Playful pound: Cineworld cashes in on family films

The movie chain Cineworld had more bottoms on its seats in the last four months, but since more of them were kid-sized ones watching Despicable Me 2 its average ticket price slipped by almost 1 per cent.

Reduced charges for children mean family-friendly blockbusters are less lucrative for cinemas. But box office takings at Cineworld still rose 1.4 per cent in the last 16 weeks, on admissions up 2.3 per cent.

“The film line-up for the remainder of the year is promising,” Cineworld said, flagging up particularly high hopes for Thor: The Dark World; Hunger Games: Catching Fire; and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. But it warned of tough comparisons with Skyfall, released this time last year – the Bond hit was the UK’s top-earning film. “As a result, we expect our results to be broadly in line with current market expectations for the full year,” Cineworld said.