Pearl & Dean: Cinema advertising giant banking on Wicked and Gladiator 2 success after loss-making year

Cinema advertising giant Pearl & Dean is hoping that the expected commercial success of Wicked and Gladiator 2 will help it return to the black.

The London-headquartered business fell to a pre-tax loss of £1.7m in 2023 despite the boost provided by the popularity of films such as Barbie, Oppenheimer and Wonka.

The loss came after Pearl & Dean posted a pre-tax profit of £1.6m in 2022.

Newly-filed accounts with Companies House also show that its turnover dipped from £20.7m to £19.3m over the same period.

Pearl & Dean was founded in 1953 and is now owned by Willowbrook Investments.

Pearl & Dean buoyed by Barbenheimer success

A statement signed off by the board said: “Following continued profitability in 2019, during 2020 and into late May 2021 the business suffered along with the rest of the world from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“During the rest of 2021 the business continued to recover as cinemas and advertising revenue streams opened up and in 2022 the directors restored the business to its pre-Covid-19 levels.

“The success of 2022 continued into 2023 which saw record breaking audiences in the UK with the overwhelming popularity and the commercial success of films such as Barbie, Oppenheimer and Wonka, which have also been hugely popular with advertising agencies and the brands they represent.

“This success has continued to build in 2024 with films such as Dune 2 proving to be highly successful in attracting large amounts of advertising revenue as well as high audience attendances.

“The cinema and advertising markets believe the success of Barbie and Oppenheimer in 2023 will be repeated in autumn 2024 with the film distributors easily marketing films such as Wicked and Gladiator 2 in the same way.

“Indeed the promotion of Wicked started in spring 2024 and is looking to be every bit as successful commercially with advertising as Barbie was.”