Pre Close Trading Update

RNS Number : 9910Y

Cineworld Group plc

06 January 2011

 



6^th January 2010

CINEWORLD GROUP PLC
 Pre Close Trading Update

Cineworld Group plc ("Cineworld" or the "Group") plans to publish its preliminary results for the twelve months ended 30 December 2010 on 10 March 2011.  Prior to entering its close period, Cineworld is pleased to announce the following pre-close trading update.

Revenues for the 52 weeks to 30 December 2010

		% change vs. prior year (pro rata 52 weeks)
Total Revenues		+ 4.7%
Box Office		+ 4.2%
Retail		-1.5%
Other Income		+ 39.9%

The UK and Ireland cinema industry enjoyed another good year in 2010 with industry box office up 2.7% against the previous year, according to information collated by Rentrak/EDI. There was a strong release schedule of films in 2D which included "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse", "Inception" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1)",whilst there were also a number of high performing 3D films in the year which included "Toy Story 3", "Alice in Wonderland", "Shrek Forever After" and "Avatar" (the latter released in December 2009). 3D was a significant contributor to the increased box office revenues.  The year also saw Avatar and Toy Story 3 in 3D become the highest and second highest grossing films respectively in UK box office terms.   

In the period following the October 2010 Interim Management Statement, we maintained growth in our full year box office revenues, aided in part by our large digital estate, capitalising on the 3D films released in the quarter. Currently almost half of our 801 screens are digital. The overall strong performance helped to raise our box office market share in UK/Ireland to 24.6% for the year (2009: 23.9%) (Source: Rentrak/EDI).

Digital Cinema Media, our screen advertising business, made excellent progress compared to the prior year, enabling  "Other Income" to grow significantly.

The December snow falls had a negative impact on both box office and retail revenues during the important festive period as travel to the cinema became very difficult in many areas.  Despite this, the strong performance from the rest of the year means that we anticipate overall profitability to be within the range of market expectations.

With the recent easing of the bad weather, we have seen admissions return to levels that we expect for the time of the year. This gives us confidence in Cineworld's performance going into the year ahead, supported by the ongoing digital roll out and an attractive film release programme for 2011. Anticipated blockbusters include the 3D releases of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 2), "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides", "and "Tintin" and the releases in 2D of "Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (part 1)", "X-Men: First Class" and a Sherlock Holmes sequel.

-Ends-

For further information:

Richard Jones                      020 8987 5000

Chief Financial Officer

Cineworld Group plc

Elly Williamson                     020 7920 2339

M:Communications

 

END

 

 

TSTSSDFUIFFSESF