SM Lifestyle Entertainment Inc., the lifestyle and entertainment solutions company of property developer SM Prime Holdings Inc., plans to renovate nearly 100 cinemas next year in a bid to boost sales.
SMLEI president Edgar Tejerero said the company would start renovating 30-year-old cinemas located at 12 SM malls across the country, including SM North, SM Sta. Mesa, SM Manila, SM Marikina, SM Cebu, SM Clark, SM Fairview, SM Mall of Asia and SM Cebu.
The renovation of these cinemas involves reconfiguring the cinema seats into one stadium instead of having two levels, which are deluxe and premier.
“By next year, will see a lot of changes in our big branches because SM Cinema was one of the first cinemas in the malls. By next year we are changing a lot in terms of look, and set up and concept,” Tejerero said.
SM Cinema is set to end the year with 150,000 seats this year.
SMLEI said aside from renovating existing malls, it was set to introduce new concepts such as Cafe Cinema and Children Cinema.
“In Cafe Cinema, moviegoers can have dinner or lunch date inside the cinema before watching a movie. We will give them an hour of eating time before they watch the movie,” Tejerero said.
Cafe Cinema will initially be built at SM Megamall, SM North Edsa and SM Mall of Asia.
Children Cinema’s concept is to have a play area where children will be allowed to play for one hour before watching a movie.
“The program is different and will be suited for children. The structure will also be quite unique because we intend to have two big slides inside the auditorium,” Tejerero said.
SMLEI is also pushing through with its plan to build stand-alone cinemas in provincial areas.
Tejerero said SMLEI was set to sign before the end of the year franchise agreement to build Blink cinemas in Bataan and Boracay.
“The rollout will continue as we have 17 interested franchisees for this project,” Tejerero said.
Under the plan, Blink Cinemas will house an average of two cinemas with seating capacity of 100 each. Ticket prices would be pegged at P120 each.