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International Exhibition Profile<br />
PLEX-MEX<br />
From<br />
to 100 Screens in Less Than Two Years,<br />
Cinemex Heats Up the Mexican IVIaricet<br />
by Jose Martinez<br />
POLISHED PRESENTATION: The entrance to Cinemex's Santa Fe 14-plex.<br />
Stadium-style<br />
theatre seats, digital sound,<br />
fully-automated telephone ticketing and<br />
information services, and world class<br />
acoustical standards are taken for granted in<br />
the United States. But these innovations have<br />
been taking Mexico City by storm—ever since<br />
Cinemex opened the doors of its first theatre<br />
in August 1995.<br />
Founded in January 1994, Cinemex is a<br />
first-run multiplex theatrical exhibitor focasing<br />
on the movie marketplace in<br />
Mexico's<br />
capital city. Cinemex originated as a business<br />
project for three Harvard students whose formula<br />
went on to win Harvard Business<br />
School's two business plan awards in 1993.<br />
The company, which employs a staff of 45 at<br />
its head office and 485 at its cinemas, was<br />
formed by managing partners Miguel Angel<br />
Davila (age 31), director of operations and<br />
finance; Adolfo Fa.stlicht (30), director of real<br />
estate development and new projects; and<br />
Matthew Heyman (35), director of programming<br />
and sU~alegic planning. (Of the three<br />
young entrepreneurs. Heyman is the only one<br />
with prior experience in the exhibition industry,<br />
having formerly served as vice president<br />
of bu.siness affairs at Toronto-based Cineplex<br />
Odeon).<br />
Already Mexico's second-largest<br />
cinema<br />
operator in terms of boxoflRce, Cinemex represents<br />
22 percent and 30 percent of the<br />
region's attendance and boxofflce, respectively.<br />
Ramirez is currently the largest chain in<br />
Mexico, and Cinemark is the second largest by<br />
screen count. UA has also recently entered the<br />
newly-hot market, and others are circling. But<br />
Heyman's not worried. "People used to say to<br />
Ramirez, 'Who do you think is your competitor?'<br />
And 1 think he u-sed to say Cinemark. I<br />
think that everyb(xly now looks more to us."<br />
By the year 2(XX), Cinemex plans to have<br />
ftom 350 to 380 screens throughout Mexico
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