Major Cineplex Ratchayothin

Major Cineplex Group, founded by Vicha Poolvaraluk in 1995, opened Major Cineplex Ratchayothin in 1998 on Phahonyothin Road in Bangkok’s Chatuchak district, built around what was, at the time, Thailand’s first IMAX cinema. The complex served as Major’s flagship location until 2006, when the company opened Paragon Cineplex at the newly built Siam Paragon; the original IMAX equipment itself relocated to Paragon that year, with a new IMAX Digital installation opening at Ratchayothin in 2010, later upgraded to IMAX with Laser in 2023.

The six-storey complex now runs a 14 to 15-screen multiplex with roughly 4,100 seats, a 38-lane bowling alley operated as Blu-O Rhythm & Bowl, and a WE Fitness Society gym, alongside B2S for books and stationery and a retail arcade of restaurants and specialty shops. The adjacent Major Ratchayothin Market, a wholesale bazaar for inexpensive clothing and accessories that grew up alongside the cinema complex from its 1998 opening, remains a linked but separately operated draw for the same site.

Villa Market anchors grocery within the complex, with Starbucks, Dairy Queen and a cluster of casual Thai and Japanese restaurants carrying the food floor. The property draws primarily from Chatuchak’s dense residential population and students at nearby institutions, a catchment skewing younger and more budget-conscious than Bangkok’s larger luxury malls.

That cinema-first structure, an entertainment complex that added retail around a multiplex rather than a mall that added a cinema as one tenant among many, has kept Major Cineplex Ratchayothin distinct in format from its larger neighbors along the same Phahonyothin corridor, including Central Ladprao and Union Mall, even after nearly three decades of continuous operation. A direct second-floor skywalk connection to Ratchayothin BTS station on the Sukhumvit Line has since given the complex genuine transit access, removing what had originally been a car-and-bus-dependent suburban location.