-By Scott Rosenberg

Barely seven years old, Wanda Cinema Line Corporation has become a world-class cinema operator. Wanda's exceptional business practices include a model of scientific research in close relation with commercial property development, a service philosophy of “centering all efforts on the film-viewing values and experience of the audience,” large-scale, efficient management standards and models, and long-term service-brand building.
Wanda’s accomplishments have led it to be the first cinema chain from Mainland China to be awarded the “Exhibitor of the Year” Award at the CineAsia convention in Hong Kong.
Wanda Cinemas has over 100 cinemas and will have over 1,000 screens by the end of this year. Box-office revenues will total almost $369 million in 2012, with over 40 million customers. This rapid growth has made Wanda Cinemas the number-one cinema operator in China.

Jerry Ye, general manager of Wanda Cinemas, places great emphasis on training of staff to maintain the high standards of the company. According to Ye, Wanda implements a managerial performance-assessment system focusing on both customer satisfaction and staff satisfaction. Wanda follows a star rating system for staff engaged in business operations and projection, and has a complete staff training system. In 2011, 31,720 total hours of training were delivered to 46,480 persons, with each employee receiving an average of 23.7 hours of training.

After seven years of development, Wanda Cinemas has worked out a business model that integrates commercial real-estate development. Their cinemas aim to be more than a recreational sector within a commercial complex; their goal is to “contribute to overall public recreational and cultural values.”

In Wanda’s view, commercial projects guarantee their cinemas’ access to favorable locations and a ready-made audience in “a consumption atmosphere.” In turn, first-class cinemas enrich commercial developments with their outstanding recreational value and consumer flow. Wanda Cinemas is dedicated to achieving “benign business synergy with shopping malls so as to maximum economic benefits and social impact.”

Wanda Cinemas believes in only the best technological advancements for its customers, offering audiences a first-class movie experience. All auditoriums are equipped with the most advanced international digital projection systems, stereo systems and screens. Wanda also plans to implement a top-of-the-line Network Operation Center management system.

Wanda is also the biggest IMAX investor and operator in Asia. The company signed a strategic cooperation agreement with IMAX in 2011 and became the second-largest IMAX operator in the world. Currently, Wanda has 47 IMAX screens in operation, representing over 75% of the Chinese market. Wanda has also taken the lead in introducing such cutting-edge technologies as dual-projector 3D, Dolby and RealD 3D into China.

As general manager of Wanda Cinema, Jerry Ye will accept the CineAsia “Exhibitor of the Year” honor on behalf of all administration and staff of the company. Big things are on the horizon for Wanda, as on Sept. 4, 2012, the Dalian Wanda Group completed the acquisition of U.S.-based AMC Entertainment Holdings, operator of AMC Theatres, currently the world’s largest cinema owner.