Cinema developer Reading International saw its losses grow in the fourth quarter after it wrote off an earthquake-damaged theater in New Zealand.
The Commerce company on Thursday reported a loss of $5 million (-22 cents a share) compared to a loss of $532,000 (-3 cents) for the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue rose 6 percent to $57.6 million.
Reading took a $2.9 million impairment charge for Rialto Entertainment, a movie house chain in Australia and New Zealand. The chain’s multiplex in the city of Christchurch was damaged in an earthquake on February 22, 2011 and closed.
Additional losses were due to higher interest payments on debt and charges for a theater site in Australia that the company sold.
Shares of Reading declined 7 cents, or 2 percent, to $4.42 in midday trading on the Nasdaq.
