Interim Management Statement

RNS Number : 7520Q

Cineworld Group plc

25 October 2011

 



CINEWORLD GROUP PLC
 Interim Management Statement

The Board of Cineworld Group plc ("Cineworld" or the "Group") today made the following Interim Management Statement for the 42 week trading period to 20 October 2011.

Revenues for the 42 weeks to 20 October 2011:

	% change vs. prior year
Total Revenues	+ 0.9%
Box Office	+ 1.4%
Retail	+0.1%
Other Income	-1.8%

The Group is pleased to report trading is steady with total revenues up 0.9% in the 42 weeks to 20 October 2011.  The Group's box office revenues were up 1.4% year on year, despite a very strong comparative period in 2010, maintaining the solid performance since the end of June. 

The second half has seen a number of strong performing films including "Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows part 2" in 3D, which is the biggest film release of the year to date, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" in 3D, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and "Bridesmaids". The most notable film performance however was "The Inbetweeners", which has almost matched the performance of "The King's Speech" by grossing over £44m at the box office nationally. In terms of mix, 3D admissions to date represented almost 18% of total admissions, compared to 16% for the first half of the year.  The Other Income segment improved against the half year position, despite a small decline on a like for like basis, principally due to higher screen advertising revenues driven by the number of blockbuster films in the summer, while more 3D films helped the sale of 3D glasses. Retail revenues continued to be broadly flat, which was a satisfactory performance given the challenging consumer environment.  Box office market share year to date in the UK was 26.1% (2010: 26.4%) and 24.6% in UK/Ireland (2010: 24.7%) (Source: Rentrak/EDI).

Our digital expansion continues and now almost 70% of our screens have been converted and we are scheduled to convert a further 76 screens by the end of the financial year. Our new concept cinema "The Screening Rooms", which opened in June, is now well established and new sites are being identified to roll out this concept. We are on schedule to open a 7 screen cinema in Leigh on 18 November. As announced on 28 September, negotiations to acquire Cinesur in Spain were terminated because the vendor was unable to meet the Group's requirements.

The final quarter has a very promising film line up compared with last year that includes "Johnny English - Reborn", "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol", "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part 1", "Puss in Boots" in 3D, "Sherlock Holmes 2", "The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn" in 3D and "Alvin and the Chipmunks 3", which is expected to more than offset the ongoing weakness in the wider advertising market. The remaining 2011 film line up, together with our performance to date, gives us confidence in delivering results for the full year in line with market expectations.

-Ends-

For further information:

Tony Yoe                                020 8987 5000

Cineworld Group plc

Elly Williamson                     020 7920 2339

M:Communications

 

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