New Cineplex CEO Talks Hunt For Possible Buyer: “We’re Exploring Different Options”

New Cineplex CEO Bill Walker is holding his cards close to the chest as he conducts a strategic review of the Canadian exhibition giant for ways to boost shareholder value, including a potential sale. Walker declined to provide any specific update or timelines to The Hollywood Reporter on Friday over possible dealmaking to follow, beyond ensuring optionality. “My focus is on driving through a strategic process, which is going to explore a broad range of options for the business, and one of those options being continuing as a Canadian private or Canadian public company and trying to make sure we have a clear strategy for the future,” he said. His comments came after Cineplex on Friday released its third quarter financial results, which included strong revenue and profit gains with Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey on its screens. Cineplex reported net income at $23.8 million, against a year-earlier $1.2 million, on overall quarterly revenue rising 26 percent to a record $440 million, compared to $349 million in the same period of 2025. Theater attendance for Cineplex jumped 26 percent to 14.8 million patrons, helping lift the company’s per-share earnings to 34 cents, against a year-earlier 2 cents profit. Shares in Cineplex were trading up 33 cents, or around 2.5 percent, to CAN$13.97 (US$9.91) on the Toronto Stock Exchange late Friday morning, after the release of its latest financial results. Walker, who has replaced a retiring Ellis Jacob as CEO, came on board as the company engaged Goldman Sachs and TD Securities to lead the “review of strategic alternatives” for his circuit’s 1,606 movie screens at 156 locations across Canada. Putting a “For Sale” sign up for the major launchpad for Hollywood tentpoles in Canada gets Cineplex back to where it was the last time Jacob sought an exit from the exhibition giant in 2019. At that point, U.K. exhibition giant Cineworld Group unveiled a deal to acquire Cineplex for $2.1 billion to create a company with more than 11,200 movie screens globally. But a year later, as the pandemic took hold of the exhibition industry, Cineworld abandoned the movie theater deal to create one of the world’s largest cinema companies. Cineplex was subsequently awarded damages of $1.236 billion in lost synergies from the abandoned takeover deal, but was unable to collect those funds after Cineworld went through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy process in the U.S. But the latest attempt to put Cineplex on the auction block comes at a decidedly more opportune time as the exhibitor rides a Hollywood box office rebound, with resurgent revenue and profits to feed its bottom line. “It feels like a return to stability in the business,” Walker said after the exhibition industry emerged from earlier disruptions like the pandemic era and the 2023 Hollywood strikes. “I think everyone in the industry needed to see that when the content is there, the customer is interested in seeing the movie in a theater.” Walker underlined a restored faith by the major studios and streamers in the theatrical release after experimenting with windows and exclusivity in film releases coming out of the pandemic. The exec added, “The great piece that reinforces our value proposition within the overall entertainment ecosystem is that all of the major studios, all of the adjacent studios and even the streamers have acknowledged that there’s value in releasing movies theatrically in an exclusive window to help create franchises and launch their IP into the world.”