Steady ahead
Cinemas continue to be a place for many to find solace.
SITTING for two hours or so in an airconditioned, darkened hall and in comfortable seats, checking out the latest fare on the big-screen, has always been a popular thing to do for Malaysians.
But for a while, it looked like coronavirus might put an end to our favourite pastime.
Luckily, audiences – especially in Asia – are slowly returning to the cinemas.
It was reported last week that in Japan, more than 3.4 million people went to the cinema to watch the anime feature Demon Slayer The Movie: Infinite Train on its opening weekend. This is a positive sign indeed, especially since there are scary figures of audience attendance dipping all over the world due to the pandemic.
In Malaysia, cinemas restarted their operations on July 1 after the movement control order (MCO), and the movies showcased since then have been on a somewhat regular basis even though more than a few Hollywood titles keep getting postponed.
While local film exhibitors are voicing concern over the lack of steady content, there have been some on the timetable, including the highly anticipated Hollywood film Tenet, and a lot more Asian titles like Vanguard, Jiang Ziya: Legend Of Deification, Steel Rain 2: Summit, Deliver Us From Evil, BTS: Break The Silence and Train To Busan: Peninsula. There have been a couple of local films as well, namely Takut Ke Tak and Roh.
Movies that were released on streaming sites in the United States, opened on the big screen here like Mulan, Antebellum and Bill & Ted: Face The Music.
“The week of Peninsula’s opening (July
16) was one of the biggest opening weeks we’ve had, post-MCO, even in comparison with titles like Tenet and Mulan. We recorded a 70% jump in admissions in the opening week of Peninsula, compared with the previous week before,” Koh Mei Lee, chief executive officer of Golden Screen Cinemas, said of the first two months of business after cinema reopened.
“It is also interesting to note that Tenet and Mulan performed especially well at our luxury cinema Aurum Theatre in The Gardens Mall, driving weekly admissions 45% higher than pre-Covid in the first week of opening.”
Likewise, Mohit Bhargava, the general manager of sales and marketing for TGV Cinemas, shared: “We have seen guests return for blockbuster films. Peninsula and Christopher Nolan’s Tenet racked up a total box office of RM9.3mil and RM5.2mil respectively thus far, which indicates that customers are returning to the cinemas when there’s good content.”
Avid cinema-goer Muhammad Affiq said he will not give up watching movies on the big-screen. “I love going to the movies with my friends after work. Then, at dinner, after the movie, we would kind of review the film together.
“Even amid the pandemic, that has not changed. I still go to the movies now with my group of friends. We think cinemas are pretty safe,” Affiq said.
In a recent AFP report, it is stated that, to date, no transmission has been linked to a movie theatre in the United States or elsewhere.
Koh attested: “It is understandable that there might be reservations about being in an enclosed space for a duration of time during this pandemic. However, it is noteworthy to point out that, to date, there has not been any cluster, outbreak or transmission of Covid-19 which can be attributed to cinemas or movie theatres here in Malaysia or globally. This is despite the millions of visits by moviegoers globally to cinemas which have been open throughout the pandemic or reopened safely since the first wave.”
Uncertain times
Nonetheless, there is no denying that the industry has taken a hit.
Even before the conditional MCO were put in effect on Oct 14, one of the largest cinema chain operators in Malaysia closed its doors at 17 locations nationwide.
MBO Cinemas put up a notice on its website (Oct 12) that some of its cinemas in Melaka, Perak and Johor would be closed until further notice. Meanwhile five locations were shuttered in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, and one in Sabah, due to the conditional MCO. Only four MBO Cinemas are operating at this point of time.
TGV’s Mohit said: “Our records indicate that the industry has already seen a mix of temporary or permanent closure of 19 cinemas, a total of 105 halls nationwide.
“By end of this year, we estimate 50 cinemas, and a total of 300 screens to follow.
“Deteriorating business conditions have placed several jobs at risk; we estimate approximately 4,000 job losses in the cinema industry alone.”
According to him, the revenue for cinemas in Malaysia has declined by 90% compared to last year for the same period, and will see further decrease.
“We are in active dialogue with government authorities and remain hopeful for assistance from the government to recover from this crisis, with whom we are ever ready to engage, discuss and collaborate as we work towards a sustained recovery for the industry,” he shared.
GSC’s Koh said the pandemic has literally crippled the cinema industry, with the box office declining by more than 80% compared to last year.
She stated: “Although cinemas reopened in July, cinemas in the third quarter registered a drop of 88% in box office compared with 2019 because of minimal content with the exception of a few major movies like Peninsula, Tenet and Mulan.
“For the last quarter we expect the box office to deteriorate further to 95% of 2019, as there are no big movies until Wonder Woman 1984 and Soul on Dec 25, provided both are released as scheduled. Furthermore with the second round of cinema closures during this conditional MCO, cinemas will be pushed deeper into the red.”
Koh added: “The industry is incurring losses of RM1.3mil a day, which translates to a total of loss of RM475mil in 2020, compared with a profit of RM102mil in 2019. By end of this year, 30% of the total cinema screens in the country are expected to close.”
Film exhibitors are hoping for support from the government to get through the pandemic, Koh said, such as “screen subsidies, exemption of entertainment tax up to 2021, and loan assistance from National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana).”
Risky business
While the customers have returned, they are still cautious, observed Koh.
She explained: “The retail industry has recovered 50% to 80% of their capacity after the MCO, but our ticket sales is merely 12% of 2019. This is also largely due to the fact that we have minimal content to screen due to the postponement of major blockbuster movies to 2021.”
Certainly the cinema experience has changed as there is strict standard operating procedure (SOP) to adhere to – cinema hall’s capacity is halved to 50% to ensure physical distancing, there’s frequent sterilisation of the venue, and temperature checks at the entrance; patrons wear masks at all times except when eating or drinking, keep a safe distance from one another, and book tickets online to reduce contact.
One moviegoer Lee Ying Hwei sees the new movie watching etiquette as a good thing: “It is definitely more spacious and comfortable. As a result of the SOP, the hall has a quieter environment. That’s a bonus point!”
However, Lee – who is in public relations field – said it is “missing the feeling of communal-watching a little”.
She noted: “When I was watching Tenet, everything was happening so fast, that I was trying to get my friend’s attention – who’s seated one space away – to ask her what’s going on in a scene, and in the process missed even more details!”
At the same time, she is a little worried. “I’m reassured by the social distancing guidelines and SOP implemented within the vicinity of the cinema. But I am a little wary to be out in the public space now. I won’t go unless it’s a movie title that I cannot resist.”
Meanwhile, Shamala Naidu, 39, has yet to go back to cinemas and is not planning to anytime soon.
The office executive said: “There hasn’t been any compelling reason for me to head back to the cinema in the recent days. Not even Mulan. I guess it is because of the news of the recent spike in the Covid-19 cases throughout Malaysia.
“There really is no way of telling if any place is safe from the virus, and I don’t want to take the risk by being in a closed space with poor ventilation for over two hours.
“Movie experience has been replaced by TV-series-in-bed experience over the last few months.
“It is not the same, I know. Nothing beats the excitement of munching on popcorns and anticipating the show that will unravel on the big screen.
“I feel bad for the cinema operators because I know I’m not the only one who is holding back from heading to the movie theatres, but there are just some risks that is not worth taking. Watching movies at the cinema is one of them.”
Seating situation
With some audiences opting out of going to the cinemas completely and implementation of the conditional MCO in certain places in Malaysia, things are not looking good.
When asked what is the impact of a second temporary closure of cinema, especially in the major markets, Mohit said: “Since cinemas reopened on July 1 after a full three months’ closure, we have already endured deep revenue losses over that period, and whilst the industry had shown some signs of recovery, the most recent conditional MCO puts a major strain on our operations.
“Closing and reopening businesses like cinemas is extremely cumbersome, costly, and disruptive to our industry, suppliers and customers.”
All cinema operators are taking steps to ensure the safety of cinema-goers by investing in accordance to the SOP, but this is costing them money.
On top of that, the mandatory spacing between every seat has led to a cinema hall operating at only half capacity.
According to Koh, this has also made some patrons who would want to go to cinema, skip the activity as they have to sit apart from their friends, spouses or family members.
Koh explained that before the new wave of Covid-19 cases hit Malaysia again, film exhibitors with Malaysian National Film Development Corporation (Finas) were going to discuss the matter with the National Security Council (MKN) and the Health Ministry (KKM) to allow members from the same household to sit together, which would help the industry.
She said: “However, with the third wave of the pandemic and our cinemas in the Klang Valley and Sabah now closed again, we are once again put in a difficult situation to negotiate for an arrangement similar to that of restaurants and public transportations.”
Finas chief executive officer Ahmad Idham Ahmad Nadzri concurred: “We found that 60% of cinema-goers prefer sitting together, and we were ready to discuss on the seating arrangements with MKN, MOH and film exhibitors at the end of September.
“The plan was to keep one seat empty in between for three months, and then we see the data and make the changes accordingly, allowing couple seats and people from the same house to sit together.
“It’s just that now, there’s a hiccup because the cases have been on the rise of late. That is a big issue. So, we have to re-look at the timing of this.”
Cinema won’t die
Filmmaker Adrian Teh understands that it would take time for cinema-goers to regain the confidence of going to the cinemas once again, when there is no proven vaccine yet.
“But if you look at China, the numbers in China’s box-office is somewhat returning to normal,” said Teh, who directed Paskal: The Movie and Wira.
“In Malaysia, opening the cinemas and placing the SOP were the right moves. We
cannot be stagnant while the pandemic is happening, we have to keep moving while protecting ourselves. It is going to take time to recover in terms of cinema box office, but we are doing it right.”
Luckily, too, not everyone shares that same fear of going to catch movies on the big screen.
Retired journalist and StarLifestyle’s film critic, Davin Arul, 59 said he has been to cinemas at least 10 times since they reopened. He said he would continue to go after the conditional MCO ends.
“I’m happy with the measures put in place at all the halls I visited – GSC, TGV, MBO and mmCineplexes.
“I actually feel safer in the cinema watching zombie hordes than being out there in the malls with the shambling masses that don’t quite get the concept of social distancing,” he said.
“My only complaint is that certain cineplexes closed off some of their washrooms, forcing us to walk a really long distance to use the facilities. If all or most of your halls are operational, then the toilets should be open too.
“Still, moviegoing continues to be a satisfying pastime for me, and the cinema is still a reliable sanctuary, and that’s why I’ll keep going.”
In a Bernama article, Japan-based Malaysian filmmaker Lim Kah Kai said people are realising the importance of cinemas and the film industry in their lives now.
“(In Japan) dreams are blossoming again after a period in the doldrums, and people are (beginning) to enjoy watching films in the cinemas. I think this is the same trend in China, the US and Europe with the reopening of cinemas after a period of lockdown due to Covid-19,” Lim said.
Elsewhere, Hollywood director Ron Howard told Deadline.com that he doesn’t think theatrical moviegoing experience is going to disappear. However, Howard added, the content on the big screen might change, whereby more than just movies will play in multiplexes.
He elaborated: “We’ve already seen trends toward home entertainment. I feel it in my own viewing habit.
“The lines between what’s a movie and what’s a television show are blurring anyway. But I think that theatres and distributors and platforms are going to be looking to offering audiences those kinds of shared experiences, which build fan bases.
“The multiplexes are going to become a little bit like Broadway in a way,” Howard continued.
“That’s where the expensive projects go. It’s to get as many people in there to create memorable events.”
Koh is similarly optimistic that cinemas will remain in some form.
She said: “While movie studios will continue to explore new ways to reach out to audiences in this new normal, whether through home entertainment or streaming services, we do believe that movie theatres and cinemas will always provide an experience that cannot be replicated at home with private sound and TV systems.
“There is no replacement for the immersion of seeing a movie in a big darkened hall with others, all partaking in the same shared experience.”
WHEN it comes to movies, what constitutes “scary”? The answer is subjective, obviously. Horror movies from the 1930s are cool, but their quaintness keeps them from freaking me out. I’m a huge fan of Rear Window, Get Out and Silence Of The Lambs, but they’re about tension, not scares.
Although I have a weakness for the goofball Final Destination series, slasher movies have never done it for me – too many cat-screaming-in-a-tree fake shocks and random spurts of blood. I like humour and horror together, but the
Scream movies don’t frighten me; neither does the Japanese Audition, which is squirmier than it is frightening.
I like ghost stories such as Thehe Others, Others but to creep me out, I suspect they need an element of existential dread that connects them to the real world.
That eliminates a lot of titles – there are so many good, scary-ish movies that you have to – but there’s still so much to scream about.
The movie probably has some sort of monster, right? But the monster is most effective if, in some way, it is us.
That’s the case with Alien, which I’ve seen, and been scared by, many times. And it’ss true of favourites that did not quite make my list: Night Of Th he
Living Dead, a zombie movie but also a man’s-inhumanity-to-man movie; Train To
Busan, the Korean thriller in which a zombie outbreak takes high-speed rail from town to town, fueled by human selfishness;
Rosemary’s Baby, which is powerful because, like the toxic stew of Nextdoor.com, it’s driven by curiosity about what neighbours are doing when their door is closed.
That sort of fear is in all of what I’d call the best scary movies: There is something around the corner and it’s awful. The best horror movies use suspense, warning us about the possibility of the awful thing, but then upend our expectations.
Train To Busan, for instance, seems to end several times, eliminating major characters and changing settings as swiftly as TV’s Homeland used to do, where you’d think, “How are the writers going to get out of this situation?” That could fall apart fast but when it’s done well, as in
Busan, it is delirious fun.
It’s possible to do horror in the great wide open – The Blair Witch Project proved that in a forest – but tight spaces are a better bet. Just about everyone can be creeped out by a confined space, like the remote lab in The Thing, and it gets even worse when most of the fun happens in the dark.
Another common kink, in most horror and in my faves, is the shot from the bad guy’s point of view.
John Carpenter is credited with the best use of this tactic in Halloween, which makes us identify with the killer. (Carpenter gets bonus points for composing that eerily simple music, which plays like an homage to the famous
Exorcist score.)
If we’re looking at mayhem through the killer’s eyes, whose side are we on? Forget the neighbours, do we even know what we are capable of ourselves?
If you believe these dandy scary movies below, we’re capable of almost anything.
Alien (1979)
landed with a killer tagline: “In space, no one can hear you scream.”
The Thing (1982)
Carpenter’s remake takes an Alien- like situation – a bunch of researchers trapped in a remote place (Antarctica) – and introduces an element of Invasion Of The Body
Snatchers, with a disgusting creature that assumes the identity of the person it devours. Claustrophobia? Inventive gore? Even your friends are your enemies? This one has it all.
The Exorcist (1973)
The grim classic shares themes with Rosemary’s Baby, where it’s also impossible to trust one’s own family members to escape the devil’s grasp, but it seems much more unsettling. Maybe because the strong religious themes, which aren’t a big deal in
Rosemary, make it easier to believe in the dark side?
Diabolique (1955)
I’ve sung the praises of Henri-Georges Clouzot, whose Le Corbeau and The Wages Of Fear are masterpieces, too, but his bestknown movie is this efficient chiller. It gets old-school fear – and one very big shock – out of a twisty menage-a-murder: a headmaster, his wife and his mistress. There’s the possibility of the supernatural in Diabolique (aka The Devils), but it’s really about whether we can trust anyone. “We are monsters,” says one of the three title characters. “I don’t like monsters.”
Halloween (1978)
Unlike the slasher movies that followed in its bloody wake, Halloween’s intensity comes from having a memorable killer, Michael Myers, and potential victim, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) – who, once again, failed to vanquish her nemesis in the 2018 entry in the franchise, also called Halloween. She’ll have two more shots in a pair of movies announced for 2021 and 2022.
The Descent (2005)
Claustrophobia is on the menu
from thhe beginning when six women ddescend into a cave. Soon, they have more to worry about than getting stuck in a crevice or losing their lanterns. Neil Marshall (who also made the excellent Dog Soldiers) works by sly misdirection: just when we think one adventurer is out of a tight spot, she’s stuck in a worse one. And the moment they think they’ve found an escape is the moment Marshall positions some sort of creepy, colour-drained mole creature right behind them.
Let The Right One In 2008)
So much is unnerving abbout this Swedish vampiire movie: that the most viciousvi (but oddly sympathetic) character is a little girl, that its scariest scene takes place in the brightly lit sterility of a swimming pool and that, like all the best horror movies (as well as, you know, the world), we brought all the horrifying stuff on ourselves. – Star Tribune (Minneapolis)/Tribune News Service