Cineworld blames timing of film releases as H1 revenue drops
Cineworld reported a drop in first-half profit and revenue on Thursday as it pinned the blame on the timing of major releases, but the cinema operator still backed its full-year expectations.
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In the six months to 30 June, pre-tax profit declined to $139.7m from $160.2m in H1 2018, while revenue fell 11.1% on a pro-forma basis, with revenue in the US down 13.8% and UK & Ireland seeing a 5.2% drop. In the rest of the world, revenue ticked up 3.4%.
In addition, admissions at the cinema chain were down 14.4% during the half to 136 million. Cineworld said its performance was down to the difference in timing of major releases compared to the first half of 2018. It pointed out that its US and European markets had a very strong comparative film slate, which included Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War and Jurassic World.
The company, which bought US rival Regal Entertainment last year, said it was on track to achieve expected synergies of $150m and that the Regal refurbishment and integration programme is progressing well.
Chairman Anthony Bloom said: "We are pleased with the progress in achieving the synergies and costs savings in the US and anticipate achieving full year results in line with our expectations."
Cineworld said the second half has started well, with the release of the new Spiderman film in July, the Lion King and the Fast and the Furious: Hobbs & Shaw.
At 0930 BST, the shares were down 4.8% at 234.20p.