Multiplexes worth zl.350 mn to be constructed this year

During this year alone at least seven multiplex movie theaters worth zl.350 million will be constructed in Poland, Puls Biznesu has learned. According to Aldona Szostakowska, head of Multikino, one of the country's biggest players in the movie theater business, her company plans to open in May a 12-screen multiplex in Krakow, its fifth in Poland. Multikino will also start construction of a 9-screen theater in Wroclaw this year. Ster Century, a competing player in the sector which already has four movie theaters in Poland, this year will open its fifth in Katowice, and promises roughly zl.250 million will be spent on expanding its network within the next four years. IT Poland Cinemas, which owns the only 3-D IMAX movie theater in Poland, also intends to open a multiplex in Krakow, and furthermore has pledged to invest about zl.650 million in developing more multi-screen theaters. In addition, one of Europe's largest cinema operators Kinepolis and the domestic company Vision will enter the local market, with the former opening a multiplex in June in Poznan and the latter launching one in Gdansk later this year. The largest domestic players say that by 2005 they will have invested more than zl.1 billion into their movie theater networks. (Puls Bizensu, p.9) P.J.