The box office performances of Jessie Buckley’s Hamnet and Leo DiCaprio’s One Battle After Another were not enough to prevent revenues dipping at the Irish arm of the Odeon Group by 2% last year to €29.29m.
New accounts filed by United Cinemas International (Ireland) Ltd (UCII) show that despite the drop in revenues from €30.04m to €29.29m, pre-tax losses reduced by 66% to €2.74m.
A large contributor to the reduction in the firm’s pre-tax losses was the firm’s interest payments of €3.24m in 2024 reducing to €1.7m last year.
UICI operates under the ODEON brand which is a market leader in Ireland operating 11 cinemas with 77 screens at the year-end date.
The Odeon Group is Europe’s largest cinema exhibitor, operating in ten countries.
Revenues at the Irish company decreased as total cinema attendances in Ireland last year decreased by 1.1 million from 11.8 million to 10.7 million.
The group’s operating losses decreased by 79% from €4.8m to €1m last year after taking into account non-cash depreciation charges accounting for €1.15m.
The directors for United Cinemas record that the average ticket price at Odeon movie theatres last year was €9.02 compared to €8.24 in 2024 and the average food and beverage spend was €6.15 compared to €5.77 in 2024.
A breakdown of revenues shows that box office revenues declined from €16.32m to €15.98m while food and beverage sales reduced from €11.42m to €10.89m.
Screen advertising revenues increased to €445,000 while other revenues increased marginally to €1.97m.
On the future development of the business, the directors state that “the company will continue to invest in its existing portfolio of sites and seek new opportunities”.
They state that this strategy “will be driven by the cash generation of our business and will be contingent on maintaining adequate liquidity as well as a required return threshold”.
“Cinema remains relatively inexpensive compared to other out-of-home leisure options,” the directors add.
“Indeed, in the post-pandemic period, audiences have returned to cinemas in large numbers when new films have been released; and they continue to do so despite these cost of living pressures,” they note.
Lease costs last year totalled €6.14m while profits were boosted by a €1.87m asset impairment reversal.
At the end of December last, the firm had a shareholders’ deficit of €39.66m that includes accumulated losses of €47.86m, offset by a share premium account of €9.49m.
The firm’s cash funds last year declined from €4.15m to €2.43m.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
