SINGAPORE: Filmgarde Cineplexes said on Tuesday (Jan 11) that it is shutting two of its cinemas, as part of a business transformation plan to cope with "changing trends" in the industry.
In a news release, the home-grown cinema operator said it will cease operations at its Bugis+ and Century Square outlets following the expiry of its leases at the two shopping malls.
“Filmgarde will progressively close these outlets for reinstatement works starting in the first quarter of 2022,” it said.
The company added that it will retain all employees at the two cinemas and redeploy them across other divisions, such as its property and hospitality businesses.
Plans for its remaining cinema at Leisure Park Kallang, alongside new business initiatives, will be announced “in due course”, it said.
The company has been reviewing key industry trends for some time now, said Filmgarde’s head of cinema operations Sherman Ong.
“Since 2013, Singapore’s overall cinema attendance has been on a general decline. This is in spite of an increase in the number of screens and seating capacity during the same period,” he added in the news release.
“In fact, from 2017 to 2019, national cinema attendance had already fallen to pre-2010 levels. The onset of COVID-19 only served to accelerate and exacerbate these existing trends.”
Mr Ong noted that the film industry, like many others, has seen tremendous changes amid the digitalisation wave.
The surge in online streaming platforms, he added, has “fundamentally altered global content production and distribution models as well as audience behaviour and media consumption patterns”.
This has impacted cinemas all over the world, including those in Singapore, which have traditionally been reliant on Hollywood and other overseas contents, he said.
“As such, we feel that with the expiry of our leases, it is timely for us to shift our investments to focus on developing new areas of growth within the media industry and to expand our presence in other sectors, so as to keep pace with market demands,” said Mr Ong.
Filmgarde is one of the smaller players in the local cinema industry which has received relentless hits amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This included a four-month closure at the height of the outbreak in 2020 and brief bans on food and beverage consumption last year, while seats in cinema halls remain marked out to leave gaps in between movie-goers.
The ever-changing safety protocols over the course of the pandemic has weighed down on the financials of an industry that thrives on ticket sales and even more on food and beverage revenue, operators told CNA previously.
This comes on top of other challenges such as consumers turning to streaming platforms to fill the need for entertainment while staying at home.
Filmgarde said it was set up in 2007 to offer audiences a new movie-going experience in Singapore. Despite having no prior experience in the film industry, it managed to break "new grounds in the industry in various areas" such as being the "first cineplex in Southeast Asia to be fully fitted with the Immersive AuroMax 3D cinema sound technology".
Despite the streamlining of its cinema operations, the firm said it remains "deeply committed" to supporting the local film industry.
"While cinema operations will no longer be central to our business activities, we believe that cinemas, films and moviemaking are still integral for us and for the development of a rich cultural landscape," Mr Ong said.
“Going forward, we remain committed to supporting Singapore films, local film community projects and outreach programmes through new models and initiatives in keeping with our plan for transformative actions for our legacy cinema operations."
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In a news release, the home-grown cinema operator said it will cease operations at its Bugis+ and Century Square outlets following the expiry of its leases at the two shopping malls.
“Filmgarde will progressively close these outlets for reinstatement works starting in the first quarter of 2022,” it said.
The company added that it will retain all employees at the two cinemas and redeploy them across other divisions, such as its property and hospitality businesses.
Plans for its remaining cinema at Leisure Park Kallang, alongside new business initiatives, will be announced “in due course”, it said.
The company has been reviewing key industry trends for some time now, said Filmgarde’s head of cinema operations Sherman Ong.
“Since 2013, Singapore’s overall cinema attendance has been on a general decline. This is in spite of an increase in the number of screens and seating capacity during the same period,” he added in the news release.
“In fact, from 2017 to 2019, national cinema attendance had already fallen to pre-2010 levels. The onset of COVID-19 only served to accelerate and exacerbate these existing trends.”
Mr Ong noted that the film industry, like many others, has seen tremendous changes amid the digitalisation wave.
The surge in online streaming platforms, he added, has “fundamentally altered global content production and distribution models as well as audience behaviour and media consumption patterns”.
This has impacted cinemas all over the world, including those in Singapore, which have traditionally been reliant on Hollywood and other overseas contents, he said.
“As such, we feel that with the expiry of our leases, it is timely for us to shift our investments to focus on developing new areas of growth within the media industry and to expand our presence in other sectors, so as to keep pace with market demands,” said Mr Ong.
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Filmgarde is one of the smaller players in the local cinema industry which has received relentless hits amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This included a four-month closure at the height of the outbreak in 2020 and brief bans on food and beverage consumption last year, while seats in cinema halls remain marked out to leave gaps in between movie-goers.
The ever-changing safety protocols over the course of the pandemic has weighed down on the financials of an industry that thrives on ticket sales and even more on food and beverage revenue, operators told CNA previously.
This comes on top of other challenges such as consumers turning to streaming platforms to fill the need for entertainment while staying at home.
Filmgarde said it was set up in 2007 to offer audiences a new movie-going experience in Singapore. Despite having no prior experience in the film industry, it managed to break "new grounds in the industry in various areas" such as being the "first cineplex in Southeast Asia to be fully fitted with the Immersive AuroMax 3D cinema sound technology".
Despite the streamlining of its cinema operations, the firm said it remains "deeply committed" to supporting the local film industry.
"While cinema operations will no longer be central to our business activities, we believe that cinemas, films and moviemaking are still integral for us and for the development of a rich cultural landscape," Mr Ong said.
“Going forward, we remain committed to supporting Singapore films, local film community projects and outreach programmes through new models and initiatives in keeping with our plan for transformative actions for our legacy cinema operations."
Continue reading...