• • News
• • The best and the largest movie theater - Enjoy CGV Centum City! 2008.05.19
  • ■ Offering 10 screens and 2,141 seats with Starium Hall of the largest screen in Asia and Cine de Chef, the premium movie theater ■ Inviting 10,000 people for free previews to celebrate the opening together with showcasing of the movie, ‘Shadow Murder’ ‘CGV Centum City’ with the largest screen in Asia that measures 27m sideways is due to open in March 3. Located on levels 5 ~ 9 of Shinsegae Centum City Department Store in Haeundae, Busan, ‘CGV Centum City’ is directly connected to subway line 2. The scale of movie theaters alone (17,190m2) is the largest within the region. With 2,141 seats in 10 theaters, CGV Centum City offers ‘Starium’, the super large-scaled digital theater. Also, Cine de Chef, the premium movie theater, will be introduced in Busan for the first time. As such, CGV Centum City will bring great satisfaction to customers with the differentiated and unique facilities and services of CGV. ‘Starium’ introduced in CGV Incheon for the first time in Korea is a digital movie theater that offers super high-resolution of 4K. Using a 4K digital projector, Starium will offer high-resolution pictures that are 4 times clearer than those shown by the general 2K digital projectors. 11.5m as theIn particular, the super-sized silver screen measuring 27m largest in Asia fit to show cinemascope movies is the highlight of the theater facilities. The wide screen and 11.1-channel 3D sound system delivering even the most delicate sense of direction will provide customers with realistic enjoyment never to be experienced in the general 4-channel movie theaters. Cine de Chef, the premium movie theater to combine a movie theater with a restaurant, is also a pride of CGV Centum City. Since first showcased in CGV Apgujeong in May 2007, Cine de Chef has been solidifying its position as a ‘premium brand’ movie theater. Through opening of the second store in Busan Centum City, Cine de Chef will lead the new trend of movie theaters in Busan. It is also noteworthy that the range of selection is wider in comparison to Cine de Chef in Apgujeong. The price range has become diversified from KRW 45,000 to KRW 105,000 per person to enjoy premium cooking over a movie. The menus include a wide variety of dishes from steak to seafood together with beverages. There will be two theaters of Cine de Chef, each of which consisting with 30 and 64 seats, will be operated. This will make it more convenient to cater for various events through theater rental. CGV Centum City is organizing free previews to celebrate the opening. On the 3rd and the 4th of March, CGV members will be given out free tickets by order of arrival at the lobby of CGV Centum City from 10 in the morning. The previews will show 15 movies including the popular films of ‘Transformer’ and ‘Yes Man’ together with the soon to be released ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ and ‘Friday the 13th’. “Everyone is invited to have great time in CGV Centum City that offers the best and the largest facilities,” said Manager Joh Seong-beom of CGV Centum City. “CGV will rewrite the history of multiplex theaters in Busan, the city of movies.”

• • News
• • CJ CGV Signs MOU with Chinese Corporation 2008.02.18
  • CJ CGV Signs MOU with Chinese Corporation CJ CGV signed an MOU on the 24th of last month with the Jiangsu Jiuzhou Investment Group, a prominent real estate development organization in Changzhou City, Kiangsu Province, China. This MOU signing was completed at the request of the Jiuzhou Investment Group, which had already experienced Shanghai SFG CGV’s excellent facilities and unique services. For the next year, CJ CGV has acquired the first bargaining claim from the Jiuzhou Investment Group for multiplex development projects. Shanghai SFGCGV, the first CGV branch in China, attained a 120 percent year-on-year increase growth rate over last year’s goal. Shanghai SFGCGV has been a major success in China, and CJ CGV plans on expanding into other major cities in China, starting with the opening of its second branch in Shanghai at the end of this year.

• • News
• • CGV – Lotte Cinema jointly pursues the business to distribute digital projection system 2007.11.19
  • The era of ‘cinema without film’, which has undergone much difficulty, will begin in full scale. CJ CGV and Lotte Cinema announced on the 8th that conclusion of contract for establishment of ‘D-Cinema Korea’, the joint venture company of Digital Cinema would take place on the 9th of November in Conference Room located on the 5th floor of the head office of Lotte Cinema in Seocho-dong, Seoul. From next year, CJ CGV and Lotte Cinema will carry out the business to distribute digital cinema to movie theaters of Korea through in which both companies invested 50% each. In the past, the ‘cinema without film’ business experienced numerous difficulties and did not achieve great result due to ▶burden of initial pre-investment cost and ▶failure to establish win-win model for production company, distribution company and movie theater, etc. However, establishment of joint venture company by CJ CGV and Lotte Cinema served as an opportunity to implement digital cinema at low cost in production companies, distribution companies and movie theaters by establishing the new win-win model at the same time as increasing negotiation power to overseas distributors and equipment companies. ■ Digital cinema is the method of creating a movie with digital file rather than film, transmitting it to move theater through network and playing it with digital projector. As the content is stored in file, rather than film, it can be viewed in high definition over many times. In addition, time and cost required can be drastically reduced in comparison to conventional film per each stage from film production and development to captioning and delivery. Film producers will also rapidly convert to the trend of producing films by using digital technology, therefore will benefit from the condition to produce a variety of movies on low budget. As for distributors, they will not only be able to significantly save the high film printing cost, but also completely resolve the serious environmental problem of having to burn films after closing of movie. Simultaneous release throughout the world will also become possible. When all movie theaters become digitalized in the future, films will not to be transported and distributed to each movie theater. Instead, film contents can be transmitted to and played in movie theaters all over the world through satellite or network. ■ Movie industry of the world is rapidly converting to digital cinema system. Korea has been promoting digital cinema business since the earlier days in 2005 centering on some movie theaters. However, the rate of digital projector distribution in Korea as of today is only approximately 5%, which is distribution to only 107 out of the 1,980 theaters nationwide (as of May 2007). Showing of digital movies is rapidly increasing each year. However, the question as to which one of producing company, distribution company and movie theater is to pay for the cost of digital cinema implementation is being raised as a big hindrance in promotion of this business. As a result, despite the advantages of digital cinema, digitalized films have been converted back to films to be played in movie theaters due to the severely insufficient projection facilities. This has continuously been incurring additional costs. Therefore, this joint business by both companies will largely contribute towards increasing efficiency of film production/ distribution and movie theater operation by promoting digitalization in overall areas of film industry in which film and digital contents exist in mixture. ■ In the coming days, will carry out the business of distributing digital projectors to movie theaters. is planning to supply projectors to movie theaters at the moderate price that is app. 1/3 of the equipment price. Equipment ownership will be transferred to the corresponding movie theater after 10 years of installation. Therefore, small and medium-scaled movie theaters will be able to drastically reduce the burden for the initial cost of equipments. Also, this company will receive the so-called VPF (virtual print fee) of the amount equivalent to the conventional film printing cost at release of movie from distributor for installation of digital projector in movie theaters and playing of movies through the projector. Of course, VPF will be significantly lowered to only half the conventional film printing cost. In particular, distributors, upon utilization of network, will be able to promptly and conveniently transmit movie contents. Therefore, the period of film distribution that takes more than a week at the moment will be reduced down to only a single day through digital network. According to ‘economic effect of introducing digital cinema (issued in 2006)’ issued by Korean Film Council, digital cinema will produce the effect to reduce the cost of app. KRW 24 billion per year in the film industry of Korea, therefore will lead to increase of high profitability in entire areas of film industry, therefore advancement of the industry as a whole. is planning to complete corporate establishment by end of the year to start the business of distributing ‘cinema without film’ in full scale. is planning to embark on working level conference in relations to VPF with domestic and overseas distributors and is also scheduled to undergo separate negotiations with movie theaters through business presentations. Korean Film Council is making extensive support to create the appropriate environment with significant interest in digital cinema business of Korea. Following the last year’s event, Korean Film Council introduced technological standard plans of digital cinema in Korea to be carried out in the future by disclosing ‘digital cinema technology guide version 2.0’ and ‘digital cinema quality control manual version 2.0’ on the 1st of November in Cultural Contents Center located in Sangam-dong of Seoul in order to respond to international environments undergoing changes. ■ Currently, various countries around the world, such as the US and countries in Europe, etc., are rapidly converting to digital cinema system. Therefore, change is keenly required in film market of Korea. US will have app. 4000 digital screens by the end of this year. Furthermore, it is being planned to complete ‘virtual print fee (VPF)’ deliberation with distributors by the end of this year in relations to over 14000 screens, which is app. 1/3 of all screens in the US, through ‘DCIP (Digital Cinema Implementation Partners’, a joint venture company established by 3 major movie theaters of Regal, AMC and Cinemark. Europe, too, has already completed VPF deliberation with 20th Century Fox and UPI in June through AAM (Arts Alliance Media), a digital cinema company of UK, and is planning to install digital screens in over 7000 cinemas throughout Europe in the next 5 years. Our neighboring country China is aiming to distribute over 2500 digital screens by 2010 with the government’s active support of app. KRW 30 billion. Japan already formed a digital cinema consortium in 2001 with film-related persons, therefore is due to produce visible results in the near future through active discussion on the related businesses. “While international film market is rapidly changing, we can no longer delay the promotion of digital cinema business in Korea,” said the insiders of CJ CGV and Lotte Cinema. They added, “To activate digital cinema, we will continuously consult with Korean Film Council and will contribute towards development of digital cinema business in Korea by promoting extensive participation by the industry.”