Cinemark's Revenue, Profit Climb on Box Office Strength Cinemark's Revenue, Profit Climb on Box Office Strength

Cinemark Holdings Inc. reported better-than-expected profit for the first quarter as it logged admission revenue growth at its movie theater chain amid a strong showing at the box office.

The Plano, Texas, company said revenue climbed 9.2% to $704.9 million in the latest quarter, which was above the $699 million analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting.

Mark Zoradi, Cinemark's chief executive, said strong Hollywood film content during the quarter drove North American box office growth of 12.5% industrywide.

One big release during the quarter was the big-budget film "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," released by Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros. The superhero film brought in an estimated $424.1 million world-wide in its opening weekend, the fourth-largest global opening in box office history.

For the period ended March 31, Cinemark reported attendance rose roughly 11% to 72.5 million people globally. Admission revenue increased 8.8%. Average ticket prices rose 6.3% to $7.58 in the U.S., though overall ticket prices fell 1.8%.

Over all, Cinemark reported a profit of $58.5 million, or 50 cents a share, up from $42.5 million, or 37 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts expected a per-share profit of 47 cents.

At the end of the quarter, Cinemark operated 516 theaters with 5,840 screens in the U.S., Brazil, Argentina and 12 other Latin American countries.

Shares, up 27% in the past three months, were inactive premarket.

Write to Joshua Jamerson at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 10, 2016 07:35 ET (11:35 GMT)

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