Palace reports marginal increase in box office sales

BY STEVEN JACKSON Observer staff reporter jacksons@jamaicaobserver.com

Friday, May 27, 2011

LOCAL movie-goers spent $428.6 million over nine months ending March 2011 at the island's major cinemas, a marginal increase of 0.14 per cent on the corresponding period in 2010, recent data from Palace Amusement have indicated.

At the same time, box office and food sales in Kingston theatres declined, while revenue from Montego Bay and Mandeville theatres increased.

Box office tickets totalled $300 million with an additional $128.6 million spent on refreshments, according to the data released last week.

Palace Amusement, which runs the four major cinemas spread across the island, said it benefited from increased prices last December, but that resulted in its box office tickets increasing just one per cent while food sales declined by 1.6 per cent.

Despite lower revenues, Carib Cinema in Kingston continued to earn the bulk of box office receipts at $155.9 million, followed by Palace Multiplex in Montego Bay at $69.6 million, Palace Cineplex in Kingston at $53.9 million, and Odeon Cineplex in Mandeville at $20.7 million. At the same time, confectionery sales at these theatres totalled $69.6 million, $26.4 million, $23.8 million and $8.9 million, respectively.

The Observer was unable to get a verbal response to queries from Palace.

Contextually, Palace actually tripled its capital expenditure amidst a Digital 3-D build-out project earmarked as a saviour in an industry ravaged by pirates. According to Palace's unaudited financial statements for the nine months ended March 31, 2011, funds allocated towards capital expenditure totalled $64.5 million at the end of the period under review, compared to $21.1 million year on year. This comes against the background of the company's plan to spend some US$2 million ($167 million) to have Digital 3D at all its cinemas by 2012.

Over the period under review, $14.6 million was allocated towards the Carib Cinema at Cross Roads in Kingston, $11 million towards Palace Cineplex, $12.2 million for Palace Multiplex and almost $10.7 million for Odeon Cineplex.

The project came amidst the cinema group posting its second consecutive quarter of net losses.