Say hello to Bollywood

Bollywood stars like Deepika Padukone will soon grace more New Zealand screens than ever.

SkyCity is hoping to introduce more Bollywood films and movies in Cantonese and Mandarin into its ailing cinema business in a bid to boost revenue and appeal to a wider slice of the Auckland market.

Chief executive Nigel Morrison announced the strategic move as part of the annual results yesterday which showed earnings from the cinema business had plummeted 44.8 per cent in the last financial year from $8.7 million to $4.8 million.

Morrison said the cinema result had been very disappointing and blamed the poor performance on a good summer and management distraction during the failed sale process.

SkyCity wrote down its cinema business in the first half of the year by $58 million, down from around $120 million, in a bid to help sell it but offers failed to come through.

Morrison said he had appointed a new management team and was now focused on increasing revenues, particularly in the Auckland market where SkyCity has a 55 per cent market share.

It opened 10 new screens in Albany in April and next month will open a further 10 in Manukau.