Mexican multiplexes in Mangalore
Many Mangaloreans may not know much about Mexico, which is on the other side of the world, but a multiplex owned by the Mexican company Cinepolis is located in their city. Cinepolis also runs multiplexes in other second-tier cities, such as Hubli, Amritsar, Pune, Ludhiana, Patna, Jaipur, Surat and Bhopal. It is present in bigger cities as well, including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Mumbai. The company plans to introduce the first screen in India with 4DX technology – with such effects as mist, smoke and smell – in its multiplex in Thane.
In the last six years, Cinepolis has become one of the top four companies, and the only foreign one, in the Indian multiplex market. It has 84 screens and plans to add 60 more in 2014, with a target of 400 screens by 2017. With an average cost of 2.5 crores for setting up each screen, the company’s total investment will be 1000 crores by 2017. This will make Cinepolis the second largest Latin American investor in India, after Brazil’s steel-making company Gerdau, which has invested 1820 crores.
So far, Cinepolis has been highly successful: it is the largest film exhibitor in Latin America and the fourth largest in the world, with 3400 screens in 11 countries. In the home market, the company owns 2700 screens. Cinepolis is the largest operator of luxury theatres in the world, and in the U.S. it operates only luxury theatres.
Founded in 1947 by Enrique Ramirez Villlalon, the company expanded after Alejandro Ramirez Magana, from the same family, took over as chief executive office in 1996. During a visit to India in March 2014, Ramirez reconfirmed his company’s long-term commitment to India. He was confident of the potential of the Indian market to make up 10% of Cinepolis’s global revenue.
The Indian operations of Cinepolis were started by the company’s managing director in India, Javier Sotomayor, who came here in 2007. He lives in Gurgaon and travels around India searching for sites and talking to mall owners. He has grasped the complex regulatory systems for cinema in India, as well as the world of property developers. He says there are many similarities between India and Mexico in terms of bureaucratic procedures, corruption and politics.
The Cinepolis investment is an important part of commercial relations between India and Mexico. Only eight Mexican companies have significant investments in India, a majority of which are in the auto-parts business. Kidzania, a children’s theme park in Mumbai, set up in collaboration with actor Shah Rukh Khan, is the newest addition. On the other hand, there are more than 30 Indian companies in Mexico in sectors such as information technology, pharmaceuticals and auto-parts.
The Mexican film industry, which was the best and most popular in Latin America in the mid-20th century before it slumped, is once again booming. The film No se acceptan devoluciones (‘Instructions not included)’ earned a record $87 million last year. In the U.S., it became the highest-earning Spanish language film. Mexican directors, actors and films are winning global awards in recent times. For example, Alfonso Cuaron won the Oscar for Best Director in 2014 for the film Gravity.
Mexico is the world’s fourth-largest market of film-goers, and India too is among the world’s top five. Given this huge popular demand, the commercial exchange of films and soap operas between India and Mexico has a lot of potential to grow.
Ambassador Viswanathan is Distinguished Fellow, Latin America Studies, Gateway House. He is the former Indian Ambassador to Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela, and Consul General in Sao Paulo.
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