Pinewood Shepperton suffered a dip in revenue from its TV operations as it prepares to exit its Teddington facility.

Star Wars: Episode VII X-Wing

Pinewood Shepperton has reported a boost in revenue to £38.5m in the six months to Sept 30 – up from £36.2m during the same period last year. After-tax profit rose 11.8% to £3.8m.

The UK studio facilities operator suffered a dip in revenue from its TV operations as it prepares to exit its Teddington facility. But this was offset by a strong period for its film revenues, up 15.2% to £22.5m

The demand for the company’s facilities throughout the period has been exceptionally high, as reflected in stage occupancy of 86% (up from 72% during the same period).

The largest film production based at Pinewood during the period was Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens while the largest production at Shepperton was Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Other major productions based at Pinewood and Shepperton during the period included Tulip Fever (Ruby Films, The Weinstein Company), Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass (Disney) and Esio Trot (BBC, Endor).

Digital Content Services (DCS) revenues included within the total film revenue for the period have remained largely consistent with the prior period at £3.6m.

Notable sound post production work completed during the period included Cinderella (Disney), Roger Waters - The Wall (Rue 21) and Trash (O2 Films/PeaPie Films/Working Title Films).

International

International revenues for the period included within film were £1.8m, up from £500,000, and relate to sales and marketing agreements in Toronto, Malaysia and Dominican Republic, with the increase driven by the newly operational Pinewood Atlanta Studios plus consultancy services provided in China.

Pinewood Atlanta Studios currently has six sound stages. Marvel’s Antman was the first production to use the facilities.

In China, Pinewood’s consultancy with The Dalian Wanda Group for the Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis development commenced in February.

It is anticipated that construction will commence in 2015 with the studio complex scheduled to open in 2017.

TV dip

Pinewood Shepperton suffered a dip in revenue from its TV operations as it prepares to exit its Teddington facility. The facilities company is set to quit the south west London site by Dec 24.

TV revenue for the six months to September stood at £1.7m compared with £3.2m for the same period last year.

Pinewood attributed the drop to its exit from Teddington, a lack of studio availability due to high film occupancy and some shows which had used the group’s studios not being re-commissioned.

Pinewood is now “actively marketing a wider broadcast network” and said that is has won additional shows with a broadcaster that has not used the Pinewood facilities before.

It has also converted two film stages into TV studios in a bid to fill the void created by the closure of Teddington Studios.

TV shows to have used Pinewood’s facilities include FremantleMedia’s Birds of a Feather and

Pinewood chief executive Ivan Dunleavy said: “These results reflect continued growth operationally and strategically for the long term. I am delighted the company continues to make such positive progress notwithstanding the pressures in the wider economy.”