• by Wayne Friedman , November 6, 2024

In-theater/on-screen advertising sales company National CineMedia witnessed a 10% decline in national advertising revenue to $46.8 million in the third quarter.

Part of the decline was due to lower overall attendance and shifting theatrical movie schedules resulting from the writers' and actors' strikes in the summer of 2023.

The company was also affected by a soft, heavily TV-focused upfront ad marketplace in the summer, when National CineMedia competes with TV networks, streaming TV-video platforms and other digital media and entertainment companies for 12-month long advertising deals.

National CineMedia sells video advertising messages on the big screen before a theatrical movie starts.

“What’s evolving in the upfront marketplace across all these big platforms — it’s not just us — is less reliance on the upfront than in the past,” says Ronnie Ng, chief financial officer of National CineMedia, in speaking during the company's earnings phone call with analysts.

Ng expects more media advertising deals — including TV — to be placed during the near-term quarter-to-quarter scatter market. For National CineMedia that means advertisers -- including movie studios -- making deals to promote upcoming films closer to theatrical movie releases.

National CineMedia LLC says third-quarter theater attendance in its ad network theaters (18,141 screens) -- which includes a big piece of the summer moviegoing season -- declined 8% to 121.6 million from 131.7 million a year ago.

This was partly attributable to year-ago big summer hits in the summer 2023 — “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” — which pulled in record level of moviegoers.

The third-quarter 2024 period had somewhat less impactful big summer hits “Deadpool & Wolverine,” “Despicable Me 4” and “Twisters.”

National CineMedia posted a net loss of $3.6 million versus net income of $181.8 million a year ago. Some of these latest financial results reflect the company during a bankruptcy period (April 2023 through August 2023).