Breakfast with Bond

Cineworld box office rises 3.9%

Restoring the Phoenix

Scottish mobile cinema up for sale

Cinemas receive night vision devices

Are you brave enough to look?

The art of documentary

Record showing for British films at London Film Festival

In Bruges and Hunger lead the BIFA pack with seven nominations each

Digital dividend? Don’t make me laugh!

BFI names top 75 films

Everyman has a starring role

Cineworld box office rises 3.9%
Steve Wiener is upbeat about performance

Revenues at Cineworld have risen by over 2% and box office by almost 4% over the past year. An interim management statement issued by the publicly-quoted multiplex operator said that box office revenues rose 3.9% for the 43 weeks to 23 October. Retail sales held steady at 0.1%, while other revenues fell by 4.5%.

Steve Wiener, Cineworld chief executive, said that Cineworld’s market share stands at 23.3%.

Mamma Mia! and The Dark Knight have been “outstanding films”. he said. “These two films, together with other notable performances from Hancock and Wall-E, have contributed to better-than-expected trading for Q3, which will assist in offsetting both the impact on Q4 from the re-scheduling of the new Harry Potter to summer 2009, and certain cost increases relating to utilities and interest rates in the second half of the year.”

Wiener said the group is highly cash generative and its balance sheet remains strong. “We opened a cinema at Haverhill, in addition to High Wycombe in March, increasing our estate to 75 cinemas and 775 screens. Our joint venture screen advertising business, Digital Cinema Media, is trading ahead of expectations.”