Cineplex released its third quarter financial results on Thursday and swung to a modest profit against the backdrop of lower Hollywood box office for the Canadian exhibition giant.
Cineplex reported box office revenues down 8.8 percent to $159.5 million for the latest financial quarter due to a weaker film slate with no comparison to Deadpool & Wolverine that played on its screens in the year-ago period.
That led total revenues for the three months to Sept. 30, 2025 to come in at $349 million, down 8.7 percent from $382.2 million in the third quarter of 2024, as theater attendance for Cineplex fell 9.1 percent to 12.05 million patrons during the latest quarter.
Despite that weaker film slate in the third quarter, Cineplex CEO Ellis Jacob told The Hollywood Reporter he was optimistic a consistent Hollywood movie pipeline for the rest of 2025 and into 2026 would produce better box office fortunes with upcoming releases for Predator: Badlands, The Running Man, Wicked: For Good and Avatar: Fire and Ash.
After recent discussions with his major studio suppliers in Los Angeles, Jacob touted Paramount, newly-acquired by David Ellison’s Skydance, ramping up its movie output and growing interest in theatrical releases from streamers like Amazon and Apple.
Ellison “is going to double the paramount output slate. That’s really good for us. And he’s looking for big product to move forward,” the Cineplex CEO reported about the theatrical strategy at Paramount. Jacob also welcomed Amazon Studios looking to do between 12 and 15 movie releases a year, and Apple getting near to finalizing its theatrical film strategy after the successful release of F1: The Movie.
Jacob said it was too early to know what Warner Bros. Discovery may do with its own theatrical release strategy amid the takeover chatter around the Hollywood studio on Wall Street. But he added about WBD: “If they increase the number of movies, and they get stronger, that will be better for us as an industry.”
During the third quarter, Cineplex posted net income of $1.21 million, a swing from a net loss of $24.7 million in the prior-year period when Cineplex made a provision for a Competition Tribunal monetary penalty of $39.2 million over a decision on an online booking fee.
The fall in theater attendance led to a food and beverage concession revenues sliding by 11 percent to $116.3 million. At the same time, ticket sales premium screen auditoriums accounted for 44.7 percent of overall box office revenues during the latest quarter.
And international film titles contributed 13.6 percent of total box office revenues, marking the highest third quarter share ever for Cineplex as it continues to diversify its Hollywood film slate with foreign language and other global fare.
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