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Ambrose Li

Lo Hoi-ying

Hong Kong cinema chain MCL’s branch in Diamond Hill is likely to cease operations from Friday, becoming the seventh movie theatre in the city to close this year despite a spate of record-breaking blockbusters from the local film industry.
The website for the branch in Plaza Hollywood has no screenings after Thursday evening, with only three films – the Last Dance, An Abandoned Team, and Strange Darling – available that day.
Most screenings from 4pm onwards had sold fewer than 10 tickets.
The last screening at 7.15pm had only sold five tickets by 4pm. The cinema has six halls and a total capacity of nearly 1,600 seats.
A nearby cinema at Telford Gardens in Kowloon Bay, also under MCL, published its screenings up to Sunday and is showing nine films.
Staff members at the Diamond Hill branch told the Post they were unaware of the rumoured closure, but stopped short of refuting the claim.
A Post reporter visited the venue on Thursday afternoon and witnessed no obvious signs that staff were wrapping up operations there.
“We don’t know, our managers have not made any announcements,” a cinema supervisor surnamed Tang said.
He added that he was unsure whether he would need to turn up to work at the branch on Friday, while he and his team could be sent to other cinemas.
Other staff on duty echoed the supervisor’s response, with an employee responsible for ticketing saying she had no idea why screening information was unavailable from Friday onwards.
Some staff members had reportedly told local media that the cinema was going to shut down permanently on Thursday night.
The Post has reached out to MCL for comment.

A check by the Post found the cinema at Plaza Hollywood was the only MCL branch to have published its screenings just up to Thursday.
The venue is part of the MCL Cinemas Plus+ brand, which was established in 2022 under Emperor Group and Multiplex Cinema Limited of Lai Sun Group.
Broadway Cinemas previously managed the cinema until February 2022 when MCL took over management and reopened the venue that July.
Chan Tze-foong, a local resident who frequently visited the cinema over the last 10 years, said that he had read rumours online on Wednesday that the place would close, adding that he felt such a move would be a pity.
“Someone will take over,” said the 28-year-old, who works in the entertainment industry.
“Previously this cinema was operated by Golden Harvest, then Broadway, and now MCL. There was someone every time.”
Chan said the East Kowloon area, where the cinema is located, was facing increasing competition from newer malls such as the one at Kai Tak’s Airside, while other venues such as Mega Box in Kowloon Bay offered cheaper movie tickets.
He also said that while local films had garnered a lot of attention in recent years, cinemas traditionally relied on Western films for their business, adding that the availability of streaming services would have had an impact on the survival of venues.

In August, Cine-Art House in Kowloon City announced its permanent closure, making it the city’s sixth cinema to cease operations this year.
The news followed the shuttering of the President Theatre in Causeway Bay and Golden Harvest’s GH Kai Tak in April.
Other closures include The Metroplex at Kowloonbay International Trade & Exhibition Centre, Cinema City at Langham Place and the MCL cinema at South Horizons.
The city’s total box office earnings for the first half of 2024 were about HK$640 million (HK$82.3 million), a drop of more than 17 per cent year on year, according to the latest data from the Hong Kong Box Office Limited.
Total annual box office receipts reached their peak in 2015 at HK$1.99 billion. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the figures were HK$540 million, HK$1.21 billion and HK$1.14 billion in 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Earnings did not bounce back as expected in 2023, with a total revenue of HK$1.43 billion that year, slumping to levels last seen in 2011.
In July, Hong Kong martial arts film Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In smashed records to become the city’s most-watched local film in cinemas with almost 1.6 million viewers and became the highest-grossing film this year at HK$105 million.
Earlier this month, The Last Dance broke box office records as the highest-grossing Chinese-language film ever in Hong Kong and raked in more than HK$122 million as of December 7, its distributor said.


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Hong Kong cinema chain MCL’s Diamond Hill branch likely to close on Friday

The venue is part of the MCL Cinemas Plus+ brand, which was established in 2022 under Emperor Group and Multiplex Cinema Limited of Lai Sun Group. Photo: Sam Tsang

A check by the Post found the cinema at Plaza Hollywood was the only MCL branch to have published its screenings just up to Thursday. Photo: Handout

President Theatre in Causeway Bay closed its doors in April. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

The Last Dance takes first place with record HK$122 million at Hong Kong box office

The Last Dance, which opened in cinemas four weeks ago, stars Dayo Wong and screen veteran Michael Hui. Photo: Sun Yeung

An exhibition about the film, The Last Dance, in Causeway Bay. Photos: Sun Yeung

Hong Kong film studio hit with multimillion lawsuit over cinema closure

GH Kai Tak, located at Yue Xiu Plaza in San Po Kong, closed in April. Photo: Handout

News

Hong Kong

Branch has no screenings listed after Thursday evening, while employees say they are unsure whether they should clock in there on Friday


Branch has no screenings listed after Thursday evening, while employees say they are unsure whether they should clock in there on Friday.
