마커스 코퍼레이션(MCS) 2026 회계연도 3분기 실적 발표회: 사상 최대 매출 및 극장 부문 성장

핵심 요약

• 마커스 코퍼레이션(The Marcus Corporation)은 극장 및 호텔 사업부 모두 3분기 매출 기록을 경신함에 따라 2026 회계연도 3분기 매출이 전년 동기 대비 13.1% 증가한 2억 3,800만 달러로 분기 최고치를 기록했다고 발표했습니다.
• 영업이익은 3,030만 달러로 33% 증가했고, 조정 EBITDA는 4,910만 달러로 21% 증가했습니다. 순이익은 1,880만 달러(주당 $0.60)를 기록했습니다.
• 극장 매출은 약 21% 증가한 1억 4,500만 달러를 기록했습니다. 동일 매장 관객 수는 스파이더맨: 브랜드 뉴 데이, 디 오디세이 및 2분기 개봉작의 견조한 이월 효과에 힘입어 16.8% 증가했습니다.
• 비용 환급 전 호텔 매출은 8,200만 달러로 2% 증가했습니다. 동일 조건 자사 소유 호텔 RevPAR(객실당 매출)은 7.4% 성장하여 해당 회사의 시장 내 경쟁 호텔들이 기록한 6.2% 증가율을 상회했습니다.
• 회사 측은 현금 약 6,000만 달러, 총 유동성 2억 1,900만 달러 이상, 순레버리지 비율 0.8배로 분기를 마감했습니다.
• 경영진은 2026 회계연도 설비투자(CAPEX) 가이던스를 4,500만~5,000만 달러로 유지했으며, 4분기의 상당한 프로젝트 지출을 통해 연간 총액이 해당 범위 내에 들어올 것으로 예상합니다.

주요 재무 데이터

사업 및 운영 실적

마커스 시어터

극장 매출은 약 21% 증가한 1억 4,500만 달러에 달했습니다. 동일 매장 입장권 매출은 21.8% 증가했고, 동일 매장 관객 수는 16.8% 증가했습니다.

회사의 평균 입장료는 가격 조정, 프리미엄 대형 스크린(PLF) 비중 확대, '알뜰 화요일(Value Tuesday)' 관객 비중 감소를 반영하여 4.3% 상승했습니다. 관람객 1인당 동일 매장 매점 및 식음료 매출은 영화 테마 굿즈 판매와 메뉴 가격 인상에 힘입어 3.8% 증가했습니다.

상위 10개 영화가 분기 박스오피스 매출의 약 80%를 차지했으며, 이는 전년 동기의 72%보다 높아진 수치입니다. 블록버스터 개봉작에 대한 이러한 집중도 심화로 인해 입장권 매출 대비 영화 배급 비용 비율이 1%포인트 미만 상승했습니다.

극장 부문 조정 EBITDA는 주로 관객 수 증가에 힘입어 46% 이상 증가한 4,630만 달러를 기록했습니다. 마커스 시어터는 또한 박스오피스, 매점, 식음료, 굿즈 판매 전반에서 기록을 세우며 역대 최고 여름 시즌 매출을 달성했습니다.

경영진은 자사의 조정 입장권 매출 성장률이 전국 박스오피스보다 약 1.4%포인트 뒤처졌다고 밝혔습니다. 주요 요인은 마커스가 운영하지 않는 지역에서 더 강한 실적을 거둔 디 오디세이의 지리적 및 프리미엄 포맷 구성이었습니다. 또한 회사는 배급사 조건 문제로 두 편의 영화 상영을 거부했으며, 이로 인해 입장권 매출 성장률이 약 1%포인트 감소했습니다.

호텔 및 리조트

비용 환급 전 호텔 매출은 8,200만 달러로 2% 증가했습니다. 소유 포트폴리오의 RevPAR은 평균 객실 단가(ADR)가 3.3% 상승한 데 힘입어 2.1% 증가했으나, 투숙률이 1%포인트 미만 하락하면서 일부 상쇄되었습니다. 투숙률은 77.5%를 기록했습니다.

마크 호텔(Marc Hotel)을 제외한 동일 조건 소유 호텔 RevPAR은 7.4% 증가했습니다. 이는 해당 회사의 시장 내 동일 경쟁사들이 보고한 6.2% 성장을 1.2%포인트 상회한 수치입니다.

개인 레저 수요는 여전히 견조했으며 출장 수요는 소폭 개선되었습니다. 단체 비즈니스는 전체 매출 비중의 약 39%를 차지하여 전년 동기의 43%에서 감소했습니다. 단체 활동의 둔화는 식음료 매출 1.4% 감소에 영향을 미쳤습니다.

호텔 부문 조정 EBITDA는 60만 달러 감소했습니다. 그랜드 제네바 리조트 & 스파(Grand Geneva Resort & Spa)의 심각한 폭풍 피해로 인해 매출 손실과 추가 복구 비용이 발생하여 조정 EBITDA에 약 50만 달러의 악영향을 미쳤습니다. 폭풍 영향을 제외하면 부문 조정 EBITDA는 사실상 제자리걸음을 했습니다.

경영진 가이던스

경영진은 2026 회계연도 설비투자 가이던스를 4,500만~5,000만 달러로 유지했습니다. 여름 시즌 이후의 통상적인 프로젝트 일정에 따라 지출은 4분기에 집중될 것으로 예상됩니다.

극장 부문의 경우, 경영진은 4분기 박스오피스의 호조를 예상하고 있습니다. 10월은 업계 전반의 성장세로 시작했고, 11월은 전년 동기 대비 감소할 것으로 보이나, 12월은 의미 있게 증가할 것으로 예상됩니다. 이러한 전망은 어벤져스: 둠스데이 및 듄: 파트 3 등의 개봉작에 의해 뒷받침되지만, 지역별 영화 선호도가 업계 대비 마커스 시어터의 실적에 영향을 미칠 수 있습니다.

호텔 부문의 경우 경영진은 밀워키 브루어스의 월드시리즈 진출 호조에 힘입어 10월이 호조로 시작했다고 밝혔습니다. 2027년 단체 객실 예약은 전년 동기 예약 실적보다 약 10% 앞서 있으며, 2027년 연회 및 케이터링 진행 속도는 약 14% 앞서 있습니다. 다만 경영진은 이처럼 먼 미래의 예약 패턴은 크게 변동될 수 있다고 당부했습니다.

회사는 2026 회계연도에 매우 강력한 잉여현금흐름을 창출할 것으로 예상하며, 성장을 위한 투자를 위해 재무제표상의 여력을 유지할 계획입니다. 경영진은 호텔 합작투자(JV), 그랜드 제네바에 대한 추가 투자, 신중한 극장 인수 기회를 검토하고 있습니다.

리스크 및 주요 관전 포인트

• 극장 실적은 영화의 품질, 개봉 시기, 지역별 선호도, 주요 작품에 대한 박스오피스 매출 집중도에 여전히 민감하게 반응합니다.
• 이번 분기 중 배급사와의 협상이 영화 수급에 영향을 미쳤으나, 경영진은 이후 배급사와 합의에 도달했다고 밝혔습니다.
• 단체 수요 둔화로 특히 밀워키 지역의 호텔 연회 및 케이터링 활동이 감소한 반면, 시카고는 활발한 도시 전역 행사 및 컨벤션의 혜택을 받았습니다.
• 높은 휘발유 가격과 항공권 가격 상승은 여행 수요와 단체 행사 참석에 영향을 미칠 수 있습니다. 경영진은 2027년 예약에 미칠 잠재적 영향을 수량화하기에는 가시성이 부족하다고 말했습니다.
• 그랜드 제네바의 폭풍 피해로 인해 운영이 중단되고 취소 사태가 발생했으며 골프 시설이 폐쇄되었습니다. 회사는 재산 보험으로 해당 손실이 보상될 것으로 예상하고 있습니다.
• 분기별 현금흐름은 운전자본 계절성과 설비 투자 프로젝트 타이밍에 따라 변동될 수 있습니다.

애널리스트 Q&A 하이라이트

극장 티켓 가격 책정: 경영진은 재방문을 유도하기 위해 영화 관람 비용이 부담 없는 수준으로 유지되어야 한다고 밝혔습니다. 마커스는 '알뜰 화요일(Value Tuesday)'과 같은 가성비 옵션을 유지하면서도 프리미엄 포맷에 더 높은 가격대를 적용하는 등 시장 기반 가격 책정을 유지할 계획입니다. 회사는 공격적인 가격 인상을 주도할 계획은 없지만, 가격 인상 기회를 활용하지 않고 방치하지도 않을 것입니다.

극장 상영 홀드백: 경영진은 프리미엄 VOD 및 스트리밍 홀드백 기간을 연장하면 홈 엔터테인먼트 거래 수요를 크게 줄이지 않으면서도 극장 매출을 지원할 수 있다고 주장했습니다. 회사는 긴 홀드백 기간이 광범위한 콘텐츠 생태계에 긍정적이라고 보고 있습니다.

로열티 및 구독 프로그램: 이번 분기 동안 로열티 회원 수가 의미 있게 증가했습니다. 강력한 라인업 기간 동안 구독자들이 적립된 포인트를 사용하면서 무비 클럽(Movie Club) 사용량도 증가한 반면, 전체적인 구독자 성장은 완만하고 안정적인 수준을 유지했습니다.

프리미엄 포맷: 마커스는 스크린X(ScreenX)에서 고무적인 초기 결과를 얻었으며 지점을 1곳에서 4곳으로 확장했습니다. D-BOX 테스트는 아직 초기 단계에 있습니다. 경영진은 일반 상영관 내 프리미엄 좌석 배치를 동일한 상영 시간에 프리미엄 경험과 일반 경험을 모두 제공할 수 있는 방안으로 보고 있습니다.

성장 투자: 경영진은 극장 인수 기회가 여전히 제한적이며 거래 시기를 예측하기 어렵다고 말했습니다. 회사는 기존 지점의 수익성을 개선할 방법을 모색하는 한편 규율을 유지할 것입니다. 호텔의 경우 대규모 리노베이션 주기가 임박하지 않았으나, 마커스는 그랜드 제네바에 대한 수익 지향적 추가 투자를 검토하고 있습니다.

장기 관객 수 추세: 경영진은 젊은 관객층의 재관심을 가장 지속 재현 가능한 긍정적 추세 중 하나로 꼽았습니다. 컨퍼런스 콜에서 인용한 내부 산업 연구에 따르면 젊은 소비자의 선호도가 집에서 관람하는 것보다 극장에서 영화를 보는 방향으로 다시 이동했습니다.

실적 발표 컨퍼런스 콜 전문

전체 실적 발표 컨퍼런스 콜 녹취록

경영진 발표

Operator

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Marcus Corporation's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Jonathan, and I will be your operator for today. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Joining us today are Greg Marcus, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Chad Paris, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of The Marcus Corporation.

At this time, I would like to turn the program over to Mr. Paris for his opening remarks. Please go ahead, sir.

Chad Paris

Good morning, and welcome to our fiscal 2026 third quarter conference call. I need to begin by stating that we plan to make a number of forward-looking statements on our call today, which may be identified by our use of words such as believe, anticipate, expect or other similar words. Our forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, which may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expected or projected in our forward-looking statements. These statements are only made as of the date of this conference call and we disclaim any obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

The risks and uncertainties, which could impact our ability to achieve our expectations identified in our forward-looking statements are included under the heading Forward-Looking Statements in the press release we issued this morning announcing our fiscal 2026 third quarter results and in the Risk Factors section of our fiscal 2025 annual report on Form 10-K, which you can access on the SEC's website. Additionally, we refer you to the disclosures and reconciliations we provided in today's earnings press release regarding the use of adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure in evaluating our performance and its limitations, a copy of which is available on the Investor Relations page of our website at investors.marcuscorp.com.

All right. With that behind us, let's begin. I'll start this morning by spending a few minutes sharing the results from our third quarter and then discuss our balance sheet, liquidity and capital allocation. I'll then turn the call over to Greg, who will focus his prepared remarks on where our businesses are today and what we are seeing ahead. We'll then open up the call for questions.

This morning, we reported another record quarter with results that exceeded our expectations and broke third quarter revenue records in both divisions. In theaters, a strong film slate led by blockbuster hits kept audiences coming to the movies deep into the summer to deliver the highest total revenue for the summer movie season in Marcus Theaters history. In hotels, we continue to see strength in leisure demand during our seasonally busiest quarter that drove record third quarter revenue. The record third quarter revenue in both divisions combined to deliver the highest quarterly revenue for any quarter in company history.

I'll start with a few highlights from our consolidated results for the third quarter of 2026. Consolidated revenues of $238 million were up 13.1% compared to the prior year quarter. Operating income for the quarter was $30.3 million, an increase of $7.6 million or 33% to the prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter was $49.1 million, a 21% increase over the third quarter of fiscal 2025. And net earnings for the quarter were $18.8 million or $0.60 per share compared to prior year third quarter net earnings of $13.2 million or $0.42 per share, excluding the impact of a nonrecurring gain on property insurance settlement of $3 million or $0.10 per share net of tax.

Turning to our segment results. I'll begin this morning with our theater division. Third quarter 2026 total revenue of $145 million increased approximately 21% compared to the prior year third quarter, primarily due to the strong performances from Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey as well as stronger carryover of films that released in the second quarter compared to last year's carryover. Comparable theater admission revenue for the third quarter increased 21.8% and comparable theater attendance increased 16.8% compared with the third quarter last year.

Based on data from Comscore, U.S. box office receipts increased 27% during the 2026 third quarter compared to U.S. box office receipts during the third quarter of 2025. There are 3 factors that impacted our admissions revenue growth when compared to the reported national box office growth. First, based on our review of box office data, it is important to note that our admissions revenue in the third quarter of 2025 included box office revenues from 2 films with national grosses that were not reported by certain streaming content providers to Comscore. The exclusion of the grosses for these films from the prior year resulted in higher national box office growth and our admission revenue growth rate was negatively impacted by 2.8 percentage points when compared to the national box office growth rate.

Second, during the third quarter of 2026, we made the strategic decision to not play 2 films due to distributor terms, which we believe negatively impacted our admissions revenue growth by approximately 1 percentage point. While these decisions to pass films are never easy, we are committed to achieving competitive market terms for film rent and we were pleased to reach a resolution with the distributor going forward. When adjusting for the impact of these 2 factors, our admissions revenue for the third quarter grew 25.6%, indicating that our admissions revenue performance trailed the industry by approximately 1.4 percentage points.

We believe that our slightly lower box office performance relative to the nation during the third quarter was primarily attributable to an unfavorable film mix that included the #2 film in the quarter, The Odyssey, that played stronger in other parts of the U.S. where we do not have a presence and in premium formats with significantly elevated average ticket prices. Our average admission price increased 4.3% during the third quarter of 2026 compared to last year. Our admission per caps were favorably impacted by strategic pricing changes, a higher percentage of our attendance on PLF screens and a decrease in the percentage of attendance coming on Value Tuesday compared to last year's quarter due to one additional Tuesday that fell in last year's calendar third quarter compared to this year's third quarter.

We also grew our average concession, food and beverage revenues per person at our comparable theaters, which increased by 3.8% during the third quarter of 2026 compared to last year's third quarter and was driven by an increase in movie-themed merchandise sales and menu pricing. Our top 10 films in the quarter represented approximately 80% of the box office compared to 72% for the top 10 films in the third quarter last year. The more concentrated film slate weighted towards blockbuster films compared to the less concentrated slate in the third quarter last year resulted in a less than 1 percentage point increase in overall film cost as a percentage of admission revenues. Finally, theater division adjusted EBITDA during the third quarter of 2026 was $46.3 million and over 46% increase over the prior year quarter, primarily due to the higher attendance volumes.

Turning to our hotels and resorts division. Total revenues before cost reimbursements were $82 million for the third quarter of 2026, a 2% increase compared to the prior year. RevPAR for our owned hotel portfolio increased 2.1% during the third quarter compared to the prior year, which resulted from a 3.3% increase in our average daily rate or ADR, partially offset by an overall occupancy rate decrease of just less than 1 percentage point. Our average occupancy rate for our owned hotels was 77.5% during the third quarter of 2026. For our comparable owned hotels, which excludes the Marc Hotel that opened in early 2026 as a new independent hotel with a new competitive set, RevPAR grew 7.4%.

According to data received from Smith Travel Research, comparable competitive hotels in our markets experienced an increase in RevPAR of 6.2% for the third quarter of 2026 compared to the third quarter last year, indicating that our hotels outperformed their competitive set by 1.2 percentage points. We believe our outperformance resulted primarily from strong transient demand and slightly improved business travel, while we experienced a somewhat softer group demand environment. Group business as a percentage of our total business mix was approximately 39% compared to 43% in the third quarter last year.

When comparing our RevPAR results to comparable upper upscale hotels throughout the United States, the upper upscale segment experienced an increase in RevPAR of 7.8% during the third quarter compared to the third quarter last year, indicating that our hotels underperformed the industry by approximately 5.7%. We believe our underperformance to the industry nationally this quarter primarily relates to transient demand related to major events, particularly the World Cup that occurred in other markets where we do not have a presence as well as softer group demand in our markets. With the softness in group business and events, our banquet and catering operations decreased modestly with food and beverage revenues down 1.4% in the third quarter of 2026 compared to the prior year quarter.

Finally, hotels adjusted EBITDA decreased $600,000 in the third quarter of fiscal 2026 compared to the prior year quarter and was negatively impacted by increased repair and cleanup expenses following severe storm damage at Grand Geneva Resort & Spa, which occurred on July 3, leading into the Independence Day holiday weekend. While our team worked incredibly hard to recover and serve resort guests that weekend, the storm event resulted in operational challenges, cancellations, golf course closures and incremental cleanup and repair expenses.

We expect the damage to the resort to be recovered by property insurance and we expect the event led to an approximately $500,000 negative impact on adjusted EBITDA due to incremental cleanup costs and lost revenue during the holiday weekend. When excluding the impact of the storm, our adjusted EBITDA was essentially flat. In addition, adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter compared to the prior year was also negatively impacted in hotels by adverse property tax assessments and quarterly shifts in timing of annual maintenance projects compared to when those projects occurred in fiscal 2025.

Shifting to cash flow and the balance sheet. Our cash flow from operations was $38.4 million in the third quarter of 2026 compared to cash flow from operations of $39.1 million in the prior year quarter, with a slight decrease in cash flow primarily due to differences in the timing of various working capital payments. Total capital expenditures during the third quarter of 2026 were $10 million compared to $20.9 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, with CapEx in the quarter primarily going to maintenance projects in both businesses. Our capital expenditures for the year are progressing as planned and we continue to expect capital expenditures for fiscal 2026 of $45 million to $50 million. The timing of several projects will impact our final capital expenditure number for the year.

We ended the third quarter with approximately $60 million in cash and over $219 million in total liquidity with debt-to-capitalization ratio of 24% and net leverage of 0.8x. We are well positioned with a very strong balance sheet, which, coupled with confidence in our businesses gives us the ability to continue pursuing growth investments while returning capital to shareholders through our quarterly dividend. We will continue to allocate capital with a balanced approach that supports an appropriate level of reinvestment in our existing assets, pursuing shorter-term payback EBITDA-enhancing investments that provide attractive returns and investments in our long-term strategic growth priorities.

With that, I'll now turn the call over to Greg.

Gregory S. Marcus

Thanks, Chad. Good morning, everyone. As we shared with you on our last quarterly call, the summer was off to a strong start. And with the film slate ahead of us, we saw the potential for our best summer box office in years. What's played out since our last update has been truly historic, breaking many records for both the industry and our company. In our theater division, a robust film slate that appealed to a wide variety of audiences kept moviegoers coming back to our theaters deep into the summer. In our hotels and resorts division, strong leisure travel supported the steady trend of average daily rate and RevPAR growth that we've seen all year.

While there were a few surprises that we had to navigate in the quarter, our team responded and executed well. Today, we are thrilled to report the highest quarterly revenue in our company's history and a quarter in which both of our businesses achieved their highest third quarter revenue ever. I'll start with our theater division. And as this quarter wrapped up the summer moviegoing season, which runs from the first Friday in May through Labor Day, I would like to begin with some perspectives on just how strong this summer was as this is one for the history books.

For the season, with our highest attendance since 2019, Marcus Theatres recorded its highest total revenue in company history with new records for highest box office, concessions, food and beverage and merchandise sales. We also set new records for both per capita admissions revenue and per capita concession merchandise and food and beverage spend for the summer moviegoing season. As an industry, we saw 4 consecutive months from May through August that each topped $1 billion in domestic box office. This sustained performance only happens when we have a deep film slate that gives audiences a reason to return week after week.

In the third quarter, we had a strong carryover of films that opened in the second quarter, combined with 2 blockbuster films in Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey that broke opening weekend records and more importantly, held strong week after week deep into the summer. When you combine these massive tentpoles with such a diverse array of counter programming, you get a theatrical ecosystem firing on all cylinders. Beyond the blockbuster films, we also had a more balanced slate that included family films such as Minions & Monsters, Moana and strong carryover from Toy Story 5 that played well in our markets. Horror continues to draw audiences with Resident Evil making a meaningful contribution to the third quarter.

Not only did the top films performed better this quarter than last year, but we had more movies with 32 wide releases compared to 30 in the quarter last year. Chad discussed the puts and takes that made comparisons to the reported national box office growth a bit more challenging this quarter. But when you cut to the noise and look at the numbers on an apples-to-apples basis, there were really 2 things that drove our underperformance to the national box office growth. First, we intentionally passed a couple of smaller films this quarter as we work to achieve competitive film terms with the distributor. While we never like to do this, this was a strategic decision as we are committed to controlling our costs at sustainable levels for the long term. This ability to make decisions for the long term is just another example of the benefits of our strong balance sheet. Others with a short-term focus may not have that option.

Second, the #2 film in the quarter, The Odyssey played stronger in other regions of the country, particularly the West Coast where we do not have a presence. Exhibitors in these markets were also realizing significantly elevated ticket prices, particularly with 70-millimeter showings of the film around the clock. While we achieved solid market share within our markets and also had a couple of 70-millimeter prints of the film, the film did disproportionately well outside of our markets. Conversely, I want to highlight that we did very well with the biggest film of the quarter, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which played on all of our PLF screens immediately on opening weekend, with PLF showings representing 49% of the box office over the entirety of its run. We believe that on a relative basis, we have the highest percentage of PLF penetration in the industry, allowing us to take advantage of times just like this.

Looking ahead, the fourth quarter is off to a good start with solid domestic box office growth in October and a few positive surprises, including You Can See Everything. The holiday film slate ahead features the highly anticipated Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three and advanced ticket sales for Avengers: Doomsday are incredibly strong. Beyond these tentpoles, the fourth quarter slate includes several other exciting films, including The Cat in the Hat, Godzilla Minus Zero, Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, Focker-In-Law, Hexed and Jumanji: Open World.

Looking even further ahead, the 2027 film slate also looks strong with major franchises, including Shrek 5, Star Wars: Starfighter, Minecraft 2, Frozen 3, Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, Man of Tomorrow, The Legend of Zelda, Avengers: Secret Wars and many more. There are many more great films coming noted in today's earnings release.

In summary, we are thrilled with the year that has taken shape for our theater business. More importantly, this isn't just a post-pandemic recovery anymore. This is a recognition of the importance of the theatrical model to the overall content ecosystem. We see more opportunities ahead of us as we continue to get more film product from new sources and theatrical windows extending out. While this industry has always had some years with huge hits and others with not as many, we see the long-term trends as very positive, and we like where things are headed.

Moving to our hotel and resorts division. You've seen the segment numbers and Chad shared some additional detail on the performance metrics, including our outperformance to the competitive sets. Once again, the hotel division achieved record third quarter revenue for the third consecutive year and we were able to successfully navigate a few challenges along the way. There were several notable items in the quarter that I'd like to highlight. At a high level, for our overall portfolio, rooms demand in the quarter remained steady and the overall travel environment appears to remain healthy. However, the dynamics continue to vary by market and there was some shift in our business mix compared with last year's quarter.

In some markets, notably Chicago, we saw strength and higher demand due to an increase in the number of citywide events and convention business that drove very high occupancy and rates. This contrasts with our Milwaukee market, where we saw some softness in group business with a weaker citywide event schedule compared with last year. And in some cases, lower attendance at group events resulted in some group room blocks not selling out. This softness resulted in a decrease in group business as a percentage of our rooms revenue with stronger transient leisure and business travel growing as a percentage of our rooms mix. While this tends to help with average daily rate and total rooms revenue, we did see a decrease in food and beverage revenue tied to the decrease in banquet and catering business for group events.

RevPAR grew at 6 of our 7 comparable hotels during the second quarter compared to the prior year quarter, with both occupancy and average daily rate growing at 5 of our 7 comparable hotels. As Chad mentioned, early in the third quarter, we navigated through the impact of a major severe storm event that hit our Grand Geneva property in July. First, I'm truly grateful that all of our associates and guests were safe and there were no major injuries from the storm, which was truly remarkable in light of the sudden approach of the storm, high winds and debris and damage to the golf course. The July 3 timing of the storm was especially challenging during what is always a busy holiday weekend and I'm incredibly proud of the hard work and dedication of our associates to recover from the storm and continue to serve guests. While we were able to mitigate the revenue impact to the week following the storm, it did create a revenue and expense headwind in the quarter.

Looking ahead, the fourth quarter in hotels is off to a strong start in October and we benefited from the Milwaukee Brewers run to the World Series. As a lifelong Brewers fan, we were excited and proud to host visiting teams and fans, international media and many Brewers VIPs to our hotels during this historic post-season run. Group bookings for the rest of the year look stable with our group room revenue bookings for 2026 or group pace in the year for the year, running approximately 5% of where we were at this time last year. Looking a bit further ahead to 2027, group room pace is running approximately 10% ahead of where we were at this time last year for the next year out. Although this far out, the timing of bookings can vary significantly.

Banquet and catering pace for the remainder of 2026 is running in line with where we were at last year at this time and is running approximately 14% ahead for 2027. Overall, the division had another good quarter and the current state of our hotel business remains stable and on track with our expectations for the year. While transient demand has remained healthy, volatility in key travel costs, including high gas prices and rising airfares have persisted. If market conditions change and we begin to see softness, we are prepared to react and adjust quickly.

Finally, I'd like to close with a brief comment on our balance sheet. We continue to remain on track to deliver very strong free cash flow in 2026, and we're building cash on our balance sheet as dry powder for future growth investments. We are disciplined and patient when evaluating growth investments and we continue to look for opportunities to deploy capital to grow both of our businesses with value-accretive investments. Our strong balance sheet allows us to move quickly when we see good opportunities and we have a history of executing when they arise.

And again, I want to add my congratulations for the Milwaukee Brewers, the World Champions, the winners of the World Series last night in Tampa. Not only is it exciting for the city and for everyone involved in the team and it is exciting for our entire community and for our company because it reflects so well on Milwaukee, where we have significant investments. We are in the press around the world and that can't help but be beneficial to our community and to our company.

Before we open up the call for questions, I want to conclude my remarks by saying thank you to all the hard-working associates of The Marcus Corporation. I especially want to thank our associates at Grand Geneva that worked so hard on a holiday weekend to recover from the storm and continue serving our guests with excellence to deliver great hospitality. I don't want to ever take for granted what each and every one of them does to contribute to the success of both of our businesses.

With that, at this time, Chad and I would be happy to open the call up for any questions you may have.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Eric Wold from Texas Capital Bank.

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Eric Wold

Congrats on the Brewers. A couple of questions, I guess, one on each segment. I guess as you think about the theater segment and kind of the pricing environment, I know it comes up a lot given the consumer environment around kind of the tough economy. How aggressive are you being in this environment in terms of kind of baseline ticket prices, seeing any signs of resistance? And kind of what are your thoughts kind of early into kind of how that could play out over the next few quarters?

Gregory S. Marcus

You got a hot issue for me, Eric. It is something that we watch very carefully. We -- we've been -- we are at market with our pricing. We watch what the market is doing. But what we want is moviegoing to be a habitual experience. It's a momentum business. It's going back regularly. And for that to happen, it has to be an affordable experience and night out. And it remains so. We not only do we benchmark across -- we look at all the different costs. We look at the costs, what people are charging to go to other movie theaters. We look at what people are charging to go to other out-of-home event-based experiences, which obviously are much higher than going to the movies. But we also watch the price of streaming, which has been going up.

So we're comfortable with where we are. We believe that we also offer ourselves a variety of price points. So we can -- the customer that wants that premium first night experience and a PLF, well, we have no shortage of PLFs, as you know. But yet our Tuesday is extremely and remains extremely robust, where we're offering the value customer value pricing at the concession stand as well as the box office. And so we just -- I would tell you, we're probably not going to lead on raising the prices as high as we can, but we're probably also not going to leave money on the table either.

Eric Wold

Got it. Helpful. And then one on the hotel segment. I know you recently completed the major renovations, The Pfister a couple of years ago and The Hilton and then obviously adding the short-haul course to Grand Geneva. You talked about kind of leaving your balance sheet strong to kind of look at other return-generating investments. How much more room do you have do you think in the hotel segment with existing properties to make renovations or changes that would have a decent sized return in terms of small additions or changes you have yet to make at the properties?

Chad Paris

Eric, I'll take that one. I mean in terms of balance sheet capacity, we -- as I mentioned on the call, we have a lot of room. And for us, it's really more about finding opportunities that have the right return profile. The hotel business can tend to be fairly capital-intensive. And so we're looking for really special assets when we do something new and acquire an asset. And we're also looking at doing more of the joint venture type of structures as we make new investments so that we can deploy smaller chunks of capital into more opportunities and achieve some diversity in the markets that we participate in. But we have a lot of room to do there.

Our -- as you point out, our core assets, the 3 that we recently renovated are all in really great condition. We're seeing very good uplift from those renovations and the returns are playing out generally in line as we expected. And so we'll be thoughtful as other renovations come up at other properties over the next several years. There's always a cycle. We don't have anything major that's imminent like we just went through. But within the guidance on capex that we provide, there's always some level of refresh that's happening and we're keeping our assets in good condition.

Gregory S. Marcus

I'd also add specific to the Grand Geneva, that is an asset that we're actually right in the middle of, we're just sort of just beginning planning exercise there to look how to really maximize what we have there. It is a really special asset that we've taken great care of and made investments along the way. And we think there's going to be some opportunity for further really good ROI investments, property that we know in a market that we know with land that we own. It's a pretty good combination. So I think there'll be some -- I think you'll hear more in the future about opportunity we have there as well.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Patrick Sholl from Barrington Research.

Patrick Sholl

Congrats on the Brewers. Just on the theater segment, could you maybe talk about like the mix of attendees and versus like loyalty members versus people that weren't in the program and like when you get a surge of attendance, I guess, any sort of like success in like onboarding them onto the loyalty program to help like improve maybe your ability to reach them in the future? And just kind of just the broader retraining of the consumer and how any sort of like progress you're kind of seeing on that process with the longer, more established windows?

Chad Paris

Yes, I can take the first part of that question just on loyalty and I'll wrap into that our Movie Club subscription program. In the quarter, we did see a pretty meaningful uptick in loyalty members. And I think that happens in any quarter when you have as robust of a slate that brings people out to the theaters who maybe haven't been there in a while. And so that was encouraging to see. We also had an uptick in the percentage of our attendance with Movie Club redemptions. And that's expected. You have customers who are earning credits every month. They may not be going every month. And so when we have a robust slate, you see a higher uptick in those redemptions. And we think that's a good thing.

We're seeing people use the program and it makes it more sticky and they'll stay in the program longer and reduce churn in the program, which has -- our experience has been that we are -- on a net basis, we are I would say, slowly and steadily growing that program. We did not see a giant uptick in sign-ups in the quarter, but it's been more slow and steady progress and that's in line with what we expect and we have continued goals for that next year. Pat, can you repeat the second part of the question?

Patrick Sholl

Yes. So the second part was just on -- I think you guys had talked about kind of retraining the consumer to not wait for it to be -- for a movie to be available on streaming. And just kind of just more about that process with the significant increase in like the number of films in the quarter and just the more solidity in the window.

Gregory S. Marcus

I just think that's something that's going to take time as we go along and the consumer starts to see -- realize it's not available. The thing that we found the most challenging, I think, of all of the -- it's the -- there's 2 challenges with it. The most is that this idea of film being available at 17 days. And even though it's a premium video-on-demand customer, a transactional video-on-demand customer, it is -- a lot of people just get an e-mail that says available at home. They're not paying attention to when it's available. It just feels like it's at home and they're thinking it's free when it really could be $20, $25 to rent it for a couple of days. And so really the first thing that the industry needed to do and is moving away from that because that's very deleterious. And we've seen data. This is the most interesting thing that I think.

The data that is put out by the groups that do the research for the industry shows the propensity to buy transactional video-on-demand at that price really is about the same at week 2 through week 8. In other words, that customer is a specific customer that is buying in week 2, and that'll be the same customer that's sitting there in week 8. And so our position as an industry has been, look, if that same customer is going to be there, you're impacting a lot of other downstream customers when you put it out there in week 2. And so if you could wait you'll have roughly the same number of transactional sales and yet you will now increase the theatrical box office, which endears to your benefit. So that seems like a win-win for us and I think that the industry is coming around to that and realizing because they're seeing the same research that we see. And that idea of pushing out that transactional window, as you see, has been going on and that's, I think, very helpful.

The next thing is we really need to get the time to -- what we call time to free, which is the time to streaming pushed out as well because that customer is also looking -- and again, we think the trade-off, and I think the data shows the trade-off of being able to have something in a theater that does business, that catches the customer's eye, that ultimately, when it shows up as a tile on your screen, you're trying to pick what you're going to watch streaming is actually a good trade-off to push it off just a little bit -- a little while. And then again, make it a win-win for the entire ecosystem, not just for theatrical, not just for streaming, but to make the pie larger. That works to all of our benefits and that's our goal when we as an industry push for longer windows.

Patrick Sholl

Okay. And if I could just get one question in on the hotel segment. Could you maybe just talk a little bit more about the group pace for 2027? And how -- I guess, how sensitive do you kind of view that being with the elevated kind of travel costs with like higher fuel costs and things like that?

Chad Paris

Yes. I mean we're running ahead as we shared in the prepared remarks for next year. A lot of that group business can -- the fluctuations in those -- in pace and bookings is tied to the calendar of events in the markets that we're in. And what really becomes the variable is the attendance at the events. And so it's really tough to know this far out what type of impact continued high travel costs will have on participation in those events. We haven't seen events getting canceled, but it's more how well attended are they. And I just don't know that we have the visibility to make a call on that relationship for 2027.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Drew Crum from B. Riley Securities.

Andrew Crum

Congratulations on the Brewers. Maybe to start with the theaters division, guys. Just looking at 4Q, what are the kind of primary puts and takes when thinking about your performance and specifically admissions revenue relative to the industry?

Chad Paris

Yes. I mean -- so when we look at the composition of the mix of films and think about the big films in the quarter, a couple of things to keep in mind. One, here in October, the industry is up. Our primary markets actually have been impacted somewhat by really 2 things. One is this Brewers run has been on weekends for the home games. And so that actually will have some modest impact on our theater business, while it benefits the hotel business, but it's happening in the smaller part of the quarter. So a net positive for the company, but it will impact our performance relative to the nation somewhat, at least in the month of October.

On mix of films, just a couple of things stand out. Last year, we had Wicked in the fourth quarter did very well on that film. And when I look at the big films in the quarter, this year, we've got a couple of family films in Hexed and Cat in the Hat that, that traditionally family content plays well in our markets. A film like Avengers, we should get our natural share on. And I think Dune tends to play a little bit better on the coast than it does in our part of the country. So those are really the puts and takes. I think regardless, it's going to be a very robust fourth quarter box office and it looks like October up, November likely down year-over-year with December being up pretty meaningfully.

Gregory S. Marcus

I like to add a little color to Drew some color on that on the October -- the movie slate. Not only is October a quieter month for the industry, it generally doesn't play to our strength because you're going to get a lot more of the Oscar contenders, art film, things like that, which we do okay on, but it's not our bread and butter. And so I think historically, it's less impactful given where we are.

Andrew Crum

Got it. Okay. And then maybe one more. I know you guys don't provide quarterly guidance, but we can kind of back into what CapEx should be for 4Q. What are the other kind of key swing factors when thinking about your cash flow generation and your ability to grow free cash flow year-on-year in the fourth quarter?

Chad Paris

Yes. Good question. On fourth quarter CapEx, there is no doubt there is a lot of -- with the guidance, there is a lot of CapEx to be spent in the fourth quarter. But seasonally, given the timing of our projects and when we try to get things done coming out of the summer season, there is a lot that's going to get done in the fourth quarter. So I do expect that we'll get to the range that we disclosed on CapEx. On the rest of free cash flow, we'll see just normal seasonality in working capital with -- in our negative working capital, which is -- tends to be a source of cash as we ramp up the business at the end of the year in theaters and then there's the big unwind in the first quarter. So those are the puts and takes. And then the -- whatever your outlook is on earnings, that will obviously fall through.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your next question is from the line of Mike Hickey from StoneX.

Michael Hickey

Great quarter, guys. Congrats on the Brewers. Awesome. Just curious, you guys both sort of hit on the strength of your balance sheet here and mentioned growth investments. I think you unpacked that a little bit, Greg, on the hotel side. But just sort of curious if you could dig in a little bit on what you're thinking on the -- as much as you can on the theater side, if M&A is becoming more of a possibility, obviously, since the recovery, it really hasn't reset itself, but maybe it's time. And then also how you're thinking about premium amenities. We talk a lot about screens, but I know you've been testing seats as well with D-BOX and sort of curious the early learnings there and maybe some consumer feedback.

Gregory S. Marcus

Well, we -- as it relates to -- I'll start with M&A. We're starting to hear stuff is out there, but it's not much. It's just such a -- it's such a weird industry in terms of M&A in terms of just when people want to sell, we got to wait for that time. There's not -- it's not like there's this institutional market where people are trading assets all the time. So we stay connected to the industry. We've been in it long enough. We pretty much know most all the players and we're active in industry leadership and industry participation. So should stuff become available, stuff that we will look at. And -- but we will remain disciplined. And if it makes sense, we'll do it. And if it doesn't, we won't. But we will continue to -- how do we get more out of our box. That's the question we ask ourselves every day. That's something we can control. We can't control the M&A market as much, not at all.

But the and so you're right, D-BOX is not -- we're not -- we don't have it going yet. It's just starting to get rolled out. So I can't give you any feedback on that. We've been doing ScreenX. And we're pleased with our initial results from the screen. We had one for a while. We've added 3 more. And so we're pleased with the results. I think the feeling on ScreenX is there's a customer that really likes it. It's not for everybody, but it appeals to -- like for me, I actually personally am a big fan of ScreenX. I love it because one of the things that's very interesting about ScreenX is that the sidewalls and for those who don't know what it is, basically, it's a 3-screen setup where you have a screen in front of you and then 2 screens surrounding you on one on each side. And it goes -- it's not always running. It doesn't run continuously, which is the thing that I like the most about it because my senses can only take so much of salt. And so I like that there's a pause and it's used for when it's perfect.

I mean I saw the Mission Impossible biplane scene and it was just incredible to watch it sort of shoot around the theater. When you mix that with great sound, it's a great experience, I think. And so we have a customer for it and the ones that like it are very enthusiastic about it. And so we -- our biggest question is going to be how do you price it and where else do we go with it. And so we'll continue to figure out how do we get more out of our boxes and things like that to do that. I like D-BOX. The one good thing about the D-BOX and what we like to see is that it gives you sort of a premium format inside of a standard, which gives you great showtime flexibility. One of the challenges we face with premium formats is making sure that we offer in this discussion that we had a little bit earlier about what's the right price to charge somebody. Not every customer wants the PLF experience that most of our business really does come from a standard screen.

And so -- but showtime, the customer makes the decision to go to the movies based on showtime primarily. That is like -- that is generally their first decision. And so offering the showtime is really important in having them in a variety of formats. So when you get D-BOX, you're able to offer a premium experience at the exact same time you're offering a standard experience. And so that's our thesis and we would like to see that play out.

Michael Hickey

Does the -- how does the family demo, which is really strong for you guys? How does that index to D-BOX? I mean, normally for a more expensive PLF, I think families tend to avoid it. Do families adopt more, I guess, the premium seating than they would the screen?

Gregory S. Marcus

I don't have the answer to that yet just because we don't have the experience with it yet.

Chad Paris

Yes, Mike, we're a few weeks into the test, but that is -- those are exactly the types of things that we're trying to understand and learn about how it will play in our particular circuit.

Michael Hickey

Okay. Last one from us, guys. When you look at the success of '26, I kind of want to ask you, Greg, what surprised you the most? But I think maybe the question is, what's repeatable? And so you mentioned a lot of it today, whether it's the numbers of the movies, the quality, the windows. I don't know if there's a trade down or an economic consideration. You've mentioned before the youth and certainly, there's been a lot of momentum. But I guess as you look at sort of the attribution to the growth this year, what would you call out? And what do you think is most repeatable in '27? I think whenever you have a breakout success like this, I think the challenge is obviously the durability of it. And so that's sort of part one.

And then part two, when you look at the '27 slate and you mentioned the films, but a lot of family films, Frozen, Shrek, Minecraft, maybe Star Wars, but it really seems like a setup that you guys should index really well on. And I'm guessing just how Hollywood plays the trends. I'm sure we'll have plenty of horror movies too.

Gregory S. Marcus

What we need is, we need some comedies, need more comedies from Hollywood, but you're right. I think the -- and you're also right in that the -- we never know how things are going to go year-to-year, month-to-month, quarter-to-quarter. This is a very tough industry in that regard to predict. But I think the most interesting thing that I think bodes well for our industry over the long time -- over the long term that is repeatable is the amount of the kids that are back. When we look at the segmentation of who wants to go to the movies, the most -- the audience is the most robust now is the younger audience, which I would like the older audience back. And if we can get some more dramas and comedies and the program sort of the shoulders, so to speak, not necessarily in terms of time, but sort of the idea of the demo, the shoulder demos to get them get the adults off the couch, that would be great.

But having that long-term customer, I think a kid who's young, who started to build that habit of going to the movies and says, I love going to the movies. In the long run, that's great for the business. And again, we're seeing this data, this data that I talked about that we've been exposed to that we see. We saw the -- we usually -- we've seen over time this index of do you want to see this question that they asked in the survey, do you want to see a movie at home? What do you prefer a movie in a theater or at home? And after the pandemic, it flipped in favor of at home, but it started to come back. And this year, they showed -- this last survey, they showed us to it in cohorts.

And what they showed us is the kids, their propensity to see movies in the theater versus seeing the home has flipped back to the old relationship where the theater was preferred over the home. I think that is really comforting great data that should have some durability over time. Will it have its periods of ups and downs over time? Sure. Of course, it will depend on the product, the quality of the product, who is aiding that, who it appeals to. But seeing that propensity, that desire to go at a young age is, I think, very -- is exciting for us.

Michael Hickey

And then I guess on the summer '27 slate, Greg, I mean, looks pretty good. You must be pretty excited just given the mix of films.

Gregory S. Marcus

Yes. I always wait to see what shows up and if someone is really looking -- what I'm most looking forward to is whatever is the big surprise and there will be a big surprise. I mean just think about the surprise of the last month with the Elizabeth Holmes movie. How -- all of a sudden, everyone is going to see a 3 hour documentary. Great. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Chad Paris

I think, Mike, just on '27, I mean, I think you're right to point out as it relates to our geographies and the films that play well, '27 looks more favorable and we're encouraged by that. And so we'll -- we think we're well positioned.

Operator

At this time, it appears there are no other questions. I'd like to turn the call back over to Mr. Paris for any additional or closing comments.

Chad Paris

All right. Well, we'd like to thank you once again for joining us today. We look forward to talking to you next in late February when we release our fiscal 2026 fourth quarter results. Until then, thank you, and have a good day.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.