A special screening in London of the upcoming Marvel movie ‘Black Widow’, starring Scarlett Johansson, drew plenty of fans, both costumed and not, to the red carpet on Tuesday, however, the release of the blockbuster could also provide a saviour to struggling movie theatre chain Cineworld Group PLC (LON:CINE).
The FTSE 250 firm’s shares are still down around 55% from their levels in February last year, just before the pandemic hit the world hardest, so it will be eyeing a raft of new and delayed blockbusters to revive its fortunes as restrictions are eased and customers are once again allowed back inside its screens.
READ: Cineworld shares almost certainly the wrong price, says broker
Cineworld reported a record reopening weekend last month in the UK thanks to Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, so will be hoping the trend can be repeated as more hotly anticipated movies finally make their way to the big screen.
The company’s optimism may have been lifted by recent news from its US rival AMC Entertainment Holdings PLC (NYSE:AMC), which reported that last weekend had been a record in terms of audience numbers since reopening.
AMC partly credited the upsurge in demand to the opening of the latest entrant into the Fast & Furious movie franchise, F9: The Fast Saga, which is estimated to have opened at around US$70mln over the weekend, the biggest opening weekend for any move in the US since late 2019.
READ: Memestock favourite AMC hails record weekend since reopening
The boom across the Atlantic could provide a positive read-across for Cineworld, which aside from its UK operation also has a substantial North American presence that is likely to have also benefitted from the jump in demand.
A potential snag in the recovery are streaming services, which have managed to gain a bigger foothold on movie releases as the pandemic forced film firms to release some of their blockbusters directly to the platforms to attract a locked-down audience. With this in mind, cinema firms will be hoping the ‘experience’ of the multiplex will be enough to lure customers off their sofas and back into cinema seats.
Shares in Cineworld were down 4% at 78p in early afternoon trading on Wednesday.