Moviegoers paid well to see the latest offerings in 3D at Cineplex theatres in the fourth quarter, but that wasn’t quite enough to match the revenue generated in the prior holiday season when record-breaker Avatar ruled the box-office.
The operator of Canada’s largest theatre chain said it earned $240.8 million in revenue for the three months ended Dec. 31, down from $247.2 million in the same period a year ago.
The slide came as attendance dropped 7.9% with about 1.4 million fewer tickets sold in the quarter and concession sales slipped.
However, profits still increased to $10.9 million, from $9.5 million a year ago. In the quarter, the company said its media division–which handles on-screen and lobby advertising–continued to recover from the economic downturn with a 9% increase in revenues to $25.2 million.
“The premium charge for 3D product more than offset the slight attendance reduction,” said president and CEO Ellis Jacob in a conference call with analysts.
Premium-priced movies include RealD 3D movies, as well as both regular and 3D Imax screenings and films shown in Cineplex’s new UltraAVX theatres, which are equipped with larger screens, digital projection and better sound.
“For the full-year 2010 these presentations accounted for 28.3% of annual box-office revenues compared to 14.4% in 2009.”
However, the premium priced tickets couldn’t offset the lacklustre slate. During the quarter, the top performing films at Cineplex theatres were Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Disney’s Tangled and Jackass 3D.
None of those films delivered the massive returns that Avatar helped achieve during the same period of 2009.
Hollywood had tried to minimize the fallout from an absence of Avatar by padding last December’s release schedule with other potential hits like The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Tron: Legacy, but both titles fell short of expectations, missing Cineplex’s Top Five performing films during the quarter all together.
