Besides the love for eating out and travelling, Singaporeans are also crazy about shopping and movies, I shall talk about our great passion for movies!
An average Singaporean watches 3.7 movies a year, that is almost twice the global average of 2 a year! For e.g. if you have been to Shanghai, which is a much bigger city than singapore, you will realise that the cinemas are almost empty. Probably because the cost of movies over there is slightly higher than Singapore, and most locals couldn’t afford to pay for the cinema price. Pirated movies are therefore still the cheapest and better alternative for the locals. Also, an average shanghainese salary is still about 6 times lesser than the singaporean.
There are already quite a few cinema operators in Singapore but the most prominent one is the Golden Village. Golden Village started in 1992 and opened Asia’s first multiplex in Singapore. And more recently at the new shopping centre GV VivoCity. GV VivoCity sets a new benchmark for multiplexes in Singapore by introducing the latest world-class features coupled with 4 different types of screens. And it shows the widest variety of movies with 15 screens under one roof.
Another type of cinema in Vivo city is the Cinema Europa – The World Cinema with a concept of “a film festival all year round”. Featuring digital sound, deluxe stadium seating (108 seats) and a magnificent floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall screen. – 10 New Stadium Cinemas – with state-of-the-art facilities where every seat in every hall is the best in the house – with radiused stadium seating, extra wide legroom and wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling screens.
The ultimate luxury cinema experience got to be the gold class! It’s a cinema with the ultimate in luxury movie viewing with a private lounge and plush electronic recliner seats comparable to First Class airline seats all equipped with call buttons for faster and more discreet service(See pic attached). There are also waiters to serve you drinks like champagne and red wine, but the drink menu are not included in the ticket price, it’s a separate charge. The weekday ticket is for this plush cinema is $25(U.S.$16) per ticket, and weekend is about $30(U.S.$19), which is still relatively inexpensive!
The first gold class cinema was opened in 1997 in Singapore. I still remember that a kind friend was too generous and bought 10 tickets and gave all his good friends a treat on his birthday, and so that was my first gold class try-out! I love the lush feeling and it’s really a different kind of movie watching experience!
It’s truly believe these are “The Best Cinemas In The Entire World” as 30 years of cumulative experience around the world has been all factored into this GV VivoCity! Hence it’s called the flagship cinema here.
P.S. The cinemas at Vivo City run 24 hrs a day.
