Vista Group returns to profit, but share price remains well below 2025 peak
Friday, 27 February 2026
Cinema technology services company Vista Group returned to profit in its 2025 financial year.
The company, which is entering its fourth decade of operations, sells technology and analytic services to cinemas, with high-profile clients including international chain Odeon Cinemas, which has 312 cinemas using Vista’s services, and Belgium’s Kineopolis, which has 109.
In the 12 months to the end of December, Vista earned revenue of $164 million, up 10% on the previous year, and a profit after tax of $2.6m.
The result compares to a record revenue of $150m in its last financial year, and an after-tax loss of $600,000.
As well as cinemas, the NZX sharemarket-listed company also counts film studios and distributors among its clients, and has customers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, UK, India, China, Australia as well as New Zealand.
Vista’s services help cinema and movie companies manage their businesses, including gathering data, and analysing movie goers’ behaviour.
The return to profit came against a backdrop of modest growth in the cinema industry, though it has not returned to its pre-Covid heights.
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Vista said the film industry continued to grow, and during the year, four movies pulled in more than US$1 billion.
“Industry forecasting analysts project a 2026 Domestic Box Office of approximately US$9.9b, up about 14% on 2025, supported by a movie slate which includes seven movie franchises that previously grossed greater than US$1b worldwide.
It was a year of sequels and spin-offs for cinema, which has been accused of lacking fresh ideas.
The highest grossing movie of the year was the animated Chinese film Ne Zha 2, followed by Zootopia, Avatar, Lilo & Stitch, A Minecraft Movie, and Jurassic World.
In the company’s annual report, chair Susan Peterson said strategic progress during the year included accelerating the transition of clients to Vista Cloud, with 35% of cinema sites now on cloud-based solutions, and the successful launch of the embedded payment solution Vista Payments.
She expressed confidence that the company would be an 'AI winner' despite global software market volatility.
But she acknowledged it had been a challenging year for shareholder returns.
The company’s share price remains 49% lower than it was a year ago at just over $1.70. In March last year, its shares peaked at $4.
Chief executive Stuart Dickinson said the company was building on its 2025 momentum.
“We enter 2026 with a sharp focus on scaling Vista Cloud and accelerating growth,” he said.
He said demand for Vista Cloud had outpaced the company’s delivery capacity.
“In response, we are scaling our technology and delivery teams to accelerate on-boarding and unlock the full potential of our pipeline. We are continuing the process of hiring new talent to enable us to meet the following wave of demand,” he said.
Dickinson provided guidance for the year ahead.
The company expected total revenue of $176m to $182m, and an earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation margin of 18% to 20%.