REG - Cineworld Group plc - Cineworld Group plc Trading Update

CineworldAnnouncement

14/01/2022 07:00

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RNS Number : 4130Y  Cineworld Group plc  14 January 2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

14 January 2022

 

Cineworld Group plc ("Cineworld" or the "Group")

 

Trading Update

 

Cineworld, the second largest cinema exhibitor in the world with operations in
10 countries including the United States and the United Kingdom and 751 sites
and 9,188 screens globally, today provides the following update on trading
across the Group for the six months to 31 December 2021.

 

Performance and attendances have steadily grown and this has resulted in
revenue growth as seen in the table below. Changes in the film slate for
November mainly due to "Top Gun: Maverick" moving to May 2022 impacted the
gradual recovery seen since reopening. December was particularly strong
supported by the success of "Spider-Man: No Way Home" across all territories,
becoming the first film to gross more than 1.5 billion dollars at the box
office since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Box office and Concession revenue((1)) performance vs. 2019 was as follows:

 

 2021 vs 2019    Jul  Aug  Sep  Oct   Nov  Dec
 Group           50%  54%  60%  90%   56%  88%
 United States   45%  45%  54%  80%   51%  91%
 UK and Ireland  54%  76%  72%  127%  76%  89%
 ROW             79%  70%  78%  84%   59%  72%

((1)    Constant currency revenue)

 

This recovery has been driven by an excellent slate of movies including record
breaking "Spider-Man: No Way Home", "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten
Rings", "Venom", "Black Widow", "Dune", "Free Guy", "Eternals" and "No Time to
Die".

 

In ROW, November and December's performance was impacted by government
restrictions due to the COVID-19 situation.

 

As a result of this improvement in revenue and the cost measures implemented,
the Group generated positive cash flow in Q4 2021.

 

Whilst there remains challenges ahead relating mainly to COVID-19 situation,
there is a strong film slate for 2022 including, "The Batman", "Morbius", "Top
Gun: Maverick", "Jurassic World: Dominion", "Minions: The Rise of Gru", "Thor:
Love and Thunder", "Mission: Impossible 7", "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever",
"Avatar 2" and many more.

 

Cineplex

Cineworld also confirms that it served its notice of appeal of the decision of
the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in the case of Cineplex Inc. against
Cineworld on 12 January 2022.

 

2021 Full year results

Cineworld will announce its full year results on Thursday 17 March 2022.

 

Mooky Greidinger, CEO commented: "We are pleased to see continued strong
demand amongst audiences for cinema experiences, supported by a slate of
high-quality and high-performing movies. This demonstrates that fans are
continuing to choose the unrivalled theatrical experience. We have seen
recovery in theatre attendances across our geographies, which generated a
positive cashflow performance for Q4. "Spider-Man: No Way Home" has shown the
importance for studios of cinematic releases. Whilst there are challenges
ahead, we are excited to welcome customers to our cinemas to enjoy the highly
anticipated slate of movies throughout 2022. We are continuing to implement
guidelines to ensure our cinemas are a safe environment for our customers, and
I want to thank everyone across our team who make it possible for our
customers to experience the best place to watch a movie."

 

Cautionary note concerning forward looking statements

Certain statements in this announcement are forward looking and so involve
risk and uncertainty because they relate to events, and depend upon
circumstances that will occur in the future and therefore results and
developments can differ materially from those anticipated. The forward looking
statements reflect knowledge and information available at the date of
preparation of this announcement and the Group undertakes no obligation to
update these forward-looking statements.  Nothing in this announcement should
be construed as a profit forecast.

 

 

Contacts

 Cineworld Group plc:                                                                Finsbury:
 Israel Greidinger     +44 (0)20 8987 5000                                           James Leviton  +44 (0)20 7251 3801
 Nisan Cohen           investors@cineworld.co.uk (mailto:investors@cineworld.co.uk)  Ed Treadwell   cineworld-lon@finsbury.com (mailto:cineworld-lon@finsbury.com)
 Manuela Van Dessel

 

 

 

 

 

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