26 Feb – The ambitious plan to build low-budget community cinemas for Southeast Asian countries by the Thai production company, Kantana Group, is now off the table. According to The Phnom Penh Post, Kantana's initial plan for 2014 was to build 1,000 community cinemas for the rural areas throughout Southeast Asia which included Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar. But now, the company has scaled back their plans to build a total of 300 low-budget community cinemas in Thailand due to economic stagnation and political uncertainty in Thailand. "With many negative factors, we missed our target of 1,000 cinemas by the end of 2014. Instead, we formed joint ventures with local investors to build only 40 cinemas in some provinces," said Jaruek Kaljaruek, Kantana's chairman. Chy Sila, a local partner of Major Cineplex Group's Cambodia operation said that the Thai cinema chain Major Cineplex Group has opened seven new screens at Aeon Malls in June last year, and has already set their plans to cooperate with other new shopping malls. "We need to see how big the malls will be and how many customers will potentially come," said Sila. Meanwhile, Platinum Cineplex in Cambodia is currently targeting middle-class audiences such as university students. Platinum Cineplex's manager Sao Sokny told The Phnom Penh Post that Platinum will be expanding in six weeks to Siem Reap, which has currently no modern cinemas. "For me, I don't think Cambodia is ready yet for small provinces," Sokny said. (Photo Source: pattaya.zagranitsa.com) To read this article in Khmer, click HERE.