Cineworld to reopen cinemas in April
Cineworld (LON:CINE) confirmed a $3bn loss for the financial year gone as the devastating impact of lockdowns on the cinema chain became clear.
The FTSE 250 company’s revenues plummeted by over 80% to $852m, down from $4.3bn the year before. The chain also posted a pre-tax loss in 2020 of $3bn, a swing from a profit off $212m if 2019.
Cineworld’s board confirmed it had raised an additional $213m to see it through to when cinemas are able to reopen in April.
Thee group operates 660 cinemas, which including the Odeon chain in the UK, confirmed that its sites had mostly remained shut since March last year.
Commenting on these results, Mooky Greidinger, chief executive of Cineworld Group plc, said:
“For all of us across the world, this has been an incredibly challenging year. COVID-19 has created a huge amount of stress and uncertainty, both in business and in our personal lives. At Cineworld, I never imagined a time that we would see the closure of our entire cinema estate, nor that varying restrictions would remain in place for so long as we continue to navigate our way through this crisis.”
“I am immensely proud and inspired by the response of our people to these very difficult circumstances. We have worked hard to strengthen the long-term prospects of the business and, looking forward, Cineworld enters 2021 confident about the next chapter in our development; not least the intention to reopen our cinemas starting April 2nd.”
Cineworld is aiming to reopen cinemas in the US, its largest market, from the beginning of April in time for the release of Godzilla vs Kong.
The group penned a deal with Warner Bros to secure the release of its films in its cinemas for 45 days before the studio can load them on to its streaming platform HBO Max.