Everyman boss confident Britons WILL still flock to the cinema

Everyman Media Group reported a narrowing of its interim losses in its first-half results as it hailed ‘healthy’ customer numbers and said it expects to ‘at least meet’ market expectations for the full-year and beyond.

The upmarket cinema group’s pre-tax losses narrowed to £798,000 over the period, down from £9.2million a year ago, on revenues of £40.7million, up from £7.7million.

The group said ‘Top Gun: Maverick performed well at the end of May, with Everyman receiving a 5.8 per cent market share of gross proceeds to date. 

‘Other strong titles included The Batman in March and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in May.’

Stronger performance: Everyman Media Group reported a narrowing of its interim losses in its first-half

The company swung to and adjusted EBITDA of £7.5million during the period, up from a loss of £1.4million.

Its cinemas tend to have a small number of screens compared to rivals, comfy sofa like seating and features such as food and drink delivered to seats. 

Alex Scrimgeour, Everyman boss, said: ‘Cinema will always be an important part of the fabric of the UK as a place to be entertained, and has historically remained as such during more difficult economic conditions and recession. 

‘We are confident that our unique brand of Everyman hospitality remains as relevant as ever.’

Everyman said admissions comparison to the same period in 2021 was challenging due to Covid-related closures. 

But, versus the first half of 2019, admissions were up 20 per cent, driven by organic growth and the opening of nine new sites. 

There were 300,000 additional admissions compared to the first half of 2019. 

Scrimgeour, said: ‘The first half of the financial year has been a period of progress on all fronts, with healthy admissions growth and robust spend per head, suggesting we are now back on track following the turbulence of recent years.

‘Despite reduced film output due to the effect of low production during the pandemic, we’ve enjoyed three of the ten highest-ever box office releases in the past twelve months.

‘Looking ahead, we are optimistic about our prospects. We are confident that film production is back up to full speed and that the flow of excellent content will be bigger and better going forward, beginning with an attractive pipeline of new releases over the remainder of this year and next.’

Popular: Everyman said ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ starring Tom Cruise performed well at the box office

Scrimgeour said Everyman had kicked off the second half of the year in line with expectations and the outlook for the remainder was ‘promising.’

Canaccord Genuity, which rates the stock at ‘buy’, said the results were ‘strong’ and demonstrated that Everyman had bounced back from the challenges of the pandemic.

It said: ‘Investment made into the customer offering over the last few years, coupled with a solid film release schedule, and a resumed site expansion plan has resulted in a record half year performance in terms of both sales and EBITDA.

‘Its enhanced F&B offering and curated film offering of major and independent releases offer a real point of differentiation for customers and have helped to drive further market share gains. 

‘Looking forward, there remains a significant growth opportunity available to the group, with a number of new site openings over the coming 24 months.’

Everyman shares were up 2.98 per cent or 2.89p to 99.9p in late morning trading, but the group’s share price has fallen nearly 30 per cent in the past year.  

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk