The recovery prospects of Cineworld Group PLC (LSE:CINE) and other British cinema operators may have received a boost by new data showing that the UK box office last weekend saw its best performance since the start of the pandemic.
New data from the UK Cinema Association (UKCA) showed that box office income in the UK and Ireland was around £10.9mln over the July 30-August 1 period, the best performance since February 2020, the last full month before the pandemic struck.
READ: Cineworld results should show early signs of post-COVID demand, reckons broker
The biggest earners were the latest DC Comics epic Suicide Squad, which raked in £3.2mln over the weekend, followed by Walt Disney Co’s Jungle Cruise at £2.2mln and the sequel Space Jam 2 at £1.3mln.
UKCA chief executive Phil Clapp told the Evening Standard that the weekend figures were up 64% on the prior weekend and a massive 1,169% compared to the same period a year ago.
Meanwhile, the Odeon cinema chain, part-owned by US group AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE:AMC) Inc, said the weekend had been its biggest since reopening its door earlier this year.
The rise of staycations due to travel restrictions as well as a slate of delayed movie releases later this year are also likely to lift hopes that more box office growth is to come and movie theatres continue to extract themselves from the pandemic downturn.
Shares in Cineworld were down 0.5% at 62.5p in late morning trading on Thursday, while in pre-market deals in New York AMC was down 2.7% at US$29.05.