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cinemas celebrated by all ethnicities in Malaysia and have never been dominated by one ethnicity in their
audience reception.

In summary, cinemas in Kuala Lumpur cater to different demographics and audiences, with façade
differences and word of mouth being effective marketing tools.

Analysis

All this while, the One Stop Centre has been on and running through city centres back then, and
shopping malls today. The town has become a One Stop Centre for everyone that is visiting. Back then in
the city, the cinema, restaurants, boutiques, arcades, fun fairs, bus stations, and a lot of buildings served
as an escape and public convenience for the masses in one town and scattered across the whole country.
However, in my observation, it has become much closer and more compact nowadays, being put together
under one roof for the masses. The scattered One Stop Center for everyone in the town today, because
these days, shopping malls are built in a high volume, sometimes along with a residential above them. As
far as I am concerned, I discovered that the cinema has been put under one entertainment roof, or as a
One Stop Centre when Sungei Wang Plaza was opened. This was the moment when a much closer,
compact, One Stop Centre entertainment building existed for the first time in that period.

Based on my analysis I found out that cinema-going back then was different. Public transportation
has been an important mode of transport, especially the bus. Everyone has a very similar interest in certain
film directors or types of films and they show their enthusiasm by participating in the film dialogues and
songs. Nowadays, public transport is no longer a famous option for everyone. Many people travel in their
private vehicles and occasionally use public transport for their everyday lives which seems as much more
efficient and time-effective.

The enthusiasm of the cinema-goers is different too than back then. These can be seen in Malay
and Indian cinema-goers when Van der Heide (2002) observes that the Malays sang to P. Ramlee’s Ali Baba
Bujang Lapok (1961) and Frymus (2022) describes that cinemas with Indian audiences prepare songbooks
for their audience to singalong. The cinemas also cater for films according to their audiences. Nowadays,
we can hardly see any audience participation or such enthusiasm in our daily lives. The closest thing that
I can see is when everyone is wearing complete classical Malay attire when watching Mat Kilau (2022) and
pink outfits when watching Barbie (2023).

Frymus (2022) found that cinemas in ethnic areas, like Indian-majority neighbourhoods, typically
showcase Indian films. However, cinemas today have become more inclusive, especially in famous chains.
Audiences can watch concert recordings, live football, private screenings, and movie launches. Smaller
cinemas in small towns often show films catering to specific groups based on genres or languages, but not
as many as before.

Films that were expected to be popular at that time were mostly released during the Hari Raya
celebration. This is due to it being a holiday break, and everyone has time to go and add cinemas to their
list of activities to socialise. As I remember from a lecture with Professor A. Razak in a class on 12th June
2023, he said that back in the day, people watched movies during Hari Raya celebrations because that is
one of their entertainment with friends or family and filmmakers will release their films on that day to

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