![]() Eventually, Esparza partnered with a Taiwanese bank that saw the opportunity in engaging with an immigrant community. It wasn’t hard to make the case that these communities were underserved in terms of cinema screens finding lenders willing to put up the money, however, was to emerge as the next significant challenge for the nascent circuit. “That was the only way for me to get the land and make the case that a movie theater would be successful in a Latino working-class community.”Īccording to the MPAA’s annual moviegoing statistics report (THEME), Hispanic moviegoers are the leading demographic group when it comes to moviegoing frequency in the United States. But by betting on up-and-coming Latino-dominant neighborhoods, Esparza had a hard time finding the right partner to help him realize the vision. The initial barrier to entry came with finding a developer had the first Maya site been earmarked for a suburban shopping mall, it wouldn’t have been much of a challenge to get it off the ground. What Esparza didn’t anticipate, however, was that it would take him half a decade to open his first location. ![]() “By going into exhibition, my goal was to reinvest back into the type of communities that I grew up in.” “I knew that there was a love of movies and a tremendous appetite and appreciation for movies across underrepresented communities in the U.S., partly because of my own history and experience with the movies that I produced,” Esparza tells Boxoffice. At the turn of the 21st century he decided to take matters into his own hands by founding Maya Cinemas, a company dedicated to bringing state-of-the-art cinemas to underserved, Latino-dominant communities across the United States. Esparza never doubted there would be a big audience for his productions it was finding venues to play his films that would prove most challenging. “My interests have always centered on creating entertainment and getting that content to an audience,” says the Mexican American producer of Selena (1997). ![]() Today this mission continues.An accomplished movie producer and entertainment executive, Moctesuma Esparza describes his decision to enter the exhibition business in very simple terms. Moctesuma then set out to create beautiful movie theaters that could be a cornerstone for generations to come. After identifying the right community, he purchased land so that he would be vested. Moctesuma embarked on a mission to target Latino communities that were dramatically underserved with cinemas. While on this venture he began to notice that there were no cinemas in Mexican-American populated urban areas despite the fact that the Latino community has consistently been the highest per capita patronage of cinema. During this time, Moctesuma brought these films on multi-city premier tours hoping to expose his films to a wide audience in an attempt to show them to Mexican-American audiences. In his tenure, Moctesuma produced motion pictures such as Selena, Gettysburg and the Milagro Beanfield War, to name just a few. These rich childhood memories led Moctesuma to a long career as a Hollywood film producer. ![]() This belief started for Moctesuma when he was a child in Boyle Heights during the explosion of American cinema and, in particular, Mexican-American cinema. Maya theaters offers first-run Hollywood movies in high-end cinemas focused on quality of design, state-of-the-art film presentation technology, and providing first-rate entertainment with superior customer service.įor Maya’s founder Moctesuma Esparza, the cinema experience is a time to spend with family and friends while enjoying the richest and most immersive art form ever created. Today this vision has expanded to Bakersfield, Pittsburg, Fresno and Delano, CA with continuing expansion plans in California and beyond. In 2003 Moctesuma’s vision was realized with the launch of the first Maya Cinema in Salinas, CA. Maya’s founder, Moctesuma Esparza combines his lifelong love of film, his vast experience as a film producer and pioneer and entertainment business developer in his pursuit of creating cornerstone movie theaters in communities lacking first run film entertainment options. Maya Cinemas was chartered in 2000 with a mission to develop, build, own and operate modern, first-run, megaplex movie theaters in underserved, family oriented, Latino-dominant communities. Maya Cinemas along with their follow honorees will participate in Hispanic Lifestyle’s BizCon 2018taking place on Jat the Ontario Airport Hotel and Conference Center. Maya Cinemas a megaplex movie theaters have been selected as a Hispanic Lifestyle 2018 Survived and Thrived Business Honoree. ![]()
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