Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Cineplex Inc. Q2 2023 earnings conference call. My name is Charlie, and I'll be coordinating the call today. You will have the opportunity to ask a question at the end of the presentation. If you'd like to register a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypads. I will now hand over to our host, Masha Rejali , Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations, to begin. Mahsa, please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. I would like to welcome you to Cineplex's second quarter 2023 earnings release conference call, hosted by Ellis Jacob, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Gord Nelson, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, let me remind you that certain statements being made are forward-looking and subject to various risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs and assumptions regarding the information currently available. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements. Information regarding factors that could cause results to vary can be found in the company's most recently filed annual information form and management's discussion and analysis. Following today's remarks, we'll close the call with our customary question and answer period. I will now turn the call over to Ellis Jacob.
Thank you, Mahsa. Good morning, and welcome to our Q2 2023 conference call. It is a pleasure to be with you today on the heels of a strong second quarter. Our business made tremendous strides during the quarter, and that momentum continues. We have much to report on and a lot to be excited about. The wave of blockbusters that hit the big screen during the second quarter did not disappoint as guests flocked to our theaters to enjoy the shared immersive experience of moviegoing. This led to Cineplex's strongest post-pandemic quarter, where for the first time since the pandemic, our revenues exceeded CAD 420 million, and our EBITDA surpassed CAD 60 million.
Our strategic initiatives and sound execution helped us achieve strong per-patron results, with quarterly BPP reaching $12.84, and a CPP of $9.21, both records for the second quarter. We are pleased to announce that our strong quarterly performance enabled us to delever and repay $26 million in bank debt. This will surely remain a focus for us as business continues to ramp up. The third quarter is off to a sensational start, with the month of July becoming our highest grossing July ever and the second highest grossing month in Cineplex's history. Even more promising is that July's EBITDA surpassed every month in 2019, and this momentum has continued into August. In fact, the first eight days of August brought in 70% more box office revenues than the same period in 2019.
We are back in business. Our results show just that. Clearly, consumer demand for the shared, immersive, and premium theatrical experience that Cineplex delivers is as strong as ever. There's simply no better way to amplify excitement and cultural relevance for films than with an exclusive theatrical release. The perfect illustration of this was seen with the Barbenheimer cultural phenomenon, where scores of moviegoers dressed up like characters from the Barbie and Oppenheimer movies, which opened on the same day. The buzz around these films created an unprecedented box office and cultural event that transcended any streaming service experience by leaps and bounds. Guests arrived early in their special outfits, took pictures, and shared stories while waiting with great anticipation to watch these films. Some even watched them back-to-back and enjoyed many of our concession offerings for food and drinks during their extended stay.
In addition, many guests chose to watch Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer in our various premium formats as 58% of its box office came from our pre- premium offerings. This remarkable momentum led to Barbenheimer surpassing market expectations, with Barbie passing the $1 billion mark at the global box office and Oppenheimer exceeding the $500 million mark globally. These phenomenal results, coupled with the impact of Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible, led to Cineplex's highest July box office in history. A similar cultural phenomenon was seen with the Super Mario Bros. Movie in April, where fans dressed up like Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach to enjoy a special outing at our venues. Many guests watched the movie more than once, choosing to enjoy it in a shared, immersive environment each time.
All in all, this was a great film that brought families to the theaters in droves, and it came as no surprise when it exceeded $1.3 billion at the global box office, making it the second-highest animated film of all time. Experiences like these remind us of the significant role cinemas play in creating memorable experiences and how, as exhibitors, we are uniquely capable of bringing people together to share cultural moments that stay with us forever. The momentum we experienced in the second quarter and third quarter to date was largely driven by the industry's recovery from a film supply perspective. The second quarter was the first time since the pandemic where we benefited from a regular cadence of weekly films across multiple genres. Cineplex's top-performing films during the quarter included The Super Mario Bros. Movie-... Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.
3, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which all surpassed $100 million at the domestic box office in their opening weekend. There was The Little Mermaid, Fast X, and the impressive carryover of John Wick: Chapter 4, which was distributed in Canada by distribution business, Cineplex Pictures. This consistent supply of product is what we dearly missed since the pandemic began. While some titles had mixed results with the regular supply of products, strong performance offset films that fell short of expectations. Now that we are seeing a regular weekly cadence of films, we are encouraged to see box office results that exceed or approach the pre-pandemic period. This speaks to the strength and resilience of the theatrical exhibition industry despite inflation and recessionary dynamics.
While the second quarter and third quarter to date saw accelerated moviegoing, as we look forward, we are cognizant of the potential impact of the writers and actors strikes on our future release dates. We are monitoring these strikes closely. The degree of any downstream delays will ultimately depend on the duration of the strikes by the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America. While there may be temporary shifts in the future film slate, it is important to recognize they are just temporary, and these films will have their day in theaters. Any potential delays will not affect consumer interest for moviegoing or studio plans for scaling theatrical volume to pre-pandemic levels. Our studio partners have seen time and again the irreplaceable value proposition of an exclusive theatrical release. As I've said before, we are still the engine that drives the train.
Even non-traditional studios such as Amazon and Apple, are committing to theatrical releases to maximize returns on their best films. Apple is releasing two long-awaited films, Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and Ridley Scott's Napoleon, both slated for later this year. Amazon has already had tremendous success with the release of Creed III and Air earlier this year. Notably, these non-traditional studios are expressing intentions to scale theatrical film production over the next few years to levels comparable to traditional studios. As we look forward, the flow of content coming from both traditional and non-traditional studios gives us great confidence about the long-term recovery of content volumes to pre-pandemic levels and beyond. In the meantime, Cineplex remains well-equipped to navigate any potential short-term delays and film shifts as we have done effectively in the past.
You have heard me previously talk about our content diversification strategy and our ability to outperform the North American industry when there has been a lack of films. We continue to build this part of the business, which isn't tied directly to Hollywood. Through our relationships with international content suppliers and our ability to understand consumer preferences, we have attracted audiences such that the contribution of international product to our box office has increased from 4.3% in 2019 to 9.4% in the first half of 2023. The rest of the industry in North America only generated 3.4% of its box office from international product. We will continue to grow and capitalize on this part of our business with the use of data analytics, which continues to get stronger.
Additionally, we are pursuing the expansion of our distribution business, Cineplex Pictures, where we look to source content from all over the world and distribute it to Canadian audiences. On a year-to-date basis, we have successfully distributed eight titles, and as always, we are focused on delivering alternative programming, including opera, concerts, educational programming, sporting events, and much more. Our diversified businesses also continue to perform well and contribute to the company's performance. This helps offset any potential impact of a shifting Hollywood slate. Our P1AG business continues to shatter records quarter after quarter for top line, bottom line, and margins. This growth is driven by the high-margin family entertainment segment, further recovery in the theater segment, and the expansion of attractive new verticals, including the lodging and leisure space within the roof business.
During the second quarter, P1AG generated record adjusted EBITDA of CAD 13.1 million and an impressive margin of 23.7%, up 570 basis points from the same quarter last year. Our LBE business generated revenue of CAD 29.1 million, which is a second quarter record and an EBITDA of CAD 6.3 million. This part of the business continues to scale and add meaningful bottom-line contributions. On the media side, both Cineplex Media and Cineplex Digital Media perform well despite the challenging macroeconomic environment. While there are some economic headwinds in the advertising sector, it is important to remember that cinema continues to be the most attractive and captivating form of advertising. Cinema attention consistently scores 4 to 7 times greater than other video channels, including TV, social, and digital ads, across a variety of brands and categories.
Both our media teams are focused on data initiatives, and we anticipate this will provide a competitive advantage as advertisers increasingly return to spend in the cinema and mall space. I'd now like to provide an update on our strategic priorities. During the quarter, we opened our second Junction location in Mississauga, Ontario. This new concept features multiple entertainment options, including movies, amusement gaming, live events, and expanded food and beverage offerings, all under one roof. While it is still early days, we are extremely pleased with the performance of these two new locations and the concept as a whole, as it allows us to maximize revenue per sq ft in our venues, while driving incremental attendance and spend from expanded offerings. In addition, we continue to advance our data analytics capabilities to create personalized campaigns that aim to upsell, cross-sell, and increase conversion and visitation across the Cineplex ecosystem.
This is combined with utilizing sophisticated marketing techniques that leverage our highly valued and engaging loyalty programs, including the Scene+ program with over 13 million members, and our industry-leading subscription program, CineClub, which has nearly 135,000 members. While we pursue multiple data support revenue-generating opportunities, we are also leveraging data tools to improve productivity and optimize showtime planning decisions. Overall, we remain disciplined and focused on maximizing the use of our square footage and resources, drive attendance, and effectively manage costs. Before I turn the call over to Gord, I want to provide an update on the Competition Bureau's allegations regarding our online booking fees. Cineplex filed its response to the Competition Bureau's allegations on June 30th, and the Bureau filed its reply on July 14th. An administrative case management conference to determine scheduling and procedural matters was held on July 27th.
We strongly believe that we have complied with both the letter and spirit of the law. We believe the Competition Bureau's allegations are unfounded, and we continue to seek an early determination of this matter. Moving on to Cineworld. They emerged from bankruptcy on July thirty-first, and as previously disclosed, our claim recovery will be minimal. We are just as disappointed with the outcome as our shareholders, but I want you to know that we worked tirelessly to explore all options to optimize the value of the litigation judgment. We will now put this chapter behind us. Looking ahead, we remain highly confident in the strength of our exhibition and other businesses. We're excited about our strong year-to-date results, which reflect positive momentum from the industry's rebound and our strategic actions to maximize attendance, box office, and drive growth from our diversified businesses.
As previously discussed, our diversification strategy is just one of several compelling factors that differentiate Cineplex from our North American peers. We hold a leading market position for entertainment destinations in Canada. We are the most innovative exhibitor when it comes to guest experiences, from premium formats to enhanced gaming in our venues, to new entertainment destinations like Junction. Cineplex is a first-mover innovator in the exhibition industry. We hold a leading market position in international cinema and alternative content. Our full ownership and control of the cinema media business drives industry-leading revenue per patron results. The consumer data we collect is utilized across the Cineplex ecosystem to drive additional revenue and make our operations more efficient. Overall, Cineplex is well positioned to achieve great success and a history of driving industry-leading results.
Our innovative and successful growth initiatives, along with our disciplined capital and cost management, will serve us well for years to come. I am extremely proud of the Cineplex team and want to thank them for their agility, resourcefulness, and determination as we work together to grow our business. With that, I will turn things over to Gord.
Thanks, Alex. I am pleased to present a condensed summary of the second quarter results for Cineplex Inc. For further reference, our financial statements and MD&A have been filed on SEDAR+ and are also available on our investor relations website at cineplex.com. Our MD&A and earnings press release include a complete narrative on the operational results. I will focus on highlighting select items and providing commentary on our liquidity and outlook. As Alex mentioned, we were extremely pleased with our Q2 operating results. We reported total revenue of $423.1 million, attendance of 12.8 million people, and adjusted EBITDA of $60.3 million, our strongest quarterly results since 2019.
We reported net income of CAD 176.5 million, which included a tax benefit of CAD 158.4 million, which I will discuss later. For the second quarter, total revenues increased 20.9% to CAD 423.1 million, from CAD 349.9 million in the prior year, and adjusted EBITDA increased 68.5% to CAD 60.3 million from CAD 35.8 million in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 14.2%, which is in excess of the full year 2019 amount. We experienced excellent results in our film exhibition and content businesses, with segmented revenue increasing 24.9-... CAD 312.8 million.
Adjusted EBITDA more than doubling to CAD 45.6 million, and adjusted EBITDA margin increasing to 14.6% from 8.5%, all as compared to the prior year quarter. Box office revenues increased by 20.6% to compare to the prior year, with BPP at an all-time second quarter record of CAD 12.84, primarily due to consumer demand for premium experiences. Premium product accounted for 46.6% of our box office in the second quarter. Theater food service revenues increased 20.3% to CAD 118 million, our second highest quarterly result ever, with CBP of CAD 9.21, establishing a new second quarter record.
Attendance for the second quarter increased 15.5% to 12.8 million, represented 75% of Q2 2019's attendance. On a month-over-month basis, April was 86% of April 2019, May was 60% of May 2019, June was 82% of 2019. For the second quarter, two months were above 80% of the 2019 attendance levels, it was only May, which was below, this was primarily due to Avengers: Endgame, the second highest grossing film of all time, having a significant impact in June, or sorry, in May 2019.
On the media side of the business, we reported second quarter media segment revenue of CAD 26 million, adjusted EBITDA of CAD 13.6 million, and segmented adjusted EBITDA margin of 52.3%. As we continue to see growing traffic in our cinemas and in malls, we expect to see further recovery in our media businesses. Our amusement and leisure businesses had another incredible record-breaking quarter, with a combined 15.1% increase in revenue and a 13.3% increase in adjusted EBITDA compared to the prior year. This business segment continues to outperform the pre-pandemic period. P1AG business continues to benefit from growing theater attendance and the expanding FEC market in Canada and the US.
It reported all-time record quarterly revenues of CAD 55.2 million and record quarterly adjusted EBITDA of thirteen point. Our LBE business reported record Q2 revenues of CAD 29.1 million. G&A expenses increased CAD 1.4 million to CAD 16.7 million from CAD 15.3 million in the prior year, primarily due to a CAD 1.1 million increase in LTIP expense. G&A is described in more detail in our MD&A. Total interest expense increased to CAD 30.5 million from CAD 28.6 million in the prior year. I encourage you to read our MD&A disclosure as we break out the components of interest expense.
Cash interest expense increased 2.8% to CAD 31.4 million, with cash rent, sorry, cash interest, excluding the lease interest expense, decreasing 6.4% or CAD 1 million to CAD 14.9 million, primarily as a result of lower effective borrowing costs on the bank credit facilities. Non-cash interest expense increased to CAD 3.3 million from a recovery of CAD 2 million in the prior year, primarily due to the shift in the mark-to-market adjustments on our hedges. We recorded a net income tax recovery of CAD 158.2 million, comprised of a current tax expense of CAD 0.3 million and a deferred tax recovery of CAD 158.4 million.
The deferred tax recovery is a result of the reasonable expectation of the utilization to offset future periods of taxable income, given our current outlook. As a reminder, we have approximately CAD 427.5 million of non-capital losses to utilize against future periods. This item is described in more detail in note 3 of our financial statements. Before discussing our liquidity position, I want to briefly touch on CapEx and an update on our Cineworld claim. For 2023, we reported second quarter net CapEx of CAD 15.1 million, and on a year-to-date basis, CAD 29 million. Our guidance for net CapEx for 2023 remains at CAD 60 million, and we will continue to be prudent and opportunistic with our growth initiatives, focusing on initiatives that drive incremental revenue and returns.
Lastly, Cineworld emerged from bankruptcy protection on July 31st, 2023. Their plan contemplates all holders of general unsecured claims, which includes Cineplex's claim of $1.24 billion, receiving a share of a total pool of $10 million, $10 million in cash, plus interest in a litigation trust, which are not expected to be material. The distribution to general unsecured creditors will not happen immediately. We may not receive our distribution until 2024. We do not anticipate Cineplex's allocated portion to be material. No amount has been accrued in Cineplex's financial statements.
I would now like to move on and speak to our balance sheet, and in particular, our liquidity position. For Q2 2023, for Q2 2023, we reported net repayments of CAD 26 million under our credit facilities, which left us with CAD 330 million drawn and approximately CAD 203 million available under our credit facilities as of 30th, 2023. As at June 30th, 2023, we reported a senior leverage ratio of 2.03 times, as compared to a covenant of 2.75 times. I'd like to take a few moments to look forward. I want to revisit the world I described during our last analyst call.
This is a world where we could potentially achieve pre-pandemic adjusted EBITDA levels on 75%-80% of pre-pandemic attendance levels due to our diversified business model, then use this free cash flow to delever. For the second quarter, we achieved 75% of Q2 2019 attendance level, 87% of box office, 100% of theater food service revenues. Our EBITDA was approximately CAD 60 million. Our cash interest and long-term term debt was CAD 14.9 million, our net CapEx was CAD 15.1 million, for a simple net free cash flow of approximately CAD 30 million, we've repaid CAD 26 million under our credit facilities. We know it is not as simple as multiplying by four, our Q2 results give us confidence that this world is within our grasp.
Now, let's talk about the balance sheet. At the end of Q1 2023, we had approximately $896 million face value of debt, including $316.3 million in convertible debentures, which have a conversion price of $10.94. All of our equity research analysts have a one-year target price in excess of the conversion price. In the 75%-80% world, we believe that the convertible debentures would convert to equity, and with the adjusted current debt balance of $580 million, excluding the converts, we would be at the low end of our target leverage ratio range of 2.5-3.0 times, and on the path to consider the reintroduction of a dividend. Now, let's talk about initiatives to optimize our capital structure.
As I said last quarter, I want to make it clear that we're primarily talking about the composition and maturity of our debt stock, including items such as rating strategies, mix of bank versus private versus public debt, US versus Canadian issuance, not dire measure, measures such as issuing common equity to reduce debt. With the strong return of our business in Q2, you should see us moving forward with some of these initiatives in the near future. Finally, speaking of common equity, our business is typically traded at a premium, given our market share and diversified business. However, with the positive results of our business and momentum in the industry, we have not seen the same valuation return that our peers in the US have experienced. We are trading at an approximately 25% discount to our target price.
We understand that our Canadian listing means we are subject to more of a show-me view, but we would expect that our Q2 results should give you some confidence that we are showing you. With a continued strong movie slate for the balance of 2023 and the incredible results from our diversified businesses, there is a lot to be excited about. With that, I would like to turn the call over to the conference operator for questions.
Of course. Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, please press Star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, please press Star followed by two. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure you are unmuted locally. As a reminder, that's Star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. Our first question comes from Derek Lessard of TD Securities. Derek, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning, everybody. Good to hear your voices and, and, glad to see the, the improvement across your businesses. And on that, it looks like you guys are, are doing well in most of the areas that you do have control over. I did want to touch on an area where you don't, and that's over the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Ellis, you touched on this a little bit in, in your, your opening remarks, but I just wanted to hit on how you think about the evolution of, of the strike. And, Gord, maybe how should we be thinking about this, you know, in terms of how you prepare particular the balance sheet, particularly as you, you come up to covenant testing in, in Q4 again?
On the initial comments on the strike, you know, we are looking to a situation where the strike gets resolved relatively quickly. All of our studio partners are doing everything they can to minimize the disruption of the product flow to us. We are working with them also from a marketing perspective and using our data to basically promote the films that are coming out and helping them work together with us. Unlike COVID, this is not a shutdown. To me, this is just, as I said, a temporary postponement of some of the movies if the strike is for a prolonged period.
I think, we will be back and running strongly as we move forward to some of the areas of the business. The difference for us, too, is we have a very strong slate of diversified products coming from international locations, and we will continue to pursue that. It's not replacing Hollywood, but at least it gives us an ability to continue to have guests come to our venues, including things like opera and sporting events and other items that we can show them at our theaters. To me, I hope it's a short-term situation, but I can't really guarantee anything because we'll have to wait and see what, you know, both the union groups decide to do as we move forward.
The number of individuals getting impacted, I think we will see a move forward and try to, you know, a resolution of, of the situation. Hope that answers your question.
Now, Derek, I'll answer the second half of your question. First of all, I want to say, I am not concerned with this at all from a covenant perspective. You got to recall that, coming into Q3 and into Q4, we were impacted by what I would call, and this is last year, sorry. We were impacted by what I would call our supply chain disruption, which was a significant shift, you know, of a number of titles commencing in sort of late July 2022. We're dropping off on an LTM basis, some pretty weak quarters coming out of Q3 last year and Q4 last year, and even into Q1 of this year.
The strength that we're seeing now going into Q3, and as Ellis mentioned in his conference call script, you know, to have our highest EBITDA, monthly EBITDA in, in July behind us, is. The risk of shift that I would say is probably over, is something that's overstated out there right now. From a covenant perspective, we got some weak periods coming off. This is gonna be no worse than some of the disruption that we had faced in prior periods.
Yeah, thanks. Both comments are super helpful. Maybe on a more positive note, I wanted to drill down a little bit on that strong LBE performance. You know, first, more on what you're seeing in terms of consumer behavior, just against the sort of cloudy macro backdrop. Second, how should we view sort of the potential new locations and your pipeline there?
Yeah, let me talk about performance. Look, I'm gonna dig down into a little bit more of your question because I think there may be some others asking about the LBE. Let's first and foremost say that, you know, the LBE business has been, and both our amusement and leisure businesses have been extremely strong, kind of coming out of the post-pandemic. For the business, you know, there is a bit of a seasonality to this business that we need to be conscious of.
You know, as Canada sort of in, in general, moves out of the winter months and into the spring, into the summer, those first couple of months where there's, where there's nice weather outside is, you know, the business suffers a little bit about Canadians wanting to be outside. The May, June period, you know, we see a little bit of a drop in demand, which then picks back up in July, and we've reported, we've got one of our strongest months in July that we're gonna report. We see a bit of seasonality there. The business is still extremely strong. I want to, I want to address margins, because people may ask about margins here in the second quarter.
You know, being a little bit lower than where they had been historically in the past number of quarters. I talked a little bit about the seasonality. In May, in particular, with the strong weather, as we saw a dip in volume, so the margin in the LBE business for the month of May itself was about 13%. If you took out the month of May, if you just looked at April and June, the margin for the LBE business was about 25%. We have a kind of a 1-month anomaly. We perhaps didn't react as strongly as we could have to the, to the, you know, the volume decline in the month of May. As we look into July, I see the margins coming right back up. Strong business, strong indicators.
We have a couple in the pipeline for next year. We have one in Vancouver and one in Quebec. Both are scheduled to open towards the end of 2024. As I said, you know, we used the pandemic to really optimize the operations of our LBE business, and we're seeing the, you know, the success and the benefits as we look forward.
Thanks for that. Very helpful.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Drew McReynolds of RBC Capital Markets. Drew, your line is open. Please proceed.
Yeah, thanks very much, and good morning, and just congrats on the, on, on the results. Two questions for me. First, on the Cineplex Media side, a little bit of a tough comp that you allude to in, in the MD&A. Ellis, in your opening remarks, you elaborated a little bit more on the data ecosystems that Cineplex have underneath the hood. Just wanting to better understand, as this business moves forward, you know, it is tied to attendance, but also tied to things you can do with your data. Just wondering how that's evolving? Second question on the amusement outlook. Looks like there was some, you know, additional equipment sales and a wage subsidy in there, maybe for you, Gord. Just how should we be looking at the sustainability of what is obviously a very strong Q2? Thank you.
With respect to the, the media business, Drew, I'll take, I'll take both the questions. I want to, you know, talk about what we've been describing to you historically with respect to this business is, you know, that there's a, a lag in this business of the return of both mall traffic and, you know, theater attendance. You know, before, you know, typically our, our, our advertising partners look for the confidence that a film's gonna play and, and, and make sure that they've got their engagement and strategies in place. With respect to-- I'm gonna go over the numbers first then. With respect to the prior year, Q2 2022, it benefited from some advertisers who had annualized commitments that they had deferred during the pandemic.
With Top Gun coming out in Q2, is they somewhat piled on and put some of those commitments into Q2 2022. We benefited a bit from that perspective. Now, I will. You know, when we look at media revenue, you know, as a % of the pre-pandemic level, is we've been in a range of, you know, sort of anywhere In this quarter was, was about 60% of pre-pandemic, up to, you know, a high of 72% in Q4 last year. We've been hovering a range in, in kind of that 60%-70% range. As we described in, in what we were expecting to see, is that to be a little bit of a lag between, between where attendance was coming.
I will say that as we look forward, and our data strategies are really engaging advertisers to sort of prove and connect with our customers, is that we're seeing sort of the media revenue come back more in line with our attendance patterns. As an example, for the month of July, which we'll describe now, our attendance was about 93% of 2019's levels. Our media revenue for the month of July was about 94%. We are coming back. We're right on line with that attendance level. As I look forward to the next, you know, number of quarters, you know, our expectations is that the media revenue as compared to 2019's levels, will now track in line with attendance, as opposed to being behind attendance.
We're very encouraged that, you know, that our advertising customers are understanding and recognizing, you know, the relevance and, and, and the returns that they get on spending in cinema. We're happy to kind of see that lag, what we think is now behind us.
Drew, the big thing is basically using our data to provide a ROI to our advertisers and agencies. To me, that's something that's very critical, because we are able to prove how beneficial it is to be on the screen at our theaters. That's an important differentiator from us to some of the other companies out there.
Drew, on your second question on the P1AG business. you know, this business, you know, I would say, is on fire, and the whole space is on fire. As, you know, as we look at the exhibitors, as, you know, we've as, as we've, you know, looked to, you know, open our Junction concept, you know, we see exhibitors in the US looking to, you know, utilize extra space for amusement gaming concepts. Lots of opportunity there. We see an explosion in FEC concepts across North America. We see landlords looking, you know, as, as retail tenants exit, looking for entertainment-type concepts to come into malls. There's a massive opportunity for revenue growth in the P1AG business, and we're seeing that happen.
The way we've scaled the business is, there's tremendous economies of scale because, we can service those customers without having to have a lot of additional, kind of overhead, to service that customer base. You mentioned, yeah, there was a benefit of an employee retention credit, in the third-- sorry, in the second quarter, which is really a one-time event, so we, we won't see that going forward.
Okay. That's, that's great. Very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. As a final reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press Star followed by One on your telephone keypad now. Our next question comes from Maher Yaghi of Scotia Capital. Maher, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you for taking my question. Congratulations, guys, on, on a nice quarter. I wanted to just go back to the strike. You know, the discussion we have with also with our US companies that we cover, seems to, you know, like it's in the best interest of everybody to find a solution, like you mentioned, Gord. Hopefully, it will be short-lived. I, I wanted to ask you, in terms of the slate of movies that you are expecting in your theaters for 2023, are you seeing any shifts in terms of timeline for the movies that were slated to come this year being pushed out? It's more the 2024, 2025 type movies that are being, you know, maybe starting to move away?
In response to Dallas, the only movie today that's moved out that, you know, would have been one that, we would have seen as been, a, a reasonable hit, is Ghostbusters, which is moving to March 29th of 2024, from December 25th of 2023. To me, you know, the 1st quarter to have a big movie move into that quarter is in a good positioning for us because there are a lot of other movies. If, they keep their dates, you know, all the way through from the 3rd quarter to the 4th quarter, you've got some strong product, coming out with Gran Turismo, Equalizer, The Nun II, Big Fat Greek Wedding, Dumb Money, PAW Patrol, Salt. There's a lot of... and that's just in the 3rd quarter.
When you go to the fourth quarter, you're looking at movies like Killers of the Flower Moon, The Exorcist. You've got Dune, you've got The Marvels, The Hunger Games, Napoleon, Wish, Aquaman, Wonka. There's a lot of movies that are still there, and as long as they don't move, I think we will continue to perform extremely well. Again, when you look at the 3 movies that are playing in our theaters now, we expect them to continue to move forward, like Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Mission Impossible. We have done extremely well on a percentage basis compared to, you know, our North American numbers on an overall. For Barbie, we had 2 of the top 10 locations in North America. For Oppenheimer, the same.
Oppenheimer, we are close to 10% of the North American gross, and Barbie, we're getting close to 8.5%, and we keep going up every week. I think content-wise, as long as, you know, the disruption doesn't continue for a significant period of time, I don't think we will see a major impact to us.
Thanks, Ellis. Maybe just a follow-up. In terms of your discussion with the studios in the US, what is their view on the return on their investments in movies, and have they changed their view? Like, basically, you know, yesterday, Disney was saying they're still committed to making strong movies. They're focusing on quality rather than on quantity. Can you maybe just talk a little bit about, you know, how you see the studios moving forward with their investments and how that could affect your business overall?
The good news in that area is you've got companies like Amazon and Apple also wanting to participate, and I think it is going to increase the number of movies that are being released into the movie theater. Like I've always said, we are still the engine that drives the train. Again, you're going to have movies that are gonna do extremely better than we anticipated, and there are ones that are not gonna do as well. On an overall basis, as long as we are ahead, both from a studio and an exhibitor perspective, then everybody wins in that process. If you told me, and this is a thing, if you asked me two years or three years ago, would Barbie be a billion-dollar movie?
I would have said, "Hey, that doesn't sound like we'll get there." It's done really well, and it will continue to do well, and Warner Bros. did an incredible job in promoting that film, and, basically, it has, filled our theaters on an ongoing basis. From an overall perspective, we've had years where this is always the case. Some movies do better than we expect and others, a little less than we had expected.
Maybe my, my last question on, on, on screens. You know, I think in Q2, you had some, some weeks where you had more movies than screens that you had available. How is the situation right now going into the summer period and, and the fall in terms of utilization?
There is a lot of product, but we continue to use our data and analytics to basically derive which locations should have what film, and that is really helping us, you know, as we, as we move forward. You know, we had a lot of situations where, you know, we can't get as many screens on a particular movie, but what then ends up happening is our guests come in later weeks of the run, and we catch up on an overall position. To me, as I said to you, you know, it's a high-class problem when you've got a lot of movies and not enough screens.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. At this stage, we currently have no further questions, so I'll hand back over to Ellis Jacob for any closing remarks.
I want to thank you all again for joining the call this morning. We look forward to speaking with you in November for our third quarter 2023 results. Make sure you get to see Barbie and Oppenheimer, and have a wonderful and a great day. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.