Given its long list of woes, investors in Cineworld will be looking for any signs of recovery when it delivers its results on Thursday.
The cinema chain will be booted from the FTSE 250 in this month’s reshuffle with its share price struggling to regain ground lost following the onset of the pandemic.
Matters have not been helped by an ongoing legal battle in Canada with rival Cineplex over a billion-pound merger deal that was derailed by Covid-19.
The company is reeling from a judgment from the Supreme Court of Justice in Ontario in favour of Cineplex, which if upheld on appeal could see Cineworld on the hook for hundreds of millions in damages.
In terms of the numbers, shareholders will be hoping the full easing of pandemic restrictions in the UK, as well as the popularity of recent blockbusters will have attracted film fans back to its cinemas.
Revenue is expected to have more than doubled last year. However, even if this proves true, the group is not predicted to return to profit until 2023.
Ticket sales are also not expected to fully recover to pre-pandemic levels, and given the seismic changes to the movie industry wrought by Covid-19, there will instead be interest in how much the company is willing to spend to attract audiences through new technology and luxury perks.
But this may prove difficult to execute given Cineworld is also facing a massive debt pile, which could grow even larger with legal bills piled on top.
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