© MEDIA WATCH 10 (3) 539-549, 2019
ISSN 0976-0911 E-ISSN 2249-8818
DOI: 10.15655/MW/2019/V10I3/49682
Cinema Attendance
and Cinema-Going Audience in Malaysia
Wang Changsong
Xiamen University Malaysia, Malaysia
Cinema audiences’ behavior
interests both industry professionals and academics. Cinema-going is still
indisputably popular form of entertainment in Malaysia. This
study discusses cinema-going in
the era of omnipresent screens. It aims to verify Malaysians’ cinema
going behaviors and the sustainability factors
contributing to the Malaysian film industry. The various factors affecting
cinema and movie-going behavior would include
encouragement, theme, motivation, perception, gratification, and genre. The
local filmmaking industry fell into a decline after 2014 based on observation
of annual film production. In the context of westernization, this small market
presents a challenge for the government in promoting local popular films. With
the influx of genre films from abroad, Malaysian cinema is struggling to the
hilt to survive. To understand this situation from the perspective of the
audiences, this study, using data from surveys conducted in Malaysia in 2018,
discusses the fandom of Malaysian cinema, their cinema-going behavior, and the association with their identities.
Keywords:
Malaysian cinema, audience studies, cinema-going behavior, descriptive statistics
Malaysian
cinema is itself an aggregated form that denotes a varied, multilinguistic
source of films and having grown up with it. From the beginning of the 2000s, Malaysian filmmakers who protected indigenous
culture were increasingly encouraged and supported in their attempts to enter
the mainstream cinema. Feature directors from diverse backgrounds
were more likely to showcase the diversity of the country on screen. The
National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Malay: Perbadanan Kemajuan Filem Nasional, abbreviated FINAS) was ‘established under the
National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia Act 1981 to promote, nurture
and facilitate the development of the country’s film industry’ (Saw, 2013 p.
19). FINAS, on a broader basis, provides financial assistance, production
faculties and equipment, and training to local filmmakers. FINAS has carried
out several measures to monitor the development of the local film industry. In
recent years, this government body also facilitated the marketing and promotion
of Malaysian films to overseas film buyers at international film festivals’
film market sidebars. It leads the path which directs Malaysia’s film industry
into global recognition and respect, catalyzing poignant works that are filled
to the brim with potential and promise.
The yearly
reports by FINAS on box office from 2008 to 2019revealthatlocal
films that are made, distributed and exhibited in
commercial venues are overwhelming of a certain particular genre (i.e.,
gangster, thriller, action) films. In his
Film Genre: From Iconography to Ideology, Barry Keith Grant (2007) stated that “popular
cinema is organized almost entirely according to genre categories – science
fiction, horror, thriller, pornography, romantic comedy, and so forth” (p. 1).
The idea of genre informs every aspect of popular cinema from production to
consumption. Nevertheless, the local filmmaking industry declined after 2014
according to the observation of annual production. Malaysian audiences
demonstrate their particular preferences for local films. This study attempts
to measure Malaysian cinema-goers’ genre preferences and variables which
determine their consumption of local feature films. Attendance and
ticket-buying at cinemas are more easily measured and monitored than the
choices of broadcast radio and television audiences. Filmic consumption in this
study is the sum of information and local films taken in by an individual or
group. It includes activities such as interacting with new media, watching
television and film, and listening to the radio.
Malaysia is a
multiracial and multireligious country of thirty-one million people. One of the
outstanding characteristics of its multi-ethnic population today is its highly
variegated ethnic mix. Many ethnic groups in Malaysia maintain separate
cultural identities (Wang & Jamilah, 2018, p.321).
The ethnic groups of Malaysia consist mainly of the Malay community, the
Chinese community, and the Indian community. In a multi-racial and
multi-religious context, the film plays a pivotal role in facilitating
intercultural dialogue in a country. Mathew P. John (2017) stated that “it
introduces us to the life of ‘the other’ in an entertaining yet engaging
fashion, creating cultural bridges that foster a sense of unity amid our diversity”
(p. 6). As one among many other cultural artifacts,
local cinema inevitably addresses issues of cultural identity.
Literature
Review
The
Malaysian cinema is considered a popular national cinema, and to a certain
extent, this industry is a popular ‘Malay’ cinema. However, in recent years, a
notable group of local Chinese and Indian filmmakers has been actively
producing Malaysian films that reach out to mainstream audiences. The related
publications on Malaysian cinema and popular cinema are limited, but they
provide a solid background for this study.
Malaysian Popular Cinema
The
Malaysian film industry is reflective of a society that is governed with a high
degree of social order and ethical intervention. Since the very first local
silent film, New Friend (directed by
Kwok Chiu-man) was made and released in 1927 in Singapore and Malaya, the film
has been recognized as a historical source attached to a very different
evidential value rather than aesthetics. The value of the film is not to be
found in its artistic or formal properties but in what it reveals about social
and historical conditions of the time in which it was made. The presence of
‘multiple sounds’ and ‘multiple orthographies’ in this film“play an important
role in constructing the history of Singaporean and Malaysian Sinophone films” (Hee, 2014, p.
258).
William Van der Heide (2002), in his book Malaysian Cinema, Asian Film: Border
Crossings and National Cultures, argued that “Malaysian film culture can
only be satisfactorily understood using analytical
approach quite different those that have typically been applied to national
cinemas” (p. 21). His book details the characteristics and complexities of the Malaysian
film industry and film culture. However, Heide’s book did not engage in any
detailed audience analysis, other than to refer to some primary and secondary
source that comments on the complex nature of the audience when he looked at
the context in terms of cultural difference.
In her, The globalization of film business and its effect on the Malaysian film
industry, HerwinaRosnan (2007) examined the
impact of globalization of film business on the Malaysian film industry. Her
research provided insights into the Malaysian film sector and other
organizations of a similar structure on how they could manage business
strategies for improved business performance. It also looked at the impact of
globalization on the Malaysian film industry.
The latest book on Malaysia cinema is
written by Hassan Muthalib, who studies animation
industry, history, and development, and is widely regarded as the Father of
Malaysian Animation. His book Malaysian
Cinema in a Bottle shows the general reader how Malaysian cinema has its
roots in the traditions of the oral storyteller, wayangkulit (shadow play) and Malay opera, and how
these art forms have influenced filmmaking. Hassan (2013) placed his anxiety on
the local production and stated that “I hope that this book will result in a
reflection on this state of affairs especially when viewership for Malay films
had fallen dramatically this year” (p. vi). He
examined some films in the context of the socio-cultural and political
condition of their times.
The author published his research on the
Malaysian top-grossing film– The Journey (directed by Chiu Keng Guan, 2014) in 2017. He had discovered that “the list
of top-grossing films was dominated by tales of blood and guts (e.g., KL
Gangster), the success of a film as subtle and personal as The Journey
may signal a growing maturity among cinema-goers” (Wang & Chen, 2017, p.
3077). Cinema-going has not yet been labeled as an outdated mode of viewing
films in Malaysia. Many of Malaysian films“illustrated urban archaeology that
uncovers repressed historical and alternative futures” (Wang, 2018, p. 34). Reflecting
the complex makeup of Malaysian society, the film brought together the
indigenous popular culture forms, and the local production complex created a
massive demand for product, “making space for both high- and low-budget films
and favoring the development of popular genres through which films based on recognizable
conventions could be produced quickly and cheaply” (Marlow-Mann, 2012, p. 14). Filmmakers of different ethnic backgrounds frequently worked
together for re-shaping national cinema in Malaysia (Wang, 2018, p. 79).
These publications typically cover the
history of Malaysian cinema and film production from different perspectives.
Aziz et al. (2014) pointed out that
the Malaysian film industry is relatively small… and this small local market
presents a challenge for the government in promoting the industry as part of the
creative industry with great economic potential (p. 36). All of the challenges
should be measured. However, these publications neglected audiences as a
significant factor to measure the trajectory of the local film industry.
Malaysian Cinema-Goers’ Consuming Behaviors
It
is acknowledged that the approaches to audiences and cinema-going experiences
offer an alternative mode of studying key issues in film history. A key issue in the “critical reconsideration of cinematic modernity
and its relation to tradition, community and everyday life, is the role of the audience”
(Meer and Biltereyst, 2012, p. 129). Some
studies on cinema-going experience among Malaysian audiences had suggested
measurable variables to verify their consuming behaviors.
Abdullah et al. (2014), in their Behavioral and Viewing
Patterns of Cinema-goers in Malaysia, attempted to provide some strategic
guide for a filmmaker to lure cinema fans back to viewing films in cinemas.
Though there are various factors affecting cinema and cinema-goers, their study
identified significant determining factors on these patterns which are
mathematically modeled using the multiple regression
(MR) technique, focusing on the development of model-building,
multicollinearity remedies, and removals of insignificant factors.
Tony Wilson’s Media Consumption in Malaysia: A Hermeneutics of Human Behaviour presents its major
philosophical proponents, showing how close attention to their writing can now
inform and shape research on ubiquitous screen users. Though this book examines
media consumption in a general term, it mainly explores the horizons of
understanding from which Malaysians enter their mediated malls and concludes by
positioning media practices theory within a spectrum of philosophical ideas
(Wilson, 2015, p. 66). However, film consumption is not discussed in this book.
Identities of the Malaysian Cinema Audience
‘Audience’ is such a significant
component of film history. Most Malaysian
filmmakers are primarily concerned with appealing to the local audience,
spanning different ethnic groups, and the diversity of peoples within each
state.
The film demonstrates the difficulty of divorcing the spirit of creative
resistance from a distinct racial identity and from practices considered
counterproductive to the goals of the revolution.
There are some studies which look at the
association between the content industry and the cultural identity of the audience
in Malaysia. Rahim et al. (2010)
found that the expeditious growth of the local content media industry is a
catalyst to the escalation of the local content industry (p. 215). They argued
that in the globalization process, the growing sentiment of concern is that the
unrestricted flow of media content may unconsciously influence the younger
generation into incorporating foreign culture into the current environment.
Their study mainly focused on both local and foreign television content and
their attribution to impact on the young generation in Malaysia.
AsiahSarji’sMalaysian National Cinema: An identity Crisis pointed
out that issues of national cinema had sparked much
debates and discourses in the context of Malaysian cinema. She brought forward
the definition and conception of what constitutes a ‘Malaysian film’ remain
vague and unclear (2006, p.143). Her study considered policy, language, the speech
of a film, story, and authorship as dimensions of challenges which local cinema
encounters. Historically, concepts of national cinema and national identity
have never strongly existed as issues in the Malaysian film world. Therefore
the concepts need to be scientifically tested and redefined.
Objectives
This
study aims to position the future of Malaysian popular cinema by examining Malaysians’
cinema going behaviors and the sustainability factors
contributing to the Malaysian film industry. The various factors affecting
cinema and movie-going behavior would include
encouragement, theme, motivation, perception, gratification, and genre. In the
context of westernization, this small local market presents a challenge
for the government in promoting local popular films. With the influx of genre
films from abroad, local cinema is struggling to survive.
Methodology
To
accomplish the objective of the study, a survey is employed. It is
an essential methodological component of audience analysis, based on the
collection of data on current audience members using a standardized framework
and question set. The survey of local film consumption gives information about
these audiences: “the NRS (National Readership Survey) and the TGI (Target
Group Index)” (Nicholas & Price, 1998, p. 62).
The investigations include the kind of people who visits the cinema, how often,
and other characteristics of the audience. Within this framework, this study
will discuss
the fandom of Malaysian cinema, their cinema-going behavior,
and association with their identities. Sample size determination is the act of
choosing the number of observations or replicates to include in a statistical
sample. However, this paper just provides some preliminary
findings based on a pilot test with 275 respondents for the survey.
Findings
According to AsiahSarji (2006),
“the types of audiences who go to the movies have changed, and they are now
more educated, and most of a younger age group” (p. 144). In the mid-2000s, the Malaysian film industry saw
an increase in the number of domestic film production, from only seven films in
1999 to 26 films in 2009. The number of local productions after 2010 kept
increasing till 2015. 2016 saw a dramatic drop in the total number of local
films. Film fandom is the recognition of a positive, personal, relatively deep,
emotional connection with a mediated element of popular culture.
Fandom and their Identities
Film fandom is the recognition of a positive,
personal, relatively deep, emotional connection with a mediated element of
popular culture. Fandom has intrigued a generation of scholars who are
interested in the expression of social and personal identity in the context of
media culture (Duffett, 2013, p.2). This paper
attempts to measure respondents’ frequencies of film viewing on the following
bases: daily, weekly, fortnightly, once a month, once every three months, once
half a year, rarely, never, and it
depends. Just under half of the
respondents (49%) are within the age range of 18 to 23 years old. And 18.2% are
within the age range of 24 to 29 years old. A quarter of these respondents
watch movies every day or every week. The respondents who are under 18 also
displayed a high frequency of watching movies though they consist of a smaller
proportion of all respondents (see Figure
1). According to
Webster (2018), the hallmark of the use
and graticulations (U&G) approach is an active audience member whose
media use is ‘goal-directed’ (p. 94). These age groups mentioned above
demonstrated a high frequency of movie watching.
Based on the survey result (see Figure 2), gender identity cannot be
viewed alone to determine the frequency. The chart below illustrates the
frequency of watching movies among male and female respondents, respectively.
Male respondents show a slightly higher frequency every week. But female
respondents show a higher frequency daily.
The demographics of Malaysia are
represented by multiple ethnic groups, with an estimated population of about 32
million. As a multiethnic country, Malaysia has citizens that are of various
races, culture, and background. These include Malays, Chinese, Indians, and
other indigenous Bumiputra groups. This multicultural context makes Malaysia a
highly diverse society. Malay respondents demonstrate a higher frequency of
watching movies than other ethnic groups. More than 35% of them watch a movie
on a daily and weekly basis (see Figure 3).
It also reflects the number of local Malay film production that is higher than the
others.
The majority of respondents are working
adults with completed college and university education qualification, and
college/university students as well. A quarter of these two groups watch movies
on a daily and weekly basis. More respondents from the group which has obtained
college and university qualification watch movies once a month (see Figure 4). This paper also indicated dramatic frequency difference of
watching films among cinema-goers with different categories of monthly income.
The behavior of watching films daily mainly falls
into three comparatively lower monthly income categories, especially within the
population whose monthly income is below 1000 Malaysian Ringgit (approx. 240
USD).
Behavior Patterns of Malaysian
Cinema-Goers
In
Malaysia, the screening slots are very much determined by the number of
audiences for each film. Building audience is not an easy task; it requires
great content and a dedicated marketing effort to promote that content. The film
also shapes audiences. This explains today’s keen interest in, and increasingly
sophisticated uses of data that
can be gathered about audiences’ media consumption processes, in efforts to
develop more predictive models of audience behavior.
Most of the social scientific theories that bear on audience behavior can be fairly described as agent-based approaches
(Webster, 2018, p. 93). Under the rational choice of U&G, cinema-goers in
this study are cognizant of their motivations and act accordingly.
According to
Webster (2018), motivated individuals determine which media they will consume,
whether they’re aware of those motivations or not (p. 97). In his Audiences Take Shape in a Digital Age,
Webster (2014) brought forward the agent-based model. This framework (see
Figure 5) provides a rich theoretical vocabulary to describe the motivations of
individual media user. However, Webster also addressed the two weakness when it came to explaining audience behavior: (1) “they
either ignore or greatly oversimplify the media environment within which users
operate… (2) while these approaches all put a premium
on people's preferences in explaining media choice, they invariably assume that
these are ‘exogenous’ preferences, which people bring into media environment”
(Webster, 2018, p. 97).
Figure 5 depicts the factors which affect the Malaysian audience’s choice of
cinema-going. It shows what motivates them to see a particular movie in a film
theatre. The plot is the cinema-goers’ primary concern. The other significant
factors include the actors in the film and recommendations from their friends.
Screen presence in the film is the product of a double performance: at one
level, framing, editing, and camera movement create the performance of the
medium; at a secondary level, there is the performance of the actor, whereby
his/her actions create a character and so contribute to the making of narrative
meaning. According to McDonald (2012), as the actor uses the voice and body to
give material substance to those actions and characteristics, so acting
contributes to the making of the narrative world and the creation of the story
(p. 169). The story and the actors become the most significant factors which
affect Malaysians’ decision of watching a film in the cinema.
Although the
factors may affect Malaysian cinema-going behavior,
the other medium and platforms also enrich the approaches for the appreciation
of the film. The popularity of cinema-going in Malaysia has experienced several
peaks and troughs in recent years. According to the statistics provided by
FINAS, 2015, and 2017 experienced a decline in box office gross. The Internet
has become a collective place where online audiences could share content and
experiences. And the Internet becomes most respondents’ preferable channel. As Figure 6 indicated, 92.78% of them watch
films online. However, less than half (49.82%) respondents go to the movie
theatre. In future research, the phenomenon of film-viewing in isolation will
be observed across some popular film platforms in Malaysia.
Most of the
respondents were born during the advent of the online creative industry, and
they are becoming more familiar with its mechanisms. “This
word of mouth phenomenon was instrumental in creating networks such as the
growing communities” (Poujol, 2019, p. 325) on social
media. “Global engagement has driven changes” (Wang, 2016,
p. 92) on digital and linear media platforms. The influence of
converging communication networks in the adoption of Internet platform enriches
marketing strategies of film and also changes the traditional way through which
audience watch a film.
There are some arguments about online-video
platforms. Poujol (2019) believes online-video
streaming “allows a greater level of control in terms of accounting how many
times the content was watched” (p. 279). He also noticed the growing acceptance
of mobile phone as a film-viewing screen.
However, it is undoubtedly ‘a box office success means that a movie has
generated more revenue than the film production had cost’ (Roesch,
2009, p. 88). Film theatres in Malaysia are still expanding; the number of
silver screen is increasing from year to year. With that, the price for each
film and film quality mainly affect Malaysians’ choice to see a film in the
cinema (see Figure 7). In
Malaysia, different cinemas have their strategies to attract more audiences.
For example, Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC) introduces ‘awesome deals and
promotions on movie tickets, food, and beverage’ regularly. Low ticket prices
during the day are mainly dedicated to student audiences. TGV Cinema also has
its general promotion (i.e., birthday treats, weekend deal). These companies in
Malaysia understand that ticket pricing determines audiences’ consumption in
cinemas.
In a multiracial
country, genre dynamics can inform discourses which address to different ethnic
groups. In Malaysia, language is indicated clearly for each local film –
Chinese film, Tamil film, and Malay film. However, ‘some genres offer for
reimagining multiracial contexts and identities’ (Knee, 2008, p. 178) in the
popular cinema. The survey discovered the popular genres include comedy, family,
and action (see Figure 8) when
Malaysia’s most beloved and versatile entertainer – P. Ramlee
– popularized comedy genre in Malaysia in the 1950s and 1960s, comedy became favored by audiences from multiethnic groups. “Comedy
trivializes the pain of the human battle - that
comedy's pain and dangers are not of a greatly serious nature because they
focus on personal embarrassments and temporary loss of face” (Selbo, 2015, p. 78). The number of comedy production in
recent years is in alignment with audiences’ preference.
In his Language and Cinema, French film
theorist Metz (1974) stated that “language open to the thousand perception
aspects of the world, but also language forged in the very act of the invention
of a singular art” (p. 287). Malaysians grow up in a richly diverse
multi-ethnic nation, the whole notion of developing
varying linguistic and cultural identities to suit different contexts is a
competency that many of them speak different languages and dialects. Most
Malaysians “are fluent in the national language (Bahasa Malaysia or Malay), can function in English, and speak one
other language as well (their ‘mother tongue’)” (Philip, 2014, p. 126). The
respondents show the greatest preference for English-language films. Upon
reviewing several Malaysian films, it was found that only one
Malaysian-produced English-language film was released in recent years, which
was The Spiral (directed by Peter
Wong, 2018). The survey shows that most Malaysian audiences prefer to watch
imported English-language films instead of local ones.
Conclusion
Audiences'
attitudes will start to enter the picture when taking about or researching audience.
The survey identifies Malaysian audiences’ broad preferences for films. The
various variables used include viewing frequency, encouragement, motivation,
perception, gratification, and genre. While Malaysian do
share Bahasa Malaysia as a common means of communication, the linguistic
terrains are deeply fragmented in terms of film appreciation. It was discovered
that more gratified cinema-goers were found to be from the lower income group
compared to those from the middle and upper-income group. With the
influx of genre films from abroad, local cinema is utterly struggling to
survive. Malaysian audiences demonstrate great interest in film consumption. However,
they are more keen on foreign English-language films
instead of local films.
Funding: This work
was supported by the Xiamen University Malaysia Research Fund
[XMUMRF/2018-C1/IART/0002].
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Appendix
Figure 1. The correlation between ages and frequency of watching
movies
Figure 2. The Correlation
between gender identities and the frequency of watching movies
Figure 3. The Correlation
between ethnic identities and the frequency of watching movies
Figure 4. The Correlation
between educational levels and frequency of watching movies
Figure 5. Factors which affect the Malaysian audience’s choice of cinema-going
Figure 6. The places and channels where Malaysia audiences watch a film
Figure 7. Factors affect audiences’ choice to watch a film in the cinema
Figure 8. Genre preference among Malaysian audiences
Figure 9. Language preference while choosing a film to watch at the cinema
Correspondence to:
Wang Changsong, Xiamen University Malaysia, Jalan Sunsuria, Bandar Sunsuria,
Sepang, 43900, Selangor, Malaysia.
Wang Changsong (Ph.D., Universiti
Sains Malaysia, Malaysia, 2014) is an Assistant
Professor and Head of the Department of Journalism and Advertising at Xiamen Universiti Malaysia, Malaysia. His research interests
include cultural studies, cinema/film studies, and audience perceptions.