After two years of a pandemic that affected cinema chains around the world, Cinépolis wants the public to rediscover the experience of attending a theater and watch a movie with a laser projectorof which they have already installed 1,300 in Mexico and seven other countries, and they expect that 100% of their rooms in the national territory will have this technology in 2023.
“The idea of investing in technology is that people see the difference in the experience. The cinema looks better in the cinema. Watching a movie in the cinema gives you a totally different experience, and what we are looking for is precisely that people relive that distance between being told a story on a small screen or on a telephone and being told it on a big screen”, explains Miguel Mier, Director of Operations at Cinépolis, in an interview.
Last August, the cinema chain announced the acquisition of the first 1,300 projectors from the Cinionic company, which can project images with 4K resolutionand expect to close 2022 with around 2,300 rooms in 17 countries, and complete the migration of 100% of its 6,705 rooms globally in 2025.
This innovation, which consists of replacing the xenon lamps of the projectors with laser onesoffers a more immersive experience and greater clarity and color contrast on the screen.
“Many people do not imagine this, but black tones, without a laser projector, can be seen as half gray. And with a laser projector, dark scenes are much more immersive, and we invite people to come to theaters with this technology that we are launching in the fall season, “added Mier.
Although the manager did not disclose investment figures for these laser projectors, specified that Cinépolis’s strategy is to reinvest in its current theaters and not so much to open new onesas was the case before the pandemic.
The company that people who already knew Cinépolis theaters rediscover them with this technology to have a much more immersive experience, Mier commented.
The exhibition of films was one of the industries most affected by the pandemic at a global level, due to the closures and operation with limited capacity of the theaters. In 2020 alone, the country’s cinemas had losses of more than 15 billion pesos and 251 million tickets were not sold, according to data from the National Chamber of the Film Industry (Canacine).
The cinema chain, which throughout its 50 years has introduced innovations such as numbering and staggering seats, or being a pioneer in selling movie tickets online, wants to differentiate the customer experience with technology, not only with laser projectors, but through its app, online sales and even the purchase of food online.
revival of Avatar
Cinépolis premiered its new projectors exhibiting again Avatar, from director James Cameron, a science fiction film that, since its premiere in 2009, has become the highest grossing film in history, grossing 2.8 billion dollars worldwide.
The Avatar revival is available nationally beginning September 22 in 2D, 3D, 4DX and IMAX formats. In addition, it will serve as a preamble to the arrival of Avatar the way of wateron December 15 to Mexico.
“I already saw 20 minutes of way of water and I can say that it is an experience that has no words to describe it, you have to come to a room, see it on a laser projector. I believe that with genius filmmakers like James Cameron we are going to see the rebirth of the big screen as the best form of entertainment”, said Miguel Mier.
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