Cineworld Group plc (“Cineworld” or the “Group”)
Trading Update
Cineworld, the second largest cinema exhibitor in the world with operations in 10 countries including the United States and the United Kingdom and 752 sites and 9,193 screens globally, today provides the following update on trading across the Group for the four months ended 31 October 2021. This follows a period of unprecedented disruption in our industry and the world at large.
Since reopening our estate in April 2021, performance and attendances have steadily grown and this has resulted in revenue growth as seen in the table below. Customer demand has been particularly strong in a number of the Group's markets, in some cases even above the levels experienced in 2019.
Box office and Concession revenue(1) performance vs. 2019 were as follows:
|
2021 vs 2019 |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
|
Group |
50% |
54% |
60% |
90% |
|
United States |
45% |
45% |
54% |
80% |
|
UK and Ireland |
54% |
76% |
72% |
127% |
|
ROW |
79% |
70% |
78% |
84% |
(1) Constant currency revenue
This recovery has been driven by an excellent slate of movies including “Black Widow”, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”, “Venom”, “No Time to Die” and “Dune”. There are still major blockbusters to be released in 2021 including “Ghostbusters: Afterlife”, “Encanto”, “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, “The King's Man”, “Sing 2” and “The Matrix Resurrections”, which we anticipate will perform very well subject to there being no deterioration in the COVID-19 situation.
This revenue performance has been underpinned by discipline on costs where the company has been focused on streamlining operations wherever possible, although we have seen some inflationary cost increases.
As a result of this improvement in revenue and the cost measures implemented, the Group generated positive cash flow in October, an important milestone in the Company's recovery.
Mooky Greidinger, CEO commented: “We are thrilled to see audiences returning in significant numbers. Our partnerships with the studios are as strong as ever and with the incredible movie slate to come, there are real grounds for optimism in our industry. I would especially highlight the great performances we saw from our newly refurbished cinemas in the US. These new cinemas clearly support our strategy to enhance the cinema experience for all our customers. I am really proud of the extraordinary efforts that everybody in the business has made to manage this company during an unprecedented time. Whilst there are challenges ahead, I believe these efforts have positioned us for great success in the future and we are all looking forward to continuing to welcome our customers to the best place to watch a movie”
Cautionary note concerning forward looking statements
Certain statements in this announcement are forward looking and so involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events, and depend upon circumstances that will occur in the future and therefore results and developments can differ materially from those anticipated. The forward looking statements reflect knowledge and information available at the date of preparation of this announcement and the Group undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Nothing in this announcement should be construed as a profit forecast.