Earnings Labs

Reading International, Inc. (RDI)

Q3 2025 Earnings Call· Thu, Nov 20, 2025

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Transcript

Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

Thank you for joining Reading International's earnings call to discuss our 2025 third quarter results. My name is Andrzej Matyczynski, and I'm Reading's Executive Vice President of Global Operations. With me are Ellen Cotter, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Gilbert Avanes, our Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Before we begin the substance of the call, I will run through the usual caveats. In accordance with the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, certain matters that will be addressed in this earnings call may constitute forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual performance to be materially different from the performance indicated or implied by such statements. Such risk factors are clearly set out in our SEC filings. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. In addition, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures on this call. Reconciliations and definitions of non-GAAP financial measures, which are segment operating income, EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA are included in our recently issued 2025 third quarter earnings release released on November 14 on our company's website. We have adjusted where applicable the EBITDA items we believe to be external to our business and not reflective of our cost of doing business or results of operations. Such costs could include legal expenses relating to extraordinary litigation and any other items that we consider to be nonrecurring in accordance with the 2-year SEC requirement for determining whether an item is nonrecurring, infrequent or unusual in nature. We believe that adjusted EBITDA is an important supplemental measure of our performance. In today's call, we also use an industry accepted financial measure called theater-level cash flow, TLCF, which is theater-level revenue less direct theater-level expenses. Average ticket price, ATP, which is calculated by dividing cinema box office revenue by the number of cinema admissions is also used as an accepted industry acronym. We also use a measure referred to as food and beverage spend per patron, F&B SPP, which is a key performance indicator for our cinemas. The F&B SPP is calculated by dividing the cinema's revenues generated by food and beverage sales by the number of admissions at that cinema. Please note that our comments are necessarily summary in nature, and anything we say is qualified by the more detailed exposure set forth in our Form 10-Q and other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. So with that behind us, I'll turn it over to Ellen, who will review our 2025 third quarter results and discuss our business strategy going forward, followed by Gilbert, who will provide a more detailed financial review. Ellen?

Ellen Cotter

Management

Thank you, Andrzej, and welcome, everyone, to the call today. As we expected and following global cinema industry trends, despite the strong performance of certain titles through the third quarter of '25, the overall box office was behind last year's third quarter. At $52.2 million, our global total revenue decreased 13% versus Q3 2024, which was driven by a slate of 2025 movies that just didn't match up to the stronger titles in the same period last year. Last year's lineup included record-setting releases like Deadpool & Wolverine, Despicable Me 4, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and It Ends with Us. Despite this past quarter's revenue performance, the company continued making progress on several strategic initiatives, which is evident in some of our key income metrics for Q3 2025. With respect to our global operations, both cinema and real estate, despite the decrease in our cinema revenues, we continue to effectively manage our expenses. At a loss of $329,000, our global operating loss improved by 4%. At $3.6 million, our positive EBITDA increased 26% from Q3 2024's EBITDA. With this past quarter's results, we've delivered 5 straight quarters of positive EBITDA. At a loss of $4.2 million, our net loss improved by 41%, representing the best third quarter result since Q3 2019. Through the quarter and the year in 2025, our operating teams continue to improve the company's overall profitability. In the U.S., by closing a 14-screen cinema in San Diego in Q2 '25, we eliminated a cash loss that resulted in a 7.3% reduction in our U.S. screen count. We have limited control over the quantity and grossing potential of the movies we play. However, in operational areas where we have more control like F&B and alternative content programming, we delivered record results that I'll touch on in a minute. Across the…

Gilbert Avanes

Management

Thank you, Ellen. Consolidated revenue for the quarter ended September 30, 2025, decreased by $7.9 million to $52.2 million when compared to the third quarter of 2024. This decrease was due to decreased cinema revenue from lower attendance in all 3 countries as a result of weaker overall movie slate released from the Hollywood studios in the third quarter of 2025 compared to the same period 2024 and the reduction in screen count due to closure of one of our cinema complexes in San Diego, California. These decreases in revenues were compounded by the decline in real estate rent revenue in Australia and New Zealand due to the sale of Cannon Park and Courtenay Central and the weakening of Australia and New Zealand foreign exchange rate against the U.S. dollar, partially offset by the improved live theater rental and ancillary income. Consolidated revenue for the 9 months ended September 30, 2025, increased slightly by $0.8 million to $152.7 million when compared to the same period of 2024. This increase is due to improved box office from better movie slates as Lilo & Stitch and Minecraft movies released during the second quarter of 2025 improved U.S. food and beverage revenue and better live theater rental and ancillary income, which was partially offset by a decrease in real estate rental revenue and decrease in food and beverage revenue in Australia and New Zealand. Net loss attributable to Reading International Inc. for the quarter ended September 30, 2025, decreased by $2.9 million to a loss of $4.2 million compared to a loss of $7 million in Q3 2024. Q3 2025 basic loss per share improved by $0.13 to a basic loss per share of $0.18 compared to a basic loss per share of $0.31 for Q3 2024. These improved results were partially due…

Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

Thank you, Gilb. First, I'd like to thank our stockholders for forwarding questions to our Investor Relations e-mail. As usual, in addition to addressing many of your questions in the prepared remarks from Ellen and Gilbert, we've selected a few additional questions to offer additional insights from management. The first such question, which Ellen will address, there was a mention in the 10-Q about the Noosa Australian cinema development project still planned for 2027 or has it been deferred indefinitely? What is the current budget and expected ROI for this project? Ellen?

Ellen Cotter

Management

Yes. We're still expecting the Reading Cinema, which is being an 8-screen cinema with the TITAN LUXE to be built out in Noosa in Queensland. Our landlord and developer of the Stockwell Development Group is still in the town planning stage of its major multi-use project. Today, we believe the completion of the theater construction and the opening won't happen until around 2028. And we don't announce the terms and conditions of specific cinema deals. However, as we've reported in the past for third-party cinema lease deals, we usually target at least a high-teen double-digit return. And the current deal for the Noosa Cinema is consistent with those targets.

Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

The next question, we've been asked several questions about our plans for the refinancing of our Bank of America, Emerald and Valley National loans. Can you please elaborate? Gilbert?

Gilbert Avanes

Management

We plan to refinance this debt in 2026 and are considering a variety of alternatives and structures. We are encouraged by what we see as the improving environment from real estate financing, including anticipated reduction in interest rates, improving commercial rental market in Manhattan and the current industry box office projections for 2026. Obviously, a significant factor in any refinancing of our Emerald debt would be the lease status of our 44 Union Square. While no assurance can be given, we anticipate resolution of our current nonexclusive LOI by the end of the year.

Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

The next question, given Reading has no present New Zealand debt and the excess proceeds from the Wellington Courtenay sale were upstream to pay down costly U.S. debt, can you share what your likely use of the Napier sale proceeds will be? Ellen?

Ellen Cotter

Management

The Napier transaction closes, we'll likely use the proceeds to support the renovation of our Reading Cinema Courtenay Central in Wellington, New Zealand or -- and/or we may use the proceeds for general corporate use in New Zealand.

Andrzej Matyczynski

Management

And finally, one last question, which I will deal with. We also received a number of questions about the Sutton Hill Associates acquisition that involves RDI assuming $13.65 million in third-party notes at 4.75% interest maturing September 30, 2035, who will be the holder of these third-party notes? What assets will secure the guarantee and guarantee these notes? Sutton Hill Associates 25%, Sutton Hill Properties interest and Village East ground lease and Reading USA or Reading International, respectively. I appreciate the low interest rate on the debt. Can you explain why so favorable, especially with a 10-year maturity? Well, a very complex question. We believe that this will be a good transaction for Reading. It will, in essence, wind up and close out of our master lease transaction we entered into with Sutton Hill Capital, LLC in the year 2000. The third-party notes are, as previously disclosed, payable to a third party and the reasons for that third party's willingness to do the deal described in our 10-Q would only be a matter of speculation on our part. As part of the transaction, the third-party notes would be guaranteed by Reading International, Inc., but would otherwise be unsecured. And that marks the conclusion of our third quarter conference call for 2025. This year continues to see a gradual resurgence of the breadth and depth of the cinematic experience despite the slight downturn in the third quarter numbers. And we aspire to translate this into future enhanced value for our stockholders as the end of 2025 comes and the full 2026 year unfolds. We appreciate you listening to the call today. We thank you for your attention and support and wish everyone and safety. And as always, we look forward to seeing you at our movie venues.