The boss of Vue has hailed an “extraordinary” Christmas for UK cinemas but warned it remains in “recovery mode” after Hollywood strikes slimmed down the number of films slated for release.
2025 will see the release of films such as Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and Avatar: Fire and Ash, which Mr Richards said are expected to be big hits.
However, the cinema executive warned the sector is still feeling the effects of a period of a strike action in Hollywood in 2023, with screenwriters and actors in dispute over jobs and pay, which halted the production and release of films.
Mr Richards, who founded Vue with the first cinema launched in Scotland in 2000, said it was planning 19 major refurbishments across Europe, with Swindon the “prototype” for the makeovers.
“We saw independent film production slow down, or stop, and it didn’t really get going until the spring of last year,” Mr Richards said.
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