For many of us it came as a surprise when back in 2008; Pakistan’s first ever multiplex company, Cinepax Ltd, chose the city of Rawalpindi to initiate its operations instead of Karachi, Lahore or even Faisalabad. Years passed by, and in the meanwhile, we saw many other companies following the footsteps of Cinepax by bringing the premium quality movie watching experience in the country, or in other words; revolutionising the way cinema industry used to operate in Pakistan.
All these companies have a firm hold on the ground now and are looking forward to expand in whatever ways it is possible. Be it the introduction of 3D cinemas in Pakistan or bringing the Gold class theatres to the country, it all resulted from the same perpetual process.
After bringing Rawalpindi; that now stands as Rs 20 million worth market for films, onto the maps of filmmaker’s strong recovery points, Cinepax has finally made its decision to expand to other parts of the country too.
Karachi, being the most populated city of the country and also having the highest population proportion for moviegoers, is now the main target of Cinepax. Such is the eagerness to explore the market that according to reports, the theatre company has decided to open up two new cinemas in the city.
According to different media reports and the official website of the company, Karachi’s Safari Park and soon-to-be-opened The Mall Karachi are the two venues selected to start the company operations in the city.
Cinepax’s first in Karachi would be the one located in The Mall (formerly known as Sofitel Tower), which according to the company website will be a four-screen cinema, hopefully equipped with 3D facility. The best thing about this theatre would be its Platinum and Gold class movie watching experience, which although the company claims to be the ‘first time ever’ in Pakistan, but Rawalpindi-Islamabad’s newly launched 3D cinema, The Arena (by Bahria Town), already has it introduced in the country.
The other upcoming theatre-launch of Cinepax Ltd will be at Karachi’s Safari park. However, unlike their first venture in the city, here the company is surrounded by a row over the use of public amenity for commercial purposes. Although the KMC (Karachi Metropolitan Corporation) has already allotted the space to the company but still some legal hitches are making the progress on the project slow.
The theatre will run on public-private partnership basis, for which Cinepax will pay Rs 250 million to the city administration for using the space at Safari park for 10 years, after which the facility will be handed over to KMC.
Cinepax hasn’t got its own market base in Karachi yet, and will face a direct competition from the two-already-(successfully) operating multiplexes in the city, The Atrium and Universe Cineplex. It’s interesting to mention here that The Mall; where the first Cinepax theatre will commence its operations from, is located at almost 5 kms distance each from both The Atrium and the Universe Cineplex, placing Cinepax in a perfect position to drag the customers of its both competitors. Universe Cineplex however, is intended to get more affected by this, mainly because of being located in the same locale.
Not only that, to add more misery to Universe Cineplex; soon an another theatre is opening at Moin Khan Academy in defence area which is barely 2 kms away from the cinema.
All in all, we can now gladly say that at least the cinema industry is finally making some progress, and we hope this will give the local film industry an another reason to be on its own feet and start producing quality films.
It’s very relevant to mention here that Karachi isn’t going to be the only city to have Cinepax services after Rawalpindi, but actually Cinepax is also set to enter Gujranwala and that their first cinema in the city will commence its operations very soon (most probably it will be operational by this Eid). The Cinepax Gujranwala will be located on GT Road at the place of Old Prince Cinema.
