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Viewing report
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Cinemas and Theatres Market Report 2000
Key Note Publications Ltd, Jan 2000
Cinemas enjoyed a boom period in the mid-1990s but have struggled to maintain volume growth since 1997. However, average ticket prices have increased, to produce more consistent growth in market value. The theatre market experienced a steady decline during the latter half of the 1990s, although this is mainly due to lower admissions and revenues in the provincial theatre London's West End theatre has thrived reasonably well over the period.
An unusual number of mergers and acquisitions took place in the cinemas and theatres markets during the latter half of 1999 and the early months of 2000.
Foreign investment in the UK has increased, with the French cinema company UGC acquiring Virgin Cinemas Ltd (now UGC Cinemas Ltd), and major Australian and South African operators opening UK multiplexes. SFX Entertainment of the US bought Apollo Leisure Group Ltd, the largest owner of provincial theatres (also a West End theatre and cinema owner).
Furthermore, the long-established Odeon and ABC cinemas have been merged into one, easily the largest cinema company in the UK, and the West End saw two big mergers in the early months of 2000, creating two outstanding theatre owners - Really Useful Theatres and The Ambassador Theatre Group Ltd.
Corporate events have captured the headlines at a time when cinema admissions have grown only slowly, following the multiplex-inspired recovery of the late 1980s to mid-1990s. Additional multiplexes have less impact on the market than a series of big box office hits in quick succession. The success of Titanic was significant in bringing in an unusually wide audience in 1998 cinemas in the UK and elsewhere in the world have become over-dependent on the teenage and young adult markets.
For theatres, admissions are on a steady downward path, with fewer people attending the theatre every year. However, the gloom is concentrated outside London, in the provincial theatre. In the distinctive West End sector, where 50 large theatres cater for millions of foreign tourists as well as day-trippers, trends have been more positive. Big productions are often tie-ins with other media such as film or pop music, generating large audiences and worldwide demand of particular importance globally are the UK's Lord Andrew
Lloyd-Webber and Sir Cameron Mackintosh.
The 5-year prospects are reasonably good for both cinemas and theatres, although overcapacity is always a problem when box office attractions are few and far between. Much now depends on the restructuring among the major players that has taken place around the turn of the decade.
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