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Adlabs Expands In Mumbai

July 17, 2008

As the multiplexing of India continues, Adlabs Cinemas and Phoenix Mills are teaming up to build a 15 screen screen at the Phoenix Market City at Kurla in Mumbai. The 140,000 square foot facility will have more about 4,000 seats. Like many exhibitors these days, Adlabs plans to fortify their offerings of first run movies with a heavy dose of live concerts and sporting events. The company will also build two of the screens as luxury theatres. No word on when the theatre will open.

Speaking about the news on Thursday Adlabs Cinemas chief operating officer Tushar Dhingra was quoted as saying:

“It is our endeavour to offer audiences a wide variety of viewing experiences. The Ebony Lounge will have live band performances round the year. It will add novelty and uniqueness to the cinema experience in India.”

Heck, having a music lounge at a movie theatre would be “unique” no matter what country it was located in. Adlabs recently announced they would be building a chain of luxury lounges geared towards moviegoers and this new complex seems to fit that plan. With an emerging economy like India’s such theatres would seem a natural fit, however lately many of the country’s moviegoers have been complaining, mostly on personal blogs, about the high ticket prices charged by such multiplexes.

While they had everybody’s attention by spreading the news about their plans for the Mumbai multiplex Adlabs also announced Kids 101, a new loyalty program meant to attract children and teenagers to the circuit’s 66 locations throughout India. To start out, the program will provide games and contests to members on Sundays.

Popularity: 36% [?]

Posted in New Theatres

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India takes luxury cinema concept further

By Patrick von Sychowski

June 4, 2008

Do you balk at the prospect of paying $25/£12/€19/Rs 1,000 for a cinema ticket? Then the future of India’s premium cinema market is not one for you. Right now there is a race between the major cinema chains in India to see who can the offer the most luxurious cinema experience to the audience segment with enormous price elasticity. From liveMINT/WSJ.com:

Adlabs Cinemas, an arm of the Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group’s Adlabs Films Ltd, is raising the stakes in the battle for cinema goers’ wallets by launching a chain of stand-alone luxury lounges centred around film.

The cinema chain will open up to a dozen independent 6,000-10,000 sq. ft lounges over the next year, loosely based around the concept of its existing “ebony lounge” format that offers audiences reclining leather chairs and waiter service.

“Cinemas are our iconic statements,” says Tushar Dhingra, chief operating officer of Adlabs Cinemas. “We want to set a world benchmark for the cinematic experience. What we create has the potential to set a trend.”

“It is no-holds-barred. Anything can be done. The premium and mass markets in India are the sweet spot. They are largely unpenetrated, and we are well positioned to move in,” he added.

Adlabs Cinemas is far from alone and will be battling it out with the likes of Fame and PVR, though the latter has reservations about the prospects for the market:

Ajay Bijli, managing director of PVR Cinemas Ltd, says that although the top segment does represent an opportunity, the mass market will continue to provide the bulk of the company’s revenues. “I don’t think that stand-alone gold classes would work,” says Bijli. “It is just a way of catering to more than one audience. But, out of a cinema hall of 500 seats, only up to 40 seats would be gold class.”

I for one love the Adlabs Ebony Lounges, though sadly there are none where I live in Mumbai (yet!) and the Cinemax equivalent is just not as, well, luxurious. However, I find that the typical multiplex hall is as good if not better than what I was used to back in London.

If only it wasn’t for the dim projector. As you might have guessed, my local multiplex is not digital.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Posted in Miscellaneous

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