Major Cineplex sees 20% sales growth despite floods
Play
Major Cineplex Group has managed to enjoy 20-per-cent growth n the sales of movie tickets in the two months of massive flooding, but that's only about half the growth it had been expecting for October and November before the disaster hit.
The company is still committed to invest about Bt1 billion to open 50 more movie screens in the Kingdom next year.
Vicha Poolvaraluck, chairman of Major Cineplex Group, said flooding forced the temporality shutdown of its theatres in 12 locations, affecting 103 of its 373 screens.
The company’s three standalone locations have been affected by the massive flood, at Pinklao, Ratchayothin and Rangsit.
The flood has affected a massive number of people, especially middle and lower-income earners.
“About nine branches of our multiplex theatres in the flood-affected areas have been closed so far. However, we have reopened four major locations after the flood water receded, at Pinklao, Chaeng Wattana, Nakhon Sawan and Ayutthaya,” Vicha said.
He said the company had yet to evaluate the business damage caused by the flood. However, its overall sales of movie tickets in two months of flooding, October and November, had grown by 20 per cent compared with the same months last year thanks to a strong line-up of big Hollywood blockbusters and Thai films.
Vicha said movie-goers had shifted from the flooded locations to other cinemas.
“Our cinema screens at Ekamai, which were not affected by flooding, for instance enjoyed dramatic growth, doubling the number of visitors during the flooding period in Bangkok,” he said.
Vicha said that before the flood, however, the company had expected the sales of movie tickets to increase even more dramatically, by 40-50 per cent year on year, in October and November.
“We believe that the sales of movie tickets will peak again next month as the launch of money-making blockbusters, including ‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’, ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’ and ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn’, has been delayed until December,” Vicha said.
