Cinepolis to invest Rs 100 cr in Andhra

To open 50 multiplex screens in AP, including 5 in Vijayawada, in 30 months

Mexico-based Cinepolis, the world’s fourth multiplex operator, has signed up with mall developers to open 50 screens in Andhra Pradesh with an incremental investment of Rs 100 crore over the next 30 months, said its India head (operations and strategy), Devang Sampat.

“The multiplexes in Hyderabad are running at significantly high occupancy rates, which hold huge promise for us. While 45 of the proposed screens will come up in Hyderabad over the next couple of years, the remaining will be opened in Vijayawada shortly,” he told Business Standard.

According to a report by consultancy firm KPMG and Ficci, though multiplexes account for only eight per cent of the total 12,000 cinema screens in India, they corner a third of the total box office receipts.

Announcing its entry into Andhra Pradesh with a five-screen multiplex at Manjeera Mall at Kukatpally here today, he said the catchment area of the mall would target a population of 2 million.

Cinepolis, which started its operations in India in 2009 at Amritsar, operates 84 screens across 14 cities, with 40 per cent of them located in metros. It has signed over 450 screens, to be rolled out in phases by 2016. Of these, 80 screens, each with an investment of Rs 2 crore, were in various stages of fit-out.

“Any city, with a population of more than one million is our target for opening screens,” Sampat said, adding they expected India operations to break even in four-and-a-half years from now.