STORIES
PJ Cinemas We Still
Talk About Today
Quick question – how do you book a movie ticket?
You pick a time. Book your seat. Walk in just before it starts.
Back then, it wasn’t like that.
Back in the 1960s, going to the cinema in PJ felt like a whole outing. The standalone cinemas – Ruby, Majestic, Sentosa, Paramount – weren’t places you could randomly stop by, especially if you wanted to watch a blockbuster. You needed a plan.
You'd arrive early, because you had to. If you didn't, you'd find yourself at the back of a long, long queue – eyes fixed on the wooden board above the ticket counter, praying it'd stay green. The wooden board was basically an indication of available tickets: red meant sold out, yellow meant fast selling, green – still got chance.
The ticket counters were like immigration checkpoints. One big, chaotic queue.
Outside, you'd linger a bit and look at the posters. Back then, they were all hand-painted. Some say that if the artist had a bad day, your favourite action star might look a bit different from what you expected – slightly off, sometimes (unintentionally) funny. And people noticed. In fact, some were so iconic that they'd become collector's items. But the real experience? That was waiting for you inside.
The floors were scattered with kuaci shells that crunched under your feet. Yes, kuaci. Snacks weren’t just popcorn – there was kacang kuda, sotong and even cotton candy. People would jalan-jalan, tapau food and bring it in to eat. Nobody thought twice about it. The place was kind of like an indoor picnic.
At certain cinemas, you could even recognise the place by smell. Over at Ruby in Seapark, the aroma of Nasi Lemak Bumbung from the back lane would drift right into the theatre. So if you didn't have snacks... Lapar doh!
And then there was State Cinema. The oldest and the only one that's still here. For many PJ kids, State Cinema pretty much defined what going to the movies felt like in PJ. Big crowds, people cheering, gasping, maybe crying – all together in the dark.
Today, it carries on as LFS (Lotus Five Star) State Cineplex. The structure is still there, still showing films. But the experience has changed, just like everything else around it.
As for Ruby, Majestic, Sentosa and Paramount – they're gone now. Demolished, closed, or converted into something else entirely. If you didn’t know, you might not even realise what used to be there.
These days, going to the cinema is easy. You book your seat, get your snacks, and sit down. It's comfortable and convenient. You know what to expect.
Back then, it was noisier, messier, and a lot more chaotic. But also, somehow, more of an occasion – the kind you'd actually remember.
That's why when people talk about these old cinemas, it's never really about the film. It's about the wooden board, the kuaci shells, the hand-painted posters, and the smell of nasi lemak drifting in from the back lane. Basically, the whole experience of just... being there.
These are the PJ stories we carry with us, and a part of what makes PJ, PJ.
