SM’s Blink cinemas coming soon to Boracay, Bataan
SM LIFESTYLE Entertainment, Inc. is rolling out stand-alone cinemas as early as June next year, as it introduces innovations in existing properties and other developments riding on the changing lifestyle of Filipinos. The subsidiary of SM Prime Holdings, Inc. will close deals with franchisees in Bataan and Boracay before the yearend, its President Edgar C. Tejerero told reporters during the blessing of SM City East Ortigas on Thursday.
Accordingly, SM Lifestyle and the franchisees target to open the first two stand- alone cinemas under the brand Blink “most likely” in June next year, Mr. Tejerero said.
“And the rollout will continue as we have about 17 interested franchisees,” the company official added, noting the Blink cinemas in the pipeline are located in the provinces.“The basic model has two cinemas, 100- seater each, and the film delivery will be done by satellite, and it will be available in a franchise model. So, it’s the first franchise cinema model in the world,” Mr. Tejerero noted. The investment required to establish a Blink cinema through franchising ranges from P25 million to P30 million.
“We’ll construct it for them, we’ll arrange everything. All that they need to do is to train with us so that the people can operate it themselves,” Mr. Tejerero said. SM Lifestyle is tapping into the underserved market of moviegoers in the provinces. Mr. Tejerero estimated the ratio of cinema screens to the country’s population at 1:125,000, compared with the 1:62,000 in Thailand, 1:37,500 in Malaysia and 1:20,000 in Mexico.
“We’ve noticed that the presence of piracy is quite high in the provinces, because understandably, they don’t have access to movie houses so we decided to put up stand- alone cinemas,” Mr. Tejerero further noted. “For somebody living four hours away from a mall, for you to watch a movie, it will be the last of your priorities. So, we decided to bring cinemas closer to them.”
UPGRADING CINEMAS
Aside from rolling out the franchise business, SM Lifestyle will start renovating nearly 100 operating cinemas in North EDSA, Megamall, Mall of Asia, Fairview, Manila, Sta. Mesa, Marikina, Cebu, Clark and Pampanga next year. SM Lifestyle will introduce interactive games, such as electronic darts, and other features expected to encourage moviegoers to linger in the lobbies of the cinemas. “So next year, you’ll see a lot of concept cinemas. We’re building what we call a cafe cinema, wherein you can eat inside, like burgers, pasta. Practically, you can have a dinner or a lunch date inside the cinema,” Mr. Tejerero said. “Second, we’re also putting up a children’s cinema. It’s a combination of play and movies. So children will be allowed to play about an hour also — or an hour and a half before they watch.”
SM Lifestyle will bring more cinemas online with the opening of at least three more shopping malls next year. To date, the company operates movie theaters in 58 of the 60 existing malls of SM Group across the country.
The group of the country’s richest man Henry Sy, Sr. is opening its 60th mall in Pasig City today. The property called SM City East Ortigas features four theaters with more than 250 seats, including a Director’s Club Cinema. In addition, SM Lifestyle plans to transform its bowling centers into leisure spaces offering more games as well as develop a new arena in Cebu City and a performing arts theater in Pasay City toward a 2019 completion.