Rex Cinemas Mackenzie

The Rex Cinema, a simplified Art Decor style building has numerous reincarnations in terms of space and functions in relation to the ever-changing surrounding landscape of Singapore. It opened in 1964, replacing the former Singapore Boxing Stadium at the same site which was closed and demolished in 1946. It started out as a cinema, a concert venue, then an ice skating rink, into a church, a disco and back to being a cinema again. Nestled adjacent to Ellison building along Mackenzie Road, surrounded by major road, Bukit Timah Road and secondary roads Mackenzie and Selegie Road, lies Singapore’s one and only stand-alone cinema, the Rex Theater, or what we called it today, Rex Cinema.

The first film screened in Rex Cinema was an English film, “The Jungle Book”. As its peak popularity in 1976, Rex Cinema attracted the largest crowd they could ever imagine when they screened “Earthquake” which came alongside with new “sensurround” sound effects that sent simulated vibrations around the cinema seats, depicting a real earthquake. The last film being screened in Rex was “Jaws 3D”.

Rex Cinema has a renowned social history from 1946 till today.

History

Timeline

1924 - 1946, Singapore Boxing Stadium

1942 - 1945, World War II

1946, Rex Cinema first open its doors by Malayan Theatre Ltd, filmed a spectrum of multi-genre and multi-racial films

1967, Ownership of cinema changed hands and it came under Shaw Organisation

1976, Gain its peak popularity.

1983, Rex cinema shut down its doors due to rampancy of videotape piracy and eventually the business plunged. From then on there were no cinemas in the district. This also marked the end of people’s memories of Rex Cinema.

1985, Rex Cinema was converted into a performance house with famous singers from Taiwan and Hong Kong. They held their concert there and it had attracted a lot of people.

1989, The performance house made way for Fuji Ice Palace, an ice rink which ceased operations in 1993.

1999, Rex Cinema housed Foo Chow Methodist Church for a year.

2000, It turned into TJ Live House @ The Rex, a disco

2007, Rex Cinema was left abandoned.

2009 - Today, Rex was finally back on its feet. It was converted into a 3 hall modernized cinema

Surrounding Spaces

Street Hawker Food

Rex Theatre was once brimmed with hawker food, a uniquely Singaporean identity that ought to be embedded in the social history of Singapore. The side lane of Rex Theatre was once a thriving place for cheap and scrumptious hawker food. Patrons could be seen hanging outside the left lane of the cinema mingling and socializing with each other and indulging in street hawker food.

Old Chang Kee

Old Chang Kee curry puffs was one of the food which played a significant memory for movie patrons. The aroma of the curry puffs has won the hearts of many people back then. Old Chang Kee is a food retail chain best known for its Hainanese-style curry puffs, which were first sold in 1956. It’s first stall was open at Koek Road in between what lies today Orchard Point and Orchard Plaza, by a Hainanese immigrant Chang Chuan Boon. He then moved to Albert street which was acclaimed for its hawkers’ stalls until 1980s. In 1973, Chang then opened his second stall at a coffee shop on Mackenzie Road, near the Rex Cinema. The curry puffs were so famous it became known as “Rex” curry puffs.

Singapore Traction Company

Public Transportation was one of the vital factor which brought people from different parts of Singapore to the vicinity of Rex Cinema. In 1950s, the bus depot belonging to Singapore Traction Company was situated right beside Rex Cinema, which today is an open air-carpark. It was one of the biggest bus operator that ran trams operated by overhead electric cables. The location of the bus depot was so convenient for movie patrons where they could alight right at the doorstep of Rex Cinema. This ended when the bus company went bankrupt in 1971.

Foo Chow Methodist Church

Foo Chow Methodist Church step in and took over Rex Cinema in 1999 for a year to hold worship services. It functioned as a temporary church because the original church along 90 Race Course Road was undergoing reconstruction and upgrading due to bad foundation in the earth. It was found to be unsafe for operation due to tunneling works for an MRT line. A year later, the church then moved back to its own premises. It is interesting to see how a theatre space could be used as a church to hold worship services. The old Rex Cinema hall was different from the other cinemas in terms of layout organisation. The front and back stalls seats of the cinema hall sloped downwards to meet each other. This gives movie watchers seated in the front to have a better view of the screen without straining their necks. The church has undergone various stages of expansion and reconstruction to what it is today.

Current Usage

The revival of Rex Cinema in 2009 was all thanks to a humble man named Kumar alongside with his father who runs jewelry businesses in Singapore. They decide to breathe new life into Rex Cinema by chipping in $2million. They had an interior make over with an addition of 2 smaller halls upstairs and the main hall filled with 570 seats while the other two, could hold 82 patrons each. A majority of Indian and foreign workers patronizing Rex Cinema due to its Hindi and Indian films. The vicinity around the cinema encourages people to interact and socialize with each other. There are Indian Muslim shops selling food where it hopes to bring back memories of hawker stalls along the side lane of Rex back then.

Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) master plan citing was thinking of redevelopment in the area. A part of the historical 1924 Ellison Building beside Rex Cinema would be affected due to the tunneling works by Land Transport Authority (LTA). They are finding measures on how to minimise impact of the upcoming tunnel works. Authorities also mentioned in August 2017 that one of the building’s nine units would be demolished to make way for the North-South corridor, a 21.5 km expressway. Apparently, this poses a threat to Rex Cinema being Singapore’s last stand alone theatres.