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An Imax digital projector.

Imax Corp. says it has signed agreements to open three more of its giant-screen theatre systems in Russia.

Imax announced Friday that it will install one system each with existing Russian partner Kinomaxm as well as new partners Monitor and People's Cinema.

The announcement brings to 49 the total number of Imax theatres open or contracted to open in Russia and the former Soviet republics that now make up the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Friday's news comes on the heels of word Thursday that the big-screen theatre company had signed a deal with Bona Film Group for an Imax theatre at the Nongken Bona International Cineplex in Tianjin, China.

That theatre is expected to open in September, bringing the total number of Imax theatres open or contracted to open in China to 226, making it the company's second-biggest market after North America.

Imax said Monitor, one of Russia's top exhibitors, will open one of its theatre systems in July in Anapa, a small city on the northern coast of the Black Sea.

Meanwhile, local independent operator People's Cinema will install Imax at its multiplex in Ulan Ude, capital of the Republic of Buryatia, with the opening scheduled for September, 2013.

And Kinomax will expand its Imax footprint to five theatres by installing an Imax system at a theatre in Samara, Russia's sixth-largest city. That theatre is also scheduled to be ready by September, 2013.

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