Today, MBO Cinemas made a never-before-done post on its Facebook page—a video message.
It held a heartfelt message from its new CEO, Cheah Chun Wai.
He’s been with MBO since 2013, starting out as a Director of Sales Marketing. In January 2018, he climbed the ladder to COO position. This October, he was promoted to CEO.
With that amount of history between him and the company, the video’s content felt rawer and more genuine than ever.
Another Potential 6-12 Months Of Struggles
In the video, he expressed how they’ve missed their fans badly, and that they were looking forward to meeting everyone again soon.
He also introduced himself as the new CEO of MBO, but stated that he did not wish to be congratulated yet.
Rather, he’d like for everyone to wish him and his team the best of luck during these times.
Everyone knows by now how badly the cinema industry has been affected by the pandemic, and our local chains were trying out various tactics to try and pull through.
Chun Wai shared that the struggles started around Chinese New Year 2020, and as of September 2020, MBO’s admission rate had dropped to about 10-15%.
“Meaning, if we used to have 50 customers, now we only have 2 to 3 customers per session,” he shared of their dire situation.
They’ve since tried their best to reduce costs while waiting for content to return to the silver screen, but with the current situation, Chun Wai shared that they might have to wait for another 6-12 more months.
That is a long time to hold out for a company that’s already struggling this much.
Fans Needed For #StayStrongMBOCinemas
As you may have heard just a week or two ago, there was news going around about MBO shutting its doors for good.
The Edge Markets reported the news of a notice on the intention of executing the liquidation process for MBO Cinemas, formally known as MCAT Box Office Sdn Bhd.
However, MBO is still determined to save itself and stick around for longer.
Chun Wai shared in the video that they would be staying strong, and for that, they needed the help of their fans for their #StayStrongMBOCinemas campaign.
They have thousands of limited edition merchandise in their stock, which is slow-moving now due to the lack of admissions.
To aid in selling them, MBO will open table sales in their cinema foyer with proper compliance to SOPs from October 30, 4PM-8PM at all MBO locations except:
- Klang,
- Space U8,
- Seremban,
- Skudai,
- Brem Mall,
- and Kota Tinggi.
1 piece can be bought at RM15, while 4 pieces can be bought at RM50.
Chun Wai pleaded for fans to come and support them in this if they wanted to return to MBO one day, and added, “Kasi sapu licin!”
Aside from the physical sales, MBO is also working on listing its merchandise on their official Shopee account here, and will update fans once everything is ready.
For Chun Wai’s full heartfelt message to fans about the campaign, you can view the video here:
- You can show your support for MBO Cinemas by heading to their Shopee account here to make purchases once they’re listed.
- Learn more about MBO Cinemas here.
- You can read more about what Malaysian cinemas have been struggling with during the pandemic here.
Featured Image Credit: Cheah Chun Wai, CEO of MBO Cinemas
