SUPERMAN and the X-Men helped lift the nine-month profits of SM Prime Holdings Inc., the Philippines’ largest shopping mall and cinema operator said on Tuesday.

In a report to regulators, the company said January to September earnings rose 9 percent to P3.90 billion owing to bigger revenues from rental fees and a recovery in ticket sales after the screening of Superman Returns, X-Men 3, Pirates of the Carribean 2, among other cinema blockbusters.

The company said its net income increased by 9 percent to P3.90 billion as revenues jumped from P7.80 billion to P9.38 billion, led by a 20-percent spike in rental revenues to, even as same store rental growth stood at 6 percent.

SM Prime said this is largely due to rentals from new SM Supermalls opened starting from the second half of 2005 until this year. These new malls are the SM City San Lazaro, SM Supercenter Valenzuela, SM Supercenter Molino, SM City Santa Rosa, SM City Clark, SM Mall of Asia, SM Supercenter Pasig, The Block at SM North Edsa and SM City Lipa. It said these new malls have an average occupancy level of 95 percent.

Cinema ticket sales rebounded with a 31-percent increase owing to more blockbuster films shown this year.

The company’s nine-month performance was made possible through a doubling of loans payable and an increase in long-term debts. Short-term obligations amounted to P1 billion and .7 million, while its long-term liabilities jumped because of a P3-billion floating rate note facility availed in June and a P1.2-billion fixed rate facility from Philamlife in August. Operating expenses also grew by 22 percent to P4.13 billion.