Cineworld Posts Interim 2022 Results, Forecasts Box Office To Remain Below Pre-Pandemic Levels Until 2025
30.09.2022 - 13:25
/ deadline.com
Ailing exhibition giant Cineworld Group, which is currently finalizing a reorganization plan having filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. earlier this month, has released encouraging interim results for the six months to June 30, 2022.
Overall revenue rose to $1.5b against $292.8m in the same period in 2021, for a gross profit of $424.5m and an operating profit of $57.3m, against an operating loss of $208.9m in the same period last year.
The company’s debt position worsened, however, standing at $5,2b on June 30, against $5.03b on December 30, 2021.
The exhibitor, which operates 747 sites and 9,139 screens in 10 territories worldwide, led by the U.S. and the U.K., said admissions had started to recover over the period as final Covid-19 restrictions were lifted but warned it did not expect the box office to return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023 and 2024.
Detailing admissions, it said that after a slow start in Q1 due to a lack of major releases and customer concerns around the Omicron variant, total admissions had strengthened to come in at 82.8m in the six months ended 30 June 2022, split between 33.6m in Q1 and 49.2m in Q2, for a total box office of for an $833.6m box office.
This represented an increase of 68.7m or 487% compared to the same period in 2021, in which there were 14m admissions for a box office of $140.4m.
The figure was still down on 2021 levels, representing approximately 61% of the admissions achieved in the first six months of 2019, the last full financial year unaffected by the pandemic.
The group said it had revised its short and medium-term cinema admission forecasts, due to a slower than expected recovery in 2022 and indications of a lower volume of theatrical releases in 2023 and 2024,