Some of Britain’s biggest cinema chains may have been in the red of late, but the industry was in the pink over the weekend as the simultaneous releases of Barbie and Oppenheimer filled theatres on both sides of the Atlantic.
Vue, which has 226 cinemas, including 88 in the UK, prepared early for the “Barbenheimer” rush after advanced bookings reached their highest level since the release of Avengers: Endgame in 2019. According to the Cinema Association, the opening weekend generated almost £30 million in box-office takings in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
Tim Richards, 64, chief executive of Vue, described ticket sales for the films as “extraordinary . . . Across our circuit, we did two million people from Milan to Copenhagen to Warsaw. In the UK, we had over 4,000 sold-out sessions.”
The Canadian-born Vue boss said the most remarkable element of the booking frenzy was that 23 per cent of its customers had bought tickets for Barbie and Oppenheimer at the same time: “In itself, that is unbelievable.”
Odeon reported a similar surge, welcoming more than a million guests through the doors of its 110 venues in the four days after the joint release on Friday, its busiest period since reopening after the pandemic. It was also its busiest Saturday since 2015.
Suzie Welch, Odeon’s interim managing director for UK & Ireland, said: “What a weekend it was for guests, with so many cinemas jam-packed full from Friday onwards on our busiest weekend since 2019.”
The comments from Vue and Odeon had a positive effect on quoted cinema operators, with shares of Everyman Media up 1½p, 2.7 per cent, at 57½p yesterday. Cineworld’s stock closed flat at 0.42p, after earlier rising almost 10 per cent and despite warnings that its imminent delisting from the stock market will wipe out shareholders.
The weekend has proved a boon in an otherwise tricky summer for the film industry, which has had disappointing results from big-budget films including Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny, The Flash and even the Tom Cruise vehicle Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.
“The biggest issue that we’ve had has been the supply of films,” Richards said. “There were 35 per cent fewer films last year and 20 per cent this year. We’re either breaking a new record or waiting for the next film to come out. And that‘s very, very frustrating.”
The British Film Institute warned that the revival of film production since the end of the pandemic could be short-lived given the present strike by actors and writers, but a spokeswoman suggested that it was “maybe too soon to discuss what the impacts will be at this stage”.
Richards said the key was that Vue had retained its customers. “We’ve proven that time and time again, whether it’s Belfast, or Ticket to Paradise, Avatar, Top Gun and now Barbie and Oppenheimer — it’s all ages, all demographic groups, nothing has changed. We just need movies.”
He also played down the impact of subscription services such as Netflix. “They had their moment in the sun during the pandemic and it’s over. Wall Street has recognised it, the City has recognised it, the customers have recognised it. Cinemas are the driver for the studios. They are where talent want their movie screened. No talent wants to put their movies on Netflix. They’d rather have it on the big screen.”
Another sector to benefit from the remarkable Barbenheimer launch was advertising, with Catherine Ferguson, head of agency strategy at Pearl & Dean, the cinema advertising sales house, describing Barbie as “not just the star on screen, but an advertiser’s dream”, adding that the company had not seen so much interest from brands looking to advertise around a movie since the last Bond film No Time to Die.
She said: “The cinema industry continues to battle many challenges post-pandemic, but the hype around these two films proves the power and influence cinema has as a channel. Even with the introduction of TV and digital streaming, it remains a constant in our lives and the emotional value it holds for audiences — no matter what age — is unmatched.”
The industry’s efforts to bounce back from the ravages of Covid have been partially held back by the impact of inflation on the cost of a trip to the cinema. According to data supplied to the Daily Mail, the typical cost for a family of four after including extras such as fizzy drinks, popcorn and hotdogs has now passed £100, although Vue has special offers on tickets costing £4.99 on Saturday and Sunday mornings “to make sure this remains an accessible form of entertainment for everyone”.
One company that makes a virtue of the food it offers is Everyman Media, the fourth biggest operator. Although food is served at just about every cinema, Everyman goes a step further than most with an emphasis on providing “first-class cinema and hospitality”. Its food and drink spend per head rose from £9.07 to £9.34 last year, helping the company to return to the black.
Its three big multiplex rivals all had a much more torrid time during the pandemic, with Vue and Cineworld being forced to undergo financial restructurings, wiping out all the equity.
While Vue underwent a £1 billion restructuring that handed control to its lenders, Cineworld has been progressing with its own revamp under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This will involve a debt-for-equity swap that hands control of its assets to lenders, together with an equity-raising of $800 million and $1.46 billion of new debt financing.
Cineworld, which was brought to its knees by the debt mountain from its North American acquisition spree, also considered disposals as an alternative to restructuring, but the prices offered fell well short of expectations.
As part of the Cineworld revamp, Mooky Greidinger, 70, the chief executive, and his brother Israel, 62, the deputy chief executive, have stepped down, though with two other executives they will share $35 million over the next 12 months in consulting fees and to smooth their exit from the business. The scale of the sum has raised eyebrows, given the parlous financial state in which they have left the company.
Asked whether the Greidinger brothers had tarnished the industry’s good name, Richards said: “No, not at all. What they’ve been through you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. They had a very hard time and lost everything.”
The Vue chief executive warned that his own company was “still not completely out of the woods yet”, adding: “It’s a fragile recovery. Our goal right now is to get the company back on track completely to where we were pre-pandemic. Then we’ll start to look at potential opportunities, probably in 12 to 18 months, but not today. We’ve still got quite some way to go.”
In the meantime, Richards is looking forward to watching more blockbuster films, including Napoleon, in which Joaquin Phoenix stars as the French emperor, Wonka, featuring Olivia Colman, and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.
