Cineworld combined with Cinema City a year ago and is now Europe's second largest cinema chain.  The group's resilience over the financial crisis shows how consumers keep spending on “small treats".  Cineworld is expanding in the UK but its main area of growth is Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) and Israel.

2015 is set to be a stellar year for movie releases with pundits predicting the strongest cinema admission numbers for decades.  The lineup includes a James Bond film, a Star Wars film, a Jurassic Park film and a Mad Max picture.

2015 set to look good on screen

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Source: Cineworld investor presentation

By contrast, a relatively weak film showing in 2014 saw US cinema admissions fall to a 20-year low.  Cineworld saw admissions in the UK & Ireland fall by 3.7% in 2014 as the World Cup and warm weather kept moviegoers away.

Looking at long-term trends and UK cinema admissions hit a high of 1.64bn in 1946 and then fell to 54m in 1984 as TV ownership grew.  The growth of the multiplex cinemas has seen admissions recover to over 150m a year from 2001.  

Cinema attendance has become more expensive in the UK but if Cineworld invests in its offering it should continue to get “bums on seats."  Events such as live Opera can help attract cinemagoers that aren't interested in action movies. 

In the CEE & Israel there is considerable scope for Cineworld to grow, as cinema admissions are low.  In 2013 the UK saw 2.7 cinema admissions per capita, in Poland it was only once, Bulgaria 0.8 times and in Romania only 0.4 times.

Cineworld saw admissions in CEE & Israel increase by 4% in 2014 due to popular local language films.  Poland is Cineworld's largest market in the region and saw a 6.8% jump in admissions due to local films and family films.


Growing in CEE & Europe

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Source: Cineworld investor presentation


Total screens set to increase by 20% from 2014 to 201654f420507a13fCineworldMarch2015__1_.png

Source: Cineworld investor presentation

In terms of the group's strategy and Cineworld has rolled out multiplexes which were first developed in the 1960's.  Before then cinemas had only one screen and were at the mercy of whether the film they were showing was successful.

Cineworld has…

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