Adlabs rolls out blockbuster screen expansion plans

Adlabs Cinemas, which will be rebranded as Big Cinemas by October, has chalked out a king-size expansion plan that includes widening its presence to at least 90 cities and entering new markets overseas, including Nepal.

The company will roll out 50 digital screens in the next 30 days. Of the total 179 screens, 23 are digital as of now.

The theatre-chain, promoted by Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, is also pioneering a study to understand the cinema audience behaviour in collaboration with the Indian Market Research Bureau International (IMRB International). Adlabs Cinemas, which was acquired from Manmohan Shetty three years back, has already become the largest theatre chain in the country with 68 properties across 54 cities from just four properties.

Tushar Dhingra, chief operating officer, Adlabs Cinemas, said the company will have presence in 90 cities by the end of the current financial year. Adlabs will also be the first company to set up a four-screen multiplex in Nepal this financial year.

Dhingra said the company has been growing by 300 per cent year-on-year, contributing to 10-13 per cent of the total domestic box-office collections.”Most of our growth has been inorganic — we have acquired single screens in tier 2 and tier 3 cities and refurbished them, converted a few into multi-screen cinema halls and so on.”

Currently, 70 per cent of Adlabs’ revenue comes from multiplexes and the balance is from single screens. Dhingra expects the ratio to change to 60:40 by next year. Adalbs recently signed up with Phoenix Mills to build the country’s largest multiplex in Mumbai, which will house 15 screens with around 4,000 seating capacity.

On the cinema audience behaviour study, Dhingra said it will detail the profile of audiences, their viewing habits, behaviour, attitudes, viewing preferences, among other parameters. It will also evaluate the efficacy of advertising options. This should help media agencies and advertisers get a fair assessment of their spends.

The move is in line with the company’s plan to increase its in-cinema advertising revenues. Currently, in-cinema advertising contributes around eight per cent to its top line; this will be raised to 10 per cent by 2009-10. The study will use the radio-frequency identification system that will track peoples’ movements in cinema halls.

The first study is being conducted across 30 locations and the report is likely to be out by mid-October. “The study will be conducted annually and will encompass not just Adlabs’ cinema halls but also others,” Dhingra said.

On the overseas front, Adlabs is eyeing more acquisitions to enter new markets after its recent acquisitions in the US, Malaysia and Mauritius. It has 251 screens in the US, 51 screens in Malaysia and six in Mauritius.