Box office: movies will enjoy a banner year in 2015, says Cineplex CEO Jacob

Cineplex (Cineplex Stock Quote, Chart, News: TSX:CGX) is looking to expand its slate of offerings, but its core movie business is looking more than healthy, says the company’s boss.

Cineplex CEO Ellis Jacob presented this morning at the Euro Pacific Canada Digital Media and Technology Conference in Toronto. Jacob thinks this will be a great year for the box office, with “Furious 7” already one of the biggest movies of all time, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” doing well and potential blockbusters like “Ted 2”, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part Two”, the new Bond film “Spectre”, and the highly anticipated “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens” all slated for later this year.

Earlier this year, Cineplex announced “The Rec Room”, Dave and Buster’s style venues that the company expects to roll out in about 10-15 locations in Canada. The entertainment destinations will feature “luxury bowling, billiards, shuffleboard and ping pong”, as well as musical acts and a sports bar style atmosphere to watch games.

Cineplex operates 162 theatres with 1,652 screens in Canada, serving about 74 million guests annually. Aside from movies, the company currently derives revenue from food and beverage service and from advertising.

On May 8, CGX reported its Q1, 2015 results. The company earned $10.5-million of $289.8-million, up from $280-million in the same period last year.