A new cinema operator in Poland

posted by Ing. Juraj Misun, PhD. on February 25, 2011 at 7:47 am

After a consolidation on the Polish exhibition market in recent years, a new operator entered one of the largest eastern European markets with population of about 38 million habitants and around 39 million cinema admissions (2009). Cinama3D declares in its business plan it will focus on medium-sized Polish cities with less than 100,000 habitants and will offer latest Hollywood blockbusters and local productions.

The first site with this brand opened in the middle of January in Klodzko (the region of Lower Silesia) as a part of the 34 million Zloty (approximately 12 million US dollar) extension of the shopping gallery Twierdza. The cinema has three screens with a total capacity of 720 seats (two screens with 180 seats and one with 360 seats) and forty employees. All three screens are 3D-capable. Technical equipment includes analog projectors Kinoton, digital projectors Barco and Doremi DCP servers.

With significant lower opening prices (up to 45 per cent discount) the site sold more than four thousand tickets in its first weekend, a very good result for this region.

Cinema3D should become a theatre chain soon, with next openings planed in the cities Leszno, Kalisz and Swidnica. The Leszno site will have a capacity of about 900 seats, four screens and the presumed opening is planed on May 12th 2011. By the end of 2011 the company plans to operate 16 screens with a total number of 3,800 seats. Future plans could include cities Glogow, Skarzysko-Kamienna and Legnica.

Since its consolidation the Polish cinema market is controlled by three big chains with 32 million admissions in 2009. Cinema City is a part of the Israel based company Cinema City International, the third largest cinema operator in Europe. In 2009 it sold 14.7 million movie tickets in Poland (46 per cent market share on multiplex admissions). Multikino is a local operator with a market share of thirty per cent (9.6 million tickets sold in 2009). Helios, a part of the local media group Agora, sold 7.7 million movie tickets in 2009 and had a market share of 24 per cent. New information about the Polish market should be available in March.

Ing. Juraj Misun, PhD.
Department of management
Faculty of business management
University of economics in Bratislava