# National CineMedia, Inc.: Form 10-K for the period ended Dec 26, 2024 - Company: [National CineMedia, Inc.](/companies/ncmi.md) (CIK 1377630) - Form: 10-K - Filed: 2025-03-06 - Accepted by EDGAR: Mar 6, 2025, 21:22 ET - Period: 2024-12-26 - Accession: 0000950170-25-034706 - Inline XBRL: yes - Main document: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1377630/000095017025034706/ncmi-20241226.htm - All documents and exhibits: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1377630/000095017025034706/ ## Figures reported in this filing Standardized XBRL line items for the period ended 2024-12-26. | Line item | Period | Value | XBRL concept | | --- | --- | ---: | --- | | Revenue | 12 months, 2023-12-29 to 2024-12-26 | $240.8m | us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax | | Cost of revenue | 12 months, 2023-12-29 to 2024-12-26 | $13.7m | us-gaap:CostOfGoodsAndServicesSold | | Research and development | 12 months, 2023-12-29 to 2024-12-26 | $3.3m | us-gaap:ResearchAndDevelopmentExpense | | Operating income | 12 months, 2023-12-29 to 2024-12-26 | −$19.5m | us-gaap:OperatingIncomeLoss | | Income tax | 12 months, 2023-12-29 to 2024-12-26 | $200.0k | us-gaap:IncomeTaxExpenseBenefit | | Net income | 12 months, 2023-12-29 to 2024-12-26 | −$22.3m | us-gaap:NetIncomeLoss | | Diluted EPS | 12 months, 2023-12-29 to 2024-12-26 | −$0.23 | us-gaap:EarningsPerShareDiluted | | Basic EPS | 12 months, 2023-12-29 to 2024-12-26 | −$0.23 | us-gaap:EarningsPerShareBasic | | Diluted shares (weighted) | 12 months, 2023-12-29 to 2024-12-26 | 95,865,998 shares | us-gaap:WeightedAverageNumberOfDilutedSharesOutstanding | | Operating cash flow | 12 months, 2023-12-29 to 2024-12-26 | $60.3m | us-gaap:NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities | | Capital expenditure | 12 months, 2023-12-29 to 2024-12-26 | $5.8m | us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment | | Dividends paid | 12 months, 2023-12-29 to 2024-12-26 | $300.0k | us-gaap:PaymentsOfDividendsCommonStock | | Share repurchases | 12 months, 2023-12-29 to 2024-12-26 | $13.1m | us-gaap:PaymentsForRepurchaseOfCommonStock | | Cash and equivalents | at 2024-12-26 | $75.1m | us-gaap:CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue | | Current assets | at 2024-12-26 | $177.9m | us-gaap:AssetsCurrent | | Total assets | at 2024-12-26 | $568.6m | us-gaap:Assets | | Current liabilities | at 2024-12-26 | $73.5m | us-gaap:LiabilitiesCurrent | | Total liabilities | at 2024-12-26 | $157.4m | us-gaap:Liabilities | | Long-term debt | at 2024-12-26 | $10.0m | us-gaap:LongTermDebtNoncurrent | | Shareholders' equity | at 2024-12-26 | $411.2m | us-gaap:StockholdersEquity | ## Business As filed, 71,228 characters. ### The Company National CineMedia is the largest cinema advertising platform in the US. With unparalleled reach and scale, NCM connects brands to sought-after young, diverse audiences through the power of movies and pop culture. A premium video, full-funnel marketing solution for advertisers, NCM enhances advertisers’ ability to measure and drive results. NCM’s *Noovie®* Show is presented exclusively in 42 leading national and regional theater circuits including the only three national chains, AMC, Cinemark and Regal. NCM’s cinema advertising platform consists of more than 18,000 screens in over 1,400 theaters in 196 Designated Market Areas® (“DMA®”), including all of the top 50. We derive revenue primarily from selling advertising to national, regional and local businesses through The *Noovie®* Show, our cinema advertising and entertainment show seen on movie screens across the U.S. Additionally, we generate revenue from LEN, a series of strategically-placed screens located in movie theater lobbies, as well as other promotional opportunities in theater lobbies. Beyond the theater, we extend our advertising reach through NCM Boost, leveraging omnichannel retargeting across our owned digital properties, partnerships with third-party digital publishers and platforms, CTV and a variety of complementary out-of-home venues, such as restaurants, convenience stores and college campuses, to engage entertainment audiences beyond the theater. NCM LLC has long-term ESAs with the ESA Parties and multi-year agreements with our network affiliates, which grant NCM LLC exclusive rights in their respective theaters to sell advertising, subject to limited exceptions. The weighted average remaining term of the ESAs with the ESA Parties is approximately 14.1 years as of December 26, 2024. The network affiliate agreements expire at various dates between July 7, 2025 and July 13, 2033, with our largest affiliate agreement expiring on July 13, 2033. The weighted average remaining term of the ESAs and the network affiliate agreements together is 11.3 years as of December 26, 2024. ### Organization NCM, Inc., a Delaware corporation, was organized on October 5, 2006 and began operations on February 13, 2007 upon completion of its IPO. NCM, Inc. is a holding company that manages its consolidated subsidiary, NCM LLC. NCM, Inc. has no business operations or material assets other than its cash and cash equivalents and ownership interest of approximately 100.0% of the common membership units in NCM LLC as of December 26, 2024. In December 2022, AMC and Regal each redeemed all of their outstanding membership units in exchange for shares of NCM, Inc. common stock, reducing AMC’s and Regal’s ownership interest in NCM LLC to 0.0%. On February 23, 2023 and March 23, 2023, Cinemark redeemed all of their outstanding membership units in exchange for shares of NCM, Inc. common stock reducing Cinemark’s ownership interest in NCM LLC to 0.0%. On April 1, 2024, in accordance with the Common Unit Adjustment Agreement, NCM LLC issued 132,096 and 3,377 common membership units to Cinemark and AMC, respectively. On April 16, 2024, the Company elected to satisfy a redemption request from Cinemark for all of their outstanding common membership units through a cash settlement as provided in NCM LLC’s Operating Agreement. This redemption reduced Cinemark’s ownership interest in NCM LLC to 0.0% as of April 16, 2024. As of December 26, 2024, AMC’s ownership interest remains de minimis. AMC and Cinemark and their affiliates are referred to in this document as “ESA Parties”. NCM, Inc.’s primary source of cash flow from operations is distributions from NCM LLC pursuant to the NCM LLC Operating Agreement. NCM, Inc. also receives management fees pursuant to a management services agreement with NCM LLC in exchange for providing specified management services to NCM LLC. ### Chapter 11 Proceedings On April 11, 2023, NCM LLC filed a voluntary petition for reorganization (“Chapter 11 Case”) with a prearranged Chapter 11 plan under Chapter 11 of Title 11 of the United States Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”) in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas (the “Bankruptcy Court”). On April 11, 2023, NCM, Inc. entered into a restructuring support agreement (the “Restructuring Support Agreement”) with NCM LLC and certain of NCM LLC’s (a) prepetition lenders under (i) the Term Loan Credit Agreement, dated as of June 18, 2018 among NCM LLC as borrower, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (“JPM”) in its capacity as administrative agent, and the lenders party thereto (as amended, supplemented or otherwise modified from time to time, the “Credit Agreement”); (ii) the Revolving Credit Agreement, dated as of June 20, 2018 among NCM LLC as borrower, JPM in its capacity as administrative agent, and the lenders party thereto (as amended, supplemented or otherwise modified from time to time, the “Revolving Credit Agreement 2018”); (iii) the Revolving Credit Agreement dated as of January 5, 2022 among NCM LLC as borrower, JPM in its capacity as administrative agent, and the lenders party thereto (as amended, supplemented or otherwise modified from time to time, the “Revolving Credit Agreement 2022”); and (b) prepetition noteholders under (i) the Secured Notes Indenture dated as of October 8, 2019 and Computershare Trust Company, National Association (“Computershare”) in its capacity as indenture trustee for NCM LLC’s 5.875% Senior Secured Notes due 2028 (as amended, supplemented or otherwise modified from time to time, the “Secured Notes Indenture” and together with the Term Loan Credit Agreement, Revolving Credit Facility 2018, and Revolving Credit Agreement 2022, the “Prepetition Secured Debt Documents”) and (ii) the Unsecured Notes Indenture dated as of August 19, 2016 with Computershare in its capacity as indenture trustee for NCM LLC’s 5.750% Senior Unsecured Notes due 2026 (as amended, supplemented or otherwise modified from time to time, the “Unsecured Notes Indenture”). The parties to the Restructuring Support Agreement held, in the aggregate, more than two-thirds of all claims arising under the Prepetition Secured Debt Documents. In connection with the Restructuring Support Agreement, the Company, NCM LLC, and lender parties agreed to a settlement, the “NCMI 9019 Settlement,” pursuant to which, the Company agreed to (i) affirm its obligations under NCM LLC and NCM, Inc.’s joint venture agreements (including the Tax Receivable Agreement and the Common Unit Adjustment Agreement) to preserve the Company’s Up-C corporate structure, (ii) issue equity to the lenders as provided in the Plan (as defined below), (iii) make a capital contribution of $15.0 million to NCM LLC (the “NCMI Capital Contribution”), (iv) enter into the new Director Designation Agreement and appoint the director nominees appointed by the creditors upon NCM LLC’s emergence from Chapter 11, and (v) take other specified actions needed to facilitate the completion of the transactions contemplated by the Plan (as described below) and in exchange the Company would receive approximately 13.8% of the ownership of NCM LLC’s equity upon emergence from Chapter 11 including equity issued on account of the Company’s ownership of NCM LLC’s prepetition secured notes. The Restructuring Support Agreement also set forth additional transactions that became the basis of the Plan. On May 12, 2023, NCM LLC filed the solicitation versions of the First Amended Plan of Reorganization of National CineMedia, LLC Pursuant to Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code \[Docket No. 249\] and the Amended Disclosure Statement for First Amended Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization of National CineMedia, LLC \[Docket No. 250\] (the “Disclosure Statement”). On June 25, 2023, NCM LLC filed the Modified First Amended Plan of Reorganization of National CineMedia, LLC Pursuant to Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code \[Docket No. 428\] (as may be amended, supplemented, or otherwise modified from time to time, and including all exhibits and supplements thereto, the “Plan”). On June 27, 2023, the Bankruptcy Court entered an order (the “Confirmation Order”) which approved the Disclosure Statement on a final basis and confirmed the Plan. Pursuant to the Plan, the following restructuring was provided for, among other things, the treatment for classes of claims and interests as follows: - Secured debt claims. Each holder of a secured debt claim received its pro rata share of 100% of new common membership units (the equity in reorganized NCM LLC) with the right to exchange the units and receive shares of NCM, Inc.’s common stock subject to (a) reallocation of new common membership units to NCM, Inc. pursuant to the NCMI 9019 Settlement and (b) dilution on account of new common membership units issued on account of, among other things, a post-emergence management incentive plan. - General unsecured claims. Each holder of a general unsecured claim, which includes, among other things, claims under the Unsecured Note Indenture, received its pro rata share of $15.0 million, with (i) $14.5 million contributed by NCM LLC and (ii) $0.5 million contributed directly from NCM, Inc. (the “General Unsecured Claim Pool”). - General unsecured convenience claims. Each holder of a general unsecured claim in the amount of $50,000 or less received payment in full in cash on NCM LLC’s emergence from Chapter 11 or the date due in the ordinary course of business in accordance with the terms and conditions of the particular transaction giving rise to such claim; provided that any general unsecured claim (other than claims under the Unsecured Note Indenture) that was allowed in excess of $50,000 was not to be treated as a general unsecured convenience claim unless the holder of such allowed general unsecured claim opted in to such treatment, and agreed to reduce its allowed general unsecured claim to $50,000 pursuant to the procedures set forth in the Confirmation Order. - Existing NCM LLC interests. Interests in NCM LLC received no recovery and were cancelled. Pursuant to Section 1123(b)(3) of the Bankruptcy Code and Rule 9019 of the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, the Plan contained and effected global and integrated compromises and settlements between and among NCM LLC, the Creditors’ Committee (as defined in the Plan), the Consenting Creditors (as defined in the Plan) and NCM, Inc. The NCMI 9019 Settlement continued to provide that following the Effective Date (as defined below) NCM, Inc, has an aggregate ownership interest of approximately 13.8% of NCM LLC that was reallocated to NCM, Inc. from the Secured Debt Claims. On August 7, 2023, following confirmation of the Plan, all the conditions to effectiveness of the Plan were satisfied or waived, the Restructuring Transactions (as defined in the Plan) were substantially consummated, and NCM LLC emerged from bankruptcy (the “Effective Date”). Among other things, on the Effective Date, in accordance with the Plan, NCM, Inc. transferred approximately $15.5 million to NCM LLC consistent with the NCMI 9019 Settlement, NCM LLC assumed certain unexpired Executory Contracts and Unexpired Leases (each, as defined in the Plan), including AMC’s and Cinemark’s ESAs, all Common Units of NCM LLC under the LLC Agreement were canceled and extinguished, NCM LLC commenced distributions to creditors, including the issuance of shares of NCM, Inc. Common Stock to Holders of Secured Debt Claims, and NCM LLC entered into an Exit Facility (as defined in the Plan) to support operations upon emergence. NCM LLC was wholly owned by NCM, Inc. prior to April 11, 2023 when NCM LLC filed the Chapter 11 Case. As a result of the Chapter 11 Case and in accordance with applicable GAAP, the Company concluded that NCM, Inc. no longer controlled NCM LLC for accounting purposes, and therefore, NCM LLC was deconsolidated from the Company’s unaudited financial statements prospectively as of April 11, 2023. Upon emergence on August 7, 2023, NCM, Inc. retained its ownership in and regained control of NCM LLC for accounting purposes. NCM LLC was again consolidated into the Company’s consolidated financial statements prospectively as of the Effective Date. Within the financial results outlined within, all activity during the Chapter 11 Case from April 11, 2023 to August 7, 2023 when NCM LLC was deconsolidated from NCM, Inc. represents activity and balances for NCM, Inc. standalone. All activity and balances prior to the deconsolidation of NCM LLC on April 11, 2023 and after the reconsolidation of NCM LLC on August 7, 2023 represent NCM, Inc. consolidated, inclusive of NCM LLC. Upon emergence, NCM LLC transferred $8.8 million of cash to a professional fees escrow account and $15.0 million to an unsecured creditor settlements escrow account for the General Unsecured Claim Pool. As of December 26, 2024, NCM LLC is still in the process of finalizing the unsecured creditors’ claims and has not completed all payments to NCM LLC’s unsecured creditors and held a total of $3.0 million within the escrow accounts and accruals, presented within ‘Restricted cash’ and ‘Accounts Payable’ on the audited Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 26, 2024 and December 28, 2023, respectively. Please refer to Note 5—*Reconsolidation of NCM LLC* for more information regarding the reconsolidation of NCM LLC. ### Recent Developments ***Regal Advertising Agreement—***On September 7, 2022, Cineworld Group plc, the parent company of Regal, and certain of its subsidiaries, including Regal, Regal Cinemas, Inc., formerly a party to an ESA with NCM LLC, and Regal CineMedia Holdings, LLC, formerly a party to other agreements with NCM LLC and the Company, filed petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the Southern District of Texas. In connection with their Chapter 11 process, Regal filed a motion to reject the ESA and NCM LLC filed an adversary proceeding against Regal. On June 3, 2023, following extensive negotiations, NCM LLC, entered into a Network Affiliate Transaction Agreement (the “Regal Advertising Agreement”) with Regal. The Regal Advertising Agreement became effective on July 14, 2023. Pursuant to a separate termination agreement (the “Regal Termination Agreement”), effective on July 14, 2023, Regal rejected and terminated its ESA. Additionally Regal and Regal’s affiliates’ waived all rights and interests as to the TRA, the Common Unit Adjustment Agreement, the Software License Agreement, the Director Designation Agreement, the Registration Rights Agreement and all the other joint venture agreements described in the NCM LLC Operating Agreement and the Company and NCM LLC, and Regal and Regal’s affiliates waived and released claims against the other party. Regal also agreed to support NCM LLC’s Plan and surrendered all shares of NCM, Inc. common stock upon the Effective Date. In connection with the Regal Advertising Agreement, NCM LLC and Regal also agreed to dismiss with prejudice the ongoing litigation between the parties related to NCM LLC’s request to enforce certain provisions of the ESA, including the exclusivity provision. As of July 14, 2023, Regal is no longer an ESA Party of NCM, Inc. or NCM LLC and is presented within network affiliate balances and metrics subsequent to July 14, 2023, including as of December 28, 2023 and December 26, 2024. ***Reverse Stock Split—***On August 3, 2023, the Company effected a one-for-ten (1:10) reverse stock split of its common stock, par value $0.01 per share. The reverse stock split, which was authorized by the Company’s Board of Directors, was approved by the Company’s stockholders on August 2, 2023. The reverse stock split reduced the number of outstanding shares of the Company’s common stock from 174,112,385 shares as of August 3, 2023, to 17,411,323 shares outstanding post-split. After the cancellation of Regal’s shares on August 7, 2023, there were 13,343,065 shares outstanding. The primary purpose of the reverse stock split was to comply with the Company’s obligations under the NCMI 9019 Settlement and so that the Plan could become effective, as well as to increase the per share market price of the Company’s common stock in an effort to maintain compliance with applicable Nasdaq continued listing standards with respect to the closing price of the Company’s common stock. ***Share Repurchase Program—***On March 18, 2024, the Board of Directors of the Company approved a stock repurchase program under which the Company is authorized to use assets of the Company to repurchase up to $100.0 million of shares of the Company’s Common Stock, exclusive of any fees, commissions or other expenses related to such repurchases, from time to time over a period of three years. Shares may be repurchased under the program through open market purchases, block trades, or accelerated or other structured share repurchase programs. During the year ended December 26, 2024, 2,524,991 shares were repurchased on the open market. In accordance with *Accounting Standards Codification (“*ASC”) *505—Equity*, these shares were retired and the excess over par value paid of $13.4 million was recorded as a reduction to retained earnings during the year ended December 26, 2024. ***Debt Agreement—***On January 24, 2025, NCM LLC as borrower, entered into a Loan and Security Agreement with U.S. Bank National Association, as lender. The agreement provides for a $45.0 million senior secured revolving credit facility (the “2025 Credit Facility”) that matures on January 24, 2028. In connection with entering into the 2025 Credit Facility, NCM LLC repaid in full the $10.0 million balance outstanding as of December 26, 2024 and terminated all commitments under its prior Loan, Security and Guarantee Agreement (the "Revolving Credit Facility 2023"), dated August 7, 2023, with CIT Northbridge Credit LLC, as agent, and in connection with this termination, paid a prepayment fee equal to 1% of the total commitment. The 2025 Credit Facility is expected to result in a meaningful reduction of the Company’s overall interest expense, extends the maturity date to 2028 and is a cash flow-based revolving loan compared to the asset-based revolving loan of the 2023 Revolving Credit Facility. As of March 6, 2025, NCM LLC has not made any borrowings under the 2025 Credit Facility. Borrowings under the 2025 Credit Facility may be used for, among other things, working capital and other general corporate purposes of the Company and bear interest at a floating rate equal to term SOFR (subject to a floor of zero) plus an applicable margin of 2.00%, which is subject to increase by an additional 2.00% upon the occurrence of an event of default. **The** ***Noovie®*** **Show Advertising** **The** ***Noovie*** **Show—**The *Noovie* Show provides an entertaining pre-movie experience for theater patrons while serving as an incremental revenue source for our theater circuits. The *Noovie* Show gives movie audiences a reason to arrive at the theater early to discover what's next, with exclusive entertainment content and engaging advertising from national, regional and local brands, as well as long-form entertainment and advertising content provided to us under exclusive multi-year arrangements with leading media, entertainment, technology and other companies (“content partners”). We present multiple different formats of The *Noovie* Show depending on the theater circuit in which it runs. In Cinemark, Regal and certain other network affiliate theaters NCM offers additional post-show advertising inventory which may consist of a lights down segment that runs after the advertised showtime with trailer lighting and may consist of a Platinum Spot embedded in the trailers, as further described below (“Post-Showtime Inventory”). As of December 26, 2024, theaters presenting the updated *Noovie* Show format with Post-Showtime Inventory made up 65.0% of our network. All other NCM network theater circuits, which make up the remaining 35.0% of our network, present the Classic *Noovie* Show, which ends approximately at the advertised movie showtime when the movie trailers begin, which are not part of The *Noovie* Show. Because The *Noovie* Show is customized by theater circuit, theater location/market, film rating, film genre and film title, we produce and distribute many different versions of The *Noovie* Show each month. This programming flexibility provides advertisers with the ability to target specific audience demographics and geographic locations and ensure that the content and advertising are age-appropriate for the movie audience. In 2024, we launched several specialty content platforms to cater to specific audiences, with topics including sustainability, fashion, celebrities and sports. These platforms directly appeal to NCM's diverse audience, including socially conscious Gen Z audiences. We also launched our Premium Format Network featuring premium cinema screens that create an elevated environment with modern screens and contemporary lobbies. These immersive cinema experiences attract moviegoers with higher disposable income, reaching an attractive demographic for advertisers. In prior years, we launched several other specialty networks, including NCM Black Cinema Network and the NCM Hispanic Cinema Network, reaching those audiences where they over index in top DMAs. All versions of The *Noovie* Show are produced by our internal creative team, which is cost-effective and gives us significant flexibility while offering advertisers opportunities for sponsorship and integration into our movie and pop culture content series. Additionally, we work with several media and non-profit partners who provide NCM with pre-produced, culturally relevant editorial content for the show at no cost. Those content segments are co-branded with the partner and *Noovie* messaging and can be monetized by NCM through advertising sponsorships and brand integrations. We also offer pre- and post-production advertising creative services to our clients (primarily local clients who may not have their own creative agency), as well as branded content creation for national brands for a fee. ***The Noovie Show Structure Including Post-Showtime Inventory—***The *Noovie* Show with Post-Showtime Inventory format is comprised of substantially the same segments included within the Classic *Noovie* Show, each approximately four to ten minutes in length, as well as two additional advertising segments after the advertised showtime as described below. The total length of The *Noovie* Show plus our Post-Showtime Inventory is the same as the Classic *Noovie* Show as the amount of time displayed prior to the advertised showtime is reduced by the sum of five minutes plus the aggregate length of time of the Platinum Spot, if any. The following graphic is for illustrative purposes and is not to exact scale. - The Silver Pod is the first section of The *Noovie* Show which contains the entertaining content that is a core element of The *Noovie* Show programming. NCM programs exclusive Noovie content at the beginning of the show that gives audiences a look at what’s happening in the movie and pop culture arenas and features long-form entertainment from our content partners. In 2024, we continued our *Noovie* Show editorial series featuring celebrities, creators and journalists to appeal to both our moviegoing audience and to advertisers for sponsorship and integration opportunities. These series include The *Noovie* Trivia Show, where our Emmy-award winning host Maria Menounos quizzes celebrities about their career through the lens of movie trivia*; Noovieverse,* which stars popular social media influencers who analyze upcoming superhero blockbuster movies; and Perri’s Picks, starring movie expert Perri Nemiroff, who shares her insider reviews on what movies to watch and why. The Silver Pod features primarily local and regional advertisements, which generally range between 15 to 90 seconds. This segment also typically includes a spot for *Noovie* Show programming, such as *Noovie* Trivia, *Noovie* Cultural Celebrations (e.g. original content around Black History Month or Hispanic Heritage Month, which can also be sponsored by advertisers) and shorter segments from the editorial series mentioned above. - The Gold Pod runs after the Silver Pod and features primarily national advertisements, which are generally 30 or 60 seconds, as well as a long-form entertainment content segment from one of our content partners. Advertised showtime is after the Gold Pod, except in Regal, where the advertised showtime is after the Silver Pod. - The Pre-Trailer Pod runs after the Gold Pod and features at least 5 minutes of national advertisements which are generally between 30 or 60 seconds, at a lower lighting level than ads that play prior to the advertised showtime. After the conclusion of this pod, there is a courtesy public service announcement (“courtesy PSA”) (e.g. “Silence Your Cell Phones”) and a 30 second or a 60 second advertisement for the ESA Parties' beverage supplier. - The Platinum Spot features an additional single advertising unit that is either 30 or 60 seconds deeply embedded within the movie trailers at trailer level lighting and at similar volume levels, directly prior to the last one or two trailers preceding the feature film. - The Classic *Noovie* Show's advertised showtime follows the Pre-Trailer Pod and does not contain the Platinum Spot. References to The *Noovie* Show relate to both The Classic *Noovie* Show and The *Noovie* Show including Post-Showtime Inventory formats, unless specified otherwise. *National, Regional and Local Advertising—*Our cinema advertising business has a diverse customer base, consisting of national, regional and local advertisers. National and regional on-screen advertising in The *Noovie* Show is sold on a CPM basis to national and regional clients. We generally sell our national advertising units across our national network by film rating or groups of ratings, or by individual film or film genre grouping. This ability to target various groups of films offers national advertisers a way to target specific audience demographics at various price points and overall cost levels, which we believe expands the number of potential clients. Local advertising is often sold on a per-theater, per-week basis. As with other premium video mediums like linear TV and connected TV (CTV), we sell The *Noovie* Show inventory in both the upfront and scatter markets. Upfront is a term that describes the practice of buying advertising time “up front” on an annual basis for the upcoming year, purchasing inventory in advance and locking in the advertising rates (CPMs). Consistent with the television industry's upfront booking practices, a portion of our upfront commitments have cancellation options or options to reduce the amount that advertisers may purchase up until their commitment begins airing. These options could reduce what is ultimately spent by clients that have made upfront commitments. Scatter refers to the buying of advertising on a shorter-term basis closer to when the advertisements will run, which often results in a pricing premium compared to upfront rates. The mix between the upfront and scatter markets is based upon a number of advertising market factors, such as pricing, demand for advertising time and economic conditions. The demand in the scatter market impacts the pricing achieved for our remaining advertising inventory not sold upfront and can vary throughout the year. During the years ended December 26, 2024 and December 28, 2023, NCM LLC derived 78.1% and 73.2% of its advertising revenue from national clients (including advertising agencies that represent our clients) and 16.2% and 19.7% of its advertising revenue from regional and local advertisers across the country (including advertising agencies that represent these clients). *Programmatic and Self-Serve Marketplaces.* In 2024, the Company launched two new ways advertisers can purchase our advertising inventory: programmatic and self-serve. The programmatic marketplace offers real-time data-driven trading of cinema advertising inventory, allowing bidding on available audiences during The *Noovie* Show. Buyers can choose from programmatic guaranteed and private marketplace options, and programmatic buys can be customized by reach, geography, film rating, day of the week and time of day. Additionally, through NCM's fully automated self-serve solution, local and regional companies can plan, buy and schedule their own ads to run on the big screen. *Beverage Advertising.* Each of the ESA Parties has a relationship with a beverage concessionaire supplier under which it is obligated to provide on-screen advertising time as part of its agreement to purchase branded beverages sold in its theaters. Under the ESAs, up to 90 seconds of the *Noovie* program can be sold to the ESA Parties to satisfy their on-screen advertising commitments under their beverage concessionaire agreements. The price for the time sold to Cinemark’s beverage supplier increases 2% each year. The time sold to AMC’s beverage supplier is priced equal to the greater of (1) the advertising CPM charged by NCM LLC in the previous year for the time sold to AMC’s beverage supplier and (2) the advertising CPM for the previous year charged by NCM LLC to unaffiliated third parties during segment one (closest to showtime) of The *Noovie* Show in AMC’s theaters, limited to the highest advertising CPM being then-charged by NCM LLC pursuant to the ESAs. During 2024, we sold 60 seconds of on-screen advertising to one of the ESA Parties and 30 seconds of on-screen advertising to the other ESA Party for their beverage concessionaires. During 2024, the beverage concessionaire revenue from the ESA Parties’ beverage agreements was approximately 5.7% of NCM LLC’s total revenue. In the instance of certain theaters that are acquired by the ESA Parties but are not incorporated into our network because of an existing on-screen advertising agreement with an alternative provider, we remain entitled to these encumbered theater beverage payments under the terms of the ESA which are treated as a reduction to the intangible asset and not classified as revenue. *Content.* Beyond the *Noovie*-branded content during The *Noovie* Show, the majority of our entertainment and advertising content segments are provided to us by content partners. Under the terms of the contracts, our content partners create original long-form entertainment content segments and make commitments to buy a portion of our advertising inventory at a specified CPM over a one- or two-year period with options to renew, exercisable at the content partner’s option. The original content produced by these content partners typically features upcoming media programming or technology products. In 2024, the content partner segments were between 90 and 120 seconds in length. *Courtesy PSA.* In 2024, we had three agreements throughout the year to exhibit a 40-second “silence your cell phone” courtesy PSA reminding moviegoers to silence their cell phones and refrain from texting during feature films. There are two agreements in place for 2025. *Theater Circuit Messaging.* The *Noovie* Show also includes time slots for the ESA Parties and network affiliates to advertise various activities associated with the operations of the theaters, including concessions, online ticketing partners, gift card and loyalty programs, special events presented by the theater operator and vendors of services provided to theaters, so long as such promotion is incidental to the vendor’s service or products sold in the theater. This service is provided to the theater operator at no charge. ### Data & Digital Advertising NCMx™. is our data, insights and analytics platform that utilizes the Company’s comprehensive knowledge and extensive data about moviegoer behavior to connect brands with custom audiences across all screens, both in theaters and beyond, before, during and after their moviegoing experience. NCM clients are able to leverage NCMx to execute advanced audience-matching against key geographic, behavioral and contextual targets on the big screen, as well as retarget moviegoers across any screen with tailored ads or exclusive brand offers. NCM provides advertisers with access to one of the largest collections of deterministic moviegoer data in the industry. With over 824.4 million unique data records as of December 26, 2024, NCMx makes 121.1 million unique data records available over a 90-day look-back period, delivering advertisers a 360-degree view of recent consumer behavior with performance metrics to refine campaign plans and generate a better return on their advertising investment. NCM is leading the cinema advertising industry as it transforms into a data-first media company that reaches audiences at scale with the most engaging content. *NCM Boost℠.* In 2024, the Company expanded our Audience Accelerator digital product with NCM Boost which enhances cinema advertising campaigns by extending their reach beyond the big screen. This enhancement empowers advertisers to execute comprehensive retargeting, reconnecting with the elusive moviegoer audience on the right screen at the right time to maximize campaign impact. With NCM Boost, brands reach a national level scale while also targeting moviegoers with enough precision to achieve saturation at a detailed local level. NCM Boost identifies moviegoers using first-, second- and third-party data, enabling precise targeting based on demographics, genres or additional data layers to deliver tailored client campaigns. Data-driven campaigns are executed across all platforms, connecting brands with their target audience through an all-encompassing approach. Campaigns are distributed through strategic partnerships with leading premium streaming networks, ensuring broad reach across diverse channels, allowing brands to engage moviegoers on platforms such as the internet, mobile devices, connected televisions (CTV), and over-the-top (OTT) devices. This comprehensive strategy ensures brands can effectively reach their audience wherever they consume entertainment information and content. *NCM Boomerang℠.* Launched in 2024, NCM Boomerang is NCMx™'s retargeting solution designed to amplify post-theater engagement by reconnecting with moviegoers after their theater experience through the use of onscreen QR codes. By retargeting audiences at a predetermined interval, such as three hours after initial campaign exposure, NCM Boomerang enables advertisers to capitalize on the last-click attribution of big-screen campaigns seen in theaters, maximizing their impact and driving measurable results. We market NCM’s data platform and all-encompassing marketing solutions through our national and local sales groups to enable integrated selling. Our new and upcoming data and digital products are designed to complement in-theater advertisements, offering integrated marketing packages as discussed in “Business—Our Strategy”. We plan to continue investing in our data and digital partnerships and all-encompassing marketing solutions in 2025 and beyond. *Noovie Trivia.* NCM’s consumer-facing *Noovie* Trivia app features advertising opportunities that allow brands to continue to reach movie audiences across multiple platforms, including sponsorships, digital ad inventory such as leaderboards, banner ads, half- and full-page ads and a variety of digital video ad inventory. Our *Noovie* Trivia app is designed to not only provide digital advertising inventory to further enhance the marketability of our cinema advertising product offerings, but also to capture exclusive first-party data, which is funneled into NCMx™. As of December 26, 2024, approximately 7.4 million movie-goers have downloaded our mobile apps. These downloads and the acquisition of second- and third- party data sets, including deterministic ticket transaction data from exhibitors and geo-location and micro-event data for moviegoers that enter theaters in our network, all contribute to NCMx data records. ### Lobby Advertising ***Lobby Entertainment Network—***Our LEN is a network of video screens strategically located throughout the lobbies of all digitally equipped ESA Parties’ theaters, as well as the majority of our network affiliates’ theaters. The LEN screens are placed in high-traffic locations such as concession stands, box offices and other waiting areas. Programming on our LEN consists of an approximately 30-minute loop of branded entertainment content segments created specifically for the lobby with advertisements running between each segment. We have the scheduling flexibility to send different LEN programming to each theater through our DCN, and the same program is displayed simultaneously on all LEN screens within a given theater, which we believe provides the maximum impact for our advertisers. We sell national and local advertising on the LEN individually or bundled with on-screen or other lobby promotions. The LEN programming includes up to two minutes for ESA Parties’ advertisements to promote activities associated with the operation of the theaters, including concessions, online ticketing partners, gift card and loyalty programs, special events presented by the theater operator and vendors of services provided to theaters, so long as such promotion is incidental to the vendor’s service or products sold in the theater. Additionally, subject to certain limitations, the LEN programming includes up to two minutes (one minute of which we provide to the ESA Parties at no cost and one minute of which the ESA Parties may purchase) to promote certain non-exclusive cross-marketing relationships entered into by the theater operators for the purpose of increasing theater attendance, which we call “strategic programs.” Under the terms of the ESAs, the ESA Parties also have the right to install a second network of additional screens in their theater lobbies which would not display our LEN programming, but would be used to promote strategic programs or products sold in their theater concessions, bars and dining operations, online ticketing partner promotions, gift card and loyalty programs and special events presented by the ESA Parties and vendors of services provided to theaters, so long as such promotion is incidental to the vendor’s service. The LEN programmatic offering was launched in 2022 through partnership with Place Exchange, a leading supply-side platform (SSP) for programmatic out-of-home media. This automated offering allows advertisers to access and purchase available LEN programming through a partner demand-side platform (DSP). The partnership enabled advertisers to reach the largest network of lobby screens in movie theaters across the country programmatically for the first time. ***Lobby Promotions and Experiential Products—***We also sell a wide variety of advertising and promotional products in theater lobbies across our ESA Parties and certain network affiliates. These products can be sold individually or bundled with on-screen, LEN or digital advertising. Lobby promotions and experiential products may include: - brand activations ranging from lounges to 3D holograms, selfie photo stations, social media, vending machines, costume displays and more; - advertising on concession items such as beverage cups, popcorn bags and kids’ trays; - coupons and promotional materials, which are customizable by film and are distributed to ticket buyers at the box office or as they exit the theater; - tabling displays, product demonstrations and sampling; - touch-screen display units, kiosks and other interactive and creative forms of media; - signage throughout the lobbies, including posters, banners, counter cards, danglers, floor mats, standees and window clings; and - exit sampling. Under the terms of the ESAs, the ESA Parties may conduct a limited number of lobby promotions at no charge in connection with strategic programs that promote motion pictures; however, such activities will not reduce the lobby promotions inventory available to us. Our ability to provide in-lobby marketing and promotional placements in conjunction with our cinema advertising products allows us to offer integrated marketing solutions to advertisers that provide multiple touchpoints with theater patrons throughout the movie-going experience, which we believe is a competitive advantage over other national media platforms. ### Digital Out-of-Home Products NCM’s Digital Out-of-Home (“DOOH”) group is embedded as part of our national and local sales organizations and was created in October 2020 to further unite brands with the power of movies by extending movie-centric *Noovie®* entertainment content, trivia and advertising beyond movie theaters to a variety of complementary venues. In 2024, NCM sold DOOH media inventory on a national, regional, local and programmatic level in relationships with digital place-based properties including screens in convenience stores, college campuses, CTV, vehicles and various restaurants. ### Our Network The *Noovie®* Show is distributed across NCM LLC’s national theater network — the largest digital in-theater network in North America — through the use of our proprietary DCN and Digital Content Software (“DCS”). With the DCN and DCS, we are able to schedule, deliver, play and reconcile advertising and entertainment content for The *Noovie* Show and the LEN on a national, regional, local, theater and auditorium level. The DCN is the combination of a satellite distribution network and a terrestrial management network. The DCN is integrated with NCM’s cinema advertising management system to seamlessly schedule and distribute advertising content. NCM's integrated system dynamically controls the quality, placement, timing of playback and completeness of content within specific auditoriums, and it also allows us to monitor and initiate repairs to the equipment in our digital network of theaters. Advertising and entertainment content for The *Noovie* Show and LEN is uploaded to our cinema advertising management system and is delivered via multicast technology to the theaters in our network and received by our Alternative Content Engine. The Alternative Content Engine holds the content until displayed in specified theater auditoriums and lobbies according to contract terms. Each theater auditorium and lobby has hardware and/or software architecture that controls the content to be shown. After playback of content, confirmation of playback is returned to NCM and is included in “post” reports provided to our advertising clients. In 2024, more than 390 million moviegoers attended theaters that are currently under contract to present The *Noovie* Show. A summary of the screens and theaters in our advertising network is set forth in the table below: ### Our Network ### (As of December 26, 2024) As of December 26, 2024, The *Noovie* Show was displayed on network movie screens using digital projectors. Almost all screens within our network receive content through our DCN and are equipped with more powerful digital cinema projectors, with the remainder comprised of LCD projectors. ### Human Capital We had 254 full-time employees as of December 26, 2024. Our employees are located in our Centennial, Colorado headquarters, and in our offices in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. We also have many major markets advertising account executives that work primarily from their homes throughout the U.S. The Company continually works to structure the organization in optimal ways to meet customer, employee and shareholder needs. None of our employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements. We believe that we have a good relationship with our employees. ***Talent—***We are focused on building talent at all levels of the organization by recruiting high quality talent with a broad set of backgrounds and characteristics and have taken steps to align our policies with best practices from other respected organizations. We are focused on identifying and helping to implement initiatives intended to improve areas such as recruitment, retention, brand awareness and community outreach. ***Organizational Development—***Our Human Resources and leadership team is focused on broad management development as well as supporting targeted training to individuals and teams based on business needs. Managers and supervisors participate in specialized training to develop management skills, encourage employee development and retention and assist the Company with succession planning by identifying top talent to be developed into future leaders. Our Human Resources department also regularly provides employees with mandatory compliance training regarding preventing harassment and discrimination, workplace diversity, our code of conduct, IT and cyber security and other related courses to help them with their daily responsibilities. Compliance with mandatory training requirements is tracked by our Human Resources department and management is notified when the requirements are not met. The Human Resources department also focuses on defining and embedding the NCM culture into all people-related practices and policies to help us recruit, develop and retain a world-class team to grow the business. The Company has implemented a number of targeted initiatives to increase employee engagement and satisfaction, including team and culture-building activities, career and succession planning and ongoing analysis and enhancements of our total rewards program. ***Total Rewards—***We invest in our employees by providing comprehensive benefits and compensation packages. Our benefits packages include comprehensive health insurance with a wellness program for all eligible employees, parental leave for all new parents for the birth or adoption of a child or placement of foster care, 401k plan with a comprehensive financial wellness component and voluntary benefits employees can tailor to their specific needs ranging from additional life insurance to pet insurance. ### Seasonality Our revenue and operating results are seasonal in nature, coinciding with the timing of marketing expenditures by our advertising clients and to a lesser extent the attendance patterns within the film exhibition industry. Historically, both advertising expenditures and theater attendance tend to be higher during the second, third and fourth fiscal quarters. Advertising revenue is primarily correlated with new product releases, advertising client marketing priorities and economic cycles and to a lesser extent theater attendance levels. Seasonal demand during the summer is driven by the absence of alternative attractive advertising mediums and during the winter holiday season due to high client demand across all advertising mediums. The actual quarterly results for each quarter could differ materially depending on these factors or other risks and uncertainties. Based on our historical experience, our first quarter typically has less revenue than the other quarters of a given year due primarily to lower advertising client demand and increased inventory availability in competitive advertising mediums. There can be no assurances that seasonal variations will not materially affect our results of operations in the future. The following table reflects the quarterly percentage of total NCM LLC revenue for the fiscal years ended 2024, 2023 and 2022: | | First Quarter | Second Quarter | Third Quarter | Fourth Quarter | | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | | FY 2024 | 15.5% | 22.8% | 25.9% | 35.8% | | FY 2023 | 13.4% | 24.8% | 26.8% | 35.0% | | FY 2022 | 14.4% | 26.9% | 21.9% | 36.8% | ### Government Regulations Currently, we are not subject to regulations specific to the sale and distribution of cinema advertising. We are subject to federal, state and local laws that govern businesses generally such as wage and hour, worker compensation and health and safety laws as well as privacy, information security and consumer protection-related laws and regulations. We have been and are currently in compliance with all material government mandated and environmental regulations. ### Competition Our advertising business competes in the estimated $425.9 billion U.S. advertising industry with many other forms of marketing media, including television, radio, print, internet, mobile and outdoor display advertising. While cinema advertising represents a small portion of the overall advertising industry today, we believe it is well-positioned to capitalize on the continuing shift of advertising spending away from traditional media, in particular linear television where consumers can skip advertisements through DVRs and other technology, to newer and more targeted forms of media. Our advertising business also competes with many other providers of cinema advertising, which vary substantially in size. As the largest cinema advertising network in the U.S., we believe that we are able to generate economies of scale, operating efficiencies and enhanced opportunities for our clients to reach an engaged movie audience on both a national and local level to allow us to better compete for premium video dollars in the larger advertising marketplace. ### Competitive Strengths We believe that several strengths position us well to compete in an increasingly fragmented media landscape. We believe that our cinema advertising network is an attractive option for advertisers on a national, regional and local level and delivers measurable results for our clients that are comparable, and preferred, to the television, online and mobile or other video advertising options that we compete against in the marketplace. ***Extensive national market coverage—***Our contractual agreements with our ESA Parties and network affiliates provide long-term exclusive access (subject to limited exceptions) to sell cinema advertising across the largest network of digitally-equipped theaters in the U.S. This allows us to offer advertisers the broad reach and national scale that they need to effectively reach their target audiences. - Our advertising network consisted of 18,028 screens (9,455 operated by the ESA Parties) located in 1,408 theaters (688 operated by the ESA Parties) in 47 states and the District of Columbia, including each of the top 25, 50 and 100 DMAs®, and 196 DMAs® in total, as of December 26, 2024; - The over 390 million people who attended theaters in our network in 2024 represented 67.6%, 62.9% and 60.2% of the total theater attendance in theaters that present cinema advertising in the top 10, 25 and 50 U.S. DMAs®, respectively, and 54.5% of all DMAs® nationally, providing an attractive platform for national advertisers who want exposure in larger markets or on a national basis; - The average screens per theater in our network during 2024 was 12.8 screens; and - The aggregate annual attendance per screen of theaters included in our network during 2024 was 21,674. ***Scalable, state-of-the-art digital content distribution technology—***Our use of the combination of satellite and terrestrial DCN network technology, combined with the design and functionality of our DCS and Customer Experience Center infrastructure, makes our network efficient and scalable and also allows us to target specific audiences and provide advertising scheduling flexibility and reporting. National, local and regional advertisers are generally able to run their ads in The *Noovie®* Show less than 72 hours following the close of the proposal which is comparable to the lead time of television advertising, giving businesses that rely on time-sensitive promotional advertising strategies the opportunity to take advantage of the power of cinema. This scalability of our distribution technology allows us to expand our cinema advertising network with minimal additional capital expenditures or personnel, and we expect to benefit from this scalability in the event we add to the theaters from the ESA Parties, our existing network affiliate relationships and the addition of new network affiliates. ***Access to a highly attractive, engaged audience—***We offer advertisers the ability to reach highly-coveted target demographics, including young, affluent and educated “Millennial” and “Gen Z” moviegoers. According to The People Platform for 2023, 62.0% of the NCM LLC audiences were between the ages of 12-34, consistent with 2022, with a median age of 30 in 2023. Further, 47.5% of our moviegoers have a household income greater than $100,000 (versus 41.0% of the general population), with a median moviegoer household income of $92,000, and 39.0% have received a bachelor’s degree or higher (versus 35.0% of the general population) according to Transunion. Because of the impact of cinema’s state-of-the-art immersive video and audio presentation, we also believe that movie audiences are highly engaged with The *Noovie* Show advertising and entertainment content that they view in our theater environment. In a recent 2023 study performed by Lumen, a leader in attention measurement, moviegoers paid greater attention to advertisements in theaters as compared to all other premium video platforms including Linear (Live Sports), Fast Nets (Tubi, Pluto, Roku), premium AVOD, social media, digital and premium audio podcasts. Cinema’s attention advantage is 2 to 3 times that of Linear Live Sports, Fast Nets, Top Tier AVOD and podcasts and 7 to 16 times that of social media and digital. Further, based upon an average of 7 years of research studies including 323 advertisers across various categories, advertising on the big screen has generated brand lift for the critical key performance indicators of awareness (increase of 62.0%) and consideration (increase of 24.0%). Additionally, according to an intercept study conducted by eWorks, a market research company, a Platinum Spot advertiser experienced 88.0% brand recall, with significant lifts in unaided awareness (increase of 100.0%), favorable opinion (increase of 21.0%) and future consideration (increase of 19.0%) after advertising with the Company in 2022. ***World-class entertainment and innovative, branded pre-feature content—***The film content created by Hollywood studios is considered some of the finest entertainment content in the world, which creates a highly-desirable advertising environment for brands. We believe that The *Noovie* Show program provides a high-quality entertainment experience for theater audiences and an effective marketing platform for advertisers. By partnering with leading media, entertainment, technology and other companies, we are able to provide better original content for our audience and increase the impact for the advertiser. Because we offer local and national “pods” within The *Noovie* Show (that is, groupings of ads interspersed among video content), our format is consistent with the grouping of ads on television networks, which allows advertisers to more easily integrate The *Noovie* Show into traditional sight-sound-and-motion media buys. ***Prime movie audience data, measurability and targeting—***As with many other advertising mediums, we are measured by third-party research companies. The People Platform (formerly Epicenter Experience LLC) measures our audience, including the total attendance that are in their seats during The *Noovie®* Show. Additionally, unlike some other advertising mediums, we also receive attendance information by film, by rating and by screen at least monthly for all of the ESA Parties’ theaters, and by location for the theaters operated by our network affiliates at least monthly, which allows us to report the actual audience size for each showing of a film where The *Noovie* Show played. We believe that the ability to provide detailed information to our clients gives us a distinct competitive advantage over traditional media platforms whose measurement is based only on extrapolations of a very small sample of the total audience. In 2024, we continued to invest in the development of our cloud-based Data Management Platform (DMP), enabling us to deliver enhanced audience insights and analytics to our clients. To strengthen the connection between brands and moviegoers, we aggregate audience data from various sources within our DMP. This data supports ad targeting and provides complete attribution reporting to evaluate campaign performance. Looking ahead to 2025, we plan to further enhance the platform’s capabilities by broadening first-party data collection through strategic initiatives and integrating additional second- and third-party data sources and audience segments. ***Integrated marketing and digital products—***Our ability to bundle our on-screen advertising opportunities with integrated lobby, digital marketing and digital out-of-home products allows us to offer advertisers multiple touchpoints to reach movie audiences anytime and anywhere to execute true 360-degree marketing programs. We believe these multiple marketing impressions throughout the entire entertainment experience allow our advertisers to extend the exposure for their brands and products and create a more engaging relationship with movie audiences in every stage of their movie journey. Additionally, our NCMx™ data platform makes cinema advertising more measurable, targetable and attributable than ever before. We power the NCM Boost product with first-, second- and third-party data to better reach advertising clients’ target audiences with higher degrees of accuracy and measure a variety of business outcomes more accurately. ***Contractual theater circuit and advertiser relationships—***Our exclusive multi-year contractual relationships with our ESA Parties and network affiliates allow us to offer advertisers a national network with the scale, flexibility and targeting to meet their marketing needs. Our exclusive contractual relationships with our content partners and courtesy PSA sponsors, as well as our agreements to satisfy the ESA Parties’ on-screen marketing obligations to their beverage concessionaires, provide us with a significant upfront revenue commitment, accounting for approximately 19.0% and 28.4% of our total revenue for the years ended December 26, 2024 and December 28, 2023, respectively. In addition, our participation in the annual advertising upfront marketplace has allowed us to secure significant annual upfront commitments from national advertisers looking to secure premium cinema inventory. These upfront commitments accounted for approximately 30.1% and 27.9% of our total revenue for the years ended December 26, 2024 and December 28, 2023, respectively. ***Strong operating margins with limited capital requirements—***Our annual operating income margin and Adjusted OIBDA margin over the five years ended December 26, 2019 were consistently strong, ranging from approximately 33.1% to 38.7% and 46.5% to 51.5%, respectively. NCM LLC’s annual operating income margin and Adjusted OIBDA margin were (8.1)% and 19.0%, and (69.6)% and 20.3%, for the years ended December 26, 2024 and December 28, 2023, respectively, due to the impact of the Chapter 11 Case, industry related strikes and the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our operations. Adjusted OIBDA margin is a non-GAAP financial measure. Please refer to “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” for a discussion of the calculation of Adjusted OIBDA margin and a reconciliation of Adjusted OIBDA margin to operating income. Our capital expenditures ranged from approximately 2.9% to 3.5% of revenues over the five years through December 26, 2019. NCM LLC’s capital expenditures were 2.3% and 2.0% of revenue for the years ended December 26, 2024 and December 28, 2023. For the year ended December 26, 2024, our capital expenditures and other investments were $5.6 million with $1.9 million associated with upgrades to our existing systems related to the continued upgrades of our cinema advertising management system; $1.7 million associated with leasehold improvements; $1.0 million associated with digital product development; $0.4 million associated with network affiliate additions; and $0.4 million associated with certain implementation and prepaid costs associated with cloud computing arrangements. Given the impact of the Chapter 11 Case and the COVID-19 pandemic on our operations, our focus in 2023 and 2024 was on cash containment and non-essential capital expenditures were reduced. Due to the network equipment investments made in theaters by us and in conjunction our ESA Parties under the ESA and the scalable nature of our Customer Experience Center and other infrastructure, we do not expect any necessary major capital investments to grow our operations as our network of theaters continues to expand. As we continue to move our technology to cloud-based Software as a Service (“SaaS”) platforms, we expect to continue to reduce our annual capital expenditure spending. However, operating expenses associated with the SaaS licenses will continue to increase. Certain implementation costs of our SaaS platforms were capitalized during the implementation period and are recognized within operating income over the term of the SaaS contract once the systems are fully implemented. ### Our Strategy We are continuing to pursue a growth strategy that we believe will create significant value following the normalization of our operations. Our strategy includes the following three key components: ### Increase the Value of Cinema Media We intend to drive an increase in value through innovation and optimization of our current product offering. Beginning in 2019, we achieved one of our key initiatives in this strategy by introducing inventory following The *Noovie®* Show after the advertised showtime. This Post-Showtime Inventory consists of a total of five to ten minutes depending upon the ESA Party or affiliate between the lights down segment beginning just after the advertised movie showtime and including trailer lighting and the 30- or 60-second Platinum Spot deeply embedded within the movie trailers with trailer lighting and full trailer volume. We believe this inventory constitutes prized and impactful ad spots. We believe our local and regional clients also benefit from better inventory as their placement is closer to the advertised showtime. As of December 26, 2024, 65.0% of our network affiliates, based on attendance, are running our Post-Showtime Inventory. We plan to continue to work toward expanding the portion of our network including this premium inventory. Within the Regal Advertising Affiliate Agreement, effective on July 14, 2023, we began advertising for five additional minutes after the posted showtime for a total of ten minutes. We believe this higher value inventory, combined with an entertaining and engaging show that is integrated with our *Noovie* digital ecosystem, provides a unique cross-platform premium video product that will stand out in the media marketplace. We also believe it will help mitigate the potential future impact of reserved seating on our business. Our relationships with our exhibitors are a key focus of our business. Our Affiliate Partnerships team is dedicated to serving the needs of our ESA Parties’ theater circuits and our 42 network affiliates nationwide as of December 26, 2024. We plan to continue to expand our affiliate network by strategically targeting priority exhibitors who are not currently part of our network and whose cinema advertising contracts will be coming up for renewal in the next several years in order to add key affiliates and screens in select markets. This will allow us to increase our revenue by increasing the number of impressions we have available to sell to advertisers, extending our reach to additional markets to further improve our national footprint for brands looking to reach those audiences and strengthening our reach in markets we are already in for greater saturation in those DMAs. In January 2024, we renewed our exhibitor agreement with Santikos Enterprises through December 31, 2028, one of the largest cinema operators in the U.S, which operates a circuit of 27 theaters with 377 screens. Under the terms of the ESAs and Common Unit Adjustment Agreement with the ESA Parties and our network affiliate agreements, all new theaters built or acquired (subject to existing advertising sales agreements) by the ESA Parties or network affiliates will become part of our network. We believe this continues to improve our geographic coverage and enhances our ability to compete with other national advertising mediums, which allows our exhibitor clients to maximize the advertising value of their audiences. In 2023, we released a ground breaking study, conducted by Lumen, the leading technology company for attention measurement, that concludes cinema is the number one media platform for consumers’ attention to advertising when measured against all other video platforms, including TV, CTV, social media and digital ads. Other findings of this study included: - Cinema attention scores were four to seven times greater than all other video channels including TV, CTV, social media and digital ads, across a variety of brands and categories; - Two and a half times more consumers watched ads playing in a movie theater compared to TV and CTV; - Consumers watched cinema ads for a longer duration compared to other video platforms; and - A direct correlation was found between attention metrics and brand recall and brand choice, meaning higher attention metrics leads directly to enhanced performance of the advertising which can result in increased sales lift, foot traffic and app downloads. ### Diversify our Revenue Model We are also reimagining The *Noovie®* Show as we strive to increase revenue and grow our advertiser base by developing branded content, sponsorships and integration opportunities which also drive moviegoer engagement. We developed and launched various new content and segments in 2024 to cater to specific audiences, with topics including sustainability, fashion, celebrities and sports. These platforms directly appeal to NCM's diverse audience, including socially-conscious Gen Z audiences. In 2024 we partnered with the TelevisaUnivision, Atmosphere TV, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Aspen Institute to bring unique pop culture content to The *Noovie®* Show. We also launched new original series such as "Flashback" and "Close Up with Perri Nemiroff". Our *Noovie* Studios in-house creative team develops and produces original storytelling content for advertisers for a fee, with content tied to these new *Noovie* Show segments or fully customized based on brand needs. We plan to continue expanding NCMx™, our data-platform that allows us to meet the needs of today’s modern video advertising marketplace. It is important that we accelerate the growth, scale, targeting and measurability of our theater audience data to maintain a critical mass to be able to effectively use that audience data to deliver value to our clients. We believe this strategy will make our NCM digital and data capabilities increasingly attractive to advertisers, especially to national brands who buy both our national and regional inventory. We also intend to enter into synergistic business opportunities. NCM's DOOH group serves to further unite brands with the power of movies by extending movie-centric entertainment content, trivia and advertising beyond theaters to a variety of complementary Digital Out-Of-Home platforms. NCM is now able to combine the strengths and effectiveness of Cinema, Digital and Place-Based media together to create innovative, integrated campaigns that engage movie fans anytime and anywhere through our partnerships with screens in convenience stores, college campuses and various restaurants. ### Optimize Operation Effectiveness and Efficiency We intend to ensure our technology infrastructure is built to support sustained revenue growth. Our first initiative in this process is to further enhance our cinema advertising management system implemented in January of 2021 to allow for self-serve programmatic purchasing for certain of our product offerings beginning with LEN. In 2024, we launched two new offerings for on-screen advertising; programmatic and self-serve. Programmatic offers real-time data-driven trading of cinema advertising inventory, allowing bidding on available audiences during The *Noovie* Show. Buyers can choose from programmatic guaranteed and private marketplace options, and programmatic buys can be customized by reach, geography, film rating, day of the week and time of day. Additionally, through NCM's fully automated self-serve solution, local and regional companies can plan, buy, and schedule their ads to run on the big screen. ### Intellectual Property Rights We have been granted a perpetual, royalty-free license from the ESA Parties to use certain proprietary software for the delivery of digital advertising and other content through our DCN to screens in the U.S. We have made improvements to this software since our IPO and we own those improvements exclusively, except for improvements that were developed jointly by us and the ESA Parties. We have secured U.S. trademark registrations for NCM®, National CineMedia®, *Noovie®* and *NCMx™*. It is our practice to defend our trademarks and other intellectual property rights, including the associated goodwill, from infringement by others. We are aware that other persons or entities may use names and marks containing variations of our registered trademarks and other marks and trade names. Potentially, claims alleging infringement of intellectual property rights, such as trademark infringement, could be brought against us by the users of those other names and marks. If any such infringement claim were to prove successful in preventing us from either using or prohibiting a competitor’s use of our registered trademarks or other marks or trade names, our ability to build brand identity could be negatively impacted. ### Available Information We maintain a website at *www.ncm.com*, on which we post free of charge our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to these reports (under the heading “Investor Relations” located at the bottom of the home page) after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). We also regularly post information about the Company on the Investor Relations page. We do not incorporate the information on our website into this document and you should not consider any information on, or that can be accessed through, our website as part of this document. The SEC also maintains a website that contains our reports and other information at *www.sec.gov.* ## Risk factors As filed, 77,733 characters. *Ownership of the common stock and other securities of the Company involves certain risks. You should carefully consider the following material risks and other information in this document, including our historical financial statements and related notes included herein. The material risks and uncertainties described in this document are not the only ones facing us. If any of the risks and uncertainties described in this document actually occur, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected in a material way. This could cause the trading price of our common stock to decline, perhaps significantly, and you may lose part or all of your investment.* ### Risks Related to Our Business and Industry ***Significant declines in theater attendance could reduce the attractiveness of cinema advertising and could reduce our revenue.*** Our business is affected by the level of attendance at the theaters in our advertising network that operate in a highly competitive industry and whose attendance is reliant on the presence of motion pictures that attract audiences. The value of our advertising business could be adversely affected by a decline in theater attendance or even the perception by media buyers that our network is no longer relevant to their marketing plan due to the decreases in attendance and geographic coverage. Theater attendance has fluctuated from year to year but on average remained relatively flat over the 10 years prior to the outbreak of the novel corona virus or COVID-19 in 2020 (the “COVID 19 Pandemic”). While consumers have largely returned to pre-COVID-19 Pandemic behavior, it is unknown how future pandemics or epidemics will influence behavior. Additionally, film production was significantly impacted by production delays, due to writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023, leading to significant impacts on theater attendance throughout 2024. Future strikes or other impacts from incidents on sets, government regulation or other factors could also limit the number of films available and reduce attendance. Additional factors that could reduce attendance at our network theaters include the following: - if NCM LLC’s network theater circuits cannot compete with other entertainment due to an increase in the use of alternative film delivery methods (and the shortening or elimination of the “release window” of major motion pictures bypassing the theater entirely), including network and online video streaming and downloads; - theater circuits in NCM LLC’s network are expected to continue to renovate auditoriums in certain of their theaters to install new larger, more comfortable seating or adjust seating arrangements, reducing the number of seats and the audience size in a theater auditorium. These renovations have been viewed favorably by patrons and many theater circuits have noted an intent to continue such renovations; - changes in theater operating policies, including the number and length of trailers for films that are played prior to the start of the feature film, which may result in most or all of The *Noovie®* Show starting further out from the actual start of the feature film; - any reduction in consumer confidence or disposable income in general that reduces the demand for motion pictures or adversely affects the motion picture production or exhibition industries; - the success of first-run motion pictures, which depends upon the number of films produced for theater exhibition and the production and marketing efforts of the major studios and the attractiveness and value proposition of the movies to consumers compared to other forms of entertainment; - if political events, such as terrorist attacks, or health-related epidemics, such as flu outbreaks, and pandemics, such as the COVID-19 Pandemic, cause consumers to avoid movie theaters or other places where large crowds are in attendance; - government regulations or theater operating policies that require higher levels of social distancing, restriction of capacity or prohibition of operations; - if the theaters in our network fail to maintain and clean their theaters and provide amenities that consumers prefer; - if future theater attendance declines significantly over an extended time period, one or more of NCM LLC’s network theater circuits may face financial difficulties and could be forced to sell or close theaters or reduce the number of screens it builds or upgrades or increase ticket prices; and - NCM LLC’s network theater circuits also may not successfully compete for licenses to exhibit quality films and are not assured a consistent supply of motion pictures. Any of these circumstances could reduce our revenue because our national and regional advertising revenue, and local advertising revenue to a lesser extent, depends on the number of theater patrons who attend movies. Additionally, if attendance underperforms against expectations or declines significantly, the Company will be required to provide additional advertising time (makegoods) to national advertisers to reach agreed-on audience delivery thresholds. Certain of these circumstances can also lead to volatility within our utilization, which typically varies more than 10% on an annual basis and even more substantially quarter-to-quarter. ***Pandemics, epidemics or disease outbreaks, such as the COVID-19 virus, have disrupted and could materially affect our business and the business of NCM LLC’s network theaters in the future.*** Pandemics or disease outbreaks such as the COVID-19 virus, including variants, have and are continuing to disrupt our business and the business of NCM LLC’s network theaters. There can be no assurance that impacts from the COVID-19 Pandemic will not return in the future, or a future pandemic will not lead to public safety restrictions or changes in consumer behavior that will negatively impact our business, advertiser sentiment or audience attendance. Due to the impacts to our operations, we were required to take drastic measures to ensure our business survived the COVID-19 Pandemic, including furloughing and terminating employees, extending payment terms on accounts payable, and reducing or delaying planned operating and capital expenditures. Additionally, many of our network’s theaters were also required to take significant actions during the COVID-19 Pandemic and these actions have lead to decreased attendance and caused financial distress, including the Cineworld Proceeding, described further below. Even the perception that our business or the business of network’s theaters may be impacted, could lead to decreased advertising expenditures and other significant disruption to our business. Future pandemics could require us to implement measures similar to those implemented in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. We believe that the exhibition industry has historically fared well during periods of economic stress, and we remain optimistic, though cannot guarantee, that the theatrical business and attendance figures will continue to rebound. Future pandemics, similar to that of the COVID-19 Pandemic, may have potential impacts on our financial position, results of operations, liquidity and cash flows. ***Changes in theater patron behavior could result in declines in the viewership of The Noovie®*** **S*****how which could reduce the attractiveness of cinema advertising and our revenues.*** The value of our national and regional on-screen advertising and to a lesser extent our local advertising is based on the number of theater patrons that are in their seats and thus have the opportunity to view The *Noovie* Show. Trends in patron behavior that could reduce viewership of The *Noovie* Show include the following: - theater patrons are increasingly purchasing tickets ahead of time via online ticketing mediums and when available reserving a seat in the theater (offered in a significant percentage of our network), which could affect how early patrons arrive to the theater and reduce the number of patrons that are in a theater seat to view most or all of The *Noovie* Show; - during the COVID-19 Pandemic, certain consumers changed their behavior in order to avoid large groups and other public indoor activities, and these behavior changes could become a long-term trend; - certain theater chains have increased the number of trailers and time devoted to other programming prior to the display of the feature film, and in combination with our Post-Showtime Inventory, may cause patrons to arrive later to theaters and reduce the number of patrons that are in a theater seat to view most or all of The *Noovie* Show; and - changes in theater patron amenities, including bars and entertainment within exhibitor lobbies causing increased dwell time of patrons. National advertising sales and rates are dependent on the methodology used to measure audience impressions. If a change is made to this methodology that reflects fewer audience impressions available during the show, this could adversely affect the Company’s revenue and results of operations. ***Changes in the ESAs with, or lack of support by, the ESA Parties could adversely affect our revenue, growth and profitability.*** The ESAs with the ESA Parties are critical to our business. The ESA with AMC has an initial term of 30 years and the ESA with Cinemark (as amended by the 2019 ESA Amendment) has a term of 34 years, each such term beginning February 13, 2007. Each ESA provides NCM LLC with a five-year right of first refusal for the services that it provides to the ESA Parties, which begins one year prior to the end of the term of each respective ESA. The ESA Parties’ theaters represent approximately 52.4% of the screens and approximately 62.0% of the attendance in our network as of December 26, 2024. If either ESA were terminated, not renewed at its expiration, rejected in a bankruptcy proceeding, or found to be unenforceable, it could have a material negative impact on our revenue, profitability and financial condition. The ESAs require the continuing cooperation, investment and support of the ESA Parties, the absence of which could adversely affect us. Pursuant to the ESAs, the ESA Parties must make investments to replace network equipment within their theaters and equip newly constructed theaters with digital network equipment. If the ESA Parties do not have adequate financial resources or operational strength, and if they do not replace equipment or equip new theaters to maintain the level of operating functionality that we have today, or if such equipment becomes obsolete, we may have to make additional capital expenditures or our advertising revenue and operating margins may decline. In addition, the ESAs give the ESA Parties the right to object to certain content in The *Noovie®* Show, including content that competes with us or the applicable ESA Party. If the ESA Parties do not agree with our decisions on what content, strategic program or partnerships are permitted under the ESAs, we may lose advertising clients and the resulting revenue, which would harm our business. AMC and Cinemark are eligible to be issued additional units pursuant to the terms of the Common Unit Adjustment Agreement and Cinemark may own shares of NCM, Inc. stock. We are uncertain how the lack of ownership interest in NCM LLC and limited ownership at NCM, Inc. may affect their cooperation with us under the ESAs or otherwise going forward. Additionally, following the approval of the bankruptcy court authorizing NCM LLC’s entry into the Regal Advertising Agreement and the Regal Termination Agreement (the “Regal Order”) and approval of the Confirmation Order approving NCM LLC’s disclosure statement on a final basis and confirming NCM LLC’s Plan (the “Confirmation Order”), AMC and Cinemark filed notice of appeal of the Confirmation Order and the Regal Order. Subsequently, AMC and Cinemark sought a stay of the Confirmation Order and Regal Order in the Bankruptcy Court, the District Court for the Southern District of Texas and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, all of which denied the request. Following AMC and Cinemark's consolidated appeal on the merits, the District Court for the Southern District of Texas confirmed the Confirmation Order and the Regal Order on August 13, 2024. The consolidated appeals of the District Court's decision on the merits are pending in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. We are uncertain how this litigation will impact AMC and Cinemark’s willingness to cooperate under the ESAs, how long the litigation may last or the full scope of the negative impact if AMC and Cinemark were successful in triggering the most-favored nation clauses in their ESAs. ***The ongoing effects of NCM LLC’s Chapter 11 Case, including the risks and uncertainties associated with bankruptcy, may harm the Company’s business following emergence.*** NCM LLC emerged from bankruptcy on August 7, 2023 (the “Effective Date”). The Company’s senior management had been required to spend a significant amount of time and effort attending to the negotiation and execution of the Modified First Amended Plan of Reorganization of National CineMedia, LLC Pursuant to Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code (as amended, modified or supplemented from time to time, the “Plan”) instead of focusing exclusively on the Company’s business operations. Risks associated with NCM LLC’s emergence from bankruptcy include the following: - Vendors or other contract counterparties could terminate their relationship with us or require financial assurances or other enhanced performance commitments such as upfront payments; - The ability to renew existing contracts and compete for new business may be adversely affected; - It may be more difficult to attract, motivate and retain key employees and executives; - Employees may have been distracted from the performance of their duties by matters related to the Chapter 11 Case; - Litigation with AMC and Cinemark regarding confirmation of the Plan could impact our relationship with AMC and Cinemark or the terms of the Plan; and - Competitors may take business away from us, and our ability to attract and retain customers may be negatively impacted. We cannot accurately predict or quantify the impacts or adverse effects of the residual risk and uncertainties associated with NCM LLC’s emergence, or the occurrence of one or more of these risks could have on our results of operations, financial condition, business and reputation. ***If the non-competition provisions of the ESAs or other advertising agreements are deemed unenforceable, the counterparties could compete against us and our business could be adversely affected.*** With certain limited exceptions, each of the ESAs and other network affiliate agreements prohibits the applicable counterparty from engaging in any of the business activities that we provide in the counterparty’s theaters under the ESAs and network affiliate agreements, and the ESAs and certain network affiliate agreements prohibit the counterparty from owning interests in other entities that compete with us. These provisions are intended to prevent the counterparties from harming our business by providing cinema advertising services directly to their theaters or by entering into agreements with other third-party cinema advertising providers. However, under state and federal law, a court may determine that a non-competition covenant is unenforceable, in whole or in part, for reasons including, but not limited to, the court’s determination that the covenant: - is not necessary to protect a legitimate business interest of the party seeking enforcement; - unreasonably restrains the party against whom enforcement is sought; or - is contrary to the public interest. Enforceability of a non-competition covenant is determined by a court based on all of the facts and circumstances of the specific case at the time enforcement is sought, including the type of court hearing the matter. For this reason, it is not possible for us to predict whether, or to what extent, a court would enforce the non-competition provisions contained in the ESAs and network affiliate agreements. If a court were to determine that the non-competition provisions are unenforceable, the counterparties could compete directly against us or enter into an agreement with another cinema advertising provider that competes against us. Any inability to enforce the non-competition provisions, in whole or in part, could cause our revenue to decline and could have a material negative impact on our business. If NCM seeks to enforce the non-competition provisions in connection with a counterparty’s bankruptcy, the bankruptcy court may be a less favorable venue for adjudicating the implicated provisions and result in a different outcome than would occur outside of bankruptcy. ***The ESA with an ESA Party that has declared bankruptcy may be rejected, renegotiated or deemed unenforceable.*** As a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic, all of the theaters in NCM LLC’s network were temporarily closed and were required to seek additional financing through various methods leading to significant levels of financial distress. On September 7, 2022, Cineworld Group plc, the parent company of Regal, and certain of its subsidiaries, including Regal, Regal Cinemas, Inc., formerly a party to an ESA, and Regal CineMedia Holdings, LLC, formerly a party to other agreements with NCM LLC and NCM, Inc., filed petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the Southern District of Texas (the “Cineworld Proceeding”). In addition, each of the other ESA Parties currently has a significant amount of indebtedness with varying maturity dates in the future. If a bankruptcy case were commenced by or against another ESA Party, it is possible that all or part of the ESA with the applicable ESA Party could be rejected by a trustee in the bankruptcy case pursuant to Section 365 or Section 1123 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, or by the ESA Party, and thus not be enforceable. On October 21, 2022, Regal filed a motion to reject its ESA without specifying an effective date for the rejection and indicated that Regal intended to negotiate with the Company regarding the ESA. NCM LLC filed a complaint against Regal seeking declaratory relief and an injunction prohibiting Regal from breaching certain exclusivity, non-compete, non-negotiate and confidentiality provisions in the ESA by entering into a new agreement with a third-party or bringing any of the services performed by NCM LLC in-house. Following negotiations, NCM LLC and Regal entered into a Network Affiliate Transaction Agreement (the “Regal Advertising Agreement”) and a separate termination agreement, pursuant to which, effective on July 14, 2023, Regal rejected and terminated its ESA and waived all rights and interests in the other agreements Regal and its affiliates were a party to with NCM LLC. In the event another ESA Party declares bankruptcy, NCM LLC may be required to litigate its rights and negotiate with the bankrupt ESA Party, which would have a negative impact on our business, operations and financial results. In addition, as a part of the Cineworld Proceeding, Regal announced plans to optimize the number of theaters it operates and announced the closures of certain theaters. Should Regal or another ESA Party liquidate or dispose of theaters or remove theaters from our network through bankruptcy or for other business reasons, and if the acquirer, if applicable, did not agree to continue to allow us to sell advertising in the acquired theaters the number of theaters in our advertising networks would be reduced which in turn would reduce the number of advertising impressions available to us and thus could reduce our advertising revenue. ***We may not realize the anticipated benefits of additional Post-Showtime inventory or be successful in increasing the number of theaters in which NCM LLC has the right to display Post-Showtime inventory.*** Beginning with the 2019 ESA Amendment with affiliates of Cinemark in 2019, NCM LLC is entitled to display up to five minutes of The *Noovie®* Show after the scheduled showtime of a feature film and a Platinum Spot that is either 30 or 60 seconds of The *Noovie* Show in the trailer position directly prior to the “attached” trailers preceding the feature film in Cinemark and certain other network affiliates’ theaters. The Regal Advertising Agreement also provides for (i) up to ten minutes immediately after the advertised showtime of a feature film, extending the time available to NCM LLC by five minutes, and (ii) the Platinum Spot that may be exhibited on-screen prior to the last two trailers, which may be either 30 or 60 seconds in length. Subject to Regal’s approval, NCM LLC may display two 30 second spots in the Platinum Spot and a Gold Spot, a 30 second spot displayed immediately prior to the fourth trailer preceding a feature film or digital programming event. We believe that Post-Showtime Inventory has resulted and will continue to result in an increase in our average CPM, revenues and Adjusted OIBDA, however we may not realize any or all such benefits. Potential difficulties and uncertainties that may impair the full realization of the anticipated benefits include, among others: - the behavior of theater patrons may change in response to the display of a portion of The *Noovie®* Show after the advertised showtime, or in response to the combination of advertising and trailers before the start of the feature film, resulting in a reduction to the number of patrons that are in a theater seat to view most or all of The *Noovie* Show; - potential advertisers may not view the Post-Showtime Inventory as attractive due to inability to run across our entire network or view it as a premium advertising opportunity and the average CPMs for The *Noovie* Show may not increase as much as anticipated, or at all; - NCM LLC may not be able to generate sufficient revenue to satisfy any minimum guarantees required to enter into agreements for Post-Showtime inventory or sufficient minimum average CPMs required to display the Platinum Spot in Cinemark’s theaters; - the extended length of time between the advertised showtime and the beginning of the feature film may decrease the average CPM for that portion of The *Noovie* Show appearing before the advertised showtime, which may partially or fully offset any increase in average CPM for the Post-Showtime Inventory; or - the increased fees payable in connection with the Post-Showtime Inventory with certain counterparties may exceed the increase, if any, in revenue resulting from the access to the Post-Showtime inventory. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in increasing the number of theaters in which NCM LLC has the right to display Post-Showtime Inventory. The anticipated benefits we expect to receive as a result of the Post-Showtime Inventory are subject to factors that we do not and cannot control. Failure to realize the anticipated benefits could result in decreases in revenue and Adjusted OIBDA and diversion of management’s time and energy, and could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. ***Our business relies heavily on technology systems, and any failures, disruptions or cyberattacks may materially and adversely affect our operations.*** In order to conduct our business, we rely on information technology networks and systems, including those managed and owned by third parties, to process, transmit and store electronic information and manage and support business processes and activities. The temporary or permanent loss of our computer equipment, internet and satellite networks, data or software systems through ransomware, data exfiltration and other cyberattacks and other security threats, termination of a material technology license or contract, operating malfunction, software virus, human error, natural disaster, power loss, terrorist attacks or other catastrophic events could disrupt our operations and cause a material negative impact and the steps that we have taken to mitigate these risks may prove to be ineffective. Although the Company maintains robust procedures, internal policies and technological security measures to safeguard its systems, including disaster recovery systems separate from our operations, robust network security and other measures to help protect our network from unauthorized access and misuse and a cyber-security insurance policy, the Company’s information technology systems or systems of the ESA Parties, network affiliates or third-party service providers could be penetrated by internal or external parties intent on extracting information, corrupting information, stealing intellectual property or trade secrets or disrupting business processes. For example, some of our software vendors have previously announced that their systems were infected with malicious software, which might have impacted customers, including NCM. While NCM took prompt action to address the potential vulnerability and does not believe that there were any adverse consequences, there is no guarantee that future hacks and attacks on our network, including those through third parties, will be unsuccessful or resolved without damage to us or our customers. If information technology failures or cyber-attacks were to interrupt our advertising delivery systems, then NCM could be unable to deliver new advertising and would only be able to display advertising that has already been distributed to theaters in the short-term. This would limit NCM's ability to generate revenue until NCM is able to manually deliver revised advertising or the systems become available. Manually delivered advertising would also limit NCM's ability to optimize the distribution of advertising to maximize impressions and best meet client expectations. In addition to potential vulnerabilities of NCM's information technology systems, NCM and its employees are also the target of cyberattacks, including malware, phishing, social engineering and other targeted attacks, that have been, at times, successful in deceiving certain employees. While NCM’s cyber security teams were able to identify and resolve these attacks prior to any significant impact on the Company, future attacks may use methods that our cyber security team is not able to identify, or our cyber security team may not identify the attacks prior to the compromise of our systems or data. Techniques used by cyber criminals to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade services or sabotage systems evolve frequently and may not immediately be detected, and we may be unable to implement adequate preventative measures. Additionally, we are reliant on third parties for back-up, disaster recovery and other preventative systems that have failed in the past, may fail in the future and we are periodically required to obtain replacement services and migrate data, which may result in temporary lapses of protection and increased risk of disruption or data loss. Depending on the nature and scope of a disruption, if any technology network or systems fail and we are unable to recover in a timely manner, we may be unable to fulfill critical business functions, which could lead to a loss of clients and revenue, harm our reputation or interfere with our ability to comply with financial reporting and other regulatory requirements. ***Our plans for developing additional digital or digital out-of-home revenue opportunities may not be implemented and may not be achieved.*** We have invested significant resources in pursuing potential opportunities for revenue growth, which we describe under “Business—Our Strategy.” We had 824.4 million and 703.3 million unique data records as of December 26, 2024 and December 28, 2023, respectively. These valuable data records consist of both our own NCM first-party data from our owned-and-operated digital products and a variety of key second- and third-party data addressable consumer records, including location-based data that allows us to track when our audiences go to the movie theater to see The *Noovie* Show and where they go in the days and weeks afterwards. Our ability to increase our unique data records requires us to invest in third-party relationships, to comply with evolving privacy and data security laws, rules and regulations and to develop innovative digital properties that will increase the number of users of our digital entertainment and advertising network and mobile apps. Our ability to collect and leverage movie audience data is under increasing competitive and regulatory pressure and may be negatively impacted by changes to advertising technology, platform operator policies and privacy laws and regulation and may not deliver the future benefits that we are expecting. It is important that we maintain a critical mass of audience data to make our digital offering more attractive to advertisers, including national brands who buy both our national and regional advertising inventory. Our digital out-of-home business remains at an early stage and is under significant competitive pressure with the proliferation of available alternatives in the digital out-of-home space and may not deliver the future benefits that we are expecting. If we are unable to develop relationships and advertising that is relevant to the marketplace that can be integrated with our core on-screen advertising products, and if these offerings are not attractive to our advertisers, then the digital out-of-home business may not provide significant revenue or represent a method to help expand our cinema advertising business as it matures. As such, there can be no assurance that we will recoup our investments made pursuing this business. If we are unable to execute on products relevant to the marketplace or integrate these digital and digital out-of-home marketing products with our core on-screen and theater lobby products, or if these offerings or other data sources do not continue or are unable to provide relevant data or to grow in importance to advertising clients and agencies, they may not provide a way to help expand our advertising business as it matures and begins to compete with new or improved advertising platforms including online and mobile video services. As such, there can be no assurance that we will recoup our investments made pursuing additional revenue opportunities. ***The 2025 Credit Facility contains restrictions and may not provide sufficient capital resources and flexibility for the Company in the future.*** On January 24, 2025, NCM LLC as borrower, entered into a Loan and Security Agreement with U.S. Bank National Association, as lender. The agreement provides for a $45.0 million senior secured revolving credit facility (the “2025 Credit Facility”) that matures on January 24, 2028. In connection with entering into the 2025 Credit Facility, NCM LLC repaid in full the $10.0 million balance outstanding as of December 26, 2024 and terminated all commitments under its 2023 Revolving Credit Facility. While the 2025 Credit Facility provides benefits to the Company relative to the Revolving Credit Facility 2023, the restrictions in the 2025 Credit Facility may restrict NCM LLC from taking actions, distributing cash or entering into agreements to raise additional capital, and the availability of the 2025 Credit Facility may be insufficient for NCM LLC’s needs, particularly in the event of an economic downturn. The Company’s future capital resource and flexibility needs are difficult to predict at this time and will depend on (i) NCM LLC’s ability to comply with the terms and conditions of the 2025 Credit Facility, (ii) ability to general sufficient cash flow from operations and (iii) future strategic initiatives. ***The personal information we collect and maintain through our data and digital services, as well as from third-party sources, may expose us to liability or cause us to incur greater operating expenses.*** We collect personal information from users of our websites or apps, including those users who establish accounts, or users who view certain advertising displayed through our data and digital services. We receive certain personal information regarding consumers who enter the theaters in our network, including places visited before entering the theater and after leaving the theater, from third parties to supplement or enhance the information we collect and maintain about users of our data and digital services or individuals who view advertising or enter theaters. We also collect personal information relating to individuals who are job applicants, employees, stockholders, directors, officers and independent contractors of NCM, as well as emergency contact information they provide. In addition, we collect personal information relating to employees, owners, directors, officers and independent contractors of other organizations within the context of conducting due diligence regarding or providing or receiving a product or service to or from such organization. The collection and use of this information is governed by applicable privacy, information security and consumer protection laws and regulations that continue to evolve and may be inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another. Compliance with all such laws and regulations may increase our operating costs and adversely impact our ability to offer our clients advertising targeted to moviegoer demographics or to interact with users of our data and digital services, and could result in legal liability. For example, the failure, or perceived failure, to comply with applicable privacy information security or consumer protection-related laws or regulations or our posted privacy policies could result in actions against us by governmental entities or others. If an actual or perceived breach of our data occurs, we could incur significant costs notifying affected individuals and providing them with credit monitoring services. The market perception of the effectiveness of our security measures could also be harmed, and we could lose users of these services and the associated benefits from gathering such user data. ***Changes in laws, regulations or rules relating to privacy, data security, the Internet or other areas of our data and digital services may result in the need to alter our business practices or incur greater operating expenses.*** A number of statutes, regulations and rules may impact our business as a result of our data and digital services and our use of personal information we receive from third parties. For example, privacy laws that have passed or are being contemplated give, or will give, individuals additional rights with regards to the collection, use, access to, correction, deletion, selling, sharing and protection of their personal information and sensitive personal information. The costs of compliance with privacy laws, regulations and rules and other regulations relating to our data and digital services or other areas of our business, may be significant. The manner in which these and other regulations may be interpreted or enforced may subject us to potential liability, which in turn could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition. Changes to these and other regulations may impose additional burdens on us or otherwise adversely affect our business and financial results because of, for example, increased costs relating to legal compliance, defense against claims, adverse rulings or damages, the reduction or elimination of features, functionality or content from our data or digital services or our inability to use unique data records effectively. Likewise, any failure on our part to comply with these and other regulations may subject us to additional liabilities. ***The markets for advertising are competitive and we may be unable to compete successfully.*** The market for advertising is very competitive. Cinema advertising is a small component of video advertising in the U.S. and thus, we must compete with established, larger and better known national and local media platforms such as cable, broadcast and satellite television networks, ad supported video-on-demand and other video media platforms. In addition to these video advertising platforms, we compete for advertising directly with additional media platforms, including digital advertising providers, online, digital out-of-home and mobile, radio, various local print media and billboards, and other cinema advertising companies. We expect all of these competitors to devote significant effort to maintaining and growing their business, which may be at our expense. We also expect existing competitors and new entrants to the advertising business, most notably the online, digital out-of-home and mobile advertising companies and ad supported video-on-demand platforms, to constantly revise and improve their business models to meet expectations of advertising clients. NCM's position in various categories as a premium provider of advertising could deter advertisers from utilizing our services due to the high cost. Certain ad agencies may also deem NCM to be a provider of digital-out-of-home rather than video advertising, which could limit NCM's access to advertising budgets. In addition, the pricing and volume of advertising may be affected by shifts in spending toward digital platforms from more traditional media, or toward new ways of purchasing advertising, such as through automated purchasing, dynamic advertising insertion, third parties selling local advertising posts and advertising exchanges, some or all of which may not be as advantageous to the Company as current advertising methods. Expenditures by advertisers tend to be cyclical, reflecting overall economic conditions, as well as budgeting and buying patterns. A decline in the economic prospects of advertisers, industries, such as retail or consumer products, or the economy in general could alter current or prospective advertisers’ spending priorities, including changes in prospects caused by inflationary pressures, pandemics or other events. If we cannot respond effectively to media marketplace changes, advertising market changes, new entrants or advances by our existing competitors, our business may be adversely affected. Additionally, the number of films and mix of film ratings of the available motion pictures, such as the proportion of G and PG rated films or a shift in the types and numbers of films being shown in theaters, could cause advertisers to reduce their spending with us as the theater patrons for the available films may not represent those advertisers’ target markets. Advertising demand also impacts the price (CPM) we are able to charge our clients. Due to increased competition, combined with seasonal marketplace supply and demand characteristics, we have experienced volatility in our pricing (CPMs) over the years, with annual national CPM increases (decreases) ranging from (4.2%) to 23.6% from 2015 to 2024 (excluding 2020). ***If we do not continue to upgrade our technology, our business could fail to grow and revenue and operating margins could decline.*** In early 2021, we implemented a new cinema advertising management system which was developed by a third-party vendor. This system replaced many of our internally developed systems and provides delivery optimization, inventory management and monetization, intelligent dynamic scheduling, increased flexibility, and workflow automation. The system also interfaces with our accounting system thus driving client invoicing and revenue recognition. Given the pervasive impact of this new system on the Company's processes, problems with the system and software could cause operational difficulties, lead to errors within our financial reporting and slow or prevent the growth of our business in the future. As we continue to move our technology to cloud-based SaaS platforms, our operating results may be impacted as operating expenses associated with the SaaS licenses may increase as our annual capital expenditure spending may decrease and this shift in costs may exceed our current estimates. If our cinema advertising management system does not successfully provide all of the services we expect, if we are unable to continue to successfully and cost-effectively implement further upgrades to the system, which may include the integration of other third-party technology products, or if we lose access to the system through termination of the agreement or otherwise, our ability to offer our clients innovative, unique, integrated and targeted marketing products may be impacted, which could limit our future revenue growth. The Company has also been improving its technology systems to allow the delivery and sale of advertising through programmatic and self-serve channels, which has increased revenue opportunities. The Company may not be able to keep up with the pace of technology or develop solutions that meet the demands of the Company’s current and future advertising clients, which would result in the loss of potential advertising opportunities in the future. The failure to upgrade and maintain our technology allowing our advertising to reach a broader audience and allow for more targeted marketing products similar to other products in the industry could hurt our ability to compete. Under the ESAs, the ESA Parties are required to provide technology that is consistent with that in place at the signing of the ESA. We may request that the ESA Parties or other theaters in our network upgrade the equipment or software installed in their theaters, but we must negotiate as to the terms of such upgrade, including cost sharing terms, if any. If we are not able to come to an agreement on a future upgrade request, we may elect to pay for the upgrades requested which could result in our incurring significant capital expenditures that could adversely affect our profitability. ***Economic uncertainty or deterioration in economic conditions may adversely impact our business, operating results or financial condition.*** The financial markets have experienced extreme disruption and volatility at times. A decline in consumer spending in the U.S. may lead to decreased demand for our services or delay in payments by our advertising clients, and our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected. These challenging economic conditions also may result in: - increased competition for fewer advertising and entertainment programming dollars; - pricing pressure that may adversely affect revenue and gross margin; - declining attendance and thus a decline in the impressions available for The *Noovie* Show; - reduced credit availability and/or access to capital markets; - difficulty forecasting, budgeting and planning due to limited visibility into the spending plans of current or prospective clients; - client financial difficulty and increased risk of uncollectible accounts; or - financial difficulty for NCM LLC’s network theaters. ***We are subject to risks from changes to regulations, government funding, trade policies and tariffs imposed by governments that impact our advertising clients.*** Changes in regulations, government funding, trade policies and tariffs imposed by the U.S. and other governments could have an impact on our advertising clients. If our advertising clients’ operating costs increase due to the changes in policy, and they are unsuccessful in passing these increases along to consumers, then the advertisers will likely seek to reduce costs in other ways, including advertising. Additionally, changes in regulations, government funding, trade policies and tariffs could also have the impact of preventing our advertising clients from deploying new goods and services and reducing the related advertising dollars. The recently announced tariffs by the U.S. government on product imports from certain countries may result in an outsize impact on certain industries that are key advertising categories for us, including automotive and consumer goods. Our local team also sells advertising to government agencies that may be impacted if the level of government funding is reduced or eliminated. The uncertainty regarding the ultimate impact of any changes in regulations, government funding, trade policies or tariffs could also impact our advertisers as they continue to determine changes needed to their businesses. ***Our Adjusted OIBDA is derived from high margin advertising revenue. Our contractual costs will grow over time, and the reduction in spending by or loss of a national advertiser or group of local advertisers or failure to grow our advertising revenue in line with these costs could have a meaningful adverse effect on our business.*** The ESAs and certain of our network affiliate agreements include automatic annual cost or fee increases. The theater access fees under the ESAs are composed of a fixed payment per patron, increasing by 8% every five years, and a fixed payment per digital screen connected to the DCN, increasing annually by 5%, and certain of our network affiliate agreements include annual increases in the minimum fee per patron payable. If NCM LLC further amends the ESAs or network affiliate agreements in response to market conditions or in connection with the bankruptcy of a counterparty, the costs could increase. If we are unable to grow our high margin advertising revenue at a rate at least equal to that of our contractual obligations, our margins and results would be negatively affected. We generate all of our operating income and Adjusted OIBDA from our high margin advertising business. Advertisers will not continue to do business with us if they believe our advertising medium is ineffective, unpredictable or overly expensive or lacks sufficient scale. In addition, large advertisers generally have set advertising budgets, of which cinema advertising may only be a small portion. Reductions in the size of advertisers’ budgets due to local or national economic trends, epidemics, pandemics, other natural disasters or similar events, a shift in spending to other advertising mediums, perception of uncertainty in advertising mediums, or other factors could result in lower spending on our advertising inventory. Advertisers are spending in the scatter market closer to the start date of their advertising campaign. A substantial portion of our advertising revenue relates to contracts with terms of a month or less, and clients have many video media choices and can adjust where ads are placed up until their airdates without the risk of securing desired impressions. We have previously been successful in securing favorable upfront advertising agreements, but as advertising spending shifts to the scatter market closer to the start date of advertising campaigns, our ability to maintain high CPMs in the upfront markets may decrease and it is more difficult for the Company to plan and forecast revenue. Additionally, since most of our advertising contracts are tied to a specified number of impressions over a period of time, if we do not properly forecast the number of impressions available over a period of advertising or if too few impressions are available, it could result in underdelivery requiring us to provide additional time to satisfy advertiser’s contracts rather than additional revenue, or if too many impressions are available, it could result in increased fixed fee per patron fees to theaters without a corresponding increase in revenue. If we are unable to remain competitive and provide value to our advertising clients, they may reduce their advertising purchases or stop placing advertisements with us. Even the loss of a small number of clients on large contracts that we are not able to replace would negatively affect our results. We also derive a significant portion of our revenue from our contracts with our content partners, courtesy PSAs and the ESA Parties’ agreements to purchase on-screen advertising for their beverage concessionaires. We are not direct parties to the agreements between the ESA Parties’ and their beverage concessionaires but expect that each ESA Party will have an agreement with a beverage concessionaire to provide advertising for the foreseeable future. The Company had one agency through which it sourced advertising revenue that accounted for more than 14.7% of the Company’s gross outstanding receivable balance as of December 26, 2024. The Company had no agencies through which it sourced advertising revenue that accounted for more than 10% of the Company's gross outstanding receivable balance as of December 28, 2023. During the year ended December 26, 2024, the Company had no customer that accounted for 10% or more of the Company's revenue. During the year ended December 28, 2023, the Company had one customer that accounted for 11.2%, respectively, of the Company's revenue. Because we derive a significant percentage of our total revenue from a relatively small number of large companies, the loss of one or more as a customer could decrease our revenue and adversely affect current and future operating results. ***Our contracts for theater advertising allow certain counterparties to engage in activities that might compete with certain elements of our business, which could reduce our revenue and growth potential.*** The ESAs and network affiliate agreements contain certain limited exceptions to our exclusive right to use the counterparties’ theaters for our advertising business. Certain counterparties have the right to enter into a limited number of strategic cross-marketing relationships with third-party, unaffiliated businesses for the purpose of generating increased attendance or revenue (other than revenue from the sale of advertising). NCM has limited rights or does not have the right to advertise in certain theater lobbies or agreed to allow the counterparty to sell certain types of inventory on their own behalf. Some of these strategic marketing relationships can include the use of on-screen, LEN and certain types of lobby promotions and can be provided at no cost, but only for the purpose of promoting the products or services of those businesses while at the same time promoting the theater circuit or the movie-going experience and some of these exceptions are broader. The use of LEN or lobby promotions or other inventory by the theater counterparties for these advertisements and programs could result in the theater counterparties creating relationships with advertisers that could adversely affect our advertising revenue and profitability, as well as the potential we have to grow that advertising revenue in the future. In particular, the LEN and lobby promotions represented approximately 0.5% and 0.9% of our total advertising revenue for the year ended December 26, 2024 and December 28, 2023, respectively. The ESA Parties also have the right to install a network of video monitors in the theater lobbies in excess of those required to be installed for the LEN, and this right has been used to install a significant number of video monitors in theater lobbies. The presence of this additional lobby video network could reduce the effectiveness of our LEN, thereby reducing our current LEN advertising revenue and profitability and adversely affecting future revenue potential associated with that marketing platform. Other network affiliates also have the right to display advertising in the lobby or other areas of their theaters that could potentially conflict with our on-screen advertising. ***We depend upon our senior management and our business may be adversely affected if we cannot retain or replace them.*** Our success depends in part upon the retention of our experienced senior management with specialized industry, sales and technical knowledge or industry relationships. In May 2024, the Company replaced its President of Sales, Marketing and Partnerships. If we are not able to find qualified internal or external replacements for critical members of our senior management team, the loss of these key employees could have a material negative impact on our ability to effectively pursue our business strategy and our relationships with advertisers, exhibitors, media and content partners. While the Company has been able to retain our senior management, there is no guarantee that the Company will continue to be able to recruit experienced replacements, or that the Company will not be required to institute additional retention or incentive programs in order to retain senior management. We do not have key-man life insurance covering any of our employees. ***The ESA Parties and our network affiliates are subject to substantial government regulation, which could limit their current business, slow their future growth of locations and screens and in turn impact our business and slow our growth prospects.*** The ESA Parties and our network affiliates are subject to various federal, state and local laws, regulations and administrative practices affecting their movie theater business, including provisions regulating antitrust, health, safety and sanitation standards (including in connection with the COVID-19 Pandemic or other public health events), access for those with disabilities, environmental, and licensing. Some of these laws and regulations also apply directly to us and NCM LLC. Changes in existing laws or implementation of new laws, regulations and practices could have a significant impact on the ESA Parties’, our network affiliates’ and our respective businesses. For example, during a portion of the COVID-19 Pandemic, health and safety laws restricted the ability of the ESA Parties and network affiliates from opening their theaters and operating at full capacity, which significantly impacted their and our businesses. ***We may be unable to effectively manage changes to our business strategy to continue the growth of our advertising inventory and network.*** If we do not effectively implement our strategy, we may not be able to continue our historical growth. To effectively execute on our strategy to expand our digital offerings and continue to grow our inventory, we will need to develop additional products or obtain access to third-party digital inventory. These enhancements and improvements could require an additional allocation of financial and management resources and acquisition of talent. High turnover, loss of specialized talent or insufficient capital could also place significant demands on management, the success of the organization and our strategic outlook. Our ability to invest in our existing digital business, our new digital out-of-home business and other ventures has been and will continue to be negatively impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic, NCM LLC’s Chapter 11 Case, and the current industry and economic environment, which may decrease the growth of these businesses. The amount of in-theater inventory we have to sell is limited by the length of The *Noovie®* Show. In order to maintain in-theater growth we will need to expand the number of theaters and screens in our network. If we lose a significant number of theaters or are unable to expand our network, our revenue and operating results could be adversely impacted. ***Our revenue and Adjusted OIBDA fluctuate from quarter to quarter and may be unpredictable, which could increase the volatility of our stock price.*** A weak advertising market, the shift in spending of a major client from one quarter to another, the performance of films released or the mix of attendance from the type and rating of films in a given quarter, a disruption in the release schedule of films or changes in the television scatter market could significantly affect quarter-to-quarter results or even affect annual results. Our revenue and operating results are seasonal in nature, coinciding with the timing of marketing expenditures by our advertising clients and, to a lesser extent, the attendance patterns within the film exhibition industry, which have historically been higher during the second, third and fourth fiscal quarters. Because our results may vary from quarter to quarter and may be unpredictable, our financial results for one quarter cannot necessarily be compared to another quarter or the same quarter in prior years and may not be indicative of our financial performance in subsequent quarters. Additionally, the bankruptcy of one of NCM LLC’s significant network theater circuits, or negative news regarding the theater industry, cinema advertising generally or us could lead to increased volatility in revenue from quarter to quarter. These variations in our financial results could contribute to volatility in our stock price. ***Our business, services or technology may infringe on intellectual property rights owned by others, which may interfere with our ability to provide services or expose us to increased liability or expense, or otherwise may be affected by our efforts to protect our intellectual property or restrictions or obligations in third-party licenses.*** Our business uses a variety of intellectual property rights, including copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, domain names and patents or patentable ideas in the provision of our advertising services, the websites we operate at ncm.com and *Noovie.com*, our digital gaming products including *Noovie* Trivia and the features and functionality, content and software we make available through those websites and apps. We rely on our own intellectual property rights, as well as intellectual property rights obtained from third parties (including through open-source licenses), to conduct our business and provide our in-theater, data, digital and creative services. We may incur expenses, some of which may be significant, in developing, protecting, maintaining, and defending our intellectual property rights or licensing intellectual property from third parties. In some instances, we may not be able to or may choose not to protect, maintain or defend our intellectual property rights or the laws of certain foreign countries may not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as do the laws of the U.S. We may discover that our business or the technology or methods we use to operate our business infringes patent, trademark, copyright, publicity rights, or other intellectual property rights owned by others or is otherwise negatively impacted by restrictions imposed by our obligations under third-party intellectual property licenses. In addition, our competitors or others may claim rights in patents, trademarks, copyrights, publicity rights, or other intellectual property rights that will prevent, limit or interfere with our ability to provide our in-theater, data, or digital services either in the U.S. or in international markets. We may incur significant costs in protecting our own intellectual property rights or defending or settling intellectual property infringement claims and may face significant damage awards (including the potential for awards of attorneys’ fees) if we are found to be infringing third-party intellectual property rights. Our in-theater, data and digital services facilitate the distribution of content, and we create content for others. This content includes advertising-related content, as well as movie, television, music, gaming and other media content, much of which is obtained from third parties. Our apps, websites and social media channels also include features enabling users to upload or add their own content and modify certain content. As a distributor of content, we face potential liability for negligence, copyright, patent, trademark or publicity infringement, or other claims based on the content that we distribute or create for others. We or entities that we license or receive content from or distribute content through may not be adequately insured or indemnified to cover claims of these types or liability that may be imposed on us. ### Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure ***We are a holding company with no operations of our own, and we depend on distributions and payments under the NCM LLC operating and management services agreements from NCM LLC to meet our ongoing obligations.*** We are a holding company with no operations of our own and have no independent ability to generate cash flow other than interest income on cash balances or other securities owned. Consequently, our ability to obtain operating funds primarily depends upon distributions and payments under the NCM LLC operating and management services agreement from NCM LLC. The distribution of cash flows and other transfers of funds by NCM LLC to us are subject to statutory and contractual restrictions based upon NCM LLC’s financial performance, including NCM LLC’s compliance with the covenants in the 2025 Credit Facility and the NCM LLC Operating Agreement. The 2025 Credit Facility may limit NCM LLC’s ability to distribute cash to its members, including us, based upon certain financial tests, with exceptions for, among other things, payment of our income taxes and a management fee to NCM, Inc. pursuant to the terms of the management services agreement. The declaration of future dividends on our common stock will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend upon many factors, including NCM LLC’s results of operations, financial condition, earnings, capital requirements, limitations in the 2025 Credit Facility and legal requirements. In the event NCM LLC fails to comply with these covenants and is unable to distribute cash to us quarterly, NCM, Inc.’s ability to make distributions or pay other expenses outside the ordinary course of business may be limited. Pursuant to the management services agreement between us and NCM LLC, NCM LLC makes payments to us to fund our day-to-day operating expenses, such as payroll. However, if NCM LLC has insufficient cash flow to make the payments pursuant to the management services agreement, we may be unable to cover these expenses. As a member of NCM LLC, we incur income taxes on our proportionate share of any net taxable income of NCM LLC. The 2025 Credit Facility is structured to allow NCM LLC to distribute cash to its members (including us and NCM LLC’s other members, if any) in amounts sufficient to cover their tax liabilities and management fees, if any. To the extent that NCM LLC has insufficient cash flow to make such payments, it could have a negative impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects. ***The Company’s actual financial results following NCM LLC’s emergence from bankruptcy may not be comparable to the Company’s historical financial information or to NCM LLC’s projections filed with the Bankruptcy Court.*** The Company has historically consolidated NCM LLC’s financial statements, but upon the filing of the Chapter 11 Case and in accordance with applicable GAAP, the Company concluded that NCM, Inc. no longer controlled NCM LLC for accounting purposes as of April 11, 2023, the date on which NCM LLC filed its Chapter 11 Case and NCM LLC was deconsolidated from the Company’s consolidated financial statements prospectively. On August 7, 2023, and subsequent to NCM LLC’s emergence from bankruptcy, NCM, Inc. regained control of NCM LLC. The reconsolidation was treated for accounting purposes as a business combination under *ASC 805—Business Combinations* and accordingly, the purchase price was allocated to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed based on their estimated fair values as of the date of acquisition, the Effective Date. Accordingly, the Company’s future results of operations, financial condition and business may not be comparable to the results of operations, financial condition and business reflected in our historical financial statements. In connection with filings made with the Bankruptcy Court and as cleansing materials after negotiations with NCM LLC’s creditors, the Company disclosed projected financial information regarding NCM LLC’s future prospects. Those projections were prepared solely for the purpose of negotiations and the bankruptcy proceedings and have not been, and will not be, updated on an ongoing basis and should not be relied upon by investors. At the time they were prepared, the projections reflected numerous assumptions concerning our anticipated future performance with respect to prevailing and anticipated market and economic conditions that were and remain beyond our control and that may not materialize. Projections are inherently subject to substantial and numerous uncertainties and to a wide variety of significant business, economic and competitive risks and the assumptions underlying the projections and/or valuation estimates may prove to be wrong in material respects. Actual results may vary significantly from those contemplated by the projections. As a result, investors should not rely on these projections. ***NCM LLC’s other equityholders or their affiliates, as well as our largest stockholders, may have interests that differ from those of our public stockholders and they may be able to influence our affairs.*** As of the Effective Date, NCM Inc. was the only beneficial owner of NCM LLC’s membership units, but AMC and Cinemark continue to have rights to receive additional units pursuant to the terms of the Common Unit Adjustment Agreement. As of August 7, 2023, Blantyre Capital Limited ("Blantyre Capital"), our largest stockholder, obtained beneficial ownership of 26,664,349 shares of our common stock. Their beneficial ownership remains unchanged, representing 27.8% of the Company’s shares outstanding as of December 26, 2024. Additionally, the Company entered into a Director Designation Agreement (the “Designation Agreement”) among the Company, the Consenting Creditor Designation Committee (the “Designation Committee”) and Blantyre Capital in accordance with the Plan. The Designation Agreement provides for the designation of up to six directors, three of whom must be independent, by the Designation Committee and Blantyre Capital with up to two of the directors designated by Blantyre Capital. The number of directors designated will vary based on the ownership level of the Consenting Creditors under the Designation Agreement. In 2024, four directors were appointed under the Designation Agreement. As a result, these stockholders could be in a position to influence or control to some degree the outcome of matters requiring stockholder approval, including the adoption of amendments to our certificate of incorporation and the approval of mergers and other significant corporate transactions. Their influence or control of our Company and NCM LLC may have the effect of delaying or promoting a change of control of our Company and may adversely affect the voting and other rights of other stockholders. It is possible that the interests of these stockholders may in some circumstances conflict with our interests and the interests of our other stockholders. For example, Blantyre Capital is in the business of making investments in companies and may hold, and may from time to time in the future acquire, interests in or provide advice to businesses that directly or indirectly compete with us. As another example, Cinemark may own shares of NCM, Inc. stock and may have different tax positions from us, especially in light of the TRA that provides for the payment by us to Cinemark of 90% of the amount of any tax benefits that we actually realize, or in some cases are deemed to realize, due to Cinemark’s portion of certain tax assets. This could influence Cinemark’s decisions regarding whether and when we should dispose of assets, and whether and when we or NCM LLC should incur indebtedness. ***The agreements between us and the ESA Parties were made in the context of an affiliated relationship and may contain different terms than comparable agreements with unaffiliated third parties.*** The ESAs and the other contractual agreements that we have with the ESA Parties were originally negotiated in the context of an affiliated relationship in which representatives of the ESA Parties and their affiliates comprised our entire Board of Directors. As a result, the financial provisions and the other terms of these agreements, such as covenants, contractual obligations on our part and on the part of the ESA Parties and termination and default provisions may be less favorable to us than terms that we might have obtained in negotiations with unaffiliated third parties in similar circumstances. ***Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain anti-takeover protections that may discourage or prevent strategic transactions, including a takeover of our Company, even if such a transaction would be beneficial to our stockholders.*** Provisions contained in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, the NCM LLC Operating Agreement, and provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”), could delay or prevent a third-party from entering into a strategic transaction with us, even if such a transaction would benefit our stockholders. For example, our certificate of incorporation and bylaws: - authorize the issuance of “blank check” preferred stock that could be issued by our Board of Directors to increase the number of outstanding shares, making a takeover more difficult and expensive; - prohibit stockholder action by written consent; and - do not permit cumulative voting in the election of directors, which would otherwise allow less than a majority of stockholders to elect director candidates. These restrictions could keep us from pursuing relationships with strategic partners and from raising additional capital, which could impede our ability to expand our business and strengthen our competitive position. These restrictions could also limit stockholder value by impeding a sale of us or NCM LLC. Further, these restrictions could restrict or limit certain investors from owning our stock. ***Any future issuance of membership units by NCM LLC and subsequent redemption of such units for common stock could dilute the voting power of our existing common stockholders and adversely affect the market value of our common stock.*** The Common Unit Adjustment Agreement and the ESAs provide that NCM LLC will issue common membership units to account for changes in attendance associated with the theaters that the ESA Parties operate and which are made part of our advertising network. Historically, each of the ESA Parties has increased the attendance associated with the theaters it operates in most years. If this trend continues, NCM LLC may issue additional common membership units to the ESA Parties to reflect their increases in attendance associated with theaters. Each common membership unit may be redeemed in exchange for, at our option, shares of our common stock on a one-for-one basis or a cash payment equal to the market price of one share of our common stock. Other than the maximum number of authorized shares of common stock in our certificate of incorporation, there is no limit on the number of shares of our common stock that we may issue upon redemption of an ESA Party’s common membership units in NCM LLC. For further information, refer to Note 6 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this document. ***Our future issuance of preferred stock could dilute the voting power of our common stockholders and adversely affect the market value of our common stock.*** In connection with NCM LLC’s Plan and the terms of the Restructuring Support Agreement, NCM, Inc. issued 5,000,000 shares of Series A Preferred Stock. The Series A Preferred Stock had no dividends or other economic rights, but voted with the shares of Common Stock with a number of votes per share of Series A Preferred Stock equal to 217.47 shares of common stock. The Series A Preferred Stock was cancelled on August 7, 2023 and no shares remain outstanding. Additionally, on the Effective Date and in connection the consummation of the transactions contemplated by the Plan, the Company issued 50 shares of Series B Preferred Stock to Mr. Lesinski. The Series B Preferred Stock has no voting rights, but shall be entitled to receive cumulative dividends at a dividend rate of 11.0% on the per share liquidation value of $1,000 per share. The future issuance of shares of preferred stock with voting rights may adversely affect the voting power of the holders of our other classes of voting stock, either by diluting the voting power of our other classes of voting stock if they vote together as a single class, or by giving the holders of any such preferred stock the right to block an action on which they have a separate class vote even if the action were approved by the holders of our other classes of voting stock. The future issuance of shares of preferred stock with dividend or conversion rights, liquidation preferences or other economic terms favorable to the holders of preferred stock could adversely affect the market price for our common stock by making an investment in the common stock less attractive. For example, investors in the common stock may not wish to purchase common stock at a price above the conversion price of a series of convertible preferred stock because the holders of the preferred stock would effectively be entitled to purchase common stock at the lower conversion price causing economic dilution to the holders of common stock. ***If we are determined to be an investment company, we would become subject to burdensome regulatory requirements and our business activities could be restricted.*** We do not believe that we are an “investment company” under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. As sole manager of NCM LLC, we control NCM LLC, and our interest in NCM LLC is not an “investment security” as that term is used in the Investment Company Act of 1940. If we were to stop participating in the management of NCM LLC, our interest in NCM LLC could be deemed an “investment security” for purposes of the Investment Company Act of 1940. Generally, a company is an “investment company” if it owns investment securities having a value exceeding 40% of the value of its total assets (excluding U.S. government securities and cash items). Our sole material asset is our equity interest in NCM LLC, and we and NCM LLC intend to conduct our operations so that we are not deemed an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940. However, a determination that we are an investment company would cause us to become subject to registration and other burdensome requirements of the Investment Company Act, which could restrict our business activities, including our ability to issue securities, limitations on our capital structure and our ability to enter into transactions with our affiliates. This may make it impractical for us to continue our business as currently conducted and could have a material negative impact on our financial performance and operations. ***Our TRA with the ESA Parties is expected to reduce the amount of overall cash flow that would otherwise be available to us and will increase our potential exposure to the financial condition of the ESA Parties.*** Our initial public offering and related transactions have the effect of reducing the amounts NCM, Inc. would otherwise pay in the future to various tax authorities as a result of an increase in its proportionate share of tax basis in NCM LLC’s tangible and intangible assets. We have agreed in our TRA with the ESA Parties to pay to the ESA Parties 90% of the amount by which NCM, Inc.’s tax payments to various tax authorities are reduced as a result of the increase in tax basis associated with the ESA Parties’ share of certain tax assets. After paying these reduced amounts to tax authorities, if it is determined as a result of an income tax audit or examination that any amount of NCM, Inc.’s claimed tax benefits should not have been available, NCM, Inc. may be required to pay additional taxes and possibly penalties and interest to one or more tax authorities. If this were to occur and if one or more of the ESA Parties was insolvent or bankrupt or otherwise unable to make payment under its indemnification obligation under the TRA, then NCM, Inc.’s financial condition could be negatively impacted. ***The substantial number of shares that are eligible for sale could cause the market price for our common stock to decline or make it difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future.*** We cannot predict the effect, if any, that market sales of shares of common stock by Blantyre Capital, Cinemark or any of our significant stockholders will have on the market price of our common stock from time to time. Sales of substantial amounts of shares of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that those sales will occur, could cause the market price of our common stock to decline or make future offerings of our equity securities more difficult. If we are unable to sell equity securities at times and prices that we deem appropriate, we may be unable to fund growth. Additionally, once equity awards held by our employees become vested and/or exercisable, as applicable, to the extent that they are not held by one of our affiliates, the shares acquired upon vesting or exercise are freely tradable. ## Cybersecurity As filed, 4,204 characters. ### Risk Management and Strategy We maintain a cybersecurity management program designed to identify, assess, manage, mitigate and respond to cybersecurity threats and incidents. We review our program design on at least a quarterly basis and update as needed to address the risks and threats that our corporate security team has identified. Our team also benchmarks our program to industry recognized frameworks, including the International Organization for Standardization. The Audit Committee of the Board of Directors receives regular reports on cybersecurity risks and evaluates these risks as a part of their enterprise risk review. Our teams also rely on third-party diagnostic tools and periodic audits to ensure that our program is performing as designed and in-line with applicable standards. Our Chief Information Officer oversees a security committee made up of professionals on our corporate security and other information technology teams to review the results of these audits and recommend improvements. Prior to engaging a third party to provide services, our information technology team performs a risk assessment to determine the level of review of the vendor needed based on the nature of the services to be provided and type of information that may be shared. The resulting vendor review may include requiring the vendor to provide the results of external audits. We continue to monitor our vendors throughout their engagements with us to ensure they have complied with their contractual obligations, including service level agreements and other contractual standards. We have also established an incident response plan to assess, identify and manage specific potential cybersecurity incidents. This plan requires the corporate security team to notify a response team. The response team assesses the risks of the identified potential incident and determines an appropriate response based on the risks identified. The response team then reports on the incident to senior management and, if necessary, a subset of our financial disclosure committee to determine if the cybersecurity incident should be reported in our public filings. We face cybersecurity risks in connection with our business operations. Although such risks have not materially affected us, including our business strategy, results of operations or financial condition, to date, we have experienced threats to our data and systems, including social engineering threats, denial of service attacks, malware and computer virus attacks. For more information about the cybersecurity risks we face, see Item 1A—*Risk Factors.* ### Governance ***Board Oversight—***The Audit Committee of the Board of Directors oversees the Company’s cybersecurity program. The cybersecurity team updates the Audit Committee on at least a quarterly basis to discuss the effectiveness of the Company’s risk management program, potential and identified threats, remediation and mitigation plans, and other topics as requested by the Audit Committee. The Audit Committee regularly reports to the full Board of Directors and management reports on specific matters as requested by the Board of Directors. ***Management’s Role—***The Company’s Chief Information Officer is responsible for the Company’s cybersecurity team and for reporting to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors. The Company’s corporate security team reports directly to the Chief Information Officer. Our Chief Information Officer has more than thirty years of experience managing communication networks, data centers, information technology teams, systems administration and cybersecurity in the media and advertising industry. Our corporate security team is similarly composed of seasoned professionals with significant experience in the field. The Chief Information Officer regularly informs the Company’s senior management regarding the prevention, detection, mitigation and remediation of cybersecurity incidents and supervises such efforts. The corporate security team has a broad range of experience selecting, deploying and operating cybersecurity technologies initiatives and seeks to ensure that each team stays educated on emerging technologies and threats. ## Properties As filed, 354 characters. The Company's headquarters are located in Centennial, Colorado. As of December 26, 2024, the Company also leases offices in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. We own no material real property. We believe that all of our present facilities are adequate for our current needs and that additional space is available for future expansion on acceptable terms. ## Legal proceedings As filed, 1,368 characters. On June 26, 2023, the Bankruptcy Court entered an order authorizing NCM LLC’s entry into the Regal Advertising Agreement and the Regal Termination Agreement (the “Regal Order”). On June 27, 2023, the Bankruptcy Court entered the Confirmation Order approving the Disclosure Statement on a final basis and confirming the Company’s Plan. On August 7, 2023, the conditions precedent to the Plan were satisfied and NCM LLC emerged from bankruptcy. On June 29, 2023, AMC and Cinemark filed a notice of appeal of the Confirmation Order, and a week later appealed the Regal Order. Subsequently, AMC and Cinemark sought a stay of the Confirmation Order and Regal Order in the Bankruptcy Court, the District Court for the Southern District of Texas, and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, all of which denied the request. Following AMC and Cinemark’s consolidated appeal on the merits, the District Court for the Southern District of Texas confirmed the Confirmation Order and the Regal Order on August 13, 2024. The consolidated appeals of the District Court’s decision on the merits are pending in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. We are sometimes involved in legal proceedings arising in the ordinary course of business. We are not aware of any other litigation currently pending that would have a material adverse effect on our operating results or financial condition. ## Management's discussion and analysis As filed, 80,405 characters. *As discussed in the forepart of this report, some of the information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this Form 10-K, including, without limitation, certain statements under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” may constitute forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify these “forward-looking statements” by the specific words, including but not limited to “may,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of those words and other comparable words. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with our historical financial statements and the related notes thereto included elsewhere in this document. In the following discussion and analysis, the term net income refers to net income attributable to NCM, Inc.* *This following section of this Form 10-K generally discusses fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2023 items and year-to-year comparisons between fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2023. Discussions of fiscal 2022 items and year-to-year comparisons between fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2022 that are not included in this Form 10-K can be found in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Part II, Item 7 of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 28, 2023.* ### Overview National CineMedia is the largest cinema advertising platform in the US. With unparalleled reach and scale, NCM connects brands to sought-after young, diverse audiences through the power of movies and pop culture. A premium video, full-funnel marketing solution for advertisers, NCM enhances marketers’ ability to measure and drive results. We currently derive revenue principally from the sale of advertising to national, regional and local businesses in The *Noovie®* Show, our cinema advertising and entertainment show seen on movie screens across the U.S. We present multiple formats of The *Noovie®* Show depending on the theater circuit in which it runs, which may include Post-Showtime advertising inventory after the advertised showtime. As of December 26, 2024, theaters presenting The *Noovie* Show format with Post-Showtime Inventory made up approximately 65.0% of our network. All other NCM network theater circuits, which make up the remaining 35.0% of our network, present The *Noovie* Show, without Post-Showtime advertising inventory. The movie trailers presented by the theater circuits that run before the feature film are not part of The *Noovie* Show. We also sell advertising on our LEN, a series of strategically-placed screens located in movie theater lobbies, as well as other forms of advertising, promotions and experiences in theater lobbies. In addition, we sell digital advertising through NCMx and NCM Boost, to connect brands with audiences across all screens, both in theaters and beyond, before, during and after their moviegoing experience. As of December 26, 2024, approximately 7.4 million moviegoers have downloaded our mobile apps. These downloads and the acquisition of second- and third-party data sets have resulted in unique data records of approximately 824.4 million as of December 26, 2024. We have long-term ESAs (approximately 14.1 weighted average years) with the ESA Parties and multi-year agreements with network affiliates, which expire at various dates between July 7, 2025 and July 13, 2033, with our largest affiliate agreement expiring on July 13, 2033. The weighted average remaining term of the ESAs and the network affiliate agreements is 11.3 years as of December 26, 2024. The ESAs and network affiliate agreements grant NCM LLC exclusive rights in their theaters to sell advertising, subject to limited exceptions. The *Noovie* Show and our LEN programming are distributed predominantly via satellite through our proprietary DCN. Management focuses on several measurements that we believe provide us with the necessary ratios and key performance indicators to manage our business, determine how we are performing versus our internal goals and targets, and against the performance of our competitors and other benchmarks in the marketplace in which we operate. We focus on many operating metrics including revenue, Adjusted OIBDA and Adjusted OIBDA margin, as some of our primary measurement metrics. In addition, we monitor our monthly advertising performance measurements, including advertising inventory utilization, advertising pricing (CPM), local advertising rate per theater per week, advertising revenue per attendee, as well as significant operating expenses and related trends. We also monitor free cash flow, cash balances, the fixed charge coverage ratio and revolving credit facility availability to ensure financial debt covenant compliance and that there is adequate cash availability to fund our working capital needs, debt obligations and any future dividends declared by our Board of Directors. ### Recent Developments ***Debt Agreement—***On January 24, 2025, NCM LLC as borrower, entered into a Loan and Security Agreement with U.S. Bank National Association, as lender. The agreement provides for a $45.0 million senior secured revolving credit facility (the “2025 Credit Facility”) that matures on January 24, 2028. In connection with entering into the 2025 Credit Facility, NCM LLC repaid in full the $10.0 million balance outstanding as of December 26, 2024 and terminated all commitments under its 2023 Revolving Credit Facility, and in connection with this termination, paid a prepayment fee equal to 1% of the total commitment. The 2025 Credit Facility is expected to result in a meaningful reduction of the Company’s overall interest expense, extends the maturity date to 2028 and is a cash flow-based revolving loan compared to the asset-based revolving loan of the 2023 Revolving Credit Facility. As of March 6, 2025, NCM LLC has not made any borrowings under the 2025 Credit Facility. Borrowings under the 2025 Credit Facility may be used for, among other things, working capital and other general corporate purposes of the Company and bear interest at a floating rate equal to term SOFR (subject to a floor of zero) plus an applicable margin of 2.00%, which is subject to increase by an additional 2.00% upon the occurrence of an event of default. ***Other Investments—***On October 1, 2024, the Company invested $1.0 million in cash to acquire equity interests in an advertising-related company. Additionally, on October 8, 2024, the Company entered into an agreement with an entertainment company to exchange $2.0 million of on-screen advertising to be provided over a three-year term for equity interests. These investments are included in ‘Other investments’ on the audited Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 26, 2024. ***Share Repurchase Program—***On March 18, 2024, the Board of Directors of the Company approved a stock repurchase program under which the Company is authorized to use assets of the Company to repurchase up to $100.0 million of shares of the Company’s Common Stock, exclusive of any fees, commissions or other expenses related to such repurchases, from time to time over a period of three years. Shares may be repurchased under the program through open market purchases, block trades, or accelerated or other structured share repurchase programs. During the year ended December 26, 2024, 2,524,991 shares were repurchased on the open market or privately negotiated purchases. In accordance with *Accounting Standards Codification (“*ASC”) *505—Equity*, these shares were retired and the excess over par value paid of $13.4 million was recorded as a reduction to retained earnings during the year ended December 26, 2024. ***Reverse Stock Split—***On August 3, 2023, the Company effected a one-for-ten (1:10) reverse stock split of its common stock, par value $0.01 per share. The reverse stock split, which was authorized by its Board of Directors, was approved by the Company’s stockholders on August 2, 2023. The reverse stock split reduced the number of outstanding shares of the Company’s common stock from 174,112,385 shares as of August 3, 2023, to 17,411,323 shares outstanding post-split. After the cancellation of Regal’s shares on August 7, 2023, there were 13,343,065 shares outstanding. The primary purpose of the reverse stock split was to comply with the Company’s obligations under the NCMI 9019 Settlement so that the Plan could become effective, as well as, to increase the per share market price of the Company’s common stock in an effort to maintain compliance with applicable Nasdaq continued listing standards with respect to the closing price of the Company’s common stock. ***Bankruptcy Filing, Deconsolidation and Reconsolidation of NCM LLC—***On April 11, 2023, NCM LLC filed a voluntary petition for reorganization with a prearranged Chapter 11 plan under Chapter 11 of Title 11 of the United States Code in the Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court. During the Chapter 11 Case, the Company was deemed to no longer control NCM LLC for accounting purposes and NCM LLC was deconsolidated from the Company’s financial statements prospectively as of April 11, 2023. We continued to operate as the manager of the debtor-in-possession pursuant to the authority granted under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code throughout the Chapter 11 Case. On June 27, 2023, the Bankruptcy Court entered the Confirmation Order approving the Disclosure Statement on a final basis and confirming the Company’s Plan. Following confirmation of the Plan on August 7, 2023, all the conditions to effectiveness of the Plan were satisfied or waived, the Restructuring Transactions were substantially consummated and NCM LLC emerged from bankruptcy. Among other things, on the Effective Date, in accordance with the Plan, all common units under the NCM LLC Operating Agreement were canceled and extinguished, NCM, Inc. received NCM LLC common units and transferred the NCM Capital Contribution of approximately $15.5 million to NCM LLC, NCM LLC assumed certain unexpired Executory Contracts and Unexpired Leases, including AMC’s and Cinemark’s ESAs, NCM LLC transferred $8.8 million of cash to a professional fees escrow account and $15.0 million to an unsecured creditor settlements escrow account for the General Unsecured Claim Pool. NCM LLC commenced distributions to creditors, including the issuance of shares of NCM, Inc. common stock to holders of Secured Debt Claims and NCM LLC entered into an Exit Facility to support operations upon emergence. As a result of the Plan, all historical debt of NCM LLC was discharged and NCM LLC recorded a gain on bankruptcy of $916.4 million for the year ended December 28, 2023. Additionally, upon emergence from bankruptcy, NCM, Inc., regained control and retained 100.0% ownership of NCM LLC, after taking into account elections by the holders of Secured Debt Claims to receive NCM, Inc. common stock in lieu of NCM LLC common units and was therefore reconsolidated into the Company’s financial statements prospectively as of August 7, 2023 akin to an acquisition under *ASC 805 – Business Combinations*. In accordance with *ASC 805 – Business Combinations*, the assets and liabilities of NCM LLC were adjusted to their estimated fair value as of the Effective Date. As of December 26, 2024, the Company has not completed all agreed upon payments to the General Unsecured Claim Pool, due to the existence of one pre-petition litigation matter that is ongoing in the Bankruptcy Court, the result of which could impact the payments to other unsecured creditors from the General Unsecured Claims Pool and held a total of $3.0 million within the escrow accounts and accruals, presented within ‘Restricted cash’ and ‘Accounts Payable’ on the audited Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 26, 2024 and December 28, 2023, respectively. ***Regal Advertising Agreement—***On September 7, 2022, Cineworld Group plc, the parent company of Regal, and certain of its subsidiaries, including Regal, Regal Cinemas, Inc., formerly a party to an ESA with NCM LLC, and Regal CineMedia Holdings, LLC, formerly a party to other agreements with NCM LLC and NCM, Inc., filed petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the Southern District of Texas. On October 21, 2022, Regal filed a motion to reject the ESA without specifying an effective date for the rejection and indicated that Regal planned on negotiating with NCM LLC. NCM LLC also filed an adversary proceeding against Regal seeking declaratory relief and an injunction prohibiting Regal from breaching certain exclusivity, non-compete, non-negotiate and confidentiality provisions in the ESA by entering into a new agreement with a third-party or bringing any of the services performed by NCM LLC in-house. On February 1, 2023, Cineworld filed a motion for summary judgment on NCM LLC’s adversary proceeding. On May 5, 2023, NCM LLC and Regal agreed to stay the ongoing litigation while the parties worked towards the terms of a new arrangement for NCM LLC to provide advertising services to Regal. In lieu of litigating Regal’s potential rejection of the ESA and NCM LLC’s adversary proceeding against Regal, the parties negotiated a Regal Advertising Agreement and Regal Termination Agreement. The Regal Advertising Agreement was effective on July 14, 2023 and provides that NCM LLC acquired the exclusive right to provide on-screen advertisements at Regal’s theaters for a term of ten years in exchange for payments based on the attendance at Regal’s theaters and the revenue generated by NCM LLC through advertising displayed in Regal’s theaters. Pursuant to the Regal Advertising Agreement, NCM LLC has the right to display advertising in Regal’s theaters with a program of inventory that provides for (i) up to five minutes in length for exhibition on-screen immediately prior to showtime of a feature film or digital programming event, (ii) up to ten minutes immediately after the showtime of a feature film, extending the time available to NCM LLC by five minutes, and (iii) the Platinum Spot that may be exhibited on-screen prior to the last two trailers, which may be either thirty or sixty seconds in length, and subject to Regal’s approval, NCM LLC may display two thirty-second spots in the Platinum Spot and a Gold Spot, a thirty second spot displayed immediately prior to the fourth trailer preceding a feature film or digital programming event. Pursuant to the Regal Termination Agreement, effective on July 14, 2023, Regal rejected and terminated the ESA. Additionally Regal and Regal’s affiliates’ waived all rights and interests as to the Tax Receivable Agreement, the Common Unit Adjustment Agreement, the Software License Agreement, the Director Designation Agreement, the Registration Rights Agreement and all the other joint venture agreements described in NCM LLC’s Company Operating Agreement and Regal and Regal’s affiliates waived and released claims against other parties thereto. In connection with the Regal Advertising Agreement, NCM LLC and Regal also agreed to dismiss with prejudice the ongoing litigation between the parties related to NCM LLC’s request to enforce certain provisions of the ESA, including the exclusivity provision. Following the effective date of the Regal Termination Agreement of July 14, 2023, Regal is no longer an ESA Party or related party and is included within the network affiliate metrics. ### Summary Operating Data The results of operations data for the years ended December 26, 2024 and December 28, 2023 and the balance sheet data as of December 26, 2024 and December 28, 2023 are derived from the audited Consolidated Financial Statements of NCM, Inc. included elsewhere in this document. Within the financial results outlined below, all activity during the Chapter 11 Case from April 11, 2023 to August 7, 2023 when NCM LLC was deconsolidated from NCM, Inc. represents activity and balances for NCM, Inc. standalone. All activity and balances prior to the deconsolidation of NCM LLC on April 11, 2023 and after the reconsolidation of NCM LLC on August 7, 2023 represent NCM, Inc. consolidated, inclusive of NCM LLC. The operating results for NCM LLC, which management believes better represent the Company’s historical consolidated performance, are presented separately subsequent to the operating data for NCM, Inc., which is presented below (dollars in millions, except share and margin data): *($ in millions)* | | Years Ended Dec. 26, 2024 | Dec. 28, 2023 | % Change 2023 to 2024 | | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | | Revenue | $240.8 | $165.2 | 45.8% | | Operating expenses: | | | | | Network operating costs | 13.7 | 10.6 | 29.2% | | ESA Parties and network affiliate fees | 111.9 | 69.5 | 61.0% | | Selling and marketing costs | 41.6 | 29.6 | 40.5% | | Administrative and other costs | 50.7 | 57.3 | (11.5)% | | Depreciation expense | 4.6 | 3.1 | 48.4% | | Amortization expense | 37.8 | 22.4 | 68.8% | | Total operating expenses | 260.3 | 192.5 | 35.2% | | Operating loss | (19.5) | (27.3) | (28.6)% | | Non-operating expense (income) | 2.6 | (724.0) | (100.4)% | | Income tax expense | 0.2 | — | 100.0% | | Net loss attributable to noncontrolling interests | — | (8.5) | (100.0)% | | Net (loss) income attributable to NCM, Inc. | $(22.3) | $705.2 | (103.2)% | | Net (loss) income per NCM, Inc. basic share | $(0.23) | $14.73 | (101.6)% | | Net (loss) income per NCM, Inc. diluted share | $(0.23) | $14.34 | (101.6)% | ### Basis of Presentation Prior to the completion of our IPO, NCM LLC was wholly-owned by its ESA Parties. In connection with the offering, NCM, Inc. purchased newly issued common membership units from NCM LLC and common membership units from NCM LLC’s ESA Parties and became a member of and the sole manager of NCM LLC. We entered into several agreements to effect the reorganization and the financing transaction and certain amendments were made to the existing ESAs to govern the relationships among NCM LLC and NCM LLC’s ESA Parties after the completion of these transactions. The results of operations data discussed herein were derived from the audited Consolidated Financial Statements and accounting records of NCM, Inc. and should be read in conjunction with the notes thereto. We have a 52-week or 53-week fiscal year ending on the first Thursday after December 25. Fiscal year 2024 contained 52 weeks and fiscal year 2023 contained 52 weeks. Our 2025 fiscal year will contain 53 weeks. Throughout this document, we refer to our fiscal years as set forth below: | | Reference in | | --- | --- | | **Fiscal Year Ended** | **this Document** | | December 26, 2024 | 2024 | | December 28, 2023 | 2023 | ### Results of Operations ### Fiscal Years 2024 and 2023 *Revenue*. Total revenue increased $75.6 million, or 45.8%, from $165.2 million for 2023 to $240.8 million for 2024. The following is a summary of revenue by category (in millions): | | Fiscal Year 2024 | 2023 | $ Change 2023 to 2024 | % Change 2023 to 2024 | | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | | National advertising revenue | $188.0 | $114.8 | $73.2 | 63.8% | | Local and regional advertising revenue | 39.1 | 30.4 | 8.7 | 28.6% | | ESA Party advertising revenue from beverage concessionaire agreements | 13.7 | 9.9 | 3.8 | 38.4% | | Management fee reimbursement | — | 10.1 | (10.1) | (100.0)% | | Total revenue | $240.8 | $165.2 | $75.6 | 45.8% | National advertising revenue. National advertising revenue increased by $73.2 million, or 63.8%, from $114.8 million in 2023 to $188.0 million in 2024. The increase in national advertising revenue was primarily due to the deconsolidation and reconsolidation of NCM LLC within 2023. The $114.8 million of revenue within 2023 represents the activity of NCM LLC prior to the deconsolidation of NCM LLC on April 11, 2023 and after the reconsolidation of NCM LLC on August 7, 2023, compared to the $188.0 million of revenue in 2024 representing a full year of consolidated activity. Local and regional advertising revenue. Local and regional advertising revenue increased by $8.7 million, or 28.6%, from $30.4 million in 2023 to $39.1 million in 2024. The increase in local and regional advertising revenue was primarily due to the deconsolidation and reconsolidation of NCM LLC within 2023. The $30.4 million of revenue within 2023 represents the activity of NCM LLC prior to the deconsolidation of NCM LLC on April 11, 2023 and after the reconsolidation of NCM LLC on August 7, 2023, compared to the $39.1 million of revenue in 2024 representing a full year of consolidated activity. ESA Party beverage revenue. ESA Party beverage revenue increased $3.8 million, or 38.4%, from $9.9 million in 2023 to $13.7 million in 2024. The increase in ESA Party beverage revenue was primarily due to the deconsolidation and reconsolidation of NCM LLC within 2023. The $9.9 million of revenue within 2023 represents the activity of NCM LLC prior to the deconsolidation of NCM LLC on April 11, 2023 and after the reconsolidation of NCM LLC on August 7, 2023, compared to the $13.7 million of revenue in 2024 representing a full year of consolidated activity. Management fee reimbursement. Management fee reimbursement decreased by $10.1 million, or 100.0%, from $10.1 million in 2023 to $0.0 million in 2024. The $10.1 million represents the revenue recognized by NCM, Inc. for managing unconsolidated NCM LLC during the unconsolidated period of 2023. This amount is equal to the expenses incurred by NCM, Inc. that were paid by NCM LLC. In 2024, NCM LLC is consolidated by NCM, Inc., following the completion of NCM LLC's Chapter 11 Case and these amounts have been eliminated upon consolidation. *Operating expenses.* Total operating expenses increased $67.8 million, or 35.2%, from $192.5 million for 2023 to $260.3 million for 2024. The following table shows the changes in operating expense for 2024 and 2023 (in millions): | | Fiscal Year 2024 | 2023 | $ Change 2023 to 2024 | % Change 2023 to 2024 | | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | | Network operating costs | $13.7 | $10.6 | $3.1 | 29.2% | | ESA Parties and network affiliate fees | 111.9 | 69.5 | 42.4 | 61.0% | | Selling and marketing costs | 41.6 | 29.6 | 12.0 | 40.5% | | Administrative and other costs | 50.7 | 57.3 | (6.6) | (11.5)% | | Depreciation expense | 4.6 | 3.1 | 1.5 | 48.4% | | Amortization expense | 37.8 | 22.4 | 15.4 | 68.8% | | Total operating expenses | $260.3 | $192.5 | $67.8 | 35.2% | Network operating costs. Network operating costs increased $3.1 million, or 29.2%, from $10.6 million in 2023 to $13.7 million in 2024. The increase in network operating costs was primarily due to the deconsolidation and reconsolidation of NCM LLC within 2023. The $10.6 million of expense within 2023 represents the activity of NCM LLC prior to the deconsolidation of NCM LLC on April 11, 2023 and after the reconsolidation of NCM LLC on August 7, 2023, compared to the $13.7 million of expense in 2024 representing a full year of consolidated activity. ESA Parties and network affiliate fees. ESA Parties and network affiliate fees increased $42.4 million, or 61.0%, from $69.5 million in 2023 to $111.9 million in 2024. The increase in ESA Parties and network affiliate fees was primarily due to the deconsolidation and reconsolidation of NCM LLC within 2023. The $69.5 million of expense within 2023 represents the activity of NCM LLC prior to the deconsolidation of NCM LLC on April 11, 2023 and after the reconsolidation of NCM LLC on August 7, 2023, compared to the $111.9 million of expense in 2024 representing a full year of consolidated activity. The increase was also due to the increase in fees owed under the Regal Advertising Agreement, which commenced on July 14, 2023, as well as due to contractual rate increases within the ESAs in 2024, as compared to 2023. Selling and marketing costs. Selling and marketing costs increased $12.0 million, or 40.5%, from $29.6 million in 2023 to $41.6 million in 2024. The increase in selling and marketing costs was primarily due to the deconsolidation and reconsolidation of NCM LLC within 2023. The $29.6 million of expense within 2023 represents the activity of NCM LLC prior to the deconsolidation of NCM LLC on April 11, 2023 and after the reconsolidation of NCM LLC on August 7, 2023, compared to the $41.6 million of expense in 2024 representing a full year of consolidated activity. Administrative and other costs. Administrative and other costs decreased $6.6 million, or 11.5%, from $57.3 million in 2023 to $50.7 million in 2024. The decrease is primarily due to a $12.8 million decrease in advisor and legal fees related to the Chapter 11 Case and Cineworld Proceeding incurred in 2024, as compared to 2023, as well as a $4.1 million decrease in performance-based compensation costs due to a retention program implemented to ensure continuity of the management team during the Chapter 11 Case which was in place during the majority of 2023. The decrease was partially offset by a $6.6 million increase in stock based compensation following the grant of a management equity incentive plan in the first quarter of 2024 compared to limited grant activity in 2023, a $3.3 million increase in personnel cost and other corporate expenses in 2024, as compared to 2023, due to the deconsolidation of NCM LLC during a portion of 2023 while NCM LLC's Chapter 11 Case was ongoing and a $0.5 million increase in severance expense in 2024. Depreciation expense. Depreciation expense increased $1.5 million, or 48.4%, from $3.1 million in 2023 to $4.6 million in 2024. The increase in depreciation expense was primarily due to the deconsolidation and reconsolidation of NCM LLC within 2023. The $3.1 million of expense within 2023 represents the activity of NCM LLC prior to the deconsolidation of NCM LLC on April 11, 2023 and after the reconsolidation of NCM LLC on August 7, 2023, compared to the $4.6 million of expense in 2024 representing a full year of consolidated activity. The increase was also due to the fair value adjustments to NCM LLC's fixed assets upon reconsolidation by NCM, Inc. on August 7, 2023. Amortization expense. Amortization expense increased $15.4 million, or 68.8%, from $22.4 million in 2023 to $37.8 million in 2024. The increase in amortization expense was primarily due to the deconsolidation and reconsolidation of NCM LLC within 2023. The $22.4 million of expense within 2023 represents the activity of NCM LLC prior to the deconsolidation of NCM LLC on April 11, 2023 and after the reconsolidation of NCM LLC on August 7, 2023, compared to the $37.8 million of expense in 2024 representing a full year of consolidated activity. The increase was also due to the fair value adjustments to NCM LLC's intangible assets upon reconsolidation by NCM, Inc. on August 7, 2023. *Non-operating expense (income).* Total non-operating expense increased $726.6 million, or 100.4%, from non-operating income of $724.0 million in 2023 to non-operating expense of $2.6 million in 2024. The following table shows the changes in non-operating expense for 2024 and 2023 (in millions): | | Fiscal Year 2024 | 2023 | $ Change 2023 to 2024 | % Change 2023 to 2024 | | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | | Interest on borrowings | $1.7 | $27.9 | $(26.2) | (93.9)% | | Interest income | (2.4) | (0.1) | (2.3) | 100.0% | | Loss on re-measurement of the payable under the tax receivable agreement | 4.6 | 9.3 | (4.7) | (50.5)% | | Gain on deconsolidation of affiliate | — | (557.7) | 557.7 | (100.0)% | | Gain on re-measurement of investment in NCM LLC | — | (35.5) | 35.5 | (100.0)% | | Gain on reconsolidation of NCM LLC | — | (167.8) | 167.8 | (100.0)% | | Other non-operating income | (1.3) | (0.1) | (1.2) | 1200.0% | | Total non-operating expense (income) | $2.6 | $(724.0) | $726.6 | (100.4)% | The increase in non-operating expense was primarily due to the $557.7 million decrease in gain on deconsolidation of affiliate, the $167.8 million decrease in gain on reconsolidation of NCM LLC and the $35.5 million decrease in gain on remeasurement of NCM LLC incurred in 2023, as compared to 2024. This was partially offset by a $26.2 million decrease in interest on borrowings primarily due to the discharge of historical debt that occurred upon NCM LLC’s emergence from bankruptcy and reconsolidation on August 7, 2023, a $4.7 million decrease in the loss on re-measurement of the payable under the tax receivable agreement due to the inclusion of three years of projected taxable book income/(loss) within the calculation of the TRA payable in 2024, as compared to only one year in 2023, due to management’s ability to more accurately forecast following the conclusion of the COVID-19 pandemic, a $2.3 million increase in interest income and a $1.2 million increase in other non-operating income in 2024 compared to 2023. ### Results of Operations - NCM LLC The following table presents operating data and Adjusted OIBDA (dollars in millions, except share and margin data) for the years ended December 26, 2024 and December 28, 2023 for NCM LLC: *($ in millions)* | | Years Ended Dec. 26, 2024 | Dec. 28, 2023 | $ Change 2023 to 2024 | % Change 2023 to 2024 | | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | | Revenue | $240.8 | $259.8 | $(19.0) | (7.3)% | | Operating expenses: | | | | | | Network operating costs | 13.7 | 14.7 | (1.0) | (6.8)% | | ESA Parties and network affiliate fees | 111.9 | 115.3 | (3.4) | (2.9)% | | Selling and marketing costs | 41.6 | 44.1 | (2.5) | (5.7)% | | Administrative and other costs | 28.8 | 75.9 | (47.1) | (62.1)% | | Loss on impairment of Regal ESA | — | 125.7 | (125.7) | (100.0)% | | Impairment of long-lived assets | — | 8.9 | (8.9) | (100.0)% | | Administrative fee—managing member | 21.9 | 21.7 | 0.2 | 0.9% | | Depreciation expense | 4.6 | 4.6 | — | 0.0% | | Amortization expense | 37.8 | 29.8 | 8.0 | 26.8% | | Total operating expenses | 260.3 | 440.7 | (180.4) | (40.9)% | | Operating loss | $(19.5) | $(180.9) | $161.4 | (89.2)% | | Adjusted OIBDA | $45.7 | $52.7 | $(7.0) | (13.3)% | | Adjusted OIBDA margin | 19.0% | 20.3% | (1.3)% | (6.4)% | | Total theater attendance (in millions) (1) | 390.7 | 438.9 | (48.2) | (11.0)% | | Total screens | 18,028 | 18,403 | (375.0) | (2.0)% | | Total ESA Party screens | 9,455 | 9,573 | (118.0) | (1.2)% | *(1)* Represents the total attendance within NCM LLC’s advertising network, excluding screens and attendance associated with AMC Carmike theaters that are currently part of another cinema advertising network for each of the periods presented. Refer to Note 6 to the audited Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this document. Revenue. Revenue decreased $19.0 million, or 7.3%, from $259.8 million in 2023 to $240.8 million in 2024. National advertising revenue decreased by $2.1 million, or 1.1%, from $190.1 million in 2023 to $188.0 million in 2024. The decrease in national advertising revenue was primarily due to an 11.0% decrease in attendance due to a decreased movie slate in 2024, caused by the writer and actor strikes in the second half of 2023. This was partially offset by a 10.2% increase in national advertising utilization in 2024, as compared to 2023. Local and regional advertising revenue decreased by $12.0 million, or 23.5%, from $51.1 million in 2023 to $39.1 million in 2024. The decrease in local and regional advertising revenue was primarily due to a decrease in contract activity and average size within education, dining, entertainment and consumer packaged goods, due in part to a 11.0% decrease in attendance as well as a decreased movie slate in 2024, caused by the writer and actor strikes in 2023. The decrease was partially offset by an increase in contract activity and size within automotive, government, and technology in 2024, as compared to 2023. ESA Party beverage revenue decreased by $4.9 million, or 26.3%, from $18.6 million in 2023 to $13.7 million for 2024. The decrease was due to Regal's termination of its ESA in 2023 and the resulting discontinuation of its beverage revenue as well as a 6.2% decrease in ESA Party attendance in 2024, as compared to 2023. Network operating costs. Network operating costs decreased $1.0 million, or 6.8%, from $14.7 million in 2023 to $13.7 million in 2024. The decrease was due primarily to a $1.3 million decrease in personnel related expenses due in part to the workforce reorganization in the first quarter of 2024, as well as a $0.3 million decrease in costs associated with our digital out of home offering in 2024, as compared to 2023. These decreases were partially offset by a $0.4 million increase in satellite costs related to the one-time transition of providers in 2024, as compared to 2023. ESA Parties and network affiliate fees. ESA Parties and network affiliate fees decreased $3.4 million, or 2.9%, from $115.3 million in 2023 to $111.9 million in 2024. The decrease was primarily due to the 11.0% decrease in network attendance, as well as the rejection of certain affiliate agreements through the bankruptcy proceedings in 2023. These decreases were partially offset by the increase in fees owed under the Regal Advertising Agreement, which commenced on July 14, 2023, as well as due to contractual rate increases within the ESAs in 2024, as compared to 2023. Selling and marketing costs. Selling and marketing costs decreased $2.5 million, or 5.7%, from $44.1 million in 2023 to $41.6 million in 2024. The decrease was due to a $2.9 million decrease in personnel related costs primarily related to performance-based compensation due in part to the decrease in revenue, as well as changes in the Company's incentive compensation plan following the workforce reorganization in 2024. There was also a $2.6 million decrease in costs associated with our digital offerings due to a decrease in digital revenue, as well as a $0.4 million decrease in lease related expenses in 2024, as compared to 2023, due to the renegotiations of certain leases as part of the Chapter 11 Case. These decreases were partially offset by a $1.6 million increase in selling related expenses, a $1.1 million increase in severance expense due to the workforce reorganization in 2024, a $0.5 million increase in bad debt expense due to low receivable write-off activity in 2023 and a $0.2 million increase in expenses related to our new programmatic offering in 2024, as compared to 2023. Administrative and other costs. Administrative and other costs decreased $47.1 million, or 62.1%, from $75.9 million in 2023 to $28.8 million in 2024. This decrease was primarily related to a $44.9 million decrease in legal and professional fees related to the Chapter 11 Case and Cineworld Proceeding, a $2.9 million decrease in personnel related costs due to the workforce reorganization in the first quarter of 2024 and a $0.7 million decrease in lease related expenses due to the renegotiations of certain leases as part of the Chapter 11 Case. This was offset partially by a $0.6 million decrease in capitalized labor costs driven by the nature of the work being performed by our information technology department in 2024, compared to 2023, $0.5 million increase in cloud computing expenses and a $0.4 million increase in costs incurred related to a one-time assessment of the technology surrounding the Company's programmatic offerings beginning in 2024, as compared to 2023. Administrative fee—managing member. Administrative fee—managing member increased $0.2 million, or 0.9%, from $21.7 million in 2023 to $21.9 million in 2024. This increase was primarily related to a $6.2 million increase in share-based compensation following the grant of a management equity incentive plan in the first quarter of 2024 compared to limited grant activity in 2023. This increase was offset by a $2.7 million decrease in legal and professional fees related to the Chapter 11 Case and Cineworld Proceeding, a $2.5 million decrease in personnel related costs due to a retention program implemented to ensure continuity of the management team during the Chapter 11 Case in place the majority of 2023, as compared to 2024, as well as a $0.5 million decrease in personnel related costs primarily due to retainers paid to the members of the special and restructuring committees of the Company’s Board of Directors during the Chapter 11 Case and a $0.3 million decrease in other corporate expenses in 2024, as compared to 2023. Loss on termination of Regal ESA. Loss on termination of Regal ESA costs decreased $125.7 million, or 100.0%, from $125.7 million in 2023 to $0.0 million in 2024. This was primarily due to the absence in 2024 of the $141.5 million loss on disposal of the intangible asset related to the Regal ESA, partially offset by a decrease in the $13.0 million gain on Regal's surrender of ownership in the Company and $2.9 million in payables forgiven in conjunction with emergence from bankruptcy in the third quarter of 2023. Impairment of long-lived assets. Impairment of long-lived assets decreased $8.9 million, or 100.0%, from $8.9 million in 2023 to $0.0 million in 2024. This was due to the $8.9 million write-off of certain long-lived intangible assets in 2023. Depreciation expense. Depreciation expense remained at $4.6 million in 2023 and 2024. Amortization expense. Amortization expense increased $8.0 million, or 26.8%, from $29.8 million in 2023, to $37.8 million in 2024. The increase was primarily due to the fair value adjustments to NCM LLC’s intangible assets upon reconsolidation with NCM, Inc. on August 7, 2023. ### Non-GAAP Financial Measures for NCM LLC Adjusted OIBDA and Adjusted OIBDA margin are not financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP in the United States. Adjusted OIBDA represents operating income before depreciation and amortization expense adjusted to also exclude non-cash share-based payment costs, impairment of long-lived assets, workforce reorganization costs, termination of the Regal ESA, system optimization costs, satellite transitions costs and advisor fees related to involvement in the Cineworld Proceeding and Chapter 11 Case. Our management uses this non-GAAP financial measure to evaluate operating performance, to forecast future results and as a basis for compensation. The Company believes this is an important supplemental measure of operating performance because it eliminates items that have less bearing on its operating performance and highlights trends in its core business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on GAAP financial measures. The Company believes the presentation of this measure is relevant and useful for investors because it enables them to view performance in a manner similar to the method used by the Company’s management, helps improve their ability to understand the Company’s operating performance and makes it easier to compare the Company’s results with other companies that may have different depreciation and amortization policies, non-cash share-based payment costs, impairment of long-lived assets, workforce reorganization costs, termination of the Regal ESA, system optimization costs, satellite transition costs and advisor fees related to involvement in the Cineworld Proceeding and Chapter 11 Case, interest rates, debt levels or income tax rates. Adjusted OIBDA margin is calculated by dividing Adjusted OIBDA by total revenue. Our management uses this non-GAAP financial measure to evaluate operating performance, to forecast future results and as a basis for compensation. The Company believes this is an important supplemental measure of operating performance because it eliminates items that have less bearing on its operating performance and highlight trends in its core business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on GAAP financial measures. The Company believes the presentation of this measure is relevant and useful for investors because it enables them to view performance in a manner similar to the method used by the Company’s management, helps improve their ability to understand the Company’s operating performance and makes it easier to compare the Company’s results with other companies that may have different depreciation and amortization policies, non-cash share-based payment costs, impairment of long-lived assets, workforce reorganization costs, termination of the Regal ESA, system optimization costs, satellite transitions costs, advisor fees related to involvement in the Cineworld Proceeding and Chapter 11 Case, interest rates, debt levels or income tax rates. A limitation of both of these measures, however, is that they exclude depreciation and amortization, which represent a proxy for the periodic costs of certain capitalized tangible and intangible assets used in generating revenues in NCM LLC’s business. In addition, Adjusted OIBDA and Adjusted OIBDA margin have the limitation of not reflecting the effect of the Company’s depreciation and amortization expense, non-cash share-based payment costs, impairment of long-lived assets, workforce reorganization costs, termination of the Regal ESA, system optimization costs, satellite transitions costs and advisor fees related to involvement in the Cineworld Proceeding and Chapter 11 Case. Adjusted OIBDA should not be regarded as an alternative to operating income, net income or as indicators of operating performance, nor should it be considered in isolation of, or as substitutes for financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. The Company believes that operating income is the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure to Adjusted OIBDA, and operating margin is the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure to Adjusted OIBDA margin. Because not all companies use identical calculations, these non-GAAP presentations may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies, or calculations in NCM LLC’s Revolving Credit Facility 2023. The following table reconciles operating income to Adjusted OIBDA for NCM LLC for the periods presented (dollars in millions): | | Years Ended December 26, 2024 | December 28, 2023 | | --- | ---: | ---: | | Operating loss | $(19.5) | $(180.9) | | Depreciation expense | 4.6 | 4.6 | | Amortization expense | 37.8 | 29.8 | | Share-based compensation costs (1) | 12.2 | 5.5 | | Impairment of long-lived assets (2) | — | 8.9 | | Workforce reorganization costs (3) | 2.9 | — | | Loss on termination of Regal ESA, net (4) | — | 125.6 | | Satellite transition costs (5) | 0.8 | — | | System optimization costs (6) | 0.4 | — | | Advisor fees related to the Chapter 11 Case (7) | 6.5 | 59.2 | | Adjusted OIBDA | $45.7 | $52.7 | | Total revenue | $240.8 | $259.8 | | Adjusted OIBDA margin | 19.0% | 20.3% | *(1)* Share-based compensation costs are included in network operations, selling and marketing and administrative expense in the accompanying Consolidated Financial Statements. *(2)* The impairment of long-lived assets primarily relates to the write down of certain intangible assets related to a purchased affiliate and internally developed software and leasehold improvements no longer in use. *(3)* Workforce reorganization costs represent redundancy costs associated with changes to the Company’s workforce primarily implemented during 2024, as well as related office relocations and redundancy costs associated with changes to the Company's sales force implemented during the first quarter of 2022. *(4)* The net impact of Regal’s termination of the ESA resulting from the disposal of the intangible asset partially offset by the surrender of Regal’s ownership in the Company and the forgiveness of prepetition claims. *(5)* One-time costs of transitioning satellite providers during 2024. *(6)* System optimization costs represent costs incurred related to a one-time assessment of the technology surrounding the Company's programmatic offerings beginning in 2024. *(7)* Advisor and legal fees and expenses incurred in connection with the Company’s involvement in the Cineworld Proceeding and Chapter 11 Case and related appeals, as well as insurance and retention related expenses and retainers related to the members of the special and restructuring committees of the Company’s Board of Directors. ### Known Trends and Uncertainties ***Beverage Revenue—***Under the ESAs, up to 90 seconds of The *Noovie®* Show program can be sold to the ESA Parties to satisfy their on-screen advertising commitments under their beverage concessionaire agreements. In 2023, Cinemark and Regal, prior to the termination of Regal's ESA, purchased 60 seconds of on-screen advertising time and AMC purchased 30 seconds to satisfy their obligations under their beverage concessionaire agreements. In 2024, Cinemark purchased 60 seconds of on-screen advertising time and AMC purchased 30 seconds to satisfy their obligations under their beverage concessionaire agreements. The ESA Parties’ current long-term contracts with their beverage suppliers require the 30 or 60 seconds of beverage advertising, although such commitments could change in the future. Per the ESA with AMC, the time sold to the beverage supplier is priced equal to the greater of (1) the advertising CPM charged by NCM LLC in the previous year for the time sold to the beverage supplier and (2) the advertising CPM for the previous year charged by NCM LLC to unaffiliated third parties during segment one (closest to showtime) of The *Noovie* Show in the ESA Parties’ theaters, limited to the highest advertising CPM being then-charged by NCM LLC. Beginning in 2020 and in accordance with the 2019 ESA Amendments, the price for the time sold to Cinemark and Regal’s beverage suppliers now increases at a fixed rate of 2.0% each year. As of July 14, 2023, the effective date of the Regal Advertising Agreement, the Company no longer receives ESA beverage revenue from Regal. ***ESA Parties and network affiliate fees—***In consideration for NCM LLC’s access to the ESA Parties’ and network affiliate theaters for on-screen and LEN advertising and lobby promotions, the ESA Parties and network affiliates receive access fees based either upon number of attendees, a revenue share or a combination, including a minimum revenue guarantee per attendee. Many of these agreements contain annual increases to the respective fee structures or guaranteed minimums, either per patron, per theater and/or per digital screen. The payments under the ESA Parties' agreements and network affiliate agreements are recorded within ‘ESA Parties and network affiliate fees’ in the audited Consolidated Statement of Operations. ### Financial Condition and Liquidity ### Liquidity and Capital Resources Our cash balances can fluctuate due to the seasonality of our business and related timing of collections of accounts receivable balances and operating expenditure payments, as well as interest or principal payments on our Revolving Credit Facility 2023, income tax payments, TRA payments, available cash payments (as defined in the NCM LLC Operating Agreement) to Cinemark and AMC in the event the ESA Parties hold NCM LLC membership units and any amount of dividends to NCM, Inc.’s common stockholders. We have sufficient sources of liquidity to meet our material cash commitments for the next 12 months and the foreseeable future. On January 24, 2025, NCM LLC as borrower, entered into a Loan and Security Agreement with U.S. Bank National Association, as lender. The agreement provides for a $45.0 million senior secured revolving credit facility, the 2025 Credit Facility, that matures on January 24, 2028. In connection with entering into the 2025 Credit Facility, NCM LLC repaid in full the $10.0 million balance outstanding as of December 26, 2024 and terminated all commitments under its 2023 Revolving Credit Facility, and in connection with this termination, paid a prepayment fee equal to 1% of the total commitment. As of March 6, 2025, NCM LLC has not made any borrowings under the 2025 Credit Facility. Borrowings under the 2025 Credit Facility may be used for, among other things, working capital and other general corporate purposes of the Company and bear interest at a floating rate equal to term SOFR (subject to a floor of zero) plus an applicable margin of 2.00%, which is subject to increase by an additional 2.00% upon the occurrence of an event of default. On August 7, 2023, NCM LLC entered into the Revolving Credit Facility 2023 with CIT Northbridge Credit LLC as agent. The Revolving Credit Facility 2023 is an asset backed line facility where the capacity depends upon NCM LLC’s trade accounts receivable balance, as adjusted for aged balances and other considerations. The maximum availability NCM LLC has access to under the revolver is $55.0 million. The proceeds of the Revolving Credit Facility 2023 may be used for, inter alia, working capital and capital expenditures. The Revolving Credit Facility 2023 will mature on August 7, 2026. The interest rate under the Revolving Credit Facility 2023 is a base rate or SOFR benchmark plus (i) 3.75% if less than 50% of revolving commitments are utilized or (ii) 4.50% if 50% or more of revolving commitments are utilized (utilizing the average revolver usage for the prior calendar month as a benchmark for this determination). The Revolving Credit Facility 2023 also contains a financial maintenance covenant requiring that the fixed charge coverage ratio ending on the last day of each fiscal month is at least 1.1 to 1.0 during a “Trigger Period.” A Trigger Period begins upon (i) an event of default or (ii) if availability is less than the greater of (a) $5.0 million and (b) 10% of aggregate revolving commitments. A Trigger Period ends only if (i) no event of default existed for the preceding 30 consecutive days and (ii) availability is greater than both (a) $5.0 million and (b) 10% of aggregate revolving commitments. Upon the effectiveness of the Revolving Credit Facility 2023, NCM LLC immediately drew $10.0 million from the facility, which represents the only amount currently outstanding under the Revolving Credit Facility 2023, as of December 26, 2024. This balance was subsequently repaid on January 24, 2025 upon the termination of the Revolving Credit Facility 2023, effective on January 24, 2025. A summary of our financial liquidity is as follows (in millions): | | Years Ended December 26, 2024 | December 28, 2023 | $ Change 2023 to 2024 | | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | | Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities (1) | $75.2 | $34.6 | $40.6 | | NCM LLC’s Revolving Credit Facility 2023 availability (2) | 44.4 | 44.4 | — | | Total liquidity | $119.6 | $79.0 | $40.6 | *(1)* Included in cash and cash equivalents as of December 26, 2024 and December 28, 2023 there was $63.5 million and $31.9 million, respectively, of cash held by NCM LLC which is not available to satisfy NCM, Inc.'s dividend payments and other NCM, Inc. obligations. *(2)* NCM LLC’s total capacity under the Revolving Credit Facility 2023, which is subject to fluctuations in the underlying assets, is $55.0 million as of December 26, 2024. As of December 26, 2024, the amount available under the NCM LLC Revolving Credit Facility 2023 in the table above is net of the amount outstanding under the Revolving Credit Facility 2023 of $10.0 million and the outstanding letters of credit of $0.6 million. We have generated and used cash as follows (in millions): | | Years Ended 2024 | 2023 | | --- | ---: | ---: | | Operating cash flow | $60.3 | $(6.7) | | Investing cash flow | $(5.7) | $32.6 | | Financing cash flow | $(14.1) | $(52.1) | ### Cash Flows – Fiscal Years 2024 and 2023 *Operating Activities.* The $67.0 million increase in cash provided by operating activities for 2024, as compared to 2023, was due to 1) a $59.1 million decrease in net loss adjusted for non-cash items, 2) an $18.6 million increase in deferred revenue, 3) a $6.7 million increase in amounts due from to ESA Parties, net, 4) a $6.1 million decrease in the change in prepaid expenses, 5) a $2.6 million decrease in payments of accounts payable and accrued expenses and 6) a $2.6 million increase in other operating assets and liabilities for 2024, as compared to 2023. These increases in cash provided by operating activities were partially offset by a $25.7 million decrease in the change in account receivable collections and a $3.8 million reduction in the receipts of ESA Party integration and encumbered theater payments in 2024, as compared to 2023. *Investing Activities.* The $38.3 million increase in cash used in investing activities for 2024, as compared to 2023, was primarily due to the $49.5 million addition of cash and cash equivalents upon the reconsolidation of NCM LLC in 2023 with no similar activity in 2024. Additionally, there was a $2.5 million increase in purchases of property and equipment due in part to the commencement of new leases and a $1.0 million decrease in proceeds from sale and maturities of marketable securities, as well as a $1.0 million increase in the purchase of a cost method investment for 2024, as compared to 2023. These increases in cash used by investing activities were partially offset by a $15.5 million cash contribution made in conjunction with the reconsolidation of NCM LLC during 2023 and a $0.6 million increase in proceeds received from an equity method investment for 2024, as compared to 2023. *Financing Activities.* The $38.0 million decrease in cash used in financing activities for 2024, as compared to 2023, was primarily due to the removal of $49.6 million of cash caused by the deconsolidation of NCM LLC in the second quarter of 2023. Additionally, there was a $1.2 million decrease in payments of debt issuance costs and a $0.8 million decrease in repayments of the term loan facility due to an amendment to the Credit Agreement 2018 and Revolving Credit Agreement 2022 in the year ended December 28, 2023, as compared to the year ended December 26, 2024. These decreases were partially offset by a $13.1 million increase in payments made to repurchase shares of NCM, Inc.'s common stock and $0.7 million increase in cash redemptions of NCM LLC common membership units during 2024, as compared to 2023. ### Sources of Capital and Capital Requirements NCM, Inc.’s primary source of liquidity and capital resources is the quarterly available cash distributions from NCM LLC as well as its existing cash and cash equivalents balances, which as of December 26, 2024 were $78.2 million (including $66.5 million of cash and restricted cash held by NCM LLC). NCM LLC’s primary sources of liquidity and capital resources are (i) its cash provided by operating activities, (ii) cash on hand and (iii) as of January 24, 2025, availability under the new 2025 Credit Facility. NCM LLC's previous Revolving Credit Facility 2023 was terminated and repaid on January 24, 2025. NCM LLC drew down $10.0 million of its Revolving Credit Facility 2023 immediately upon emergence from bankruptcy on August 7, 2023. The $66.5 million of cash at NCM LLC will be used to fund operations. Cash at NCM, Inc. is used to fund income taxes, payments associated with the TRA, stock repurchases and for future payment of dividends to NCM, Inc. stockholders if and when declared by the Board of Directors. Cash flows generated by NCM LLC’s distributions to NCM, Inc. and NCM LLC’s other members were deferred during the Chapter 11 Case. NCM LLC is required, pursuant to the terms of the NCM LLC Operating Agreement, to distribute its available cash, as defined in the NCM LLC Operating Agreement, quarterly to its members (only NCM, Inc. and AMC as of December 26, 2024). The other members are only able to receive available cash when they hold units. The available cash distribution to the members of NCM LLC for the year ended December 26, 2024 was calculated as approximately $26.2 million, due almost entirely to NCM, Inc, as the primary holder of NCM LLC units as of December 26, 2024. The $26.2 million is comprised of negative available cash generated by NCM LLC to NCM, Inc. for the first quarter of 2024 of $10.2 million and positive available cash generated by NCM LLC to NCM, Inc. for the second, third and fourth quarter of 2024 totaling $36.4 million. The positive available cash generated by NCM LLC for the second quarter of 2024, of $1.3 million, was completely offset against the accumulated negative available cash amounts generated in prior years in accordance with the terms of the NCM LLC Operating Agreement. The cumulative negative available cash balance as of December 26, 2024 is $223.6 million (including $165.1 million for NCM, Inc., $56.3 million for Cinemark and $2.2 million for AMC). These amounts can only be offset against positive available cash within the second quarter of future years. NCM, Inc. has the option to defer payment of any available cash distributions payable to NCM, Inc. at its discretion. As of December 26, 2024, NCM LLC owed NCM, Inc. $46.3 million in deferred available cash distributions. NCM, Inc. expects to use its cash balances and cash received from future available cash distributions (as allowed for under the Revolving Credit Facility 2023) to fund payments associated with the TRA, stock repurchases, strategic initiatives and future dividends if and when declared by the Board of Directors. The Company does expect to make a TRA payment in 2025 for the 2024 tax year and did not make a TRA payment in 2024 for the 2023 tax year. Distributions from NCM LLC and NCM, Inc. cash balances should be sufficient to fund payments associated with the TRA, income taxes and any stock repurchases or declared dividends for the foreseeable future at the discretion of the Board of Directors. At the discretion of the Board of Directors, the Company will consider returning a portion of its free cash flow to stockholders. The declaration, payment, timing and amount of any future stock repurchases or dividends payable will be at the sole discretion of the Board of Directors who will take into account general economic and advertising market business conditions, the Company’s financial condition, available cash, current and anticipated cash needs and any other factors that the Board of Directors considers relevant. ### Capital Expenditures Capital expenditures of NCM LLC include digital applications being developed primarily by our programmers and outside consultants, capitalized software development or upgrades for our Digital Content Software, audience targeting and data management systems, cinema advertising management system, equipment required for our Customer Experience Center and content production and post-production facilities, office leasehold improvements, desktop equipment for use by our employees, and in certain cases, the costs necessary to install equipment at or digitize all or a portion of a network affiliate’s theaters when they are added to our network. Capital expenditures in 2024 were $5.6 million (including $1.9 million associated with upgrades to our existing systems related to the continued upgrades of our cinema advertising management system; $1.7 million associated with leasehold improvements; $1.0 million associated with digital product development; $0.4 million associated with network affiliate additions and $0.4 million associated with certain implementation and prepaid costs associated with Cloud Computing arrangements) compared to $5.3 million in 2023 (including $2.0 million associated with upgrades to our existing systems related to the continued upgrades of our cinema advertising management system; $1.5 million associated with digital product development; $1.3 million associated with certain implementation and prepaid costs associated with Cloud Computing arrangements and $0.3 million associated with network affiliate additions). The capital expenditures have typically been satisfied through cash flow from operations. All capital expenditures related to the DCN within the ESA Parties’ theaters have been made by the ESA Parties under the ESAs. We expect they will continue to be made by the ESA Parties in accordance with the ESAs. We expect to make approximately $10.5 million to $11.5 million of capital expenditures in fiscal 2025. We expect approximately $6.0 million of capital expenditures related to upgrades to our Digital Content distribution and management software and our other internal management systems, including our cinema advertising management system, reporting systems, network equipment and software licensing, $2.0 million towards network affiliate additions and upgrades to currently contracted network affiliates, $1.5 million towards digital products and audience measurement tools and $1.0 million towards leasehold improvements. Our capital expenditures may increase as we add additional network affiliates. We expect that additional expenditures, if any, would be funded in part by additional cash flows associated with those new network affiliates. ### Financings On January 24, 2025, NCM LLC as borrower, entered into a Loan and Security Agreement with U.S. Bank National Association, as lender. The agreement provides for a $45.0 million senior secured revolving credit facility, the 2025 Credit Facility, that matures on January 24, 2028. In connection with entering into the 2025 Credit Facility, NCM LLC repaid in full the $10.0 million balance outstanding as of December 26, 2024 and terminated all commitments under its 2023 Revolving Credit Facility, and in connection with this termination, paid a prepayment fee equal to 1% of the total commitment. As of January 27, 2025, NCM LLC has not made any borrowings under the 2025 Credit Facility. Borrowings under the 2025 Credit Facility may be used for, among other things, working capital and other general corporate purposes of the Company and bear interest at a floating rate equal to term SOFR (subject to a floor of zero) plus an applicable margin of 2.00%, which is subject to increase by an additional 2.00% upon the occurrence of an event of default. A commitment fee of 0.25% is payable quarterly in arrears based on the average daily amount of the undrawn portion of the commitments under the 2025 Credit Facility for the preceding quarter. The 2025 Credit Facility has a $5.0 million sublimit for the issuance of letters of credit. Fees are payable on outstanding letters of credit at a per annum rate equal to 2.00%, plus certain customary fees payable in connection with the issuance, amendment, renewal and extension of letters of credit and the processing of drawings thereunder. Certain of NCM LLC’s future subsidiaries, the Guarantors, are required to guarantee the repayment of NCM LLC’s obligations under the 2025 Credit Facility. The obligations of NCM LLC and any such Guarantors with respect to the 2025 Credit Facility are and will be secured by a pledge of substantially all assets of NCM LLC and each of the Guarantors, including, without limitation, accounts receivables, deposit accounts, intellectual property, investment property, inventory, equipment and equity interests in their respective subsidiaries. The 2025 Credit Facility contains affirmative and negative covenants customary for financings of this type, including limitations on the NCM LLC’s and its subsidiaries ability to incur additional debt, grant or permit additional liens, make investments and acquisitions, merge or consolidate with others, dispose of assets, pay dividends and distributions, make equity repurchases, pay subordinated indebtedness and enter into affiliate transactions. In addition, the 2025 Credit Facility contains financial covenants requiring NCM LLC to maintain a maximum leverage ratio of no greater than 2.25 to 1.00 and a minimum fixed charge coverage ratio of no less than 1.50 to 1.00, each measured on a quarterly basis. The 2025 Credit Facility also includes events of default customary for facilities of this type and upon the occurrence of such events of default, subject to customary cure rights, all outstanding loans under the 2025 Credit Facility may be accelerated and/or the Company’s commitments terminated. The 2025 Credit Facility also contains representations, warranties, and events of defaults customary for this type of facility. On August 7, 2023, NCM LLC entered into the Revolving Credit Facility 2023 with CIT Northbridge Credit LLC as agent and on January 24, 2025, it was terminated. The Revolving Credit Facility 2023 was an asset backed line facility where the capacity depends upon NCM LLC’s trade accounts receivable balance, as adjusted for aged balances and other considerations, and was secured by a lien on substantially all of assets of NCM LLC. The maximum availability NCM LLC had access to under the Revolving Credit Facility 2023 is $55.0 million. The proceeds of the Revolving Credit Facility 2023 could have been used for, inter alia, working capital and capital expenditures. The Revolving Credit Facility 2023 would have matured on August 7, 2026. The interest rate under the Revolving credit facility 2023 was a base rate or SOFR benchmark plus (i) 3.75% if less than 50% of revolving commitments were utilized or (ii) 4.50% if 50% or more of revolving commitments were utilized (utilizing the average revolver usage for the prior calendar month as a benchmark for this determination). The Revolving Credit Facility 2023 also contained a financial maintenance covenant requiring that the fixed charge coverage ratio ending on the last day of each fiscal month was at least 1.1 to 1.0 during a “Trigger Period.” A Trigger Period began upon (i) an event of default or (ii) if availability is less than the greater of (a) $5.0 million and (b) 10% of aggregate revolving commitments. A Trigger Period ended only if (i) no event of default existed for the preceding thirty (30) consecutive days and (ii) availability was greater than both (a) $5.0 million and (b) 10% of aggregate revolving commitments. Upon the effectiveness of the Revolving Credit Facility 2023, NCM LLC immediately drew $10.0 million from the facility, which represented the only amount currently outstanding under the Revolving Credit Facility 2023, as of December 26, 2024. The Revolving Credit Facility 2023 also contained customary representations, warranties, covenants, events of default, terms and conditions, including limitations on liens, incurrence of debt, mergers and significant asset dispositions. As of December 26, 2024, NCM LLC’s maximum availability under the $55.0 million Revolving Credit Facility 2023 was $44.4 million, net of $10.0 million outstanding and net letters of credit of $0.6 million. The weighted-average interest rate on the Revolving Credit Facility 2023 as of December 26, 2024 was 8.4%. Upon execution of the Revolving Credit Facility 2023, NCM LLC recorded $2.4 million as debt issuance costs and received $9.1 million in proceeds. The Revolving Credit Facility 2023 contained a number of covenants and financial ratio requirements, with which NCM LLC was in compliance at December 26, 2024, including maintaining a fixed charge coverage ratio in excess of 1.1:1.00 on a monthly basis while maintaining availability in excess of either (i) $8.25 million or (ii) 15.0% of the aggregate revolver commitments (the “availability thresholds”). NCM LLC was permitted to make quarterly dividend payments and other payments based on the fixed charge coverage ratio and availability thresholds so long as no default or event of default had occurred and continued to occur. Dividend payments and other distributions could have been made if the fixed charge coverage ratio was in excess of 1.1:1.0 and availability, after the distribution, was in compliance with the availability thresholds. There were no borrower distribution restrictions as long as NCM LLC’s fixed coverage ratio was 1.1:1.0, NCM LLC maintained availability under the availability thresholds and NCM LLC was in compliance with its debt covenants. If there were borrower distribution restrictions on the payments, NCM LLC could not declare or pay any dividends, or make any payments on account of NCM LLC or make any other distribution for obligations of NCM LLC. When these restrictions were effective, NCM LLC could still pay the services fee and reimbursable costs pursuant to terms of a management services agreement, between NCM, Inc. and NCM LLC, in exchange for NCM, Inc. providing specified management services to NCM LLC. NCM LLC could also make payments pursuant to the Common Unit Adjustment Agreement and Tax Receivable Agreement in the amount, and at the time necessary to satisfy the contractual obligations with respect to the actual cash tax benefits payable to NCM LLC’s founding members. As of December 26, 2024, the NCM LLC’s fixed charge coverage ratio was 1.7 to 1.0 (versus the required ratio of 1.1:1.0) and had availability under the Revolving Credit Facility 2023 of $44.4 million (versus the applicable availability threshold of $8.25 million). As of December 26, 2024, NCM LLC was in compliance with the financial covenants of the Revolving Credit Facility 2023 described above. As of December 26, 2024, the weighted average remaining maturity was 1.6 years. As of December 26, 2024, 100.0% of our borrowings bear interest at variable rates and as such, our net income and earnings per share could fluctuate with market interest rate fluctuations that could increase or decrease the interest paid on our borrowings. ### Critical Accounting Estimates and Policies The significant accounting policies of the Company are described in Note 1 to the audited Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this document. Certain accounting policies involve significant judgments, assumptions and estimates by management that have a material impact on the carrying value of certain assets and liabilities, which management considers critical accounting policies. The judgments, assumptions and estimates used by management are based on historical experience, knowledge of the accounts and other factors, which are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances and are evaluated on an ongoing basis. Because of the nature of the judgments and assumptions made by management, actual results could differ from these judgments and estimates, which could have a material impact on the carrying values of assets and liabilities and the results of operations of the Company. ### Deconsolidation of NCM LLC NCM LLC does not have a readily determinable fair value. Upon the deconsolidation of NCM LLC, the original cost of the investment was valued based upon NCM, Inc.'s ownership of the secured debt of NCM LLC and the estimation of the enterprise value of NCM LLC utilizing a combination of a market approach and income approach. The market approach relied upon a comparison with guideline public companies and entails selecting relevant financial information of the subject company and capitalizing those amounts using valuation multiples that are based on empirical market observation. The income approach relied upon an analysis of NCM LLC’s projected economic earnings discounted to present value. Significant assumptions utilized within these analyses include the weighted average cost of capital and NCM LLC’s forecasted cash flows. Due to the inherent uncertainty of determining the fair value of securities that do not have a readily available fair value, the determination of the fair value required significant judgment or estimation and changes in the estimates and assumptions used in the valuation models could materially affect the determination. ### Reconsolidation of NCM LLC The Company accounted for the reconsolidation of NCM LLC using the acquisition method of accounting. The acquisition method requires the Company to make significant estimates and assumptions, especially at the acquisition date as the Company allocates the estimated fair values of acquired tangible and intangible assets and the liabilities assumed. The Company also uses our best estimates to determine the useful lives of the tangible and definite-lived intangible assets, which impact the periods over which depreciation and amortization of those assets are recognized. These best estimates and assumptions are inherently uncertain as they pertain to forward looking views of the Company’s businesses, client behavior and market conditions. See Note 5—*Reconsolidation of NCM LLC* for further information on the valuation methods and the results of applying the acquisition method of accounting, including the estimated fair values of the assets acquired and liabilities assumed, and, where relevant, the estimated remaining useful lives. ### Valuation of Intangible Assets In accordance with ASC 360—*Property, Plant and Equipment,* we evaluate intangible assets and other long-lived assets for impairment whenever a triggering event occurs indicating that they may not be recoverable. Recoverability is assessed by comparing the carrying amount of an asset group to future undiscounted net cash flows expected to be generated. If the carrying amount of an asset group is not recoverable, an impairment loss is recognized equal to the difference between the carrying amount and the fair value of the asset group. We group assets for purposes of such review at the lowest level for which identifiable cash flows of the asset group are largely independent of the cash flows of the other groups of assets and liabilities. In order to calculate the future undiscounted net cash flows, we utilize estimates and assumptions based on historical data and consideration of future market conditions while incorporating management’s expectations as of the balance sheet date. Unforeseen events, changes in circumstances and market conditions and material differences in estimates of future cash flows could adversely affect the fair value of our assets and could result in impairment charges. ### Income Taxes *Nature of Estimates Required.* We account for income taxes in accordance with ASC 740 – *Income Taxes,* which requires an asset and liability approach to financial accounting and reporting for income taxes. Accordingly, deferred tax assets and liabilities arise from the differences between the tax basis of an asset or liability and its reported amount in the audited Consolidated Financial Statements. Deferred tax amounts are determined using the tax rates expected to be in effect when the taxes will actually be paid or refunds received, as provided under currently enacted tax law. Valuation allowances are to be established when necessary to reduce deferred tax assets to the amount expected to be realized. The Company generated a three-year cumulative pre-tax book loss during 2021 driven by the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Company’s operations in 2020 and 2021. Given the associated weight assigned to this item as negative evidence within the Company’s analysis, the Company determined it is more-likely-than-not that the Company will not be able to realize certain of the Company’s deferred tax assets before they expire. Given the additional pre-tax book losses in 2024, the Company continues to have a valuation allowance in the amount of $169.1 million against the deferred tax asset as of December 26, 2024. The Company had a valuation allowance in the amount of $146.0 million against the deferred tax asset as of December 28, 2023. As we do expect to generate pre-tax book income following the complete recovery from the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Chapter 11 Case, we have recorded an impact from the Net Business Interest Expense Limitation IRC § 163(j) on our payable to ESA Parties under the TRA. In addition, due to the basis differences resulting from our IPO-related transactions (including the TRA with the ESA Parties) and subsequent adjustments pursuant to the Common Unit Adjustment Agreement, we are required to make cash payments under the TRA to the ESA Parties in amounts equal to 90% of our actual tax benefit realized from the tax amortization of the basis difference for certain deferred assets noted above. Following the increase in the valuation allowance as of December 31, 2020, the Company recorded a corresponding $151.9 million reduction to the “Payable to ESA Parties under the tax receivable agreement” equal to the portion of the payable related to 90% of the amortization of the expected benefits from the realization of the deferred tax assets deemed not more-likely-than-not to be realized as of December 31, 2020. Once the Company returns to a more normal operating level and emerges from a three-year cumulative pre-tax book loss position, part or all the valuation allowance is expected to reverse, resulting in an inverse impact to the payable to ESA Parties under the tax receivable agreement which would increase to reflect future payments to the ESA Parties at that time. The requirements of the TRA, as amended, are highly technical and complex and involve management’s judgment, including judgments to determine hypothetical tax outcomes exclusive of the IPO date transaction and agreements. Management performs thorough analysis of the estimate each quarter and upon new information or conditions will refine its estimate. If we were to fail to meet certain of the requirements of the TRA, we could be subject to additional payments to taxing authorities or to the ESA Parties. We recognize the tax benefit from an uncertain tax position only when it is more likely than not, based on the technical merits of the position, that the tax position will be sustained upon examination, including the resolution of any related appeals or litigation. The tax benefits recognized in the audited Consolidated Financial Statements from such a position are measured as the largest benefit that has a greater than fifty percent likelihood of being realized upon ultimate resolution. For fiscal 2024, our provision for income taxes was $0.2 million. Changes in management’s estimates and assumptions regarding the enacted tax rate applied to deferred tax assets and liabilities, the ability to realize the value of deferred tax assets, or the timing of the reversal of tax basis differences and judgments used to determine hypothetical tax outcomes exclusive of the IPO date transaction and agreements could impact the provision for income taxes and change the effective tax rate. ### Share-based Compensation During 2024, a portion of the restricted stock units issued by the Company vest subject to market-based metrics. We measured the fair value of these awards on the date of grant using a Monte Carlo simulation model. This model considers various subjective assumptions as inputs, and represent our best estimates, which involve inherent uncertainties and the application of our judgment as it relates to market volatilities, the historical volatility of our stock price, risk-free rates and expected life. The valuation model also incorporates exercise and forfeiture assumptions based on an analysis of historical data. Determining these assumptions is subjective and complex, and therefore, a change in the assumptions utilized could impact the calculation of the fair value of our market-based share awards and the associated compensation expense. Refer to *Note 11—Share Based Compensation* in the notes to our consolidated financial statements for further information regarding our share-based compensation awards. ### Recent Accounting Pronouncements For a discussion of the recent accounting pronouncements relevant to our business operations, refer to the information provided under Note 1 to the audited Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this document. ### Related-Party Transactions For a discussion of the related-party transactions, refer to the information provided under Note 9 to the audited Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this document. ## Market risk As filed, 1,035 characters. The primary market risk to which we are exposed is interest rate risk. On August 7, 2023, NCM LLC entered into the Revolving Credit Facility 2023. The maximum capacity that NCM LLC has access to under the Revolving Credit Facility 2023 is $55.0 million. The interest rate under the Revolving Credit Facility 2023 is a base rate or SOFR benchmark plus (i) 3.75% if less than 50.0% of revolving commitments are utilized or (ii) 4.50% if 50.0% or more of revolving commitments are utilized (utilizing the average revolver usage for the prior calendar month as a benchmark for this determination). As of December 26, 2024, the interest rate risk that we are exposed to was related to our $10.0 million draw upon the Company’s Revolving Credit Facility 2023. A 100 basis point fluctuation in market interest rates underlying the Revolving Credit Facility 2023 would have the effect of increasing or decreasing our interest expense by approximately $0.1 million for an annual period on the $10.0 million outstanding as of December 26, 2024. ## Controls and procedures As filed, 6,813 characters. *Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures.* The Company maintains disclosure controls and procedures as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in the Company’s reports filed under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to management, including the Company’s Chief Executive Officer (principal executive officer) and Chief Financial Officer (principal financial officer), as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Management, with the participation of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), performed an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures pursuant to Rule 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) of the Exchange Act as of December 26, 2024, the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Based on such evaluation, the CEO and CFO concluded that the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures were effective. *Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting.* Management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f). Management evaluated the design and operating effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on the framework in *Internal Control- Integrated Framework* (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). Based on that evaluation, the Company's management concluded that the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 26, 2024 was effective. In designing and evaluating our disclosure controls and procedures, management recognizes that any control, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance of achieving the desired control objectives. Due to the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, within the Company have been detected. *Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting.* There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the quarter ended December 26, 2024 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting. ### REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM Board of Directors and Stockholders National CineMedia, Inc. ### Opinion on internal control over financial reporting We have audited the internal control over financial reporting of National CineMedia, Inc. (a Delaware corporation) and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 26, 2024, based on criteria established in the 2013 Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“COSO”). In our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 26, 2024, based on criteria established in the 2013 Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by COSO. We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”), the consolidated financial statements of the Company as of and for the year ended December 26, 2024, and our report dated March 6, 2025 expressed an unqualified opinion on those financial statements. ### Basis for opinion The Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB. We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion. ### Definition and limitations of internal control over financial reporting A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements. Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. /s/ GRANT THORNTON LLP Denver, Colorado March 6, 2025 Filed Mar 6, 2025. Source: SEC EDGAR, the filing index for accession 0000950170-25-034706. Last ingested by Listed: Oct 24, 2026, 15:09 ET. No prices; not investment advice.