Huayi Bros. Media Group, one of China's giant film companies, has established a new cinema complex in Shanghai, Mtime.com reports.

Wang Zhonglei, CEO of Huayi Bros., along with one of the company's signed actors, Lu Yi, attended the opening ceremony on March 16.

The well-equipped cinema composes of 9 halls with 1606 seats in all, including a 323-seat viewing hall and two luxurious director halls.

To date, Huayi owns 9 cinemas across China. Moreover, a series of new cinemas are currently being constructed across Wuhan, Beijing, Shenyang, Harbin and Shenzhen.

Wang Zhonglei revealed to the media that Huayi plans to build around 80 more cinema complexes within the next 4 to 5 years. Relying on its own advantages in terms of film investment, production and distribution, managing the cinema complexes will become part of the company's development strategy, which aims to set up a complete industrial chain.

"Investment in the construction of cinemas will strongly boost Huayi's ability to transfer its focus from content provider to venue holder. We eagerly hope to set up the second cinema in Shanghai," Wang said.

With censorship in production and distribution being gradually relaxed, the Chinese film industry has entered a period of boom, giving Chinese cinemas a great potential to cash in.

However, Wang also disclosed that after ten-years of investing in cinemas, the majority of current cinema complexes remain at a disadvantage due to outdated equipment and geographical remoteness.

Wang stated, "We believe Huayi cinemas will regain its investment in proportion to profits within 2 or 3 years."

Source:entgroup