Cinema owners have enjoyed a strong opening weekend in the UK, with the biggest box office takings since cinemas were first forced to close 14 months ago.
Cinema owners took an estimated £7m in ticket sales over the weekend, the best take since 6-8 March last year, led by Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway. The previous weekend high was the £6m taken by Tenet when it was released last August.
Cineworld said the first weekend that audiences had been allowed back into cinemas went “beyond expectations”. Shares in the company, the UK’s biggest chain with 127 sites, jumped 4% as investors cheered the prospect of a rapid return to pre-pandemic cinema-going levels.
Rival Odeon said that it sold 25,000 portions of popcorn, 9,000 portions of nachos, 3,000 hot dogs and 25,000 litres of fizzy drinks in the first four days following the reopening of cinemas last Monday.
Odeon, which operates 112 sites across the UK, said it recorded double the attendance levels compared with any weekend during the last reopening period from July to November last year. The busiest regions for cinema-going in the first week back open were north-west England and Yorkshire, said Odeon.
Cineworld, which has kept all its UK sites shut since 8 October, also said that it saw strong sales at concession stands while Godzilla vs. Kong also proved a big drawcard, despite having already previously been released online.
“This weekend’s performance went beyond our expectations as customers were eager to return to the movies and enjoy the full movie experience,” the company said on Monday.
In the US, about 502 cinemas – or 97% of Cineworld’s local network – have reopened. Across the rest of the world, its cinemas in Poland and Israel will open their doors at the end of the week, meaning that most of Cineworld’s 727 global sites will be operating by the end of the month.
It comes just in time to screen Disney’s Cruella, starring Emma Stone, and the horror film A Quiet Place Part II.
“We are thrilled to have our cinemas back in business in the US and UK and to welcome movie fans back to the big screen for an exciting and full slate of films,” the Cineworld chief executive, Mooky Greidinger, said.
“When combined with improving consumer confidence and the success of the vaccination rollout, we expect a good recovery in attendance over the coming months, noting the record-breaking success of F9 in the Asian market.”
Like most retail and leisure chains, Cineworld’s finances have been hit hard by Covid restrictions on meeting in groups and indoors. The company reported a record $3bn (£2.2bn) loss for 2020, when revenues tumbled 80% from $4.3bn pre-pandemic to $852m last year.
Despite the poor results, Cineworld executives have pushed through a new scheme in which bosses could be awarded more than £200m in shares if the company’s stock bounces back to pre-pandemic levels. Almost 30% of shareholders failed to back the controversial pay plan, which could result in Greidinger, and his brother and deputy, Israel, receiving awards worth £33m each.
That is despite having secured more than $1bn in financial lifelines to weather the pandemic. The group also confirmed on Monday that it had received a $203m tax refund under the US Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (Cares) Act.
Cineworld’s shares are down about 50% from their pre-pandemic level of 181p.
