Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd will focus on the Karnataka and Kerala movie markets this year. The company has acquired about 28 cinema halls in Karnataka and will buy about 60 to 70 screens in Kerala.
P S Saminathan, managing director, Pyramid, said, the company will be adding up to 100 screens within next month. Pyramid will invest about Rs 40 crore to Rs 50 crore in Kerala and about Rs 600 crore in South India this year, he added.
“The Kerala film market is worth Rs 200 crore. We are not only looking at the local market but also planning to tap Kerala’s overseas connections, especially in the Gulf,” he said. However, Kerala is the smallest movie market in the south, behind Andhra Pradesh worth Rs 1,400 crore and Tamil Nadu worth about Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 1,200 crore, in terms of total collections, he added.
At present, Pyramid owns about 260 screens in Tamil Nadu and 150 screens in Andhra Pradesh. The company will focus on acquiring theatres in North India from next year, he said.
Pyramid will clock about Rs 450 crore revenue this year from Tamil Nadu alone, Saminathan said. While the official guideline for the company’s total turnover is about Rs 650 crore, Pyramid will safely record about Rs 1 billion (about Rs 100 crore) to Rs 1.1 billion in 2009, he asserted.
The company is confident of its robust performance because the movie exhibition industry, so far highly fragmented with under-reported collections, will become organised with Pyramid creating India’s largest theatre chain, he said.
