MUMBAI: At a business briefing to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his first official trip to India, IMAX Corporation and PVR Cinemas announced an agreement for five new IMAX theatres.

The new screens will be located in major metropolitan markets in a combination of new and existing flagship sites. The agreement brings PVR Cinemas’ total IMAX commitment to 15 theatres and strengthens the exhibitor’s position as IMAX’s largest partner in India.

PVR managing director and chairman Ajay Bijli mentions, “Our agreement is a direct result of the success of our IMAX box office, which, since 2016, has increased by 50 per cent as the demand for IMAX among moviegoers continues to build. We are delighted to strengthen our longstanding, successful partnership with IMAX, which we view as a competitive advantage to help solidify our leading position in India’s exhibition market.”

IMAX CEO Richard L Gelfond says, “India is the fourth-largest market by box office and one we view as a long-term growth opportunity. We also continue to re-master more and more Indian movies, and had record-breaking success with Padmaavat earlier this year. We believe these factors, combined with expanding our partnership with India’s top exhibitor PVR, will help set the stage for continued expansion in this important emerging market.”

In January, IMAX released Viacom18 Motion Pictures’ film Padmaavat, which marked the fourth local-language IMAX Indian film release and the first to be presented in the IMAX 3D format. Padmaavat is now the company’s highest-grossing local Indian release and third highest-grossing IMAX film overall in the country. It expects to announce more Indian IMAX movies for this year.

PVR operates a cinema circuit of 625 screens at 134 properties in 51 cities with seven IMAX screens in Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Noida.

The agreement brings IMAX’s total theatre footprint in India to 31 with 14 currently open and 17 contracted to open.