Major secures 2nd complex in Laos
MAJOR CINEPLEX Group has signed an agreement for a second cinema complex in Laos, in the southwestern province of Champasak.
Thanakorn Puliwekin, chief film officer of Major Cineplex Group, has signed a cooperation agreement with Friendship Trading Sole president Houa Sengaroun on establishing the cinema complex in Pakse district in Champasak province.
The complex will consist of four screens in a 2,500-square-metre area on the third floor of Friendship Mall in Pakse. The official opening is scheduled for July. Major Cineplex opened its first complex in Laos, Major Platinum Cineplex by Huawei, on the fourth floor of Vientiane Centre last August, consisting of five screens.
The expansion in Laos is in line with the group’s strategy to help mobilise Thailand’s cinema and film industry by establishing new cinema screens both in this country and in neighbouring markets.
Five-year plan
The group has a five-year business plan to have 1,000 cinema screens in operation by 2020, of which 900 will be in Thailand and the rest in the CLMV sub-region (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam). It currently runs 610 screens.
Major Cineplex Group previously announced it was cooperating with Japan-based Aeon Mall to open a second multiplex in Cambodia, in Pong Peay, consisting of 10 world-class cinemas occupying 9,200 square metres of space and costing Bt200 million. This will allow the group to operate 26 cinema screens in four locations in Cambodia and Laos. In Thailand, the group has opened two new cinema locations so far this year, in Lop Buri in February and in Ratchaburi at the end of March.
Major Cineplex Group currently operates 610 cinema screens in 93 locations, with 141,532 seats. About 253 screens are in 26 locations in Bangkok, and 345 screens are in 65 locations upcountry. The group has seven screens in Cambodia and five in Laos.
