UK’s Empire Cinemas Enters Administration With Closures, Job Losses & Cinema Sales

“Eras Tour” has attracted enough fans to help boost hotel and restaurant revenue in cities across the world, and even contribute to concert ticket inflation, a phenomenon that some economists have termed “Swiftflation.”“Recently, Taylor Swift became the very first woman in history to have four albums in the top 10 simultaneously, including this week’s number one,” the company’s chief executive, Lucian Grainge, told analysts on a conference call.Universal Music’s merchandising revenue grew 12% to 157 million euros ($173.77 million) in the April-June period, also fueled by a strong performance from Swift, the group said.This more than offset a decline in Universal Music Group’s touring revenue from the outsized growth recorded in 2022 as COVID-19 touring bans were lifted, it added.Total revenue was 2.7 billion euros in the quarter, while its margin on adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) stood at 21.9%, the company reported.Universal Music expects recent price increases at Spotify to boost revenue starting from the fourth quarter and into 2024, its chief financial officer, Boyd Muir, said on the conference call.Spotify had on Monday raised prices for its premium plans across several countries including the US and Britain.Major labels like Universal Music grab the overwhelming majority of Spotify’s revenue and are the main beneficiaries of the streaming firm’s strong user growth.Apart from Swift, other top sellers in the second quarter were South Korean boy band Seventeen, King & Prince, Morgan Wallen, and Stray Kids, Universal Music said.

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Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International The U.K.’s Empire Cinemas has gone into administration with six movie theaters shuttering immediately, Variety can confirm. Empire operates 12 locations under the Empire brand and two Tivoli-branded cinemas in Bath and Cheltenham. The companies employ 437 people across England and Scotland. Around 150 staff — roughly a third of the company’s workforce — have been laid off as part of the administration process. BDO LLP have been appointed as administrators handling the case. So far, Empire cinemas have closed in Bishop’s Stortford, Catterick Garrison, Sunderland, Swindon, Walthamstow and Wigan. In addition, a site that was previously shuttered at Sutton Coldfield won’t reopen.

A cinema in Wigan has closed its doors after its chain collapsed into administration. Empire Cinemas today announced it had entered administration with six of its cinemas, including the branch on Robin Park Road near the DW Stadium, ceasing trading today and being closed with immediate effect.

Taylor Swift‘s ‘Cruel Summer’ has re-entered the Top 40 of the UK singles charts four years after its release.The song was released on Swift’s 2019 LP ‘Lover‘, but never formally released as a single somewhat due to the outbreak of the COVID pandemic.After a rise in streams after the start of Swift’s ‘Eras’ tour, where she played ‘Cruel Summer’ live for the first time, it was then released as an official single by her label this month.After the re-release, ‘Cruel Summer’ has shot up the charts and now sits at Number 12, passing its original peak of Number 27 from 2019, per BBC News.At a recent ‘Eras’ tour show, Swift thanked fans for their streams of ‘Cruel Summer’, which had led the label to release it as a single.Swift told fans at Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium that the song was her “pride and joy” and her “favourite” off her 2019 album.“The weirdest, most magical thing is happening,” Swift said from the ‘Eras‘ tour stage [via Billboard]. “It’s never happened to me in the whole time I’ve ever been doing this.“‘Cruel Summer’ is a song, I just played it a second ago.

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