Admissions fall at Cineworld

Cineworld is eyeing a stronger year for blockbuster film releases after admissions fell 3.7% at its UK and Ireland cinemas in 2014.

The group, which has more than 100 sites under the Cineworld and Picturehouse brands, made up for the decline through a 4% rise in average ticket prices in the year to January 1.

Box office revenues were 0.1% higher in the period but total sales lifted 1.8% over the period after including food and drink and other sales.

In a full-year trading update, Cineworld highlighted a strong film release programme for 2015 including Avengers: The Age of Ultron, Star Wars: Episode VII and Jurassic World.

It now expects to achieve annual profits towards the top end of City forecasts after a strong performance in Poland, where an increase in local films and a strong line-up of popular family films resulted in admissions growth of 6.8%.

Cineworld currently operates 1,880 screens across 205 sites, including in Israel and a number of countries in central Europe.

During the year the company opened two new cinemas at St Neots and Telford and is contracted to open a further 11 cinemas in the UK, including three new Picturehouse cinemas.

Peel Hunt analyst Nick Batram said Cineworld delivered an “impressively solid performance in what was a difficult year in general for cinema”.

He added: “This bodes well that the group can convert what looks like being a strong recovery in cinema admissions in 2015, driven by a high-quality film slate of potential blockbusters.”

Mr Batram has upgraded his forecast for profits in 2014 to £70.5m, compared with the £44m reported a year earlier.