Brazil Hotbed For Expansion SAO PAOLO, Brazil – Having displaced locally based exhibitor Severiano Ribeiro as Brazil’s dominant exhibitor, Dallas-based Cinemark International now plans to add 40 screens at four Brazil sites in 2002 and as many as five sites a year for the next several years.Cinemark currently operates 258 screens nationally; Ribeiro 170 (with 15 more to debut this year); and Brazil’s third-largest exhib, Encino, Calif.-based United Cinemas International, 99.Cinebox, a European-based concern new to the Brazilian market, also plans to open an average of 30 screens annually in the coming years. Screen count has risen 44 percent from about 1,000 screens in 1997 to a current estimated 1,600-plus, while admissions have also risen from 56.6 million in 1999 to 67.8 million between January and November 2001.
In Focus - May 2002