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I'm intrigued as to whether the whole "cinema is back" trend is filtering through to Cineworld or whether it's the value providers that are mainly benefiting. My own local Cineworld always seems quite quiet but there have been 2 major Cineworld openings within 10 miles plus an Odeon as well! A week ago I saw Creed and that was the fullest I'd seen it since lockdown. Unfortunately it was full of idiots who were more interested in throwing things at each other. Last night I saw Champions in Screen 1 on a Friday night and there were 6 of us present. The car park was moderately busy, presumably for Scream 6 and perhaps still Creed. Tonight I visit again but this time it's an interesting one, an Unlimited Screening that is a mystery as to what it is. Cineworld issue clues on Twitter and the trend is good, many seats are booked so perhaps little innovations like this will help Cineworld. There's a lot of talk about Cinema being too expensive and perhaps Cineworld is for the casual cinema goer. I do wonder how much of Cineworld's trade is due to Unlimited cards and how much is casual. It's the model that counts for the success of the business and there's never enough data out there in general release to suggest whether things are working for Cineworld or not. The best we can hope for is an underbelly that is successful were it not weighted down by excessive debt and an adverse legal verdict. Whether the numbers will give a clue who knows but I would hope that by now Cineworld is at least treading water and not worsening its debt position. Who knows? I doubt there will be sufficient available info release for anyone to tell!
Interesting report but it would take a miracle for Cineworld to rebound in 2023 but it's not impossible. Post covid the cinematic recovery was pinned on James Bond which delivered and Top Gun did in 2022. Perhaps Avatar will be a winner but the main issue is that overall the industry is depressed and not at pre pandemic levels. Too many people are either still scared to come out or have found other things to do. I go to the Cinema loads, 7 times in November and it's been dead every time. Went on Tuesday evening and was dead again. Hoping for an upturn in fortune with Avatar but can see my local one shutting down if the trend continues and I wish that wasn't the case.
I went to Cineworld on Saturday night to see Don't Worry Darling and we were number 5 and 6 in the cinema. It could be reflective of the local area I am in which has big cinema competition including from other Cineworld branches! It does worry me but my son pointed out that they have repaired the sign which read "Cine orld" which is a sign that they're not dead yet!
No it was a different service. Hadn't appreciated how easy it was to hack , my son told me how having done GCSE Computer Studies. Passwords and 2 tone ID etc drive me nuts. I thought mine was ok but turns out it wasn't. A cautionary tale. I was really annoyed to start with and then I realised the scammer had done me a massive favour. (obviously not purposefully, they'd have cleaned me out totally if they could have done)
Hi everyone, not posted on here for a while, it's been a real rollercoaster with a bizarre twist. I'd gradually been building up my CINE stake through an online trader. Unbeknown to me a scammer accessed my account and closed all my open positions, tried to move the resulting cash, did one amount but failed with another larger amount. My account was locked and it's taken 6 weeks to afford the time to go through everything to unlock it. Thanks to CINE I had more funds than if I'd just held on for grim death so yesterday I dived back in at the new lower price. I just have an emotional attachment to cinema, I know it's not doing great but I really hope it's an industry that pulls through. It's hard because of the cost of living etc and lack of films, ludicrous that Top Gun remains in the top 5 in UK cinema several months after its release but hopefully the tide will turn, the world would be less of a place without cinema. Scams aren't always a bad thing if they override unnecessary investing sentiment!
I bought my son a Cineworld Unlimited card for his birthday yesterday! Think that must have been the cause for the jump!
Great find, good to see the CEO sounding chipper! UK box office numbers out today and Top Gun again dominant. https://www.bfi.org.uk/industry-data-insights/weekend-box-office-figures . Overall UK box office over £14m and last week nearly £20m. Anything over £10m is pretty strong having looked at various figures. This likely to be repeated worldwide, especially in US. Jurassic Park out soon and that's going to be another winner though doubt as big as Top Gun which was fantastic.
Went to see Top Gun at Cineworld on Sat in North East. Cinema was pretty busy considering it was an 8pm showing, 5 of us went. Now me and my son going tonight to an IMAX screening at a Cineworld closer to home it was that good. Last night when we booked the screening was fuller than the one on Saturday evening and IMAX means a hefty ticket premium! Onwards and upwards. Tom Cruise has single handedly saved cinema!
Just tried to book for Sheffield and it's full! Great idea. Top Gun has really nailed it for a movie launch. Not seen anything like it in terms of hype, even Avengers Endgame.
It's all really interesting and not good for my nerves at all! I do know that every time it tanks I top up a bit more, not big amounts but my average in now well into the 40p range and I own more shares than I imagined I would. There must be something going on in the background re the court case or borrowings because the film slate is good and I visit Cineworld pretty regularly and last Friday the place was rocking with the advent of Dr Strange which was a far better film than I thought it would be. I look at Box Office stats several times a week and Dr Strange has had a storming start and is likely to go way beyond Batman. I think Top Gun will be great at the Box Office globally, trailers are appearing for Avatar 2 , the new Thor film looks great and there are others that are a bit more obscure that are doing or will do well at the box office. I think that the future is bright for Cineworld with one potential blot. A work colleague has just returned from the US and said it was very quiet in Minneapolis. Covid is a bigger factor in certain states there than we give it credit for given our post covid status in the UK where we act like it never happened. For all the above (and the cloud of the court case) I am cautiously optimistic. I'm resisting the temptation to top up today because I can see a price of 15p to 20p before either the armageddon of the court case impact or a swift rise. There is too much bad information around to confidently predict a strong recovery IMO.
I think this film is going to be good for cinema. It's pure nostalgia and will attract many irregular cinema goes as well as regulars. I know it's been postponed many a time and re-shot but the red carpet event yesterday has really captured media attention in a positive way which can only be a good thing. Dr Strange opens today in UK and lots of people talking about that too. Downton Abbey had a solid opening last weekend. Things are on the up! (perhaps not as swiftly as we'd all like but upward trend all the same)
Whilst the RNS isn't great as CINE clearly feels the need to plan for a worst case scenario it does at least demonstrate that they're on top of the situation and they at least have wriggle room when it comes to debts. Just need a whole load of people to visit the cinema but everything is tight right now. Debt will tip major economies into recession if it hasn't already done so along with Ukraine situation.
I saw the Northman on Sunday evening. I enjoyed it to a point but my son aged 16 loved it and put it in his top 10 of all time films. I found the Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent a much more entertaining production! Absolutely loved that last Tuesday.
My worry is that I'm no better than a gambler when it comes to CINE and keep topping up when the price falls thinking I'm being clever in reducing my overall average entry level. Then the price falls again and I chuck some more cash at it! At this rate I'll be owning a big chunk of a worthless company before long!
Batman IMO is doing ok. It was a great film and I saw it at Cineworld at a midnight screening which was pretty busy. The reality is that it's a 15 cert which wipes out a lot of potential audience when it comes to comparing with Spiderman. Yes Joker was a 15 and did brilliantly but things aren't the same now even though we'd like them to be. I've written this and I don't really know what my point is, I'm aknowledging that Batman may well not do as well as some hoped for but at the same time it has been on a reasonable but not record breaking run. I'd say 6/10 for cinemas in general.
I'm sure many have done this already but here's a link to the statement. If you click on Preliminary Results it brings them all up. https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/c/cineworld-group-plc-ordinary-1p/share-news
What is there to take from this? I'd forgotten how bad a year 2021 was for entertainment and hospitality. These results aren't bad, CINE aren't on their uppers, appear to be cash generative and 2022 does have a good set of releases even though I prefer some of the more obscure ones!
Let's be clear, it's on the road to recovery and the strength of the recovery will be determined by the success or failure of the court appeal. I'm hanging on and hope to see continued recovery and I hope the SP reflects this. We all know debt is really high but the question is whether it's sustainable. The ability to extend terms and negotiate will be key in this area. It's in nobody's interests for CINE to fail. The lenders would lose out as would most others. There's enough in these numbers for goodwill to be present.
One final point, look at UK average revenue per admission compared to ROW. It stands out that us in Britain are paying a lot more for our experience, this does rankle!
I think that realistically (from previous announcements) that what we will see is a reduced loss for the year that's been reported. What's going to be crucial for the SP is the trading updates. We already know that Q4 was cash positive and it would be helpful to know if Q1 of 2022 was cash positive or looking on course to be. We already believe that it was nowhere near as strong as Q4 (but it rarely is) and nowhere near Q1 of 2020. There has been a lot of talk about CINE having a model of looking to achieve 90% of pre covid trade. For me what would be interesting is knowing how far off that they are and what percentage of pre covid trade would be acceptable to enable them to continue meeting their debt commitments. They are still investing in new cinemas, I know of 2 that are due to open this year. (Colchester and Barnsley) which suggests they still have access to cash. If we are seeing a continued improving trend this can only be good for the SP. I think it will still be a bumpy road but hoping for encouraging news tomorrow.
In UK BFI figures show a weekend on weekend increase in spend of 65% across the top 15 films when Batman opened. This will no doubt be repeated in the US where stats are showing Batman has grossed 20% of Spiderman already. https://www.bfi.org.uk/industry-data-insights/weekend-box-office-figures
My avergae now down to 51p but I'm sat on what is for me big losses. Just hoping I don't need any cash soon as I'll be screwed if I do. Speaking of dividends I own quite a few Lloyds shares and they declared a dividend which is due in April. Their shares have tanked recently as well. Latest falls not exclusive to CINE and I still believe that at some point the SP will bounce back. Keep the faith.
I go to the cinema on average twice a month. I tend to split between Cineworld and Reel. The latter is about half the cost of Cineworld but has fewer screens, smaller screens and not as comfortable seats. It's still very good though. I go with my family but we don't have Unlimited and we tend to avoid concessions. Went to a midnight screening of Batman and I'd say there were 50-60 people there with 2/3 munching heavily on concession snacks! I think there is a good future for cinema but it's not the same as pre pandemic. I see green shoots everywhere though.