56 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN APRIL 2021 in the industry. I did a lot of research between 1999 and 2001 and the journey became one of financing and technology. How do I get the money? How do I set up a cinema?” Chin eventually found “the right people” to connect with in Miami. He explains, “One thing led to the next. I was able to find friends and family members who were willing to invest. I was able to get the land and the location – it was a swamp that nobody wanted – and I made it into, I think, one of the finest Cineplex operations in the world.” He jokes that if MovieTowne were entered in a worldwide beauty pageant, it would win. “Barring some obstacles encountered in the last two years, with the pandemic and so on, we’ve done very well,” says Chin. “I’ve now expanded into Guyana, which is where I was born. Beautiful mall, beautiful place. I’ve got the Hard Rock Café as my tenant. I have Starbucks wanting to come. I have our biggest supermarket chain, Massy. I’m putting together the ingredients to make that a destination.” Not wanting to gloss over the severity of the health crisis, Chin acknowledges that COVID-19 has not been kind to the film industry, nor to cinemas. “We’ve closed down almost a year,” he says. “It’s changed my perspective in terms of what needs to be done to get people in once the situation settles. We really could be quite limited because of issues with COVID and our U.S. distributors not releasing any titles. We also have to deal with technology, with Netflix – all these things we’re taking into consideration when revising the way forward in 2022.” Chin admits he finds it hard to sleep with all the
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