Vue CEO Tim Richards struck a defiantly optimistic note about the state of UK cinema exhibition following predictions by industry analysts this week that the sector is in need of a reset and that exhibitors may be going the same way as now defunct UK high-street giants such as Debenhams and BHS.
Unlike debt-laden Cineworld, which is reportedly looking at closing 25 sites, Richards insisted Vue will not be shutting the doors on any of its cinemas.
“We have no intention of closing any of our cinemas,” Richards said. “We have not closed any of our cinemas since the pandemic. In fact, the opposite is true. We’ve picked up a few new cinemas and we are building a couple of additional cinemas.”
Vue currently has 224 sites and 1962 screens in eight countries. Among the new venues, a 10-screen Vue cinema is due to open in Basildon in Essex later this summer on the site the company took over after Empire Cinemas went into administration and beyond the UK, Vue is soon to open a new site in central Amsterdam.
“The narrative [around exhibition] is still negative because of one or two larger operators having difficulties but I see a lot of operators out there right now like ourselves who believe in the future and are investing, getting ready for that future,” Richards stated.
“Cineworld have already gone through their pain and they have done a good job restructuring,” he added.
The Vue CEO gave very short shrift to the idea suggested to Screen by one analyst earlier this week that the UK’s debt-laden major exhibitors are going through a similar economic ordeal to that endured by UK high- street department stores.
“There is no scenario where the cinema business is even remotely close to retailers like BHS, Debenhams and Frasers. I strongly disagree with that comment and believe it is completely misguided,” Richards said.
The CEO also reflected on Vue’s relationships with its landlords and why it works so hard to maintain these in the most cordial way possible.
“We look at the landlords as partners,” he said. “We are in one ecosystem with our landlords. We are anchor tenants in their sites. We are in key locations to revitalise high streets in struggling small communities where the high streets have been slowing down because of lack of retailers.”
However he also called for fair rents. “It makes commercial sense to have a strong cinema [in a neighbourhood]. If a complex is over-rented, then the exhibitor cannot afford or will likely not invest in that cinema - and then there is less footfall going in.”
Asked whether Vue would be interested in taking over further sites from rival operators should they become available, Richards replied: “Absolutely. They would need to be qualitatively complimentary with our circuit but we’ve already demonstrated over the last 20 years that M&A and purchasing cinemas is part of our DNA.”
Box office optimism
Richards pointed to the broad range of films that have performed well in the UK marketplace over the last two years. “We have seen every demographic in the market return to every genre of film in the last 18 to 24 months,” Richards said, in reference to romantic comedies such as Anyone But You and Ticket To Paradise and last year’s Barbie and Oppenheimer and current Pixar animation hit, Inside Out 2.
”There is a long list of films of all different genres that have broken records,” said Richards. “ It confirms again we do not have a demand problem. Our customers desperately want to come out to watch a great movie of any kind.”
These remarks come despite Richards’ earlier warnings 2024 was going to be a “tough, tough year” for exhibition following last year’s SAG-AFTRA and Writers’ Guild strikes in the US that stalled production on Hollywood blockbusters.
Vue had “a very significant restructuring when we took £1.1bn off our balance sheet” in January 2023, he said. The company then underwent a second debt restructure earlier this year. Richards claimed Vue has “a very strong balance sheet” and is now “in a very good position” with supportive shareholders.
“We would have been OK if it hadn’t been for the strikes,” he said. “The impact of those strikes was longer than anyone had been expecting. Production actually stopped [in Hollywood] for between eight and 10 months.
“But looking at the commitments the studios have made together with Apple and Amazon coming in, and hopefully a reenergised and recapitalised Paramount, we are looking at a really exciting few years ahead.”
Direct distribution
Richards also spoke in generalised terms about Vue’s recent venture into distribution. The plan is for the company’s distribution arm to release six to 12 films a year initially.
Earlier this year, Vue distributed Paola Cortellesi’s Italian hit There’s Still Tomorrow in the UK. The film “did well” although Richards acknowledged that its 15 rating from the BBFC may have hurt its box office of just over $100,000.
“This is a movie they are screening to young nine year-old girls in schools in Italy and in France… we are going to be working very closely with the BBFC in future to make sure our films get the appropriate ratings,” said Richards.
The Vue distribution arm will handle everything from UK to foreign -language titles.
Richards ruffled some industry feathers earlier this year. He told a culture, media and sport committee tasked with probing the challenges facing the UK independent industry that he believed, “There is no such thing any more as an independent cinema, an arthouse cinema, or a major cinema. We are all screens. We all deliver films.”
He is sticking by this position and said the big chains of Odeon, Cineworld and Vue are now “playing the same” titles as the “previously branded arthouse cinemas”.
On the UK indie side, Richards is part of the joint venture between UK producers Andy Paterson and Annalise Davis, and virtual production outfit Dimension Studios, on Virtual Circle, through which a slate of £5m-£15m UK films will be released through Vue.
Megalopolis release
Richards also gave details of how Vue will be handling Francis Ford Coppola’s epic Megalopolis, which will be released by Entertainment in the UK on September 27.
“We know there’s an audience out there for the film. With a theatrical release like that, particularly with our use of AI, we know where those audiences are and we will play it and cater to those audiences,” he revealed. “It may not get a full-scale release but it will absolutely get a release on a number of cinemas across the country.”
Richards also saw Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga in Cannes earlier this summer and loved it. “I was very excited by the film and disappointed it didn’t do the numbers it should have done because it was a great movie,” he said. “But I think it struggled a little bit from the nine- year gap from Mad Max: Fury Road and it was prequel to a prequel.”
“Unfortunately, it’s the nature of our business that there are always movies you think and hope are going to be blockbusters that don’t work. Fortunately, the counter to that is that there are those small hidden gems that unexpectedly come out and do a billion dollars, like a black and white biopic of Oppenheimer.”
Citing Deadpool And Wolverine (out on July 25) and Joker: Folie A Deux (October 4), Richards talked up the rest of the 2024 release slate.“ There ae some absolutely amazing films coming out. We just need a few more of them.”
No comments yet