CineAtlas plans to break into the Moroccan market and is not afraid of competition.
Rabat – CineAtlas, a multi-screen entertainment company, is set to open new movie theaters in the Moroccan cities of Tangier and El Jadida. The Tangier multiplex is expected to open in the third quarter of 2020, while the El Jadida theater will open in the second quarter of next year.
Ouvertures CINEATLAS Tanger et El jadida
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Posted by Cineatlas on Friday, 25 October 2019
The announcement of the new openings comes one year after CineAtlas started operating in Morocco. The company renovated the old Colisee cinema in Rabat, and opened its doors for visitors in August 2018.
The new CineAtlas in El Jadida will have three screens and will be located on El Jadida’s beach, near McDonald’s restaurant. The company plans to build the new movie venue on a 1,100 square meters plot.
In Tangier, CineAtlas will renovate the old Mauritania cinema. The renovated establishment will offer five different screens, an outdoor restaurant, and a cafe with entertainment space. Tangier’s CineAtlas will have three floors, each of them covering over 1,000 square meters.
The director of CineAtlas, Pierre-Francois Bernet, told the press that “the programming will be more or less the same as the one in Rabat, with both national and international movies, but it will also adapt to the public of each city.”
CineAtlas’ expansion in Morocco is in its infancy. According to Bernet, the business is planning to open more venues in the future in Casablanca, Kenitra, Larache, Meknes, Agadir, and Laayoune.
CineAtlas Rabat has recorded more than 190,000 visits since its opening. The number exceeded the initial expectations of the director, estimated at 160,000 visits.
Bernet also expressed that CineAtlas are not afraid of competition from Megarama that is opening new cinemas across the country. “There are so few cinemas in Morocco. It gives us time before we start to feel any competition,” said the director.
The director told Morocco World News that before the 1980s, Morocco was one of the most vibrant markets in terms of movie theaters. The kingdom’s 300 cinemas were notable for their large capacities (800 to 1500 seats on average).
Out of the 300 cinemas that were operating in Morocco in the 1980s, only 30 are still functioning.
“Unfortunately, Moroccan business operators have not been able to take the step to modernize their movie theaters the way Western operators did between 1990 and 2000,” said Bernet, citing the example of the failure to introduce complexes and multiplexes.
The Frenchman added that he was fortunate to have been encouraged by Moroccan Cinematographic Center (CCM)’s staff of film professionals and producers to start his CineAtlas project.
The entrepreneur noted that Morocco is a country “on the lookout for opportunities to seize,” concluding it is “a country that has business in the blood.”
