Cineworld suffers 10 per cent drop in customers despite "solid year"

A cinema chain has reported that it has seen a decrease in both revenue and customers in the past year.

Cineworld announced today that its revenue for 2019 totalled $4.37bn, a 6.9 per cent drop from 2018’s $4.66bn.

It also reported a 10 per cent decrease in film-goers, with 275 million admissions compared to last year’s 308.4 million, as well as EBITDA of $1.03bn versus 2018’s $1.07bn.

During the year, the company completed the acquisition of Regal Entertainment, as well as the launch of its ‘Unlimited’ program in the US.

Anthony Bloom, chairman of Cineworld, said: “2019 was a solid year for Cineworld, a year in which over 275 million customers watched movies on our screens, adjusted EBITDA exceeded a billion dollars, the synergy expectations in the Regal acquisition were virtually doubled in a well handled integration exercise, net debt was reduced and the dividend increased.

“I consider that to be a successful year. In the future, the group will be well positioned to capitalise on our scale as the second largest cinema chain in the world, our deep experience and wide geographic diversification.

“It is thus ironic that these achievements should be overshadowed by the negative impact of the global COVID-19 crisis, even though that at the time of writing the group’s operations have not been affected to a material degree.

“I am of course conscious of the possibility that events could develop adversely very quickly and change this position in the short term, but I remain confident that the crisis will ultimately pass and that the cinema exhibition industry will continue to play a major role in providing fun, laughter, happiness and joy to millions of dedicated movie fans, just as it has for over a century”.

The comments follow the postponement of the newest James Bond film’s release in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Cineworld, added: ““We are closely monitoring the evolution of COVID-19 and so far, we have seen minimal impact on our business.

“However, there can be no certainty on its future impact on our activities, hence we are taking measures to ensure that we are prepared for all possible eventualities.

“Should conditions relating to COVID-19 continue or worsen, we have measures at our disposal to reduce the impact on our business including, but not limited to, capex postponement, cost reduction, in order to maintain cash liquidity.

“Nevertheless, we are excited by upcoming films for 2020 which includes ‘Black Widow’; ‘Wonder Woman 1984’; ‘Top Gun Maverick’; ‘Minions: The Rise Of Gru’; ‘Tenet’; ‘Venom 2’; the latest James Bond ‘No Time To Die’; ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’; ‘Dune’; ‘West Side Story’ and many more.”