Q2 2021 Marcus Corp Earnings Call
[music].
Okay.
Good morning, everyone and welcome to the Marcus Corporation second quarter Earnings Conference call. My name is free and that will be your operator for today at this time all participants are in a listen only mode.
We will conduct a question and answer session towards the end of the conference.
If at any time during the call you require assistance, Please press star zero and and operator, we'll happy to assist you as.
As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
Joining us today are Greg Marcus President and Chief Executive Officer, and Doug Knight Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer of the Marcus Corporation at this time I'd like to turn the program over to Mr and ice for his opening remarks. Please go ahead Sir.
Thank you and good morning, everybody and again welcome to our fiscal 2021 second quarter Conference call.
As usual you know I need to begin by stating that we plan and making a number of forward looking statements and our call today, all of which we intend to qualify for the safe harbors from liability established by the private Securities Litigation Reform Act.
Our forward looking statements may generally be identified by our use of words, such as we believe anticipate expect or words of similar and important.
Forward looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, which may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expected, including but not limited to the adverse of the adverse effects of the COVID-19, pandemic, and our theatre and hotels and resorts businesses.
<unk> of operations liquidity and cash flows financial condition and.
Access to credit markets and the ability to service, our existing and future indebtedness.
And the duration of the COVID-19, pandemic and related government restrictions and social distancing and level of customer demand following the relaxation of such requirements.
Our forward looking statements are based upon our assumptions, which are based only upon currently available information, including assumptions about our ability to manage difficulties associated with the related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The assumption that our theater closures of hotel closures and restaurant closures are not expected to be permanent and for reoccur.
And our assumptions about the release of new movies, and the temporary and long term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and our business.
Listeners are cautioned not to place undue reliance on our forward looking statements and additional factors risks and uncertainties, which could impact our ability to achieve our expectations identified and our forward looking statements are included under the heading forward looking statements and the press release, we issued this morning announcing our fiscal 2021 second quarter results.
And and the risk factors section of our fiscal 2020 annual report on form 10-K, which you can assess access on the SEC's website.
And we will also post all regulation G disclosures when applicable on our website at Www Marcus Corp Dotcom.
So with that behind US, let's begin this call as usual our format will be that I'll start with I spending a few minutes briefly sharing a few numbers from our quarter with you and I will also discuss our balance sheet liquidity.
I'll also also then turn the call over to Greg who will focus his prepared remarks on where our businesses are today and what we're seeing for the near term and longer future.
And then open the call up for questions.
So you've seen the numbers of the recovery continues and maybe even at a little faster pace than projected.
We're obviously comparing our results this quarter to a quarter, where most of our properties were closed for the majority of the quarter last year. So as I go through some of these numbers I will sometimes reference comparisons to pre pandemic numbers and fiscal 2019 and in order to help gain some added perspective.
We did have a few non recurring items this quarter and last year and all of which were detailed in our non-GAAP reconciliation that we included at the end of the press release.
The small impairment charge. We took this quarter is related entirely to certain surplus theatre real estate that we're actively marketing for sale as you probably know and GAAP accounting you never write and asset up if you believe you may sell for of games and.
And we certainly have assets that fall into that category, but youre required the writing and asset down. If you believe you may sell it for a loss the impairment charge. We took this quarter comes from over a half dozen individual assets with none of the individual charges being particularly large.
I think the lead story of the quarter comes from the non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA measure that we shared with you and the release, which adjusts for items like the impairment charges I just discussed and gives 1 look at how our businesses performed from a cash flow perspective.
As I discuss adjusted EBITDA I do want to refer you to the disclosures, we provided and the press release regarding the use of this non-GAAP measure and evaluating our performance and its limitations.
As you know our negative EBITDA has been gradually improving each quarter since bottoming out during the second quarter last year at negative $30 million.
We took a really big step forward during the second quarter this year, improving our negative adjusted EBITDA.
Of over $17 million during the fiscal 2021 first quarter.
Improving from that number and coming in of just over $1 million of breaking even on this very important metric during the second quarter.
Now breaking that number down even further as our press release notes I'm happy to tell you that our hotels and resorts Division had positive adjusted EBITDA for the entire second quarter.
And for the first time since the onset of the pandemic both divisions and the company as a whole delivered positive adjusted EBITDA for the month of June.
A huge milestone and our continued recovery from this terrible pandemic.
Greg will go into a little more detail about these improvements and his remarks.
And getting back to the financial statements for just the second there shouldn't have been anything, particularly surprising about our numbers below operating income as you would expect our interest the interest expense increase during the second quarter and first half of the year due to increased borrowings and a higher average interest rate.
It's very important to note, however that our fiscal 2021 and second quarter and first half of interest expense included approximately $600000.
During the second quarter and $1.2 million during the first half of non cash amortization of debt issuance costs.
Compared to only about 100 to $150000 of such costs during the last years comparable periods.
Shifting gears away from the earnings statement for a moment, our total cash capital expenditures during the first half of fiscal 2021 total of approximately $6 million.
Most of these dollars were spent on 2 projects of theatre renovation and a lobby renovation at our Grand Geneva Resort and Spa.
And we will continue to keep capital expenditures relatively low and the near term, but we will be prepared to increase expenditures and subsequent quarters and certainly in the 2022, assuming conditions continue to improve.
So let me provide some brief financial comments and our operations for the second quarter and first half the beginning with theaters.
We continue to experience increased per capita spending and our theaters our average admission price at our comparable theaters has now increased 7% during the first half of the fiscal 2021 compared to last year.
Our premium large format screens continue to outperform compared to a regular screens contributing to this overall increase and our average admission price.
Meanwhile, our average concession and food and beverage revenues per person at our comparable theaters increased by 17, 2% for the first half of the year.
Shorter lines of the concession stand our emphasis that we're placing on the encouraging guests to purchase.
The concessions and food and beverage items ahead of time, either online or using our mobile app and possibly pent up demand for the just a general return to normal likely has contributed to our increased per capita revenues.
Since most theaters and both of our circuit and the industry as a whole were closed during the second quarter last year.
We believe of comparison of our results of pre pandemic results and fiscal 2019 may be the best way to compare our performance to the industry this quarter.
When you compare our second quarter and first half of admission revenues to fiscal 2019.
We calculate that our admission revenues were down 70% during the second quarter.
And nearly 75% for the first half of fiscal 2021, both compared to 2019.
Now according the data received from Comscore and compiled by us to evaluate our fiscal 2021 second quarter and first half results and.
And the states box office results decreased 73, 9% during the fiscal 2021 second quarter and 80% during our fiscal 2021 first half.
Both compared to U S box office receipts during fiscal 2019.
As a result, we believe our admission revenues decline outperformed the industry average by approximately 4 percentage points during the quarter and approximately 5 percentage points during the first half of the year.
Shifting to the hotels and resorts division the same logic applies.
Comparing our total revenue per available room of Revpar. The last year when most of our hotels were closed for the majority of the second quarter does not provide particularly meaningful numbers.
We believe comparing the same metric to pre pandemic levels and fiscal 2019. However, does help provide perspective on the pace of the current recovery.
Our revpar for our 7 comparable owned hotels decreased approximately 42% during the second quarter and 47% during the first half compared to the same periods during fiscal 2019 and.
And these numbers exclude the Saint Kate which was closed for most of the first half of fiscal 2019.
According to data received from Smith travel research for the fiscal 2021, and fiscal 2019 periods and compiled by us in order to compare our results.
Our hotels outperformed comparable upper upscale hotels throughout the United States during the second quarter and first half by approximately 4 and 8 percentage points respectively.
The data also indicates that our hotels outperformed competitive hotels and our markets by approximately 7 and 8 points during the second quarter and first half again compared to fiscal 2019 results.
Breaking out those second quarter numbers for the 7 comparable hotels more specifically.
Our overall Revpar decrease during the fiscal 2021 second quarter compared to fiscal 2019 again pre pandemic was due to an overall occupancy occupancy rate decrease of approximately 27 percentage points.
And and 11, 8% decrease and our average daily rate or ADR.
Our average second quarter occupancy rate for our owned hotels was approximately 49%.
And with lighter mid week business, partially offsetting quite strong weekend occupancies at most of our hotels.
Finally, before I turn the call over to Greg. Let me also briefly comment on our balance sheet and liquidity position.
You may recall that we reported cash and revolving credit availability of approximately $213 million at the end of the first quarter.
Well thanks to continued strong cost controls at every level of our organization and improved operations, our cash and revolving credit availability was still and extremely strong $210 million at the end of our fiscal 2021 second quarter.
We anticipate and income tax refund of approximately $24 million and the second half of the year and.
Along with tax loss carryforwards that may be used in future periods.
We also successfully monetize 2 life insurance assets early in our fiscal 2021 third quarter totalling over $18 million.
And anticipated sales proceeds from real estate sales and the upcoming quarters as well further increasing our liquidity and strengthening our balance sheet.
We have over $10 million of carrying value of assets currently under contract or or letter of intent to sell later in 2021.
Early in our third quarter, we amended our revolving credit agreement and made and early payment on our term loan facility, reducing the balance of our short term borrowings from approximately $84 million to $50 million and.
And extending the maturity date of this remaining term loan facility to September of 2022.
We also favorably tweaked our existing debt covenants, all the way through fiscal 2022.
Our confidence and our strong balance sheet and our significant liquidity allowed us to make this early payment on our term loan.
Once again, our conservative long term approach to our balance sheet continues to pay off and we're confident that we're well positioned to weather any remaining impacts of the pandemic and b and are positioned to come out the other side of this and really good shape.
With that I'll turn the call over to Greg.
Thanks, Doug.
And as you saw and the release and.
And heard more about in Doug's remarks.
Our second quarter marks the continued emergence from the depths of the pandemic for the Marcus Corporation.
We reached a milestone and our hotel division with positive adjusted EBITDA for the quarter.
And while we don't normally highlight the results of any specific months and jewelry reached another milestone with both of our theatre Division and our company as a whole turning positive cash flow for the month.
Contrast that with what we were a year ago at this time.
And we reported negative adjusted EBITDA of $30 million and the second quarter.
And we've come a long way now.
And I'll look we're still reporting a loss for the quarter and it will definitely still take some time to return to pre pandemic levels.
We're all looking for is progress and there was a lot of progress to hang our hats on during our fiscal 2021 second quarter.
As I've said from the beginning while the path to a full recovery might not be the straight line and the pace of that recovery might be either faster or slower than expected at times, we believe and the long term viability and strength of our businesses.
And this quarter was another step on that journey and we're pleased to be sharing these results with you today.
So let me start my remarks of our Hotel Division, Doug shared some of the numbers with you including comparisons to our pre pandemic fiscal 2019 numbers and the fact that the data indicates the we've once again significantly outperformed both the industry and our competitive set this quarter.
And as you know our hotels of consistently outperformed their markets and prior years as well, but the amount of outperformance in recent quarters has widened significantly.
And while and overall occupancy rate of approximately 50% during the second quarter is certainly below where we were in 2019.
I can honestly say that our performance and this division has surprised us to the positive each and every month so far this year.
The leisure customer is out and force and our team has done an outstanding job adapting to the temporary reduction and business and group travel successfully filling our hotels on weekends.
And with the advent of summer are weekdays are doing much better as well.
The outperformance is also a direct reflection on the quality of our hotels and resorts stated simply we have always had some of the best properties and our respective markets and it doesn't and surprises that they've outperformed during this period of recovery.
We've highlighted the strong performance of the Grand Geneva Resort and Spa and prior calls, but that's not the only property currently exceeding expectations as we noted in our release not only did we report positive adjusted EBITDA and this division during the second quarter, but several of our properties also reported positive operating income.
We certainly still level of ways to go with transient business and group business.
But even there we are encouraged by noticeable improvements and these 2 business segments as well we continue to have a very strong wedding season, and we are experiencing increases and smaller group business as well.
We also continue to have success booking major league.
Baseball teams and not surprisingly the Milwaukee Bucks playoff run to the NBA Championship was not only great for the city, but also a nice boost for our Milwaukee Hotel business in June and July.
The next step is the gradual reopening of offices and our downtown markets.
Which would likely be accompanied by an easing and ultimately lifting of travel bans and so many business has put in place during the pandemic.
While this might be delayed slightly with the recent uptick and cases that next step is coming.
Our significantly improved second quarter numbers are also a direct result of the continued hard work of our entire hotel team the.
We continue to do a fantastic job of managing cost and providing the same superior service. We are all we are known for all in the midst of what most would agree is a very challenging labor market.
Looking to future periods, our group room revenue bookings for the remainder of fiscal 2021 and into fiscal 2022, commonly referred to and the hotels and resorts industry. As group pace is currently running approximately 20% behind where you would historically be at this time and prior years when thats quite an improvement from where we were earlier in the year.
<unk> is our booking activity continues to improve each week.
And quick and catering revenue pace for the remainder of fiscal 2021 and into fiscal 2022 is also running behind where we would typically be at this time and prior years, but not as much as group room revenues due in part to the strength of wedding bookings and as our hope that as we get to the fall and midweek leisure travel subsides as kids go back to school will also be.
<unk> and continued improvement and the various business segments.
Overall, we generally expect our revenue trends to track or hopefully continued to exceed the overall industry trends for our segment of the industry, particularly in our respective markets.
As I said in my opening comments, we know it will take a while for business travel to return to normal, but the speed with which overall travel has ramped up bodes well for the long term future of our hotel business.
Many of our assets don't depend solely on business travel. These are special assets that make our portfolio unique.
Finally, let me and my remarks by congratulating our hotel team on the recently announced addition of the New management contract. The Carnival Hotel and conference Center soon to be of Hyatt Regency and located near the University of Iowa.
Is a great addition to our portfolio.
With 2 other hotels and the Big 10 cities of Madison, Wisconsin, and Lincoln, Nebraska, We think we're grateful for this property and we look forward to a long prosperous relationship with the city of Carnival.
So let's shift to our theatre division of went over the numbers with you. We started the quarter off of 74% of our theaters open as we waited for more new films to be released by the time, we got some memorial day weekend and the release of quiet place part II and Cruella, we get reopened most of our remaining theaters as we noted in our release, we currently have 97% of our theatre.
Opening in almost all of which are operating 7 days of week with normal operating hours.
Like our hotel Division and 1 of the highlights of the quarter was our continued outperformance versus the industry as Doug shared with you based on industry data available to US we believe we've outperformed the industry throughout fiscal 2021 and.
And weekend and week out we believe we've been 1 of the top performing theatre circuits and the U S compared to the top 10 circuits that we track on a regular basis and.
Additional data received of compiled by us from Comscore indicates our admission revenue during the second quarter and first half of fiscal 2021 represented approximately 334% and 3.7% respectively of the total admission revenues and the U S. During the same 2 periods the.
This is commonly referred to as market share and our industry.
This represents a material increase over our reported market share of approximately 3.2% during the comparable periods of fiscal 2019 prior to the pandemic.
A great job all around by the team.
I mentioned earlier that we were looking for continued progress of both of our businesses. So here are another couple of numbers for you in January of this year. Our total Theatre Division revenues were only 16% of our theatre Division revenues in January of 2019.
Prior to the pandemic, while clearly we still have of ways to go in June of this year, thanks to increased attendance and increases and our average admission price and average concession revenue per person. Our total theatre division revenues increased to 48% of our theatre revenues of June 2019.
And that's progress.
And we've seen that percentage continue to gradually increase and the early weeks of July as well.
And that doesn't mean, we aren't still facing some challenges and there and the near term recent surveys by the National Association of theatre owners have indicated that the percentage of those surveyed saying theyre very or somewhat comfortable going to the movies right. Now has been hovering in the 70 plus percent range in recent weeks with likely concerns over the Delta variant and new masking recommendations and some mark.
That's dropping that percentage down several points in recent weeks.
But the same percentage was about 47% at the beginning of the year. So again, taking a step back and the big picture progress.
The fact that we're not completely out of this yet as a country has also contributed to continued experimentation on the part of the studios of different distribution strategies. The studios of clearly chosen to use this unique time to develop the streaming services, which frankly is likely more of a challenge for their linear TV and the long run the and exhibition.
We recognize that it's hard to interpret the various box office numbers being reported while we're still not back to normal it's hard for you and it's hard for us.
But let's step back and take stock of of of a few of the things that we do now.
There has never ever been of permanent pandemic.
Please be like this.
As human beings of social creatures, we have an inherent desire to interact with others and you together get out of the house and you've heard me Corp. My grandfather, numerous times and Theres, a kitchen and every house, but people still go out to eat.
Going to the movies remains 1 of the cheapest forms of out of home Entertainment.
Linear TV and streaming.
And a relatively substitutable.
And 2 of movie Theatre is not there is a completely different experience from your home and the people who make these films. The producers directors actors have continued to express the agreement with that basic principles.
Just yesterday, David Zaslav soon to be CEO of 1 of discovery said, the following and I quote the motion picture business is not going away. It is the top of the patina. It is why the greatest writers producers and creative talent came when.
When you look up at that Big screen that is where stars are made and where the magic happens.
And finally.
Theatrical exhibition is still represents an extremely important component of the financial model of the film and is distribution.
The ethical exhibition gives the film gravitas that can't be achieved with the tile on the television screen the.
The <unk> exhibitions for millions of people to collectively seek shared experience and any given weekend, creating.
Creating net watercooler moment on Monday, the every content provider seeks the Africa exhibition creates franchises like nothing else can and most importantly theatrical exhibition picks of money for the studios.
My point is that our focus on our theatre division continues to be our managing through the short term challenges all while keeping our eye on the long term and we believe and the long term prospects of this business.
This remarkably resilient business has navigated and adapted to change for the entire 85 years, we've been in it and I'm confident that we will continue to adapt and thrive and the months and years ahead.
And speaking of the months ahead, there are a lot of potentially very good movies scheduled to be released during the remaining months of fiscal 2021, we listed a number of them and our press release and the list of films scheduled for 2022 reads like a who's who of successful film franchises. So I'll wrap this up exactly where I started where.
We're pleased with the significant improvements we reported today and our theatre business and we're looking forward to continued progress and the periods ahead.
And I cant and my prepared remarks, without saying once again and I continue to be thankful for our experienced and dedicated associates.
Our organization thinking back to where we were a year ago. At this time. It is incredible with this amazing team has accomplished.
Couldnt be more proud.
With that at this time, Doug and I will be happy to open the call up for any questions you may have.
And your question. Please press Star then the number 1 on your telephone keypad again, the start and the number 1 on your telephone keypad well pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster.
Your first question comes from Mike Hickey with benchmark company.
Hey, Greg Congrats on the quarter guidance of.
Awesome Yeah.
Yeah.
Just a couple of questions from the.
On the hotel side, great to see the positive EBITDA and it looks like June of the company.
Really the remarkable moment when the opportunity for us to sort of give us some color on.
July.
And maybe <unk> in terms of what we should expect on the EBITDA level Doug.
While I certainly would expect it to be positive again, Mike we don't provide guidance, we don't provide numbers, but given that were positive and the second quarter.
And given how strong July isn't and the here I am not telling anything out of school here and the fact is is that as Greg referenced the.
With the Milwaukee Bucks doing as well as they did.
The huge boost of the city it was great for our hotels.
The I'm not going to share numbers, but the but the percentage of our.
And we share with you that where we were kind of compared to 2019 will that number of certainly has improved more in July.
We've had we've had a good July we really have.
And we're not back the 2019 levels, yet because we don't have the business travel, but it's been quite strong. So so look I certainly.
Think debt.
The wildcard is going to be when we get to the to the fall.
Right because the.
And the that the leisure travel is so strong right now.
We have going for us and we do have.
Knock on wood here of that everything goes well with the Ryder Cup and that proceeds as planned right now we do have that in September but as the kids go back to school as of like we'd like we mentioned in our prepared remarks.
We're going to see and certainly that midweek travel back off again, and we're going to be looking for and hoping that we're going to continue to see momentum and some of the just general business travel so that'll be the wildcard as we get into the later in the later the second half of the other final quarter of the year, if you will.
Okay.
Obviously, a model of discussion on this.
Approach.
And doing.
Starting I guess, the Blackwood I wanted to get from visibility to the data <unk> side of the Disney Fox just sort of curious what youre seeing.
And Peter if you think it's sort of impacting the attendance whether it's for the second week.
And sort of year view and I guess, the longevity of the approach.
The Spain.
The 22.
Yeah.
There's so much noise looking first of all I'll start off with.
And we're pleased that the releasing these good movies and that they are and that they're driving attendance and driving people back of the theatres and getting building habit again and getting people to see channel trailers and and the law.
Mike.
I would tell you the most heartening thing and away is that.
<unk>.
Well I think the.
The numbers that I find really heartening is that we're almost do and what we're doing with and arm tied behind our back and when I say that when we talk about confidence and people being confident it's not spread equally across the spectrum, we're seeing really more confidence with.
And the younger male cohort and so if you think about the fact that the.
The debt there's less confidence.
And other and other cohorts the numbers were doing.
You could say, okay, well look at let's start with what we said pandemic isn't going to last forever.
And then the.
And the and then the other and eventually the confidence of returns to be more broad based.
And we will that and then youre going to have even the other sort of let's say of bigger pool, the swimming in which case then.
The issue for Disney and for any exhibitor really not specifically just does and sort of distributor is going to be okay do I want to.
Run the risk of of diluting by theatrical performance.
It's important to remember that.
The people always they talk about content and sort of like it's generic like it's a screwdriver. So if I don't sell the screwdriver to the Guy who shows up on Thursday, the by the screwdriver and my competitors going to.
If you want to see.
Let's not picks and and current and you want to see Star Wars and its in a theatre.
If it's not directly released the same day, if the consumer can still choose to see it.
A few months later on PV O D.
Intimately on streaming.
This idea of compressing the revenue streams into the 1.
Hi.
And you've seen it with a lot of the studios, where they're saying we're going to have a window.
Talked about most everybody has already declared its of shorter window, but it's still of 45 day window and I'd tell you I do agree with Bob Chapek made a comment actually is like.
And the way the times have changed and.
45 days to the younger people to day is like and they can't wait 45 days running and boy can I tell you. That's true just sort of seeing what I see amongst the young people and more.
And the world the World is and on demand World now and a lot of ways right. You want the car you pickup Uber you want your food you go to a door dash and.
And so they don't have the patients is much shorter but that also again, it's still a unique product and you choose to release that product nobody else can release Star Wars, only Disney can really star wars, and so when they choose to make it available of the customer well.
And as is.
Is.
And will be when the customer can see it and they don't want to obviously take a too long but.
I think that again at the end of the day, they can want to maximize the revenue streams at the end of the day right now I think that everybody is looking at the short term, let's get as many subscribers as we can and will be valued on a subscriber basis youll be the added of per subscriber basis for a window.
It's quote Warren Buffett, and the short run and the stock market as of voting machine and the long run, it's a weighing machine and theyre going to vote for subscribers and then the wrong when those subscribers need to be profitable and the.
With the most profit sort of or the team with the most profit will win and the way going to drive the most profit is driving the most revenues.
<unk> revenue streams and do nothing and we're just 2.1 doesn't really seem to make a lot of sense and I think at the end of the day and most of the group's realize that and that's what gives US a long run perspective that this is this is ultimately going to make sense and workout.
Yes.
But when I have lived through these times right now and sort of a long winded answer, but I think at the end of the day, we're looking at things very short term.
Day to day, and we need to try and take a longer term perspective on what makes most sense for the whole system.
Thanks, Greg and thanks, Doug and good luck guys.
Thank you.
Your next question is from Eric.
Eric Wold with B Riley's Securities.
Thanks, Good morning, Greg and Doug.
<unk>.
Yes.
Yes.
Joe I was wondering if you mentioned of you noted that.
And the box office and market share gains.
So I think of you Greg versus.
Prior levels.
I'm sure you've looked around your existing theatres that have reopened keeps a sense of what youre seeing in terms of the competitive set in terms of interest.
And any market changes and.
Theaters and that are closed.
Non opened by now the probably knock and OPEC that Ben and Theyre going to reasonable number of those in your areas.
Okay.
And that is not there's not a lot of that and our markets Eric.
And why I think the numbers are our kind of real and pretty clean.
Because of <unk>.
First of all of US you know I mean, it's.
And in some ways, it's difficult for us to gain market share because we are so strong in our markets right and so.
And yet we still have done it overall just because of the.
The nature of our Marcus and the nature of of Gist.
I think people coming back to the free.
And as quicker and our markets.
We have the best theaters.
And.
And I think we provided some of the the best value and some of the best as you know we of the highest percentage of everything in terms of the client receipts and large format screens and food and beverage.
So I don't think of.
We look at it I don't think thats the function of theaters for the most part and not opening.
And it's just that we're performing well, yes, I think it goes back to <unk>.
And that too and say first of all of you.
You want to invest in the theatre business, there's probably no better.
The most improved circuit. The nicest car you can buy is hours because we just made such investments and the business over the last number of years and we're very disciplined about doing that the team was really strong and and making sure. We did that so as people get exposed to that who might have gone somewhere else. We get some of that in the markets, where we do have some competition I'll tell you. The 1 thing thats helpful and this was.
And our decision and as we've talked about historically, we made the decision when things were really really rough we wanted to be opened where we could be open.
And with the decision was can we at least perform a little better than being closed if we're open and that doesn't mean, we head of homeland performance, but but doing so allowed people who this was the only place they could go in some instances and.
And then also good for your teams and we wanted to keep people employed and I've seen this and other businesses that were involved in that and certain the and.
Public company, but the.
And.
If you let your teams go it's hard to bring them back.