Cineworld poised to cash in on blockbusters

Blockbuster films: Cineworld expects movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, starring Johnny Deppy, to pull in customers

Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty

Joanna Hodgson9 March 2017

La La Land and Moonlight may have won big at the Oscars, but Cineworld is banking on a string of blockbusters to boost its 2017 figures, the finance boss of the cinemas chain said earlier.

Nisan Cohen said movies that won Academy Awards last month “are performing well, but won’t replace big Hollywood blockbusters”.

Upcoming big budget films, including the new Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, are expected to help increase the number of bums on Cineworld seats.

Sahill Shan, an analyst at N+1 Singer, said: “We sense a strong start to full year 2017 and expect this momentum to be sustained over the first half.”

The comments came as Cineworld revealed it had over 100 million customers visit its venues in 2016.

Crowds flocked to see hits including Bridget Jones’s Baby last year.

Sales rose to £797.8 million from £705.8 million a year earlier, and the firm hiked its full-year dividend by 8.6p to 19p.

The group blamed a one-off pension cost as profits slipped slightly to £98.2 million. Shares fell 8.5p to 641.5p.