00:00But let me just start with the landscape, because it's becoming increasingly competitive.
00:03You've had for several years now a big push from the streamers.
00:07Quite simply, how do you stand out?
00:11Well, I think, I mean, I've never really looked at what happens in home,
00:16terrestrial TV or streamers, as being competition.
00:20Our competition is out of home entertainment.
00:23But in terms of standing out, I mean, we have to kind of constantly reinvent ourselves.
00:28We have to constantly innovate, trial tests, and make sure that we give our customers the very best possible experience.
00:35We've been testing and trialing now for the last 18 months in particular in this post-pandemic, post-strike era.
00:42And just in the last 18 months alone, we have rolled out approximately 40,000 leather recliner seats.
00:49We've constructed a brand-new seat with integrated wine coolers and champagne coolers.
00:54And we've also completely gotten rid of our concession stand and put in a completely free area,
01:04which has got merchandising, it's got healthy food options, it has traditional concession fare,
01:10and it has hot nibbles as well.
01:12It's been an absolute game-changer for us.
01:16Yeah, interesting.
01:17So it looks like you're leveraging that premium experience, which presumably is higher margin as well.
01:23What's the consumer uptake been like?
01:26Well, it's been really interesting because particularly on what we're calling View Your Way,
01:31which was where we have, I mean, our goal was really focusing on our customer's journey from car seat
01:36or from bus seat down into our cinema seat.
01:42And we wanted to completely eliminate queueing, completely eliminate lineups.
01:47And we have.
01:48We have gates at the entrance, and we have this free flow right through to where you can pick up,
01:56you can see here in the picture, you can pick up whatever concession products you would like.
02:01And the consumer reaction has been extraordinary.
02:05What we were not expecting, we were expecting to have higher spend, which we have.
02:09We were not expecting to get additional growth.
02:12And our cinema is where we've introduced this concept.
02:14We're seeing massive growth in attendance, and it can only be explained by primary demand growth.
02:21And that's really what we're seeing.
02:22So our existing customers are going more often, but we're also seeing growth that we were not expecting.
02:29So it's been a big win all around.
02:32Yeah, what about the uptake from Gen Z?
02:35Are they actually showing up to the movies, or is this a generation that prefer to sit at home and
02:40browse TikTok?
02:43And that is the common thinking.
02:45Gen Z and particularly kind of the emerging Gen A as well have walked away.
02:50Nothing could be further from the truth.
02:5225 saw a 25% uptick for Gen Z in particular.
02:57And you can see Gen A kind of sneaking in there as well.
03:00And I think part of the reason for that is this is the generation or generations that were mostly affected
03:07by lockdown.
03:09This is a generation that were at an age where they should have been out with their friends doing silly
03:14things, and they weren't.
03:16And once everything came out in the post-pandemic period, they were more social than previous generations.
03:23So they are our future, and that's why we're excited about welcoming them in.
03:27And they've been setting records with some of their movies, whether it be, you know, on the younger side to
03:32Minecraft to horror films, which have been really over-indexing.
03:39So interesting what you're saying about Gen Z.
03:41Look, I want to go back to something that you said at the beginning about the streamers.
03:45And I do want to bring this into the conversation because there's this ongoing bid for Warner Brothers and Netflix
03:51emerging as a major player there.
03:54What does this tell you about the state of the industry and the fact that Netflix does actually have so
03:59much clout?
04:02Well, I mean, it's interesting because Warner Brothers is this iconic studio, and, you know, I think everyone's a little
04:11bit nostalgic about, you know, the best option here is for Warner Brothers not to sell.
04:16It is going to sell, and it is going to absolutely sell to either Netflix or to Paramount.
04:22And that's kind of the situation that we're in right now.
04:27Okay, looking ahead, I mentioned that the BAFTAs are coming up this weekend.
04:31You know, what is the award season, the shortlisted films for the BAFTAs tell you about the consumer watching habits
04:39and the types of films that are resonating these days?
04:43Well, I mean, what's really exciting about what's happened in the last year in particular is that we've broken records
04:49now for every genre of film for every demographic.
04:51And, you know, you can see when movies like Wallace Island or I, Liar, and there's really kind of over
05:04-indexing.
05:05And it's at full range all the way up to Minecraft and to Zootropolis, which broke records, broke a number
05:13of records.
05:13So I think when you have a movie like Hamnet gross the way that it did, it's really a good
05:23indication of what to expect for the next few years in the industry.
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