How owning a chain of cinemas in Sicily became a family affair
Many people love cinema. Very few buy a cinema chain. But Angelo Tacca, who runs Ehome Italia, the sole distributor and service company for Christie in Italy, did just that. What is more, he did so in the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic. When I spoke to him and his son, Francesco, I was intrigued by how he grasped the opportunity to make a dream come true and transformed a struggling enterprise into a success.
EPlanet Cinemas is a family affair. Pictured here are Angelo and Helena in the back, and Marco and Francesco in the front.
Angelo has been running Ehome since 1998 and is effectively Christie’s regional representative - he has grown the company to provide not just warehousing and distribution for Christie ProAV and Cinema projectors, but also manages about 99 percent of any servicing issues in the country. “Over one thousand screens in Italy run with projection we have provided,” Angelo told me.
“I have loved cinema and the movies since I first saw the big screen as a three-year-old boy,” remarked Angelo. It’s a passion shared by his wife, Helena, “who watches movies for hours,” and sons, Francesco, who is studying business, and Marco, who is responsible for technical maintenance. Angelo, Helena, and Francesco continue to work at Ehome as well as their cinemas, running finance, operations, and marketing respectively. Many venues were struggling at the time but – as Angelo shrugged laughingly – “We took the chance! We are crazy!"
“We bought the whole chain,” Angelo told me. “Cinema was in a bad state. Many exhibitors had closed. I already had a foot in this world because of Ehome and Christie. So I decided to purchase eight multiplexes with 40 screens! I thought, why not take this opportunity? It had been a bit of a dream to experience the other side of the business.”
An auditorium inside EPlanet, which includes Christie cinema projection.
They found the chain of cinemas in Sicily, although the family lives and runs Ehome from Milan. “We flew to Sicily because we discovered a local partner. He was a client, actually. The chain was close to bankruptcy, but had been successful historically since 1970. So why lose this history?” said Angelo.
What’s the secret to turning a risk into a successful business?
The first steps were to rebrand, refurbish, and create a membership model and community. “We rebranded the cinemas on the island’s territory as there had been no brand unity. So, we brought them under one umbrella called EPlanet Cinemas. It was important for the public,” explained Angelo. “Only big chains tend to use membership. Special prices, ticket discounts, or food discounts create a community of people coming to your cinema. We also worked to change the perception of each cinema. A new network and a new brand were born.”
A Christie cinema projector in a projection booth at EPlanet Cinemas.
“To be successful, you need to give an experience the audience cannot get at home,” said Angelo. “The key is quality. The location, seats, comfort, popcorn, and, of course, the technology. At EPlanet, we installed Christie projection and Christie Vive Audio with Dolby Atmos. We recently put laser projection in one of the multiplexes. Everything we do is to improve the experience for customers.”
They opened in June 2021, with the pandemic still raging. I imagined that after this, Angelo and Francesco would share an enthusiastic story of the ‘grand opening’. It turned out to be a slower start, relayed to me with good humor. “Our two larger cinemas are in Palermo and Catania. I was in one cinema, my father in the other,” Francesco explained. “We opened the doors to see what would happen.”
The cinemas generated approximately €200 in revenue on the first day. It was a modest start, due to the difficult COVID-related circumstances at the time, but the business has grown and stabilized since opening.
Delivering an experience worth leaving home for
Part of their technical strategy was to give audiences a different experience from home and from competing cinemas. And key to their marketing strategy was to tell the people of Sicily why they were better.
“We had to communicate the reason to come to our cinema plus explain the network and membership idea after opening,” explained Francesco. “We needed lots of activity in the first year to really get our new concept to market.”
He explained how their marketing evolved to become more sophisticated over time. “We started leafleting the old-fashioned way. Now we are much more specific and advanced with social media,” said Francesco.
Francesco emphasized the need to be consumer-focused. I told my father, “You need to help people understand the advantage they are experiencing. The main purpose of our trailer is to tell people we are different at EPlanet.” And this often includes the technology, which they promote with on-screen trailers. “We tell the audience they will be watching, say 4K. Or that you will see more brilliance on screen. We tailor it to each screen and multiplex. Why not?” he asked.
The family has made the strategy work, with movies such as “Spider-Man” attracting audiences back to theatres. Helena visits every couple of weeks to keep the operational side smooth. They all stay there in summer and spend the Christmas period there – it is the busiest time of year, and they take fifty percent of their annual revenue over the festive season. “We collaborate well,” Francesco told me. “We each come up with different ideas and perspectives and together get a better solution.”
