Adlab's BIG Cinemas is Exhibitor of the Year at CineAsia 2008

No sooner had Adlabs' exhibition arm been re-branded BIG Cinemas then the news broke that it will be crowned Exhibitor of the Year at this year's CineAsia held in Macau on 9-11 December. We are thrilled on behalf of our colleagues at BIG Cinema who have worked tirelessly to not just make it India's largest cinema chain, but now also one of the most honoured. From THR.com:

Sunshine said that the 2008 edition at the Wynn Hotel and the Macau Tower, set for Dec. 9-11, will feature an advance 3-D screening of the Disney animated comedy "Bolt." The confab's Exhibitor of the Year award will go to Tusha Dhingra, the head of India's Big Cinemas, formerly known as Adlabs.

This comes not long after the cinema chain was named Retailer of the Year award and Best Retailer in Entertainment before that. But this definitely tops both of those achievements. I would like to think that being a digital cinema pioneer in India had a small part to play in the decision underpinning this award.

The global economy may be down but India just had a weekend box office bonanza with the twin hits Golmal Returns and Fashion both playing to full houses. This coming weekend Quantum of Solace will open here (a week before the US, no less) on the largest print release ever for a Hollywood film in India - 600 prints, beating Sony's previous record for Spider-Man 3 (597 prints), with Casino Royal (427 prints) in third place rounding off SPE's hat trick.

The coming weeks will see releases that were pushed back from their original Diwali release slots, so it should be a very happy Q4 for BIG Cinemas and other Indian exhibitors.