Boxoffice Pro—Q4 2021

Showeast 2021 MIGUEL MIER
INTERNATIONAL
EXHIBITOR OF
THE YEAR
MIGUEL MIER
Chief Operating Officer,
Cinépolis
“There is no better example
in our business that truly
represents what this award
is all about. Miguel’s
leadership and commitment
to Cinépolis has made it the
company it is today.”
Miguel Mier began his career at
Cinépolis in 1994, straight out of
college, joining the circuit at a time when
it was still a family-owned company in
Mexico. The timing was fortuitous. The
start of Mier’s tenure coincided with the
entry of multinational circuits into the
Latin American exhibition market, creating
a dynamic competitive balance that also
saw the introduction of the multiplex in
communities across the region.
Mier’s role at Cinépolis grew as the
circuit established itself in its domestic
market and began to look at expansion
opportunities abroad. He oversaw the
launch of the company’s international
operations in Costa Rica, Guatemala, and
Panama before a stopover at Stanford
University to pursue a business degree in
2006. He emerged from Stanford with a
business plan that Cinépolis would use as
the blueprint for further expansion into
India, Brazil, Chile, Spain, the Middle
East, and the United States. In 2014 he was
appointed as a nonfamily board member
of the company. Today, the circuit
comprises 6,728 screens in 19 countries
across four continents.
Boxoffice Pro spoke with Mier ahead
of ShowEast about his long career and the
lessons he’s learned from the challenges
of the pandemic.
Cinépolis is celebrating its 50th
anniversary this year. You’ve been
at the company for 26 of those years.
How has the company changed since
you began your tenure?
I joined the company in 1994. I was 21
years old and just getting out of college;
it was my first job. My first job was to
manage the technology within Cinépolis
during a time when there was pretty
much no technology at all. Back then, we
were a regional Mexican company, family
owned, privately held. In the years since
I joined, we’ve evolved from a company
of 320 screens in a region of Mexico to
6,700 screens in 19 countries across four
continents. The company has enjoyed 50
years of history, growth, and discipline by
always putting the consumer in the center
of our decisions.
That has been the DNA that has
made us innovators within the industry.
We were the first in bringing stadium
seating and Imax to Latin America. We
introduced VIP auditoriums well before
other, more developed markets. We were
the first to livestream soccer games in our
auditoriums. The first to sell reservedseating
tickets via our app, something
we’ve been doing for over a decade. We
like to think of ourselves as innovators, in
spite of our industry being 120 years old
and maybe not considered as particularly
innovative. We’ve grown thanks to
bringing innovations to our customers.
Part of that growth has been
the international expansion you
mentioned. That includes two
markets that are notoriously difficult
for any foreign player to gain a
foothold in: India and Brazil. What
was different about the Cinépolis
approach that has allowed it to enter
difficult markets and maintain a
leadership position there?
I came back from Stanford in 2007 with
an expansion plan for Cinépolis to enter
India. I presented the idea to the board,
they accepted, and today we’re the thirdlargest
multiplex circuit in the country.
It was a year of developing the business
plan and doing research in the Stanford–
Silicon Valley community, where there are
a lot of Indian academics who love movies.
Their input was really helpful. When
talking about both markets, we were able
to build a great and amazingly talented
local team in each of those countries. We
knew what we were trying to accomplish
and the skills that were required to do
that. At the same time, we were hands-off
enough to source a talent pool with the
right skill set from each local market. It
has always been about building a very
strong local team. Those are the two
ingredients that helped us in India. We did
a similar analysis in Brazil—shorter, faster,
but with the same framework.
From your perspective, as one of
the top exhibitors in Latin America,
how has this pandemic affected
moviegoing in the region and the
region in general?
The way in which this pandemic has
impacted everything in our lives has
overshadowed what we are experiencing
as an industry. The way the pandemic has
been approached in Latin America has
been so different that it’s shown us there is
not only one way to approach a situation.
You can be creative, and you can learn
things that have worked in one market
and bring them to other markets. We have
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