Shaw Organisation is a film distribution company and cinema chain founded by brothers

Runme Shaw Runme Shaw, K.St.J (; 1 January 1901 – 2 March 1985) was the chairman and founder of the Shaw Organisation of Singapore. Runme Shaw and his brother, Run Run Shaw, together known as the Shaw Brothers, were pioneers in the film and entertainmen ...

and

Run Run Shaw Sir Run Run Shaw (19 November 1907 – 7 January 2014), also known as Shao Yifu and Siu Yat-fu, was a Hong Kong entertainment mogul and philanthropist. He was one of the most influential figures in the Asian entertainment industry. He founde ...

who went to Singapore in the 1920s to expand their family business founded by

Runje Shaw Runje Shaw (1896–1975), also known as Shao Zuiweng (C.W. Shaw) and Shao Renjie, was a Chinese film entrepreneur, producer and director. The eldest of the Shaw brothers, in 1925 he founded Tianyi Film Company (also called Unique Film Productio ...

. The company originally operated as a distributor for the Shaw brothers'

Tianyi Film Company Tianyi Film Company (), also called Unique Film Productions, was one of the "big three" film production companies in pre-Second World War Republic of China. Founded in Shanghai in 1925 by the Shaw (Shao) brothers led by Runje Shaw (Shao Zuiweng) ...

(also called Unique) in Shanghai. Run Run Shaw later moved to Hong Kong in the 1950s to run

Shaw Brothers Studio Shaw Brothers (HK) Ltd. () was the largest film production company in Hong Kong, and operated from 1925 to 2011. In 1925, three Shaw brothers— Runje, Runme, and Runde—founded Tianyi Film Company (also called "Unique") in Shangh ...

, whilst Runme Shaw stayed in Singapore to continue Shaw Organisation's operations. Unlike Tianyi, Shaw Organisation does not produce films but distribute them in their theatres.

History

Shaw Organisation has a long history in Singapore since its founding in 1925. They bought the land which the Shaw House now stands in the year 1952. The plot of land was originally granted to William Scott in 1845. About 500,000 square feet of land was levelled original Shaw House and the adjacent Lido Theatre. The company managed single-screen cinemas until the late 1980s, when it decided to build cineplexes to give more flexibility in offering different types of films. The first cineplexes built were the Prince and Jade cineplexes in Shaw Towers, opened in February 1988. Cineplexes have now become the standard for cinemas offering varied shows for smaller crowds. The Shaw Organisation was founded in 1924 when Tan

(1901–1985) arrived in Singapore from Shanghai. He was the third of seven children of a Shanghai textile merchant, Shaw Yuh Hsuen (1867–1920). In Shanghai, Runme's eldest brother

had founded the

(aka Unique). Not satisfied with the domestic market, the Shaw brothers sought business opportunities elsewhere, especially South-East Asia. Runme, as distribution manager was tasked to search for a suitable investment city. Runme's original destination was Indochina where he hoped to meet with the film distributors. However, he was denied permission to land there and instead, he ended up in Singapore, creating the Shaw Organisation. He was joined by his younger brother Sir Run Run Shaw two years later. After the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, the Shaws decided to diversify their risk by branching out from their entertainment business into areas like amusement parks. They brought in ideas from abroad and modelled the parks after those in Shanghai, which proved to be popular amongst the local population. From the mid 30s to the 80s, Shaw operated two popular fairgrounds – the

Great World Amusement Park The Great World Amusement Park () also known locally as "Tua Seh Kai" in Hokkien, was the second of three former amusement parks in Singapore, along with New World (established 1923) and Gay World (established 1936). It was established in 1929 an ...

and the

New World Amusement Park The New World Amusement Park () was the first of three amusement parks, along with Great World (estd. early 1930s) and Gay World (estd. 1936), that wooed Malaya and Singapore night crowds from the 1920s to the 1960s. New World was a prominen ...

. At its height, the company owned multiple cinemas and amusement parks throughout Singapore,

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

, and spawned

in Hong Kong to feed its then-burgeoning operation. By August 2000, a computerised ticketing system developed jointly with Singapore Computer Systems was launched. This system linked all Shaw theatres into a single network for automated telephone credit card purchases. With her extensive infrastructure, Shaw is now the biggest distributor of Asian cinema. Today, it manages and runs 70 screens in 7 locations in Singapore.

Business operations

Cinemas

Shaw Theatres has 8 cinemas and 78 screens in Singapore currently. Shaw Theatres Balestier is currently closed for renovations and will reopen in early 2023.

Current locations

Former locations

Commercial properties

Besides its involvement in film distribution, Shaw Organisation had investments in properties as well. The most prominent one is the Shaw House located at 350 Orchard Road with

Isetan ( unlisted on March 26, 2008, ) is a Japanese department store. Based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Isetan has branches throughout Japan and South East Asia, including in Jinan, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Shanghai, Singapore and Tianjin, and formerly in Ba ...

as its anchor tenant. The Shaw House is actually the organisation's largest project to date in Singapore. It took three years to construct and was finally completed in 1993. Other than the Shaw House, the Shaw Organisation also owns other commercial properties including the Shaw Plaza, Shaw Centre, Shaw Corner, Oriental Plaza, Balestier Warehouse, North Bridge Road Shophouse and Mackenzie Road Shophouse.

Residential projects

Shaw Organisation also owns residential properties in Singapore. The two notable ones are Twin Heights and Hullet Rise. The others are single houses (With the exception of Jalan Sampurna which is a plot of land with two houses).

Subsidiaries

Shaw Organisation Pte Ltd owns the Shaw Properties Pte Ltd and Shaw Theatres Pte Ltd. Shaw Properties Pte Ltd oversees the operations in property development, acquisition and leasing whilst Shaw Theatres Pte Ltd oversees the operations in film purchase, distribution and the cinema's food and beverages.

Charity

Shaw Foundation

The Shaw Foundation was set up in 1957 by the Shaw brothers and is currently one of the largest philanthropic organisations in the world. Most of the money comes from its revenue from the properties under Shaw Properties Pte Ltd. All earnings from the Shaw Centre since the late 70s have been given to charitable organisations. The largest amount that the Shaw Foundation has ever set aside was SGD 17.7 million in the year 1999. The largest share of the funding went to the National Kidney Foundation and most of its recipients were in the healthcare sector. In the educational sector, the Shaw Foundation has been a regular donor to the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

(NUS) since 1987, awarding around 240 scholarships to date. Dr Shaw Vee Meng is currently the chairman of the Shaw Foundation. He is also the eldest son of

National Kidney Foundation Singapore scandal

The major recipient of Shaw Foundation's donations, the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) of Singapore was caught in a

scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...

mainly involving the misuse of donation funds of NKF. The incident circled around then chief executive officer,

T.T Durai Thambirajah Tharmadurai (born 22 April 1948), better known as T. T. Durai, is a Singaporean who formerly served as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the non-profit health organisation National Kidney Foundation Singapore (NKF). The central figu ...

understating NKF's reserves and exaggerating the number of patients to encourage more donations, using the funds for personal reasons such as maintaining his personal car, travelling frequently on first class flights and an installation of a 'golden tap' in his private office suite. Durai dropped NKF's claims against the

Singapore Press Holdings Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPHL) was an organisation with businesses in property and aged care in Singapore. Since its takeover by Cuscaden Peak in 2022, it has been renamed Cuscaden Peak Investments. Prior to 1 December 2021, SPHL was i ...

on 13 July 2005 after making several confessions during the trial and the entire board of NKF resigned on 14 July 2005. Since the incident, there has been a said irreversible effect on trust issues for donations to charitable organisations in Singapore, including Shaw Foundation. For NKF itself, donations plummeted from $73 million in 2004 to $21 million in 2013 – signifying the lasting impact of the incident.

Incidents

On 30 August 2020 at about 4.45pm, a piece of

ventilation duct Ducts are conduits or passages used in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) to deliver and remove air. The needed airflows include, for example, ''supply air'', ''return air'', and ''exhaust air''. Ducts commonly also deliver '' v ...

was dislodged on a cinema hall in the nex outlet while screening ''

Tenet A tenet is a synonym for axiom, one of the principles on which a belief or theory is based. Tenet may also refer to: Media * Tenet (band), a heavy metal band * TENET (ensemble), an American early music vocal and instrumental group * ''Tenet'' (f ...

'', resulting in two injuries. A spokesperson informed that the outlet would be temporarily closed until further notice. The theatre later resumed operations on March 18, 2021.

References

External links

* {{Official website} Entertainment companies established in 1924 Cinema chains in Singapore Shaw Brothers Studio 1924 establishments in Singapore Singaporean brands