We can't tell you exactly what it means yet. But I know that it’s going to be an advantage for us, and that is, it’s this ability -- the thing that we have never had in our business before. We had this anonymous customer base wandering into our theaters, and for the most part we couldn’t tell you who they were. We couldn’t talk to them. And so whether it’s marketing for off times and marketing at specialty series or how about -- and we’re just starting to see ideas. Hey we haven’t seen you in a while, where have you been? A little email to somebody to say, we know things you like. We know you like action movies. So you might want to check out Fast & Furious 7, maybe we send something out in its third week to try and drive all the business to people we haven’t seen before. I mean in the past it wouldn’t have about as effective as me just walking up the street and knocking on random peoples doors, because we wouldn’t know who to talk to. But now we can be much more tactical about it. Now what does that mean? I don’t know, but I got to [indiscernible] have positive impact on us.

David Loeb

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

It is a little spooky though, Greg. Telling me what movies they like.

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

That was a evil laugh. I still get a little freaked out every time I drive by Walgreen’s and my smartphone buzzes and tells me I’m near Walgreen’s and so yes, so I’m with you.

David Loeb

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

Yes. But, yes my team actually does get those emails, and we haven’t talked about that. But Greg, one implication of that then, if you've got -- you found these ways to drive more value that must make theater acquisitions more interesting. Because now you have these methods of driving cash flow with loyalty with improved food and beverage, etc. Does that change your view on the way you look at the value you can create in acquisitions or in your appetite for those acquisitions?

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

Yes.

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

We agree with your thesis.

David Loeb

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

Yes.

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

Yes, I mean -- David what its, again its -- if you think about all the things that we’re doing and where might those have applications other places that, that content didn’t last on us.

David Loeb

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

Got it, okay. Well let’s just move on then. On The Corners, can you just give us a little more on the terms of that? So you've retained the 10% interest, that part I caught. It sounds like you have not received any capital back yet for this, but it sounds like there are some hurdles that as you hit you will receive them. But do you have any kind of promote or preferred return and what's your share of the cash flow? Is that 10% of the cash flow once it's open?

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

,:

David Loeb

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

So any thoughts on timing for that exit? I guess, value realization is going to come in stages as you first recover expenses and then get a profit. But ultimate exit is at years down the road or could it be sooner if you want it?

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

It could -- I mean that depends, again a variety of factors. It could be within a reasonable timeframe after opening but it doesn’t have to be. It can go there’s a potential for it to be as early as the year after it opens and, but it also could under a variety of different conditions continue for a while. So it really is -- it really is not determined at this point in time. When that happens, obviously we’ve got -- we carry it over basis in our land, so we’ve going to have a pretty low basis in this investment and -- so there’s certainly some upside on our backend I just can't give you a date. I can't tell you when it’s going to be.

David Loeb

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

Sure.

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

But I think overall its -- and it goes back to -- at the end of the day it’s really a pretty small thing. In fact its gotten way -- as it relates to our other business a little too much attention probably in terms of -- I feel like it’s a little bit more magnified than it really is. I don’t think you’re going to hear like a big huge number when it is all said and done. And so it’s …

David Loeb

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

Yes, but still it’s -- you created value from excess land. So there is value that has been created and will continue to be as you continue to build this. So its -- that maybe hard for us to quantify, but it sounds like it’s still meaningful.

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

I’m not sure I even, I’d say look, you got to go back and look at it in terms of when we started doing this thing, and it was when there was nothing else to do in the world we were -- because we didn’t, because the world was upside down when we started this project. And so our attention has gotten, has been now, really much more focused on our -- because we have so many more opportunities in our core businesses. And so its -- it was nice to create some value, but for us we looked and said, well look lets -- it was almost little bit of R&D too.

David Loeb

Analyst · David Loeb with Baird. Please proceed

Yes, okay. It’s very helpful. Thank you for your candor on all of this.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jim Goss with Barrington Research. Please proceed.

James Goss

Analyst · Jim Goss with Barrington Research. Please proceed

Thanks. In terms of capital allocation, you’re down the path of seeking out management contracts and owning, and having less investment in land in the hotel area. Are you -- are there certain types of properties that you probably would want to maintain ownership of and in the theatrical space you attended own versus lease more so relative to the industry. Is there going to be any shift in that side of the business as well?

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · Jim Goss with Barrington Research. Please proceed

Well there are hotels that we have very long-term views on and consider as very good investments, and we’ll make the right decision at the appropriate time, and I can't make any statement on that. The theaters, you asked a very interesting question and that is, what would -- I mean I don’t see us going out right this minute, sale leaseback on our portfolio or anything like that. But we’re going to grow and that idea is our minds. We’re going to -- now our preference is going to be to own real estate, but we’re going to have to -- if we’re going to lease we’ll have to look at some -- we’re going to have to look at those opportunities and we’ve taken leases on in the past, so it wouldn’t be the first time.

James Goss

Analyst · Jim Goss with Barrington Research. Please proceed

Okay. And you talked earlier, I think it's time you made a transition in management in the theatrical sector, talked about perhaps having acquisitions outside of your current geographic area. Are you going any further along those lines or is that just examine the properties and see how it takes you?

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · Jim Goss with Barrington Research. Please proceed

Jim, I think that we have the ability to go outside of our geographical area. We won't -- as we look at opportunities we won't limit ourselves to something that has to be -- it won't be a requirement, it has be contiguous to our existing geographic base.

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · Jim Goss with Barrington Research. Please proceed

I think the most fundamental change, if you think about the movie theater business, the most fundamental change that would allow, that makes that so much easier has been interestingly and up the internet, because you know in -- back when I started the business that sounded sort of below. We had to advertise in the newspaper to get our movie times out. And if you could have a significant presence in a market you could own the page of a newspaper and that was very powerful, but that doesn’t exist anymore. And so with the interest and our ability to advertise the ability to be in a market and not necessarily have to have market dominance is much more feasible. So it allows us to make, to do things differently we might have done in the past.

James Goss

Analyst · Jim Goss with Barrington Research. Please proceed

Okay and just a couple of other quicker things. Do you have an ultimate mix of receipts -- you're not necessarily targeting 100% of your space, are you? And what would determine how far you go down that path?

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · Jim Goss with Barrington Research. Please proceed

You’re talking between hotels and theaters?

James Goss

Analyst · Jim Goss with Barrington Research. Please proceed

No, just the receipts within the theaters. That trend you're over 30% you said in the coming year, and you have that trend going on. But some of the other ones who are doing it, notably AMC says, there are certain ones they wouldn't reseat. Do you have that sort of notion too, and how far do you go with that program?

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · Jim Goss with Barrington Research. Please proceed

I’m little more open minded as to where it might go, I don’t know. I know this. There is no better way to see a movie. I mean it’s a great way to see a movie, it really is. So, to the extent that we can give more people the opportunity. So, for example; if we take an UltraScreen and do the UltraScreen DLX which stands for DreamLounger experience. Where you have that opportunity, we’re going to be looking for opportunities to give people that kind of experience. And who knows -- maybe we’ll -- one thing that you see and we know that the other people in the theater space have done the same thing is that, they’re starting to collect a bit of a premium for theaters like that. Its not screen but it’s a premium for that kind of seating. Now will that pay for it? I don’t know. One thing about us is we’re able to look at lots of different markets and we’ve tried some different experiments to see where different things, how it works and whether its not just shares here. And the results are interesting, but we don’t know where it’s all going.

James Goss

Analyst · Jim Goss with Barrington Research. Please proceed

Okay. And with the -- and the last thing, with the rewards program, to some extent I think that's a good point that you have better communications and promotion capability. To the extent that you also wind up concentrating on that group that tends to go to your theaters the most, and you provide discounts and that sort of thing, you may also be discounting items you would've sold at full price anyway. I'm just wondering how that balances out, what the economic implications are that will reward program and what are the highlights that you’re offering with that program?

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · Jim Goss with Barrington Research. Please proceed

Look, you hit the -- that’s the nail on the head question, Jim. It is that, are you discounting to people who normally pay full price. And if you look at this just as a discount program then absolutely that is probably not a great trade. But we firmly believe that having that insight into our customers is going to be able to drive frequency. And on top of that, who knows whether marketing opportunities there are, for when we know -- we have a very valuable database. Now we can't abuse it but we have a valuable database. We know a lot about people. I could tell, I know who’s got kids, because I know who’s going to the kid movies. Now, so that might be very important to somebody else. So I think that there are opportunities for this program. It is just a discount program, you’re absolutely right. That economics wouldn’t pan out, but with that -- and that’s why we’re very focused. I’m looking at all the ways we can to monetize the million members that we have so far and further.

James Goss

Analyst · Jim Goss with Barrington Research. Please proceed

All right. Thanks very much.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed.

Brian Rafn

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Yes, good morning, guys. The value Tuesday, Greg, you talked about year-over-year the anniversary was still up positive. Was that just the admission tickets or does that include concessions also?

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Well that includes both. I mean the fact is that we had more people on Tuesday nights than we had than Tuesday night for some of the same three month period last year, so that’s a clear comparison. I’ll remind you in the concession side that when we first rolled this out in November last year that the free popcorn was available to everybody. And then when we rolled out the Magical Movie rewards program on March 31, we adapted the program and at that point it was only available, the free popcorn was only available rewards members. So there is a little bit of disconnect on a year-over-year basis there because this time last year we’re still giving it to everybody.

Brian Rafn

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Okay. That $5.00 value Tuesday guy or girl, are you getting any sense that you’re creating greater concession penetration with them or is that still cheap guy?

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Yes and yes.

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Do you go on Tuesday nights? Brian, I’m just curious.

Brian Rafn

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

No. I have yet to go, but I’m just curious -- I just would.

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

That’s one of -- you’re right, we are seeing better penetration. We also see opportunity to get even better penetration. The one thing that frankly that didn’t surprise everybody was -- we all knew, we’re all confident this will be a successful program. But the amount of people we are driving to the theaters is really impressive. But servicing those people is not easy and so as we start to adapt and modify our ways of doing business, we think there’s more opportunity. So it’s gone up as we, as Doug said. We took away the popcorn -- we took away free popcorn everybody that obviously drove some increases right in and off itself. We continue to -- we continuously improve, so we’ve got better at selling the things. And then on top of that we’ve got opportunity to get even better because we think we’re leaving more money on the table.

Brian Rafn

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Yes. Okay -- okay. If we go to the other side of the spectrum and you look at the guy or the family that goes with the up charge for the Dolby Atmos, the UltraScreen, the DreamLounger, does that at all impair concession sales for that guy or that family? Will the higher ticket price?

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

We haven’t seen some, any data that would suggest that Brian. That’s a tough statistic to try to get at because that same customer is mixed in with everyone else and so it’s difficult to get at that statistic. But I wouldn’t say that we’ve seen anything that screams at to us.

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

I think, and that goes to a whole -- that goes for our whole strategy of -- really we got this from the hotel side which is the yield management strategy, the right customer at the right time at the right price. So you’re right, it’s a different customer on Tuesday. So there is some overlap. Tuesdays don’t drive some weekend business; our frequency program shows us that. But that [indiscernible] customer is more likely [indiscernible] customer and so they can also afford the concessions.

Brian Rafn

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Yes, okay. Okay. Good answer. If you looked at the -- question on the receding as you roll out, you talked a little bit about your mix going forward, on the DreamLounger seating. I think I caught that you still have seven UltraScreens that are traditional, don’t have that. Would it be a decent assumption to say that at some point those would be filled up with DreamLoungers?

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Not necessarily Brian, because that goes to actually Jim’s question earlier, which is how far can you take it, because seat count does matter in some circumstances. And so it becomes truly a math exercise, because as you know we loose about half of the seats when you put DreamLoungers in. And so there are -- let’s say that today there are locations of those seven; I’m thinking of that, it would be difficult to loose half your seats.

Brian Rafn

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Okay. All right. Good. Thanks. Let me ask Wall Street Journal talk. You guys now with the magical awards over million guys, congratulations on that. Wall Street Journal had an article talking about some waning demand and movie going between 18 and 39 year olds. Obviously, your numbers being so strong, are you seeing any demographic changes as you guys start mining data on the rewards card program that shows ships amongst age groups?

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

I think its very hard for us. And I also think that its very dangerous that the industry -- no, not the industry, pundits have a tendency to look at the last years segment of data and make a decision that what was sometimes just a cyclical change is secular. We can’t ignore it and we have to watch it and we can’t say well, that data doesn’t exist. But so much depends on what kind of product was out at the time compared to the year before, you may wake up with all these -- with the huge amount of sort of built in fanboy kind of movies that we have coming out over the next few months and say, gee oh they’re all back or not. I don’t know. Demographically the rule is shifting too. I mean, the rule is getting bit older, so we will -- and the studios are cognizant to that and we’re also be confident. So I won’t ignore the data, but I will be very careful not to let one year’s data over two year’s data to drive me.

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Greg explain. Think about a couple of what are expected to be -- maybe the two top movies in calendar 2015, The Avengers and Star Wars, probably go right -- probably pretty -- aim pretty directly at that demographic. So we will have to see what happens.

Brian Rafn

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Yes, okay. You guys talked a little bit about the top five box office movies for the third quarter. Any comment on the depth, say movies 6 through 20 for 2015 versus ’14?

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

For this quarter that is completed?

Brian Rafn

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Yes, the quarter completed. I’m just talking about the kind of the whole line up, just were stop by [indiscernible]/

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

I will just go back to Greg’s prepared remarks, in that look they performed -- that group performed better than they did last year and again I think it goes to this dynamic that we’re seeing where because I think we’re driving frequency that second tier of movies is benefiting as a result of that. And so this is a -- this is several quarters in a row now where the blockbusters as a percentage of our total has been less than it was the prior year and I think that’s -- its more than just a product issue. It’s the fact that we’re just driving frequency.

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

There is another interesting dynamic.

Brian Rafn

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Okay.

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

The another thing that can drive that’s more [indiscernible] is with -- when we do DreamLoungers and we take half the seats out, we drive a lot more sellouts [ph] and so now someone goes on, we’re able to I think there is going to -- there is some shifting where someone goes and looks for the first choice movie on sold out and they say, I sort of in that mindset of going out and they then slide into a second choice, because they get some capacity out. So I think -- at all of our [indiscernible] and the margin that helps.

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Brian we have another caller yet waiting. Do you have any other questions?

Brian Rafn

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Yes, just let me ask from a standpoint, I think you guys had a $975,000 spend in the winter, polar vortex winter 2014. It much reduced this quarter in either [indiscernible]?

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Yes, certainly reduced and that spend you’re talking about was over both the third and fourth quarters. If you remember, last year March was unbelievable and so -- and the heating costs went through the roof in March and early April. So we will still -- we will get some of that year-over-year benefit in the fourth quarter as well, but certainly its not plowing was an advantage for us year-over-year this year.

Brian Rafn

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Okay. And one more, seasonally the averse of polar vortex, if you have a hot blistering summer, is there a drive to go in an air condition movie? Does that all have any seasonal impact for the summer or is it all about film slate?

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

No, no.

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

It’s all about film slate and then weather helps.

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Yes.

Brian Rafn

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

Okay.

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · Brian Rafn with Morgan Dempsey Capital Management. Please proceed

The rain and heat is good for us in the summer, no question about it. Thank you, Brian.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed.

Mike Hickey

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

Hey, Greg and Doug. Awesome quarter, guys.

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

Thanks, Mike.

Mike Hickey

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

Congrats to you and your team. You stock is hitting a five year high here, very impressive. Thanks for taking my questions. I promise to have hopefully a few less than 10 [multiple speakers]. I will try to be quick.

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

We always love to save you for last, Mike. If [indiscernible].

Mike Hickey

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

Operating on the fringe here, I love it. So guys, we have a fairly transparent view, I think, of what the top five networks are doing as it relates to client initiatives. I guess we are more curious if you could provide some insight to what you're seeing from the smaller private networks, particularly networks within your geographic reach as it relates to recliner, initiatives and perhaps enhanced food and beverage concessions at wholesale, that sort of thing.

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

We are not seeing too much yet. I mean, but I think -- but they will start to do it, I mean, we sort of wonder that’s what the opportunity is going to be in terms of if we think about growth where people want to put the capital in that takes to do that kind of thing. And they were always talking about the growth opportunities with digital, but digital studios ended up paying for it. I don’t know partially because remember we think about it for the most part, we got regional operators in most of our markets, we’re the regional operator. So we’re not really exposed to many of the smaller guys. We got the bigger guys in our markets, but not the smaller guys.

Mike Hickey

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

Okay. Fair enough. The graph is well on the million plus moviegoers on your loyalty program. Curious how you guys are thinking about maybe leveraging that -- your loyalty patrons to online ticket sales?

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

Say that again Mike.

Mike Hickey

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

We are sort of curious how you guys are thinking about leveraging your loyalty patrons for online ticket sales?

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

If you’re a loyalty patron, you don’t have the service charge for online ticket sales. So yes -- so actually it is driving -- I don’t have statistics to spout out for you, but I think it is driving more people to online ticket sales, because there is no longer service charge if you’re rewards member.

Mike Hickey

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

Okay.

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

And that we view that as a positive development.

Mike Hickey

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

Forgive me if I’m wrong on this, but do you guys currently have an internalized online ticket sale program or are you using all third-party still?

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

We utilize -- we don’t run the online ticket ourselves. It’s external.

Mike Hickey

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

Okay, fair enough. And on the M&A landscape, sort of wondering if you’d consider potentially buying a theatrical network, maybe a portion of that network that is larger in scale than yours currently?

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

I don’t know what you’re talking about Mike? You know what, the DOJ has been pretty -- but looking at this industry closely and in previous situations has been pretty strict about this. So I suppose you’re right that if there was a transaction, it could be some opportunities. We think that -- I mean, on a broader scale, not trying to be as specific as I think you’re implying, the -- we think it’s an advantage for us that we don’t have the conflicts that others might have. And so that’s I think the more important point. The earlier question about looking and going outside our geographics and looking at other areas, well we’ve got an advantage in that regard is that if we do take a look at anything, we wont have a conflict and so we won’t be -- I’m going to turn your question around the other direction, but we wont necessarily have those types of issues ourselves.

Gregory S. Marcus

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

But I would tell you that all that being said, one thing that’s going to be true about whatever we do is we did -- as we’ve always been disciplined about it and we’re going to be looking for quality and opportunity for improvement. We are not just going to grow for growth sake. We want to grow and we want to create opportunity, but we want to be able to deploy capital and utilize the skills that we’ve got and frankly the years and years of investments we’ve made in the programs that we’re rolling out now, because it just didn’t happened overnight. And then -- but we want to do with quality stuff.

Mike Hickey

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

Fair enough guys, thank you. As always, best of luck to you guys.

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed

Thank you, Mike.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. At this time, it appears there are no questions. I’d like to turn the call back to Mr. Neis for any additional or closing remarks. End of Q&A

Douglas A. Neis

Analyst · B. Riley. Please proceed

Well, thanks everybody for joining us again this -- for this call. We look forward to talking to you once again this time it will be couple of extra months, it will be in July when we release our fourth quarter and our year-end fiscal 2015 results. Until then, thank you and have a great day.