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The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION

Cineplex sees fewer moviegoers in without the help of Harry Potter in Q4

By: David Friend, The Canadian Press

Posted: 02/9/2012 5:47 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies) | Last Modified: 02/9/2012 1:04 PM

A Cineplex Odeon sign is seen in Toronto, Wednesday Sept. 27, 2006. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

TORONTO - The absence of a new Harry Potter movie over the holiday season left movie exhibitor Cineplex Inc. with more empty seats during the fourth quarter, though the company still managed to boost profits.

The Toronto-based firm said Thursday that net income rose to $10.9 million in the fourth quarter, marking a sharp gain over the $4.4 million for the same period of 2010.

But, even with numerous popular franchise titles like "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" and the latest entry in the "Twilight" series, the exhibitor said the holiday season wasn't the same.

"The reason it was slightly down overall is because Harry Potter was in the fourth quarter (a year earlier), and it was much stronger than Twlight," chief executive Ellis Jacob said in an interview.

Attendance dropped 4.1 per cent to 15.1 million, slipping from the 15.7 million customers who bought tickets at Cineplex theatres in the last three months of 2010.

The slowdown left a minor impact on concession revenues which dropped to $68,161, a decrease of 0.2 per cent.

However, Cineplex reaped the benefits of a blockbuster in Quebec that pushed ticket sales higher.

European co-production "The Adventures of Tintin" was a massive success in the province, accounting for about 13 per cent of the film's North American box-office take, Jacob said.

The Tintin characters already had a massive following in Quebec, enough that Paramount decided to launch the film there two weeks before it opened across the rest of North America.

Typically, a Hollywood movie will do about eight to 11 per cent of its North American business in Canada, but Tintin represented a whopping 26 per cent.

"It did extremely well for us," Jacob said.

Cineplex (TSX:CGX) revenues for the quarter were $241.7 million, just a 0.5 per cent increase over the same period a year earlier.

Media revenues increased 14 per cent to $28.7 million, as the company benefited from more advertisers buying spots for the holiday shopping season.

Cineplex Galaxy converted from an income fund to a corporation in January 2010 and operates Cineplex Entertainment, which runs 130 theatres located from British Columbia to Quebec with about 1,351 screens that include digital projectors, Imax screens and its UltraAVX screen and sound systems.

The company has about 10,000 employees under its numerous brands which include Cineplex Odeon, Galaxy, Famous Players, Colossus, SilverCity and Scotiabank theatres.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version incorrectly reported an erroneous annual concession revenue figure. This version deletes that reference.

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