Wildwood Box Office: AMC, Cinemark Report Fathom Differently

Wildwood opened to $12.27 million in U.S. theaters last weekend, and the company that released it, Fathom Entertainment, is owned in part by AMC and Cinemark, two U.S. listed chains. Their latest quarterly filings do not agree on what that stake earns. In the first half of 2026, AMC Entertainment booked $5.7 million of equity earnings from AC JV, the joint venture that owns Fathom, while Cinemark booked $2.4 million. National CineMedia's filing last year put AMC's and Cinemark's stakes at 32% each, so the two should be close. Instead AMC's figure is about 2.4 times Cinemark's, by TradeFlock's estimate, and neither 10-Q explains the gap. Wildwood's box office is not in either number yet.

Wildwood Opened Third on a Reported $100 Million Budget

Wildwood, the first Laika film in seven years, took in $12,273,561 on 2,817 screens from Friday, Oct. 23, through Sunday, Oct. 25, according to Box Office Mojo. That put it third for the weekend. It added about $2.9 million from international markets for a worldwide total of $15.17 million. Box Office Mojo lists Fathom Entertainment as the distributor. IndieWire reports a budget of about $100 million, so the worldwide total after one weekend is about 15% of that figure, by TradeFlock's estimate. IndieWire also noted that the release is one of Fathom's first truly wide runs for an original film. Fathom has mostly handled event screenings and reissues of older titles.

Same Venture, Two Different Earnings Lines

Fathom's parent, AC JV, was owned 32% each by AMC, Cinemark and Regal and 4% by National CineMedia as of Sept. 25, 2025, according to National CineMedia's 10-Q for that quarter, filed Oct. 30, 2025. Neither AMC's nor Cinemark's latest 10-Q states its percentage, so TradeFlock is assuming the split has not changed since then. Equal stakes should produce equal equity income, all else being equal. The June 30 filings show otherwise.

AMC's 10-Q filed July 23 says its equity in earnings of non consolidated entities consisted primarily of AC JV earnings of $3.3 million in the second quarter and $5.7 million for the six months, up from $1.8 million and $2.6 million a year earlier. Cinemark's 10-Q shows equity income from AC JV of $2.4 million for the six months, and it received $2.3 million in cash distributions. Dividing each figure by 32%, on that assumption, implies joint venture earnings of about $17.8 million on AMC's number and about $7.5 million on Cinemark's, by TradeFlock's estimate. That is hard to square if both describe the same six months. AMC's wording is that the line is primarily AC JV, so it may include other items, and the companies may apply different accounting adjustments to the same investment. The filings do not say.

Fees Paid to Fathom Moved in Opposite Directions

The cost side differs too. Cinemark reports event fees paid to AC JV of $1.8 million in the second quarter, down from $9.0 million a year earlier, and $6.0 million for the half, down from $11.7 million. AMC reports related party film exhibition costs of $8.2 million for the quarter, up from $5.8 million, and $14.5 million for the half, up from $9.3 million. AMC describes that line as transactions with equity investees, mostly film rent, so the two are not a like for like comparison. In TradeFlock's reading, the filings leave open whether the owners are describing the same business or different slices of it, which matters because the owners will each report Wildwood in their own terms.

What Cinemark's $3.9 Million Carrying Value Implies

Cinemark carried its AC JV investment at $3.9 million on June 30, up from $3.8 million at the start of the year. If that balance tracks a 32% share of the venture's book equity, which assumes the stake is unchanged and carried at book, the whole venture would be carried at about $12.2 million, by TradeFlock's estimate. That is roughly the size of Wildwood's opening weekend gross. The comparison is loose, because box office is revenue shared with theaters and book equity is a balance sheet figure, but it shows the scale. A single wide release is large against what the owners carry on their books for Fathom.

Fathom's terms with Laika are not public, and neither company breaks out what it earns from Wildwood. Theater owners earn on the release in two ways. They keep a share of ticket sales at their own screens and sell concessions, and they hold a share of the distributor's profit through AC JV. TradeFlock is not estimating either piece, and the film's reported budget belongs to Laika, not to Fathom.

What to Watch in the Next Reports

Cinemark said it will report third quarter results before the open on Tuesday, Nov. 3, with a call at 8:30 AM ET. Wildwood opened after that quarter ended on Sept. 30, so its effect should appear first in fourth quarter results. The questions then are whether AMC and Cinemark show AC JV earnings that line up, and whether Fathom's event fees to Cinemark rebound from the second quarter's $1.8 million. IndieWire notes that Laika's earlier films held well, with Kubo and the Two Strings opening to $12.6 million and finishing near $48 million domestic. Wildwood would need a similar multiple of about 3.8 to reach roughly $46 million.

Cinemark closed at $38.98 on Monday, Oct. 26, down 1.7% from Friday, and AMC closed at $2.89, down 0.3%, according to Yahoo Finance. U.S. markets had not yet opened for Tuesday when this was written. Theater chains compete with streaming for the same viewing hours, as TradeFlock has covered in its look at Netflix's buyback price against its shares and in how Paramount Skydance won Warner Bros. TradeFlock is not predicting Wildwood's final gross.

Cover photo: Movie theater seats (Unsplash) by Elijah Flores / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (cropped and resized).