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Overall box office collections at the weekend
came in at more than 7 million pounds ($9.91 million), with the
speed and size of the return beyond anything most companies were
expecting, UK Cinema Association CEO Phil Clapp told Reuters on
Monday.
That compares with a box office of 16.6 million pounds for the
whole of May 2019, before the crisis. Box office revenue slumped
by 76% year-on-year to 297 million pounds in 2020, the lowest on
record in modern times, the cinema trade body said.
Cineworld, the world's second-largest cinema operator after AMC,
said trading had topped its expectations, encouraging it to
forecast a strong performance next week too, when Disney's "Cruella"
and Paramount thriller "A Quiet Place 2" are set to be released.
Shares in Cineworld, the only UK-listed cinema chain, were up
more than 3%.
London-based Odeon Cinemas, owned by AMC, said it had sold more
than 300,000 tickets since the reopening last week, its busiest
week in more than a year and more than double the attendance of
any weekend between July and November last year. The UK relaxed
coronavirus restrictions last summer, but had to reimpose them
in the autumn.
Nearly two-thirds of the crowd came in to watch "Peter Rabbit
2," Odeon said.
PANDEMIC UNCERTAINTY
A successful vaccination drive has allowed the UK to ease
restrictions over the past few months, with the next phase set
for June.
"Cinema operators have been waiting for this moment for a long
time, keeping their fingers crossed that consumers would feel
confident enough to return to the big screen," analysts at
broker AJ Bell said. "It looks like people have missed the
experience and we've just had a bumper weekend for cinema
visits."
But there are question marks over whether this weekend's box
office takings are a sign of a long-term revival for cinema that
has been among the worst hit within the entertainment industry.
The pandemic has also accelerated a shift to online streaming,
with all but a handful of big-budget movies released on Netflix
or other streaming platforms, showing how studios have mostly
opted to stream films rather than hold off for a movie theatre
debut at a later date.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE SUN IS OUT?
There has also been speculation that the gap between when a
movie is made available online after its release in theatres has
been shortened by the health crisis.
Cineworld, for example, has a deal with Warner Bros to screen
the studio's movies in its U.S. cinemas with 45 days
exclusivity, beginning next year. That was half the traditional
90-day exclusivity window.
AJ Bell analysts said the bad weather in Britain at the weekend
could have also played a role in getting people into cinemas.
They said Britons might prefer to be outdoors when the sun is
out.
The analysts also highlighted that there are not that many big
films lined up for release until later in the summer.
"This suggests Cineworld will still have to keep its fingers
crossed that the past weekend's trading boost wasn't a one-off."
($1 = 0.7064 pounds)
(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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