Blockbusters pull in £100m for Cineworld

More than 100 million people poured through the chains doors – including at cinemas in Shrewsbury and Telford – to watch movies during 2016.

Other top-performing films included Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, The Secret Life of Pets and Zootropolis.

Now Cineworld is forecasting another strong year, and said that 2017 promised an "exciting film slate".

Big-name films due for release this year include Star Wars: Episode VIII, Despicable Me 3, Beauty and the Beast, the big-screen return of loveable Peruvian bear Paddington, Fast and Furious 8, the latest Pirates of the Caribbean film, and Batman director Christopher Nolan's latest epic, Dunkirk.

See a trailer for Beauty and The Beast here:

Total revenues were 8.3 per cent up on the previous year, with a seven per cent improvement at the box office and 12.7 per cent rise in retail revenue.

Retail – meaning consumables like popcorn and ice cream – is an important earner for cinemas because a large part of ticket prices goes back to film distributors. "The group reached record admissions levels in 2016, passing the milestone of over 100 million people coming through our doors to watch a movie," the cinema chain said in its trading update.

"The increase in admissions, nature of the film mix and the expansion of retail offerings, including seven new Starbucks outlets and three VIP sites, drove the 12.7 per cent growth in retail revenues." Other income, which predominantly consists of advertising and distribution revenues, increased by seven per cent.

The group now operates 226 sites with 2,115 screens. This includes eight sites opened during 2016, four in the UK, as well as the five Empire cinemas the chain acquired in August.

It intends to open 13 new sites this year, including six in the UK, and is planning several refurbishments. The Telford site is one of the newer cinemas in Cineworld's portfolio, having opened as part of Southwater in 2014.