MANILA (UPDATE) - ABS-CBN Corp., the country's largest media and entertainment company, has partnered with community mall developer CityMall Commercial Centers Inc. to roll out cinemas in the provinces, the two firms announced on Wednesday.

At least 10 cinemas will be opened in the second quarter of next year at CityMall branches in Tagum City-Davao, Victorias City-Negros, Anabu-Imus Cavite, Cotabato City, Bulua-Cagayan de Oro City, Koronodal City, Consolacion-Cebu, Mandalagan-Bacolod City, Sta. Rosa-Nueva Ecija and Dumaguete City.

Under the partnership, ABS-CBN will manage the booking and the food and beverage operations of the mini theaters while CityMall will build and open the cinema infrastructure.

ABS-CBN President Carlo L. Katigbak, Chairman Eugenio Lopez III, and Chief Operating Officer of Star Creatives Malou N. Santos signed the agreement for the broadcast giant while CityMall was represented by Edgar "Injap" Sia, president of parent Double Dragon Properties Inc. and CityMall Commercial Centers Inc. president Ferdinand Sia.

Katigbak said the venture would expand the reach of Star Cinema, ABS-CBN's movie production arm.

"In our partnership with CityMall, I'm happy to say that our movies will now be made available in areas where they weren't available before," Katigbak said.

The 120-seater cinemas will screen movies on the release date, DoubleDragon said, adding it was targeting to build capacity of up to 12,000 cinema seats by 2020.

With the ABS-CBN partnership, Sia said DoubleDragon now has the "three strong corner points" for its mall business -- entertainment, retail and fastfood.

"Having those three groups combined, we think that we'll create a winning formula to make sure that our CityMalls will be the new center of gravity for the communities we've built," said Sia, the founder of roasted chicken fastfood chain Mang Inasal.

Around 100 CityMalls are expected to be operational by 2020, he added.

Star Cinema, recently released the comedy "The Super Parental Guardians," which has grossed P246.9 million as of Monday, five days after its release.

ABS-CBN is making its content available on more platforms. In September, it partnered with Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Smart Communications to make its shows available to stream on some 30 million smartphone and tablet screens.

The company sold 2 million units of its TVplus digital receiver as of November, breaching the full-year sales target.