Why are fewer Singaporeans going to the cinema? It's not about cost but value

I love, love, love watching a movie in the cinemas for the same reasons many people probably can’t stand it. I get tsk-tsked if I check my phone, I can’t pause the movie to reply a text or rewind it if I miss the dialogue, and I can’t watch any show whenever I want. I have to carve out a good two hours at least for the whole shebang – ahead of time and at the cinema’s convenience. It’s rarely a last-minute addition to the day, mindlessly shoved into some spare time before bed.

In the dark theatre, nothing matters but the story on screen. Not your boss’s email nor your pinging family group chat. (Well, that’s the hope.) You get to be transported to another world – an experience that’s the closest thing I have to magic – and I have yet to find another luxury that’s equally affordable and accessible. True luxury in life is, after all, being able to explore what matters to you. 

So I sympathise with any cinemagoer who frequents Cathay Cineplexes in AMK Hub and feels the loss with the cinema’s impending end of operations on Jun 30. 

On CNA’s Facebook post about the news on Thursday (Jun 20), several commenters lamented the rising cost of a movie ticket compared with the more value-for-money streaming service subscription fee, as well as the ease of catching movies via such services instead. I get it – I’m more than a streaming enthusiast, I’m a fan of practicality.

But amid the sea of cynicism about the future of cinemas, I found a response that may have inadvertently captured the crux of why there have been fewer cinema attendees in Singapore. 

One netizen wrote: “People still watch cinemas when projectors (are) as cheap as S$100 (and) can have cinema in bedroom?” And in response, another countered, “Then you eat outside for what, when there’s a kitchen and dining table at home?”

The latter line debunked my previously firmly held belief that cost and convenience were the root cause of declining cinemagoers. It was never entirely about cost – many Singaporeans wouldn’t think twice paying S$15 for a meal, but spending the same amount on a single movie ticket would be daylight robbery. 

Neither was it really about convenience – not when many Singaporeans would gladly queue, or pay others to queue, for hours for a single chance to buy their favourite artiste’s concert tickets, or happily suffer the waiting time at the immigration checkpoints just for the quintessential eat-play-massage Johor Bahru experience. (Cannot relate. Could never be me.) 

Moreover, concerns of cost and convenience are not unique to Singapore, even though our pragmatism may mean we place more emphasis on these factors as the reasons we do anything at all.

Rather, we simply don’t value the cinema-going experience. And the value of something, as anyone who has purchased literally anything will tell you, is not the same as its cost. 

COVID KILLED THE CINEMA? 

To be fair, cinema attendance wasn’t always so abysmal. There were a record 22.1 million cinema attendees in 2011, according to data by the Singapore Film Commission that dates back to 1998.

Even though that figure fell back to around 19 million towards the end of that decade, Singapore continued to have one of the world’s highest per capita attendance rates. Then the pandemic hit, plunging attendees to a total of 4.7 million in 2020 due to the closure of cinemas and tightened restrictions. And while cinema attendance has since recovered to 10 million in 2023, it's still a far cry from the heyday of Singapore’s cinemas.

Streaming services like Netflix, already changing consumption habits in the late 2010s, also exacerbated cinema’s downfall. The variety of shows available, the ease of pausing and restarting a movie at our own pace, and the subscription fee per month – sometimes less than the price of a movie ticket – provided plenty of reasons not to return to physical cinemas.

AMK Hub’s Cathay Cineplexes isn’t the only casualty. Cathay Cineplex at Cineleisure Orchard closed in June last year, while its Parkway Parade outlet ceased operations months later in August. Filmgarde Cineplexes shut two of its three cinemas in 2022. And WE Cinemas – which was rebranded from Eng Wah Cinemas in 2010 and was once the fourth biggest cinema operator here after Golden Village, Cathay and Shaw – has just one cinema left in Clementi.

And yet, I see these external factors – valid as they may be – as mere catalysts in the decline of cinema attendance and appreciation.

In my view, the real cause is that we tend to consume movies like fast food: We’re just looking for a quick and filling experience, not necessarily one that’s satisfying. 

PRIORITIES AND PREFERENCES

For many so-called practical Singaporeans, going to the cinemas is an unnecessary indulgence. It’s the fat we trim when we have to tighten our purse strings, one of the first few items to be culled from our monthly expenditure in our quest for FIRE. As long as we still get to watch the movie in the end, who cares where and how we watch it? 

Personally, I choose to cut out ridiculous S$30 (or even S$20) brunch outings and refuse to fork out a kidney for my gym membership, if only so I can escape to a movie showing whenever I feel like it. I usually emerge from a cinema hall so mentally stimulated, excited to spend the next 10 hours watching YouTube essays about the movie’s set design or reading 5,000-word film critiques about a particular scene – even if the movie didn’t quite live up to the hype. 

I still go down these rabbit holes if I watch the movie at home, which I do very often. But admittedly, my decision depends on the movie – I tend to save the action flicks and psychological thrillers for the laptop, and prefer to see the emotional tear-jerkers on the big screen. 

When I caught Oscar-nominated Past Lives on my internet browser after missing it in theatres, I could only sense muted emotions, even though I enjoyed the storyline. Instead of being immersed in the protagonist’s inner war, torn between devotion to the life she’s built and a longing for part of her history, I simply made out a half-hearted, fleeting semblance of melancholy. Truly, some films demand to be seen and felt in the cinema. 

Even if I had a world class surround sound system at home, I wouldn't be able to replicate the cinema experience. Going to the cinema is also, ultimately, about having a third place – a place to relax and hang out beyond the workplace or the private, domestic space of one's home.

Understandably, the things I prioritise might be what others forgo, and vice versa. But Singapore’s highly efficient and pragmatic culture seeps into every aspect, as do our pretty homogeneous lifestyle preferences and priorities – just look at our cookie-cutter malls. So we might, in fact, eventually have one or two cinema halls left in Singapore. 

In the meantime, the simple joy of going to the cinema is still there for the taking. It would be regrettable if we denied ourselves life's little luxuries that we can afford, but it would be a greater shame if the loss is one we later realise we can’t afford.