Ireland’s Omniplex Cinema Group has acquired Empire Cinema’s five existing UK sites as part of its ambition to become a major player in UK exhibitions.
Cinemas will open in Birmingham, Ipswich, Sutton, Clydebank and High Wycombe this month, with more to be announced in 2024. The Group is investing £22. 5m over 18 months to win and refurbish those existing sites and has shown it has secured 150 Job positions.
The site will be contracted according to the existing terms.
Three of the sites are freehold or long-term rentals and two are operating rentals.
“We’ve been watching the U. K. [Britain] market for two years,” Omniplex Cinema Group head Paul John Anderson told Screen on Monday.
It should be noted that, unlike other UK operators besides Cineworld, Omniplex, founded in 1991, does not suffer from massive debt.
“We came out of the Covid era, I wouldn’t say unscathed, but in a better position than most operators. Two of the things are that we don’t have any foreign debt and we own most of our properties. “Anderson explained: “We don’t have massive, expensive hire calls that have been cancelled, or are in the process of being cancelled, from a lot of operators in the UK and elsewhere as well. “
Ominplex already has cinemas in Northern Ireland and 22 cinemas in the Republic of Ireland.
A former Empire site in Swindon recently acquired through Vue. “It’s the administrator’s decision. We didn’t have any involvement,” Anderson said of the transaction.
Anderson is under pressure that there is no connection between control of Omniplex and that of the Empire movie theater chain, founded through Thomas Anderson, who Screen says is his uncle.
“From a business perspective, they’re separate entities,” he said.
Omniplex has its own high-end widescreen format, OmniplexMAXX. Their new site in Birmingham has an existing Imax display. Anderson said it wasn’t yet known what would happen to that screen.
“We will see what we will do with Max and D-Box, the two brands that Empire previously had,” he explained.
Anderson expressed his overall optimism about the release slate for 2024/25 and the most likely customers for the theatrical release in the UK and Ireland.
His comments come after Vue CEO Tim Richards recently said at the British Screen Forum that 2024 will be “very, very challenging” for operators.
“I don’t think it is a demand issue,” said Anderson. “It is a supply issue…the strikes in the US have not helped. That is going to spill into the last quarter of this year and then it is going to spill into 2024.”
He said that “there will be some big movies next year,” mentioning the Dune sequel, Kung Fu Panda 4, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Deadpool 3, Beetlejuice 2, Joker: Folie A Deux, Paddington in Peru and The Lord. Del. Rings: The War of the Rohirrim among those likely to make money next year. She also hopes that the new Mean Girls will be able to repeat Barbie’s good luck in the summer of 2023 because it’s “basically the same gender. “
“I’m sure the public will come back in 2024,” he said.
Anderson said the company would look for new opportunities to expand into the U. K. market.
“Those are five smart places that we support. It’s a great investment. Our priority is to integrate those sites. Beyond that, we’re in other places in Britain, but it’s all about the opportunities.
“We are a company that is disciplined in how we view sites, what we are willing to pay for them and so forth,” Anderson added. “But, yes, we will be looking at more [sites in the UK] and we will be announcing more in the UK. We are in discussion on several as well. It is an exciting time.”
The industry welcomed Omniplex’s entry into the UK market. Exhibition expert John Sullivan, founding director of film consultancy The Big Picture, said there was “stiff competition” for the Empire’s cinemas.
“[Omniplex] outbid everyone,” he said. “I am very excited about their access to the [UK] market. It is the younger generation that is taking over Omniplex in Ireland and now in the UK. This younger generation will come up with new ideas.
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