PVR Cinemas in partnership with CGR Cinemas launch the first Ice Theaters® format in India and Asia Pacific region

PVR CINEMAS, India’s largest film exhibitor in partnership with French Exhibitor CGR CINEMAS today announced the opening of its premium ICE THEATERS® auditorium in two of its leading cinemas in Delhi NCR –PVR ICON Promenade Mall, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi and PVR Ambience Mall, Gurugram. Leveraging on the strong relationship that PVR enjoys with the Indian Cinema Industry, CGR CINEMAS intends to showcase Indian movies in ICE IMMERSIVE® format to Indian audiences. The format was unveiled in a star-studded event amid the presence of esteemed dignitaries including Mr. Emmanuel Lenain, Ambassador of France, senior executives of leading Indian studios and Bollywood celebrity, Mr. Kartik Aaryan, whose film ‘Shehzada’ is soon coming to cinemas.

The new ICE Theaters auditorium marks a huge milestone for CGR CINEMAS to launch its ICE IMMERSIVE® technology in the Asia Pacific Region after its successful endeavors in Europe, North America and Middle East. The state-of-the-art ICE IMMERSIVE® technology is a sensorial experience that features LED panels on each side of the auditorium, in order to fill the moviegoer’s peripheral vision with supplementary ambient colors and shapes and therefore complement the action on the main screen. The exclusive panels placed on each side of the auditorium create a spectacular visual atmosphere through dynamic shapes and colors and allow the audience to watch movies in total immersion.

While the ultimate visual experience is enhanced through 4K Projection with maximum image quality, the optimal audio playback comes alive with the 3D Dolby Atmos®. ICE Theaters® auditorium offers much more than technological excellence with customer comfort being the heart of the experience. While the ergonomic comfort is aided by a custom-made 60cm-wide seat, the visual comfort is made visible through curved rows providing ideal orientation towards the screen.

Mr. Ajay Bijli, Chairman & Managing Director, PVR Limited said, “After announcing our partnership with CGR Cinemas at CineEurope, Barcelona, we are happy to launch our first ICE THEATERS® screen in Delhi NCR with 2 screens. We plan to expand the ICE THEATERS® presence to Mumbai and Bengaluru in the coming months. It is the dynamism of these growing markets that keeps us assertive about bringing innovations and best of the global standards of cinema experience for movie aficionados in major metro cities. We are certain that audiences and filmmakers alike will appreciate the ICE Immersive experience.’’

Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, Joint Managing Director, PVR Limited said, “We are seeing an elevated appetite among audiences for watching movies in socio-cultural spaces such as a cinema. The lack of out-of-home entertainment options in India is fueling this need. Hence at PVR, we continue to experiment and further elevate the movie viewing experiential quotient by upgrading technology, comfort, F&B and the ambience to make it a holistic experience. The enhancement of ICE THEATERS® to our premium screen portfolio is a step in that direction. Patrons at PVR would surely appreciate this new way of watching movies”.

Mr. Renaud Palliere, CEO, The Luxury Collections, PVR Cinemas, said, “As a leading out-of-home entertainment destination, PVR is striving to build cinemas that provide a world-class ambience, cutting edge technologies in terms of sound and projection with opulent comfort and this is yet another step toward fulfilling our objective. ICE THEATERS® offers an experience that is impossible to replicate at home. The idle walls of the theatres are made alive through side panels that create peripheral background visuals that sync to the film thereby complementing it, not distracting away from it. We are highly confident this will prove to be a groundbreaking sensorial movie experience for audiences in Delhi and Gurugram and beyond.’’

ICE THEATERS® have released over 120 titles in their ICE IMMERSIVE® format, in partnership with all Major Hollywood Studios with their most anticipated titles, including this year’s Warner Bros’s THE BATMAN, FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE, Sony Pictures’s UNCHARTED, MORBIUS, Lionsgate’s MOONFALL, Universal Studios’s AMBULANCE, JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION, Paramount Pictures’sSCREAM, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2, TOP GUN: MAVERICK, and Walt Disney Studios’s DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, LIGHTYEAR and the latest released AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Many more exclusive titles to come in 2023, including Bollywood titles, for the first time since Premium Large Format ICE THEATERS was created, as part of its new partnership with PVR CINEMAS.

Mr. Jocelyn Bouyssy, Managing Director at ICE THEATERS®, added, “After expanding our format across various territories, we are unbelievably proud to be starting this new collaboration with India’s first exhibitor PVR CINEMAS. Not only is this partnership allowing us to reach new audiences, it also is the opportunity for us to broaden our immersive experience to the Indian movie-making industry and undertake Bollywood movies post-production, with the promise to deliver 20 Indian titles per year in ICE IMMERSIVE® format. After working with all Major Hollywood Studios, this marks a momentous milestone for ICE THEATERS, and we could not be more thrilled starting this new adventure alongside luxury cinema chain PVR CINEMAS”. BCS Bureau