EIKONA Cinema Solutions GmbH, one of Europe’s leading cinema software developers and leading global cinema operator Kinepolis Group NV have agreed to collaborate and deploy EIKONA Cinema Manager in stages across Kinepolis sites in all its European subsidiaries.
Kinepolis selected EIKONA after extensive testing and case studies that involved several other cinema software solution providers. The in-depth comparison involved tests at the Kinepolis Schaffhausen site in Switzerland since May 2019. The test was later expanded to include Kinepolis’ three locations in Luxembourg: Kinepolis Belval, Kinepolis Kirchberg, Ciné Utopia, since June 2021. The tests were conducted in live operating conditions with connection to Kinepolis content and data systems like their POS Vista, and internal and external content suppliers.
Responding to the agreement, Joachim Schmitt, CEO of EIKONA Cinema commented, “Kinepolis has built a global reputation of excellence when it comes to delivering the best cinema experience for customers on and off screen, which is why we are proud to have been selected by them to provide their TMS and other critical software infrastructure moving forward.” The EIKONA family of cinema software tools are already the preferred IT infrastructure backbone for the DACH market (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), for customers such as Germany’s biggest operator Cineplex Group, Filmpalast Group and blue Entertainment AG in Switzerland.
Commenting on the agreement, Nicolas Hamon, Head of Projection & Sound at Kinepolis said, “Emerging from the pandemic we need our cinemas to be even better than they were before, guaranteeing a positive experience for every cinema visitor. EIKONA TMS will enable us to work with state-of-the-art tools for the programming of our shows.” Kinepolis is today present in Benelux, France, Spain, and Switzerland, having also expanded to Canada and the United States in 2017 and 2019 respectively. “As a global cinema operator, we have high requirements for our network, and we are happy that EIKONA is a perfect fit for us. EIKONA customised their software to our special needs, requirements and workflows in the past 12 months, so we can for example benefit from a fully automated centralised advertising distribution” Hamon added.
The EIKONA Cinema Manager, consisting of the EIKONA Circuit Control, EIKONA TMS, as well as back-end help desk and support, will be rolled out across Kinepolis’ entire estate in phases, starting in 2022 in The Netherlands in September and Belgium in October; followed by France and Spain in 2023.
About Kinepolis
Kinepolis Group NV was formed in 1997 as a result of the merger of two family-run cinema groups and was listed on the stock exchange in 1998. Kinepolis offers an innovative cinema concept which serves as a pioneering model within the industry. In addition to its cinema business, the Group is also active in film distribution, event organization, screen publicity and property management.
In Europe, Kinepolis Group NV has 58 cinemas spread across Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Poland. Since the acquisition of Canadian movie theatre group Landmark Cinemas and American movie theatre group MJR Digital Cinemas, Kinepolis also operates 40 cinemas in Canada and 10 in the US.<
In total, Kinepolis Group currently operates 108 cinemas worldwide, with a total of 1,097 screens and almost 200,000 seats. Kinepolis’ employees are all committed to giving millions of visitors an unforgettable movie experience. More information on www.kinepolis.com/corporate
About EIKONA Cinema
EIKONA Cinema Solutions GmbH was founded in 2012 as a spin-off of the EIKONA Group, which has been developing software since 2001. EIKONA Cinema develops specialised software for the cinema industry to enhance and optimise the performance and efficiencies of key cinema management functions. As the industry leader in the DACH region, EIKONA Cinema is earning a solid reputation for its unparalleled quality and reliability, and for the company’s highly responsive aftersales support and feature-development service.
Synergistically integrating its cinema products into one insightful software suite, EIKONA Cinema aims to unlock greater business insights and competitive advantage. Its software modules automate and secure cinema operations to the highest possible degree.
The advantages of the EIKONA family of software solutions include general cost savings, energy usage savings, reduction of work time, optimisation of workflows, gaining an overview of all sites, and operating centrally. More information on www.eikona-cinema.com.