Cathay Cineplexes is a cinema chain established in 1939 in Singapore. The Cineplexes started as Cathay Cinema as Singapore's first air-conditioned cinema and first to screen American and British films in Singapore. The company is owned and operated by Singapore-listed media conglomerate mm2 Entertainment. [1]
The first Cathay Cinema was located at the Cathay Building on 2 Handy Road, Singapore. It was the first air-conditioned cinema building in Singapore, opening on 3 October 1939 with the film The Four Feathers. [2] The cinema had a seating capacity of 1,321 and ancillary spaces such as a women's lounge and a spacious lounge bar. [3] The theatre was leased to and operated by Associated Theatres Ltd, but was later seconded by the colonial government and Malayan Broadcasting Corporation during WWII. The cinema was reopened in September 1945 when the Cathay Organisation regained full control.
Cathay became a household name in Singapore and Malaysia by the 1970s, where the chain owned and operated 75 cinemas at its peak. [4] This included Singapore's only open-air drive-in cinema, the Jurong Drive-in, which opened on 14 July 1971. [5] The drive-in cinema could accommodate 900 cars and an additional 300 people in its walk-in gallery. It was located on Yuan Ching Road, Jurong, next to the Japanese Garden. The Jurong Drive-in would close on 30 September 1985.[ citation needed ]
On 24 November 2017, mm2 Asia Ltd acquired the Singapore business operations operated by Cathay Cineplexes. [6] [7] mm2 Asia had earlier acquired Cathay's Malaysian cinema operations in September 2015. [8] The two cinemas acquired were Cathay Cineplex Damansara at e@Curve in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, and Cathay Cineplex City Square at Johor Bahru City Square. The cinema chain added 3 more cineplexes in 2015, with the acquisition of Mega Cinemas Management Sdn Bhd's sites in Prai, Langkawi and Bertam. [9] In 2016, mm2 Asia further acquired 13 cinemas in Malaysia from Lotus Fivestar Cinemas. [10]
In June 2017, mm2 Asia entered into an agreement to acquire the 50% stake of Golden Village Multiplex cinema business in Singapore, held by Australia's Village Cinemas. [11] However the deal was rejected by Orange Sky Golden Harvest Entertainment (Holdings) the owner of the other half-share of the Singapore business. [12] In November of that same year (2017), mm2 Asia announced its intentions to acquire all of Cathay Cineplexes' Singapore cinema operations. [13] In December 2020, mm2 Asia announced that it was in talks with Golden Village Singapore for a possible merger of its cinema businesses. The deal would be subject to approval from the shareholders of both mm2 Asia and Orange Sky Golden Harvest, as well as the Singapore Exchange, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore. [14]
mm2 Asia is the only cinema operator with operations in Singapore and Malaysia, trading under the Cathay Cineplexes and mmCineplexes brands respectively. [15]
The COVID-19 pandemic affected the movie production and cinema businesses, and Cathay Cineplexes was ordered to close for several months in 2020, before reopening at reduced capacities.
In August 2021, mm2 Asia entered into a sale and purchase agreement with Kingsmead Properties to sell its cinema business. [16] The sale did not go through due to the "uncertainty arounds the Omicron variant dampening investor's appetites", as announced by Kingsmead in January 2022. [17]
In June 2022, Cathay Cineplexes announced that it would be ceasing operations at its Handy Road outlet on 26 June 2022. [18] The cinema space was taken over by independent cinema operator The Projector as Projector X: Picturehouse. [19] Cathay Cineplexes closed its Cineleisure Orchard outlet on 30 June 2023, [20] and its Parkway Parade outlet on 27 August 2023. [21] However the company stated that the closures were part of its efforts to "right-size" its cinema operations, as it was also opening a new cinema in Century Square at Tampines in the fourth quarter of 2023. [22]
Cathay Cineplexes currently operates 43 screens in 6 locations in Singapore. [23]
mmCineplexes currently operates 90 screenings in 12 locations in Malaysia. [25]
Cathay CineHome is a direct-to-consumer rental streaming service for video-on-demand (VOD) by Cathay Cineplexes and mm2 Entertainment. The service does not charge a subscription fee; users pay for only what they watch. Cathay CineHome is available to use on most devices, e.g. mobiles, tablets, computers, media boxes and smart tvs on iOS and Android systems.
Titles rented will be available for unlimited play for 14 days. [26]
Johor Bahru City Square is a shopping centre and office building close to the Johor–Singapore Causeway which borders the two countries in Wong Ah Fook Street, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia.
Jurong East is a planning area and residential town situated in the West Region of Singapore. It borders Jurong West and Boon Lay to the west, Clementi to the east, Tengah and Bukit Batok to the north and Selat Jurong to the south.
Parkway Parade is a suburban shopping centre in Marine Parade, Singapore. Officially opened in March 1984, it has a 17-floor office tower and a seven-storey shopping mall with a basement. Developed by Parkway Holdings, the company sold the building to Asia Pacific Investment Company in 2000. The mall is managed by Lendlease.
Golden Village is a cinema operator based in Singapore, fully owned by Orange Sky Golden Harvest of Hong Kong. It was initially set up as a 50:50 joint venture between Golden Harvest and Village Roadshow of Australia. It is the largest cinema chain in Singapore, operating 12 multiplexes and Cineplexes in the country. It joined hands to open a cinema at Great World City, GV Grand. Started in 1992, it opened Asia's first multiplex, the Yishun 10 multiplex. The cinema has the extensive management, operational and marketing skills of Village, as well as broad depth of experience of Golden Harvest in both film distribution and production across Asia.
Cathay Organisation Holdings Limited is one of Singapore's leisure and entertainment groups. It has the first THX cinema hall and digital cinema in Singapore. The group has operations in Singapore and Malaysia.
Cathay Cineleisure Orchard is an urban mall located at 8 Grange Road, Singapore. The building is managed by Cathay Organisation under its subsidiary company of Cathay Cineleisure International.
The Cathay Building was opened in 1939 by Dato Loke Wan Tho as the headquarters for the British Malaya Broadcasting Corporation. Located at 2 Handy Road in the Museum Planning Area of Singapore, the building was most known for its air-conditioned theatre known as the Cathay Cinema, then a technological marvel and the first to be built in Singapore. Cathay Building was the first skyscraper in Singapore and tallest building in Southeast Asia at that time. It was demolished in 2003.
This article shows the notable future developments in Singapore. Most of them are currently under construction with most to be completed within the next five years.
AMK Hub is a suburban shopping mall located in Ang Mo Kio, within the North-East Region of Singapore. It is connected to Ang Mo Kio Bus Interchange which is linked to Ang Mo Kio MRT station via an underpass. The shopping mall has 48,250 square metres of gross floor area and 350,000 square feet (33,000 m2) of retail space.
Eng Wah Global, formerly Eng Wah Organisation and Eng Wah Theatres Organisation, is a Singaporean company spans entertainment, properties, hospitality, and lifestyle in Singapore and Malaysia.
Paradise Group Holdings Pte Ltd is a Singapore-based restaurant group incorporated in 2002 by Eldwin Chua, and Edlan Chua. The company's restaurants serve a variety of Chinese cuisine. Their brands include Seafood Paradise, Paradise Inn, Taste Paradise, Paradise Dynasty, KungFu Paradise, Paradise Pavilion, One Paradise and Canton Paradise. In 2015 the company operates restaurants are currently in Singapore and Malaysia, Indonesia and China.
JCube was a shopping centre located in Jurong East, Singapore that operated from 2 April 2012 to 6 August 2023. It used to house an Olympic-size ice rink and Singapore's first IMAX theatre in the suburbs. It was built on the former site of the Jurong Entertainment Centre.
Jem is a suburban mall in Jurong East, Singapore. The mall is directly connected to Jurong East MRT station and close to Jurong East Bus Interchange. It is also located adjacent to another mall called Westgate.
mm2 Entertainment is a regional film studio, production and distribution company, headquartered in Singapore. In Singapore, it is best known for local movies such as the Ah Boys to Men, The Lion Men and Long Long Time Ago series. The studio has a presence in Hong Kong, Taipei, Shanghai, Beijing and the USA.
The Projector is an independent cinema in Singapore. Founded in 2014, it specializes in arts-house films and also screens mainstream movies and is a venue for live events such as stand-up comedy shows.
The following lists events that happened during 2023 in the Republic of Singapore.
Love ... and Other Bad Habits is a 2013 Singaporean romantic drama film directed by Lee Thean-jeen. It is Singapore’s first telemovie to be shown in cinemas and the first local theatrically released film to have an alternative ending screened at different locations. Distributed by Cathay-Keris Films, the film stars Zoe Tay, Chen Hanwei, George Young, Carmen Soo, Ian Fang, Kimberly Chia and Kym Ng.
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