Cinépolis Cinemas, originally, Organización Ramírez was founded in Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico in 1971 by Enrique Ramírez Miguel. Later on, with the opening of the Cine La Raza, the firm gained a presence in Mexico City.
In 1994 the company rebranded itself as Cinépolis Cinemas, opening the first multiplex-style theatres in Tijuana. With this transformation, the company also started exploring opportunities abroad, entering markets in Latin America, India, Brazil, USA, Spain and eventually the Middle East.
As part of the global modernizing initiative, the company updated its brand in corporate identity by 2019 – just as the cinema sector as a whole was thrown into chaos by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Today, Cinépolis Cinemas has become the third largest cinema chain globally in terms of the number of screens, with more than 6,700 fully operational. The cinema chain is present in 19 countries and is the largest cinema chain in Latin America.
“We’ve been operating for 50 years,” says Alejandro Aguilera Garibay, CEO of Cinépolis Cinemas in the Gulf region. “We are a family-owned business that expanded globally over the last 20 years. In the Middle East, we partnered with two firms, Al Tayer Group and Abdulmohsin Al Hokair Group. These companies are leaders in the retail and hospitality markets and have become an instrumental part of our regional strategy.”
Cinépolis Cinemas has grown exponentially across the half a century since its inception. One key factor that can account for the growth is a prioritisation of customers’ experience – something more important now than ever.
“We focus on giving the best experience. Experience is the key word,” Aguilera tells us. Cinépolis Cinemas takes a holistic view of the word “experience”, looking at ways to improve every aspect of a trip to the movies.
“When I talk about experience, I talk about every aspect of the customer journey,” Aguilera says. “This means continuously improving our food and beverage offer, going beyond traditional popcorn and soda. It means looking at how we reach the customers and diversify the movies we offer. And of course, it means offering the best service, supported by the best staff. We are putting the customer at the centre.”
Cinema in the Age of Covid
Of course, delivering the ultimate customer experience has never been more challenging. In 2020 the entire cinema industry shut down globally. When cinemas reopened again, the company was facing an uphill battle to persuade audiences to return.
“We opened in the middle of the pandemic and had to appeal to customers to come to the cinema, that was our main challenge,” says Aguilera. “Covid was, of course, the biggest challenge the industry as a whole faced. The second was the accelerated diversification across digital platforms and a reduction in the content, impacting the exhibition industry.”
Now that we are into the post-pandemic era, Cinépolis Cinemas is doing everything it can to improve its offering and draw customers back for some movie magic.
“We are promoting our brand with every opportunity to raise brand awareness,” Aguilera explains. “As part of our brand awareness initiative, we are also partnering with external stakeholders. Another initiative we have is to offer alternative content; we are focusing on new content, ranging from live events to concerts. New ideas are key for the future of the business, we can work together with other forms of entertainment outside of the home and collaborate to bring customers back.”
Aguilera’s ambitions for Cinépolis Cinemas are nothing less than revolutionary in the industry. “We have an opportunity to go beyond traditional cinema exhibition,” he insists.
Nurturing Talent
In parallel to improving the customer experience, Cinépolis Cinemas is also focused on building up its own pools of talent, ranging from the corporate to the operational level.
“I have been with the company for 15 years. I had the opportunity to grow and reach a position in which I am now overseeing an entire region,” Aguilera tells us. “Cinépolis takes care of its people. At the cinema level, for example, we have a program called ‘Star of the Month’, where we recognize the talent of our employees. As part of this program, I meet with our cinema staff on a monthly basis to congratulate and continue to motivate the team.”
The company has a global initiative that helps to identify and develop talented employees. These employees are given the opportunity to grow across interdisciplinary projects across other departments and even other countries to develop their skills.
“We have a multicultural work environment, with people from different backgrounds and ethnicities working together to provide their best efforts,” Aguilera says. “We promote this, and we try to leverage a strong local team while developing a talent pool for the company.”
One of the advantages of having such a wide array of personalities is that it aids innovation, a key part of Cinépolis Cinemas’ strategy going forward.
“Innovation is a key element for us. Over the last two decades, we have tried to reinvent ourselves, from pioneering the VIP auditoriums to developing new ways of watching movies, including our own in-house large format screen and our Junior Auditorium. We are relaunching our app in the region. This is part of the experience I was talking about – we want our customers to buy their tickets and F&B online, go to their seats and get their food delivered, so they can sit back and enjoy the movie,” Aguilera says. “New features include contactless ordering at our Luxury Cinema and Premium seating categories. Customers can order food and beverages inside the auditorium at any time during the movie and get the products delivered to their seats.”
As well as improving the experience inside the auditoriums, Cinépolis Cinemas is also looking to expand its presence, growing in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
“We will keep opening new branches. This year, we opened two new locations, one in Jizan in Saudi Arabia and the second location in Bahrain, and we have another one ready to open in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at the end of the year,” Aguilera says.
The company is also building its relationship with its customers through the launch of its own Loyalty Program called Club Cinépolis.
“The company started in Mexico, and now it is present in nineteen countries,” Aguilera tells us. “We want to bring our international experience to the region and offer something unique to the customers.”
At Cinépolis Cinemas, the magic of cinema is just beginning.
