PLANO, Texas: The head of the nation's third largest chain of cinemas sees an end to the business lockdown which has crippled the U.S. movie theater industry.

Cinemark Chief Executive Mark Zorandi took note of 2020 quarterly losses, saying that the movie theaters either suffered from being shut down or by severely reduced seating.

"It is almost unfathomable that one year ago we were reporting Cinemark's fifth consecutive year of record results, with the North American industry touting the second-highest-grossing box office of all-time," Zorandi said, as quoted by the New York Post.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, Cinemark suffered a loss of $239 million, or $2.03 a share. For the same period one year earlier, Cinemark posted profits of $23 million, or 22 cents per share.

Additionally, revenue fell to $98 million, from $789 million one year ago.

Cinemark had 217 domestic and 129 international movie theaters open in the fourth quarter of 2020. Officials said they were all operating with reduced hours and showing older movies.

Cinemark is the nation's third-largest movie theater chain, with 533 theaters; 331 of which are in the US.

Officials were careful to note that the public is slowly returning to movie theaters in regions where the pandemic is being contained,

"We remain highly confident in the rebound of our industry once the virus is more contained, as evidenced by recent box office results in China, Japan and Australia," Zorandi said.

Zorandi added that Cinemark's $655 million cash reserves ensured that the company was able to survive during the shutdown.

(File photo. Credit Felix Mooneeram | Unsplash)