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Starting his work at Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka’s store department, he is now a Language Planner at the
director’s office. He was actively involved in theatre while at Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka too. He also
expressed his view on the topic that I am researching. In his chapter entitled Audien: Sikap dan Harapan
Audien Filem Malaysia in the book Sinema dan Penonton di Malaysia (2003) he wrote that there are a lot
of factors that influence the film and audience. Among them are social, cultural, ideology, arts and trade,
economy and cinema, and audience. These factors have a very significant effect that will make the
audience go to the cinemas and watch the film. He saw that Hollywood has been utilising all these factors
well to set their foot on the global film industry stage. The good side effect was that it promoted Hollywood
films globally and the American culture to be known to the whole world. It also boosts the economy and
makes them always be accepted by anyone around the world. The downside has been that the films
produced mostly lack aesthetics and moral value and are seen as a good way for entertainment and have
created an imbalance in the Malaysian film industry due to the influx of Hollywood films.

The Malaysian audience has been influenced by Hollywood films, with the industry moving
towards a new era of digitalisation and aesthetics. The Malaysian film industry has been influenced by
directors like Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George
Lucas, John Millius, Brian DePalma, Paul Schrader, and Peter Bogdanovich. However, the Malaysian
audience does not seem to be a fan of all these directors but rather selects what they want to watch.

The Malaysian film audience is exposed to outside films from around the world, and there is a
need for film education to celebrate films with high aesthetics. A strong cultural presence in films can also
attract the audience. Middle Cinema, like in India, can help create a balance in the film industry, as it has
been adopted by the Indonesian film industry.

However, there is a lack of a deeper understanding of why the audience overlooks local films. The
article focuses on the commercialization of Hollywood films in Malaysia, but there is little focus on genres,
narratives, and actors. Overall, the Malaysian film industry needs to focus on attracting and retaining a
diverse audience to maintain its success.

In a chapter in a book by Richard Charlton and Paul Butler entitled “Measuring Cinema Audiences”,
Raymond Kent’s Measuring Media Audiences, discusses how to collect data on cinema audiences in the
United Kingdom. Parties that are interested in researching cinema audiences are advertising agencies
appointed by cinemas, cinema exhibitors, and distributors. Usually, they measure the admission,
composition of the audience, films watched by the audience, qualitative research, “film tracking”, a service
to spark interest to watch films at that time, and location analysis to open a new cinema for possible
audiences. Cinemas have been a very attractive place for everyone to come since the 1940s, especially by
being a socialising spot. Cinemas have been a useful advertising tool rather than any type of media at that
time due to their reach towards young audiences with high income. Collecting data on the audience is
much simpler due to ticket sales collection that can be retrieved through cinemas. Weekly calls to cinemas
to update on admission to their cinemas. Advertising agencies have access to confidential data of cinemas
about admissions, due to cinema interest in selling advertising space to the agencies. Several factors that
have influenced attendance at cinemas in the United Kingdom are the release of box office films, school
holidays, television programs, and weather conditions. In finding out more about the audience that goes
to the cinema, surveys have been done by questioning the audience on their frequency, recency and films

International Conference on Local Wisdom of the Malay Archipelago (COLLEGA 2023) Page - 207 -