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The Kinepolis Group – which operates 109 cinemas worldwide with 1,131 screens and more than 200,000 seats – has posted record results for 2023.

The Belgium-based international exhibitor said it had achieved its highest ever revenue, thanks to a 20.6% hike in visitors to 35.3M, adding that the results were a sign that it had “completely recovered” from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Revenue increased by 21.1% to $657M (€605.5M), with Ebitdal increasing by 32.8% to $164M (€151.4M). Net profit doubled to $60.8M (€56.1M).

Within the overall revenue figure, there had been a 22.1% increase in box office returns to $372M (€318.6M) and a 24.2% increase in revenue from sale of drinks and snacks to $225M (€192.8M), as a result of higher consumption per visitor and inflation-compensating price increases in almost all the countries.

The exhibitor said that alongside the increase in admissions, its performance had also been boosted by higher spending per visitor, as a result of its investment...

Tim Mielants, a self-described “weird guy from Belgium,” is not the first filmmaker you’d expect to get the call to direct Small Things Like These, a film soaked in the culture and history of Ireland.

The film shares its subject matter with Peter Mullan’s 2002 drama The Magdalene Sisters, which exposed the brutal treatment of the tens of thousands of women held in Magdalene Laundries. Small Things Like These shifts the focus to the world outside the asylum, and to the complicity of the community that allowed the abuse to continue.

Mielants, who first worked with Murphy on British crime series Peaky Blinders, says it was this focus on “a man in midlife trying to deal with grief and struggling to do the right thing” that “made me think I might be able to tell this story.”

Small Things Like These was produced by Murphy’s Big Things Films,...

Picture: Netflix

Will (also referred to as Wil) has been picked up by Netflix and is set to be released globally on January 31st, 2024. Set in Antwerp, Belgium, the new WWII movie tells the story of an auxiliary policeman working during the Nazi occupation. Here’s what you need to know about the movie, plus some first looks and a clip from the movie.

The movie was first announced to be coming to Netflix via the New on Netflix newsletter for January 2024, including the title with its original name of Wil, which has since been replaced to have two Ls in the Netflix Ui.

Based on the novel by Jeroen Olyslaegers, the movie first saw a limited theatrical release in September 2023 but has been scooped up by Netflix, where it’ll debut as a Netflix Original at the end of January 2024. Per Netflix, here’s the official logline for Will...