Moscow-based Cinema Park is due to open what will be St. Petersburg’s largest cinema, a nine-screen $13 million multiplex, the company said Thursday. Located in the Grand Canyon shopping center, north of the city, the cinema will show its first film December 14 and will hold 2346 people.

Cinema Park, which aims to capture up to 20 percent of the cinema market in the country, said that after opening it will be the second biggest player in the local market, after Kronverk Cinema. As part of its ambitious plans, Cinema Park said they are targeting those who currently don’t go to the cinema to make up a large part of their audience.

“This will lead to an expansion in regular cinema goers,” said Alina Sigacheva, Cinema Park’s head of marketing, in an emailed statement.

“We will not push anyone out of the market. We will attract our own audience,” said Sigacheva. Representatives of Kronverk Cinema, the city’s market leader in terms of number of screens, were not available for comment Thursday.

Meanwhile, experts believe that the city’s cinema market is far from reaching saturation point. A representative from one of the city’s film distribution companies, who wished to remain anonymous, said the new cinema has the potential to be a successful project as “the local film distribution market is in a phase of active development.”

Alexander Pozdnyakov, the president of the St. Petersburg Film Press Association, said the mass opening of multiplexes in the city is a “long awaited” event.

“St. Petersburg is at last getting filled with high-tech multiplexes where every film-lover will be able to find a film according to his or her taste — not only Hollywood blockbusters, but also Russian films, new European films, movies from Asia, and of course art house films,” Pozdnyakov said. Cinema Park has confirmed their intention to cater for different audiences, including art house fans.

“Although we will not have a screen solely dedicated to art house projects, we will definitely show such films,” said Sigacheva. “But as in any multiplex, we will screen the films that generate most profit,” she added.

News source: sptimes.ru
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