Cineworld Boss Mooky Greidinger Optimistic For A “New Normal”, Talks Ticket Prices, Reducing Debt & More
18.03.2022 - 00:41
/ deadline.com
Exhibition giant Cineworld reported its full-year 2021 earnings this morning in London, showing sharply narrowed losses and vastly improved revenues versus 2020. CEO Mooky Greidinger is bullish on the the outlook for the world’s second-largest exhibitor which also owns Regal in the U.S., as the company predicts admissions in 2022 could reach 85% of the record-breaking domestic levels seen in 2019 and as much as 95% in offshore markets including the UK and Central Europe where Cineworld operates.
Still, following pandemic-induced cinema closures across the estate, the company is carrying sizable debt. It is also appealing a decision by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to award Cineplex C$1.23 billion ($971M) after Cineworld terminated a deal to acquire the Canadian exhibitor in 2020. Cineworld remains confident it will prevail in the appeal.
Greidinger spoke to Deadline today regarding those issues as well as his outlook on windowing, ticket pricing and more of what the future may hold.
DEADLINE: Your earnings report today showed great improvement in revenues and a narrowing of loss, but the group is carrying a lot of debt. What is it going to take to reduce that?MOOKY GREIDINGER: We need to continue to produce cash in the way that we did in the last quarter of 2021, and to go back into normal numbers for the whole the year.
When we look at the lineup ahead of us now, in April we are confident that we’ll get close to 2019 numbers and in the following months this should start reducing the debt and this is the direction. As long as we had closed or cinemas that opened with limited lineup, it was of course difficult to reduce the debt.
DEADLINE: And you are continuing to invest in cinemas with new sites opening this year?GR
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