IT looks like the penchant of Filipinos for movies has gone widescreen.

SM Prime Holdings Inc., the listed mall developer of the SM Group, is planning to add two more IMAX theaters in its malls over the next two years in an effort to tap higher-end consumers, said a top company official. Edgar Tejerero, senior vice president of West Avenue Theatre Corp., SM Prime’s cinema arm, said the developer will add the specialized theater to the upcoming SM Taguig, which will start construction this year, and another for SM City Cebu,which will also set to break ground late this year.

Tejerero said while the group’s theater operations deliver “some” profit, these serve the primary purpose of attracting people to the SM malls.

Last year cinema sales of the Sy-controlled SM Prime  accounted for less than 10 percent of the P18.55 billion in total revenues booked by the listed holdings firm.

He said IMAX theaters—which feature wider screens that the traditional movie theaters and can charge over three times the ticket price of a regular one— attract consumers from the upper-income brackets.

“If you look at the [average] profile of IMAX moviegoers, 60 percent come in cars, and after seeing the movie, they go shopping,” said Tejerero, explaining the difference with average “regular” theater clients who use public transportation and often go home after watching a movie.

He added that owing to these observations, the firm repositioned IMAX in order to better serve these clients. In 2008 IMAX was focused more on educational films, but this year, the firm shifted gears by branding IMAX as a premium cinema, showing top blockbuster Hollywood films.

“A lot of our patrons have become more discerning, so IMAX is a way for us to attract the A and B crowds,” he noted.

On Wednesday SM Prime announced the July 16 opening of the firm’s second IMAX theater, located in SM City North Edsa. This, after the success of the IMAX theater in SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City, which opened in 2006.

The firm said the new P120-million theater  will be equipped with “the world’s most advanced digital theater system,” including better sound quality, maximized field of view and clearer images on its movie screen, which measures an estimated 16 meters high.

The IMAX theater in SM Mall of Asia has an average occupancy rate of 72 percent to 78 percent, and Tejerero said similar results are expected from its North Edsa theater.

“Our mapping studies show that most of the patrons of Mall of Asia are coming from the south, so that is a big factor for us in having an IMAX in the north area,” he said.

He added the firm has considered putting up an IMAX theater in SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City, but noted there were “challenges” regarding the space requirement of the cinema.

“Megamall is always possible, but for you to put an IMAX theater [inside the mall], it requires a big change in physical setup,” Tejerero said, noting the theater in SM North Edsa required the conversion of eight stories for the space.

The addition of SM North Edsa will bring the number of IMAX seats to over 1,051 seats, with 400 more expected after the installation of the theater in SM Cebu City. No details are available yet for the IMAX theater being planned for SM Taguig, which will be built beside the Market!Market! complex owned by Ayala Land Inc.

SM Prime also plans to build branches in some Philippine National Railways stations, chief financial officer Jeffrey Lim said.

The company is considering “some locations,” Lim said in a mobile phone text message after newspaper reports noted that the SM Group may run the malls in a partnership with S.T. Best Inc.

“A mall takes up a large space, so SM has to be selective for this venture to prosper,” said Alex Pomento, a strategist at Macquarie Group Ltd. “The government must also upgrade the train system and its stations to increase passenger traffic and make these malls viable.”

SM Prime currently has a tally of 127,000 seats in 206 cinemas across its 34 malls, of which the most recently opened was SM City Naga in the Bicol region last April.

For the rest of 2009, SM Prime is scheduled to open SM City Rosario in Cavite, SM City Pamplona in Las Piñas, the Sky Garden at SM City North Edsa and launch its expansion of SM City Rosales in Pangasinan.

By the end of 2009, SM Prime is expected to have 36 malls in the country, with an estimated total floor area of 4.9 million square meter (sq.m.), from 4.3 million sq.m. at the end of 2008.

The company also operates three supermalls in the Chinese cities of Xiamen, Jinjiang and Chengdu and has announced plans to build three more malls in the Mainland in the coming years. (With Bloomberg)