Cinépolis

Cinépolis

La Capital del Cine (the Capital of Cinema)
Type	Private
Founded	1947 (1947)
Headquarters	Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico
Number of locations	335 (Latin America, India, Spain, United States)
Key people	Enrique Ramírez Miguel, founder and ex-Chairman of the Board Alejandro Ramirez Magaña, CEO Alejandra Daguer, Sales Management Eduardo Acuña, Head of the Americas and former CEO of Cinépolis do Brasil
Number of employees	27,177[1]
Website	Cinépolis Mexico

Cinépolis is a Mexican chain of movie theaters. Its name means City of Cinema and its slogan is La Capital del Cine (English: the Capital of Cinema).

Cinépolis is the biggest cineplex chain in Mexico with 427 theaters in 97 cities.^[1] It is also the largest chain in Latin America and the fourth largest in the world, with over 624 theaters, 5000 screens and over 27,177 ^[2] employees throughout Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Spain, India and the United States.

History

A Cinépolis theater at Plaza Sendero Ecatepec in Ecatepec de Morelos

Enrique Ramírez Villalón founded the Cine Morelos in Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico in 1947. Years later, the company was rebranded as Cinematográfica Cadena de Oro, S.A., opening theaters in Salamanca, Acámbaro and Guanajuato. By 1971, the brand had already expanded to Mexico City with the opening of Cine La Raza. In 1972 Cinemas Gemelos was born and one year later the national expansion of Multicinemas began. The company was rebranded in 1994 as Cinépolis with the first multiplex-style theaters in Tijuana. In 1999, Cinépolis VIP was created.^[1] It is believed to be the biggest cinema chain in Mexico.^[3]

Cinépolis VIP

A Cinépolis VIP theater at Plaza Las Américas in Cancún

Cinépolis VIP was created in 1999 and is considered one of the pioneers in the development of the Luxury Cinema concept.^[4]

Cineticket

In 1997, Cineticket was created to give users the option to buy their tickets online instead of waiting to purchase at the venue. Cineticket was the first online theater ticket-selling-system in Mexico.

Cinépolis 4DX

On June 2, 2011, Cinépolis invested $25 million and partnered with the South Korean company CJ Group to open 11 4DX theaters throughout Mexico.^[5] 4DX features motion seats, wind effects, water and air spray, and odors with over 100 scents. It first opened at the Plaza Acoxpa mall in Mexico City with the release of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. On July 1, 2012, Cinépolis opened South America's first 4DX theater in Brazil at the JK Iguatemi shopping mall in São Paulo with the release of Prometheus and Ice Age: Continental Drift.^[6] It is the launch customer in the Western Hemisphere and is currently the second largest CJ Group customer with a total of thirteen 4DX theaters throughout Mexico and a total of seventeen 4DX theaters throughout Latin America.

International

Cinépolis in Surat

Cinépolis Mangaluru VIP Screen. The First VIP Screen of Cinépolis India.

Cinépolis has opened theatres in the capitals of Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia. So far, 11 theatres have been opened outside Mexico under the Cinépolis brand, with a planned expansion to Peru, with the opening of a fourteen-screen theatre in Lima, a theatre in Cali, Colombia and a third in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.^[1][7]

Cinépolis has plans to operate 500 screens in India with an investment of ₹ 1,500 crore and has signed deals with 12 developers in eight cities to set up 110 screens in the first phase.^[8][9] There are also plans to enter into deals with developers to create 200 more screens across India by 2010.^[10] Cinépolis has locations in India at: Bhubaneswar, Jamshedpur, Thane, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Pune, Bengaluru, Patna, Ahmedabad, Surat, Bhopal, Ludhiana, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Hubballi, Vijayawada, Kolkata, Vadodara, Mumbai, Kochi, Guwahati, Muzaffarpur and Lucknow.^[11] It is also scheduled to open in Chennai, Ahmedabad (second property), Surat (Second Property), Kozhikode, Nagpur and Ghaziabad.^[12][13]

Cinépolis has opened the largest Cinépolis Megaplex in Seasons Mall, Pune with 15 screens and another Megaplex at Viviana Mall, Thane with 14 screens with IMAX, 4DX, and Dolby Atmos. Cinepolis Kochi operates 3 VIP screens, first of its kind in India.^[14] Cinépolis also has its sub-brand in India known as Cinemastar. It was opened in December 2010 in Thane.

Cinépolis Foundation

In 2003, Organización Ramírez created the Cinépolis Foundation to help underprivileged people get medical care and education. Its mission is to contribute to social justice in Mexico through visible health programs. In 2007 the foundation was awarded the International Accomplishment in Exhibition for its work in promoting activism within the Mexican community. The Foundation's program, Del Amor Nace la Vista (The Sight is born from Love) has been recognised as The Best Practice in Social Responsibility.^[15] They have signed association deals with twelve organizations in Mexico.^[16]

Controversies of Cinepolis

Within Mexico in March 2015, an article from the Mexican edition of the Forbes magazine revealed that Cinepolis along its rival movie theater chain Cinemex, were fined $7 million pesos each for directly disobeying instructions by the Intituto Nacional Electoral (INE, National Electoral Instiute), by showing political propaganda of the Partido Verde Ecologista de Mexico (Ecologist Green Party of Mexico), with the political party itself being fined for $35 million pesos.^[17] In 2017, the Del Amor Nace La Vista charity foundation of Cinepolis was criticized for allegedly leaving 100 mayans indigens blind due to negligencies.^[18] Although Cinepolis said it was only two, and no negligency was detected within the operations.^[19]

References