Box office will benefit from Brexit blues, says Cineworld

Brexit could be an unlikely star for the cinema trade by sending gloomy Brits to seek solace in their favourite screen characters, Cineworld said today.

The weeks following the Leave vote have been “strong” for the group, according to deputy finance chief Nisan Cohen, who expressed no fear about further fallout.

“If you look historically, you will not find any correlation between GDP and an economy’s status to admission levels in the cinema.

“Sometimes in very difficult years for the economy, you get more people into the cinema because it’s still a cheap place to go to spend good time with your family or on your own,” he said.

Cineworld also has a promising string of films on its side for the second half of the year, including the recently released Jason Bourne, Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, starring Eddie Redmayne, and Bridget Jones’s Baby.

But releases in the first half of the year failed to match the success of last year’s Jurassic World and Euro 2016 kept punters away. UK and Ireland admissions were down 4% at 24 million in the six months to June 30.

However, growth in its other markets, including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, meant first-half revenue, stripping out currency fluctuations, rose nearly 7% to £356.7 million. Adjusted pre-tax profits were flat at £39.4 million.

Peel Hunt analysts said the results were “decent” in light of a strong box-office comparative. “We remain positive and see plenty of upside potential for the rest of 2016 and beyond,” they added.

The company, which last month bought five Empire cinemas including Leicester Square, is looking to grow further and is negotiating on other “strategic” locations in the capital.

“The acquisitions reflect our confidence in UK market,” Cohen said.