Hong Kong benefits as cinema chains start China push in the city

A Monday on Chai Wan’s Yee Tai Street. Families emerge from the wet mar­ket weighed down with groceries as workers and students head to a cha chaan teng. It’s just another Hong Kong afternoon, in fact, but a small crowd has gathered out­side what will soon become the newest cinema in the Cinema City chain.

They peer into the gleam­ing lobby and a young usher-to-be explains the special deal to come: HK$100 for three tickets; HK$18 for popcorn and a drink. For this unassuming residential neighbour­hood, the cinema’s arrival is big and welcome news.

Chai Wan (population 154,038, according to the 2016 government by-census) has had no cinema of its own since the single-screen Wing Wah Theatre closed its doors – on the same site as the new multiplex – in June 1994. It’s likely a canny business decision by Cinema City.

Having tasted massive success with its first Hong Kong cinema (Cinema City Langham Place, in Mong Kok, has been the SAR’s top-earning multiplex for the past two years), the chain now appears to be taking a two-pronged approach, with cinemas in residen­tial areas – another will open in Tsuen Wan later this year – complementing its big-city flagship in Mong Kok.

A second major venue, in Causeway Bay, is earmarked to open in 2018.

Cinema City Chai Wan comes hard on the heels of L Cinema, a small, two-screen facility on the second floor of a Shau Kei Wan shop­ping arcade. While seeming to be a response to local needs, such commu­nity cinemas are actually part of the local industry’s money­making ambitions on – surprise, surprise – China.