James Bond’s latest mission and the return of Star Wars have helped boost profits at Pinewood Studios, which is expanding to keep up with US rivals.
Spectre and Star Wars: The Force Awakens were filmed at the studios on the outskirts of London in the first six months of the year. Other major productions based at Pinewood and Shepperton Studios, also owned by the company, included Beauty and the Beast, The Huntsman and Me Before You.
With Star Wars released this month, production has already started on the next movie in the series, Episode VIII, out in the US in May 2017, and on the spin-off Rogue One, out next December. All but two of the 24 Bond movies have been shot at the studios.
Pinewood, Europe’s biggest film studio, said profits after tax rose 13% to £4.3m, despite a slight fall in overall revenues to £38.2m. However, film revenues climbed 19% to £26.8m. The studios were 87% full during the half year, a slight improvement from a year earlier.
Ivan Dunleavy, Pinewood’s chief executive, said: “The positive results reported today have continued into the second half.”
Five new sound stages are to open at the Buckinghamshire site by the end of next June, giving it the capacity to take on two additional blockbusters a year. Its £200m expansion will add 12 large stages in total, almost doubling the capacity of the studios over the next 15 years. The company is also reviewing plans for Shepperton after taking full ownership, and expanding its film studio in Atlanta.
Pinewood has become a global brand and is pushing into the Chinese market, considering a number of opportunities after last year’s China-UK film co-production treaty, which could include opening studios there with a Chinese partner. Box office takings in the country are projected to overtake the US as early as 2017 and 100 new screens are being built every week.
Pinewood already provides consultancy services in China. It is advising Wanda Group, the property firm which is also the world’s largest cinema operator, on the new 45-stage studio complex it is building in Qingdao.
The film industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the UK economy, according to official GDP figures. The boom has been underpinned by film tax relief, introduced in 2007. It has been steadily improved and now allows production companies to reclaim up to 25% of their UK filming costs.
Spending on film productions in the UK hit a record £1.5bn last year when some 36 big international films were shot here, according to the British Film Institute. Britain’s movie and music industry has increased in value by 60% to nearly £3.2bn over the last five years.
Pinewood and Shepperton have hosted more than 2,000 films and 800 TV shows in the past 80 years, and now the company expects to benefit from rising demand for TV content from the likes of Netflix and Amazon.
It said: “The newer pay-on-demand platforms continue the drive to create high-end television productions, and are motivated to film in the UK by the UK high-end TV tax credit.” During the past two years tax relief has been extended to producers of high-end television, animation and video games.
Sahill Shan, analyst at the broker N+1 Singer, described the results as “robust” – adding “The force is with Pinewood.” However, he noted that the “hoped-for breakthrough into securing meaningful high-end TV work” through its studio in Wales “has failed to fully materialise to date”.
