Shares of AMC Entertainment Holdings, a subsidiary of China's Dalian Wanda Group, plunged by 26.92% to 15.2 U.S. dollars Wednesday, leading to market value evaporation of 740 million U.S. dollars.

In addition to the steepest single-day decline, the theater chain reported the highest single-day trading volume and saw its share price fall below the initial offering price of 18 U.S. dollars on the day.  

This came on the heels of AMC's performance forecast for the second fiscal quarter of 2017. The company projected a loss per share of 1.34-1.36 U.S. dollars, beating the estimated loss of two cents. Quarterly revenue is predicted to be between 1.2 billion and 1.204 billion U.S. dollars.

Moreover, it announced its plan to cut 3,200 positions by the end of this year.

In fact, AMC's descending performance is not the only challenge facing Wanda overseas. 

Legendary Pictures, Inc., which Wanda took over last year, also suffered great losses. According to an announcement made by Wanda Cinemas in June 2016, the acquiree's net profit was -2.24 billion yuan (about -333.3 million U.S. dollars) in 2014 and soared to -3.63 billion yuan (about -540.1 million U.S. dollars) in 2015. 

The Warcraft and The Great Wall presented by Legendary Pictures in 2016 made 760 million U.S. dollars at the global box office, but their cost hit up to 300 million U.S. dollars. The Kong: Skull Island released this year also failed to recover the cost. 

Wanda Chairman Wang Jianlin said in a recent interview that Legendary Pictures will go through a large-scale restructuring.

Wei Pengju, director of Cultural and Economic Research Institute of the Central University of Finance and Economics, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that Wanda's frequent moves in the movie market is an attempt to reduce its reliance on property sales and is beneficial to its overseas expansion. It is worth noting that investing always comes with risks, therefore, Chinese companies seeking overseas presence should be prudent, he stressed.

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn