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Everything other post here seems to be about an Odeon takeover, or another cinema chain.

Odeon is owned by AMC Entertainment which is swimming in debt and mentioned in this article, they would also be competing with their own Odeon Luxe brand in the UK so potentially just cannibalising their own customers.

Cineworld is barely solvent.

Vue is privately owned.

So surely the most likely scenarios are 1) remains growing profitable business, 2) private equity takeover, 3)new media/blue chip takeover from a new market entrant.

Just don't see what we're gaining by reading about Odeon takeovers all the time.

Can't read a movie calendar or a box office report but a financial report comes out, tells them there's some good films coming out and they can't buy enough

That's Alamo Drafthouse damn auto correct, no Llamas have been harmed

I've got a hunch about one of the giant Media behemoths, like Amazon, Apple or Sony (more likely than a Disney or Netflix). Pretty small change for their big pockets and we have precedent with Sony buying the Everyman adjacent, Llama Drafthouse in the US. Seems like a no brainer as long as they can satisfy competition legislation as they all run huge production companies so it would be like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Really nice brand extension as well as its such a quality and beloved brand.

They must read this board as they mentioned Superman this time Draft ;-)

Downton Abbey 3 mention shows what type of market and audience they are looking to build as there's some absolute juggernaut movies still to come this year.

Very excited by the summer update as we'll start to see the fantastic 2025 performance in number form and against no headwinds in the industry. Congrats to all who hold this cracking company with its mega fanbase across the UK.

Https://home.barclays/insights/2025/03/how-cinema-got-its-mojo-back-looking-to-a-billion-pound-2025/

Another pretty bullish article. You'd think reading this that shares would have gone up 30% since November, not down 30%.

I agree and don't blame people putting it on watchlists and sitting on the sidelines because all they've released in 2025 was an unnecessarily negative trading update which could have been written more like this:

https://www.screendaily.com/news/uk-cinema-chain-everymans-2024-revenue-up-179-two-venues-to-open-in-2025/5202839.article

And we might not have seen a 37% drop in the Share price. They rightly pointed out problems in the past about the calendar and the industry strikes but then wrongly projected them into the future. Almost like 2025 wasn't a priority as long as its high again in 2026.

That being said, we know the 2025 numbers will be good and that does make them a more attractive takeover proposition and also a good bet for value investors who can see a market trending upwards with a bargain share price. Remember the UK film association is saying the market is 20% up and we've only seen 1 of the likely Top 20 movies released this year. I also saw a stat that cinema advertising is up 38% in 2025 so that's a nice boost for their tertiary income stream as well.

Https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g0qzpw4jpo.amp

Https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=GB&q=Everyman,Odeon,Vue,Cineworld&hl=en-US

Hopefully this link works. Potentially some very good gains when it comes to market share over the winter period of 2024/25. Look at the massive closing of the gap when it comes to searching for the different cinemas, compared to Spring and Summer of last year.

Genuine question but why is this board so keen on a takeover? The board and execs have bought shares in the £1 to £1.50 range since the pandemic. They must think it's undervalued. There's undoubtedly some positive numbers coming over the next few months so who wants a takeover at 1.5x or 2x the current price when the price should go up naturally and any takeover would be more lucrative for shareholders.

Https://variety.com/2025/film/box-office/bridget-jones-uk-ireland-february-2025-box-office-1236331157/

Happy Friday! Confirmation that now up 2025 is now up 15% on same time period in 2024. This is also the fourth consecutive month of outperformance with last November 95% up YoY, December 21% up, January 10% up and now February 20% up. Some lovely momentum going into the end of financial year updates.

They just had their biggest 3 day movie opening in their history and it's still down 20% this year. Pretty sure it's just undervalued, maybe being sold off by larger investors and picked up by bargain hunters who can see a good deal.

I have posted on another board but mainly don't own UK shares. Those Curzons look like they need a hell of a lot of work and investment to keep them going. I expect all the cinema chains had a chance to bid and declined to do so.

I'm quite optimistic about the the cinemas. From what I can see it's Brentford opening imminently, Bayswater opening soon and then possibly Durham, Norwich and Lichfield next year.

Brentford looks like a great location in an affluent area without obvious competition for a few miles. Seems like a great catchment area. Bayswater also seems to have a captive audience as nobody living there will baulk at the pricing and it should do really well when London tourism peak times because of its location and lack of competition nearby.

Durham, Lichfield and Norwich make sense as they have very limited coverage in the North East, Midlands and East of England compared to London, South East & West and North West.

ai estimates odeon at about £374m, so that's 11x the value of everyman but with only 2.6x number of cinemas and 6.2x number of screens. i would have thought odeon had higher overheads with large multiplexes they have to maintain and heat + much higher staffing costs. everyman probably pay more per square foot as in premium locations but potentially better margins from nice food, ****tails etc. it's an interesting comparison. i read somewhere they are trying to sell gail's bakeries for £500m which is a similar premium type brand in well heeled locations. is that really worth 15 times the value of everyman?

i think you're right that it's a lack of interest and boredom in the stock. i also wonder if it's too small now for institutional investors and it's being propped up by the directors, retail investors and some small cap enterprise trusts. i saw black rock and schroeders on a list of investors once but they might have sold now as too small for them to worry about. it does mean if things start to turn, it could pick up momentum very quickly.

Its a headscratcher. All cinemas currently very busy on Google and either sold out or nearly sold out on most of their screens with two major movie. This is a Friday afternoon in February, not any of the peak seasons of Easter, Summer, Halloween or Christmas.

Box office 10% YoY in January compared to 2024 because of overperformance of the movies. And to address the points on the RNS for Q4 last year:

Underperforming films - nothing on this years slate looks like it will bomb like that Joker film did.

Congested calendar - this was a fair point with Paddington, Moana, Wicked and Gladiator all releasing in the space of a month. Not sure what the fifth film is they mentioned. This is solved for 2025 and onwards and algorithms for the studios and cinemas will spread out the films so we get a blockbuster every few weeks and not all in the same month. Case in point is Mickey 17 being brought into that two week gap between now and Snow White in late March.

Family spend - doesn't suit EMan model having 3 massive kids films in the same month due to their business model which is presumably higher spend per head with more adult films. This is much better in 2025/26 with the films they mentioned.

Industry strikes - all in the rear view mirror

Economy - sure but who doesn't this affect? Other premium brands seem to be doing OK. Should also improve with interest rate cuts and FTSE 100 now tipped to hit 9,000.

On the downside, all I can do is speculate because they've never mentioned it in any investor comms. Underperforming cinemas? No evidence of this in the annual updates, even the new ones doing quite well. Studios being tougher on revenue sharing? No evidence of this in the revenues. External factors e.g. the Durham cinema being mothballed for 2 years out of their control? Might have a slight impact but wouldn't be major.

Hopefully the turnaround begins today.

Intrigued by this, partly because it went up 10% on a good trading update and then plummeted 30% for now reason.

The new coffee machine range has just launched and getting rave reviews from the tech and home trade. If they can find this gap in the market for these small electricals which sits somewhere between having a fancy Sage machine which comes at a much higher price point and enter the consideration set with the likes of Ninja, Lakeland etc. then I think this business has a lot more potential than just the standard kitchenware retailer with online presence model we've seen up until now.

Should give a nice boost for an discretionary spend/premium leisure business but no change here. Sounds like there might be a couple more cuts this year as well.

Can see this sitting between the 35-37 range until Spring so good chance to buy at what could be all time lows. Something to watch is the box office figures from next week. Bridget Jones and Captain America released on same day but have different audiences. Bridget Jones has always been a top 3 UK movie in the years it's been released so if the overall YoY figures are looking good by March then we should be in a for a good year ahead and trading quarter for EMAN.

UK box office has been consistently pulling in about £900m past few years since cinemas fully reopened. This is projected to go to over £1bn this year with the ending of the writers strike and a better slate of films

This means the overall pie is going to grow 10% and there's nothing in EMAN overall performance or numbers that says they won't take their share of that.

In 2026 it is projected to hit 'pre-pandemic' levels so that's in the £1.4bn range. That means EMAN should also take a 40%-50% boost with all things being fair and equal.

There's nothing in the competitor set which is particularly scary. Cineworld is an 'aberration' in that it's performance has been bad but it's counter to the sector as a whole which is doing fine. It's likely being kept afloat because of the 2025/26 bonanza of blockbusters so they know it will improve. Odeon is owned by AMT and doing poorly with huge management question marks. Streaming killing cinema has proven to be a falsehood and has actually benefited all film industries.

So the biggest threat here is the overall economy, things like utility bills and stagflation, or low wage growth meaning discretionary spend on things like nice cinema trips will take the hit. If Everyman performs like it's name, completely averagely, then it should perform exponentially better than it's 2024 price.