Leonid Ogorodnikov, CEO of Karofilm, joined Russia Today to discuss a project for affordable cinemas in the Russian regions, presented at the 11th St. Petersburg Economic Forum.
Russia Today: We did expect to see representatives from all kinds of businesses here at the forum but someone from the film industry is a little bit of a surprise. What do you expect the forum to offer to you?Leonid Ogorodnikov: We represent a completely new programme at this forum. It is titled “Rural movie theatres” dealing with easily built constructions tailored for small townships. The project is presented at the forum due to its social importance. There are roughly five large distribution networks in Russia which are actively expanding in the Russian regions but they generally operate in the cities, with populations of more than 500,000 people but in smaller townships the profitability quickly decreases. We represent small theatres of 400 sq. m. space at a price of about $US 400 thousand per unit. It could be ready in two weeks. These movie theatres are suitable for distant regions. We are ready do supply them with films and do maintenance.RT: How would you rate this forum as a practical place, as a place to do business, to meet investors and possible partners?L.O.: The forum is very interesting to me, I browsed the whole exhibition and noticed many attractive investment projects and we see shopping malls as good potential partners. We would like to do business with all the regions represented at the forum.RT: Cinema business is certainly on the rise in Russia but so far the growth appears to be slightly chaotic. How do you predict that growth to carry on? Is it going to be a managed growth or is it going to continue on fairly ad hoc basis?L.O.: I consider the film market to be quite civilised in Russia and is stably growing by 35-40% annually. We remain the leaders in this market. There are movie theatre networks, the distributors and producer companies in this market and we would like to combine all that in one company.