Enver Hadžiabdić, director of Continental Film, briefly commented on Wednesday at a press conference, in an informal atmosphere, about the new joint venture of his company with the largest Austrian exhibitor, Constantin Film.
The mentioned company owns 20 multiplexes and 10 miniplexes across Austria, and last year they recorded over 6.5 million visitors. The collaboration, which began with the joint acquisition of the cinema in the Kaptol Center, is now continuing in a deeper form, with an investment in a movieplex in Pula, while agreements for new movieplexes in Zagreb and other locations in Croatia are in the finalization phase. The Movieplex Pula will have six halls with a capacity of 1,200 seats, and an annual attendance of 300,000 viewers is expected. With these investments, Continental Group has definitely expanded its operations from distribution to exhibition and intensified the cinema competition in Croatia.
Hadžiabdić announced the aim to capture 30-40% of the domestic market, explaining that by investing in the movieplex, Continental has ‘taken over’ Istria, and added that now is the time to expand the movieplex concept to smaller, previously neglected cities in Croatia, thereby increasing the number of viewers through improved quality of screenings and increasing the number of cinema halls. Martin Milinković, managing director, stated that slightly less than three million visitors last year is not a bad result for an economy like Croatia’s, but that in the coming years they expect to raise that number to 8.5 million visitors. (Vanja Figenwald)
