Multiplex chain Cinemax India, promoted by Mumbai-based real estate developer Kanakia Group, will be investing Rs 250 crore to put up 178 additional screens across the country by 2012, said company’s senior vice-president Devang Sampat.
Cinemax, which entered the film exhibition industry in 1997 with a single screen at Goregaon in Mumbai, currently operates 24 multiplex properties with 72 screens in cities like Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Guwahati and Nashik. The company entered the southern market with the launch of its three-screen multiplex with 1,001 seats in Hyderabad on January 14, 2009.
“We are looking at expanding our pan-India reach through the leased model. We have already signed up 250 screens, which are expected to be operational by March 2012,” Sampat told Business Standard, adding that the company at present has 20,700 seats and the tally would touch 200,000 seats post the expansion.
Devang said the company was planning to tie up with multiplexes in south metros including Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai and tier-II and tier-III cities such as Vijayawada and Guntur.
“We have signed up 35-odd screens in south, which will be up and running by this year end,” he added.
Stating that the economic slowdown had not affected the exhibition industry as such, he said the company would open its multiplex in Kalyan near Mumbai on January 16, which would be followed by Kolkata on January 25.
Cinemax reported revenues of Rs 108 crore last year, It clocked Rs 125 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2008, and expects to close the current financial year with Rs 165 crore.