Theme park, cinema downturn hurts Village profits
VILLAGE Roadshow says it is still experiencing low visitor numbers a year after the fatal accident at rival theme park Dreamworld, but expects to start paying dividends again this financial year.
The company, at its annual general meeting yesterday, said Gold Coast theme park attendance to October 31 was 5.4 per cent behind the prior corresponding period, which was largely before four people were killed when a Dreamworld ride malfunctioned.
But it expects to see a pickup in attendance during the Christmas and summer holidays and forecasts its theme parks division will deliver a “substantial improvement” in 2018 fullyear earnings, compared to the prior year.
So far in the 2018 financial year, Village Roadshow’s cinema exhibition division’s performance has been significantly below the same period last year, due to decline in the number of people going to the cinema and an underperformance in a number of films.
The theme parks and cinemas operator expects the second half of this finaincial year to be better, with a stronger selection of films, including Star Wars: The Last Jedi, The Greatest Showman, Solo: A Star Wars Story and Deadpool 2 scheduled.
Chairman Robert Kirby said 2017 had been the toughest trading year on record for Village Roadshow following the impact of the Dreamworld fatal accident and worldwide box office angst.