The UK cinema industry is on track for its worst year since 1996, with box office and advertising revenue set to be down almost £900m due to the impact of Covid-19.
The government has given the green light for cinemas in England to reopen from 4 July – with safety measures including two-seat spacing and a ban on self-serve pick ’n’ mix – and operators are desperate to salvage something from this annus horribilis.
Cinema owners had been banking on Hollywood blockbusters in the form of Disney’s Mulan and Christopher Nolan’s latest sc-fi Tenet later this month to reignite their year. However, they were dealt a blow at the end of last week when the premieres of both films were pushed back yet again, to 12 and 21 August respectively, further delaying what is already expected to be a slow recovery.
With a schedule devoid of new Hollywood blockbusters, cinema operators are initially having to fall back on low-grossing launch schedules filled mostly with classics and old hits such as Casablanca, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the Empire Strikes Back and franchises including Harry Potter, Twilight and Fast and Furious. The smattering of newer fare includes such pre-Covid shutdown hits as 1917 and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
The UK box office is forecast to fall by 58% this year, from £1.25bn in 2019 to £525m. This would be the lowest sum since 1996, when Independence Day finished first in a top 10 that included Mission: Impossible, Twister and Trainspotting. That year the UK box office totalled £450m.
Cinema owners have also been deprived of months of advertising revenues. UK cinema revenues had been forecast to grow by a healthy 9% this year, to £249m. Group M, the media division of WPP, now says cinema advertising will more than halve from 2019’s level to £114m.
