The story
Establishment of Golden Communications Circuit (1987–1990)
Golden Screen was founded on 1 April 1987 under the name of Golden Communications Circuit, a joint venture between Hong Kong's Golden Harvest (from which it inherited the studio's iconic Big "G" logo) and the Malaysian Bumiputera conglomerate PPB Group (then Perlis Plantations), the latter of whom operated a small set of Malaysian cinemas leased from Shaw Brothers Studio. There were in the beginning 30 cinemas covering all Malaysia's major cities and towns, and at the time, Golden Harvest and Perlis Plantations owned respectively 70 and 30 percent of the stakes in the joint venture.
The films at that time were showcased in three languages: Malay, English and Chinese, with Golden Harvest in-house films forming majority of the shown movies. The English movies on the other hand were mostly of Hollywood origin, with some exceptions from European Countries.
Acquisition of Cathay Cinemas by Perlis Plantations Berhad (1990–1998)
In June 1990, Perlis Plantations Berhad expanded its entertainment portfolio by acquiring stakes in the Borneo Filem Organisation Sdn Bhd (BFO) from the State Government of Sabah, which later restructured as Cathay Cinemas Sdn Bhd. This strategic purchase brought the Malaysian operations of 33 Cathay Organisation and 33 Golden Communications Cinemas under the same corporate umbrella.
Control of the newly acquired cinema, which was 66.2 percent owned by Cathay Cinemas and the rest by Permodalan Nasional Berhad assumed in October the same year, resulting in termination of services of between 20 to 30 of its employees.
By 1991 however, the shares of Perlis Plantations in Golden Communications had shrunk to just 58.6 per cent to allow investment from other shareholders, while Golden Harvest own the remaining 27 per cent.
On 7 July 1994, Cathay Cinemas signed a joint venture agreement with United Artist Theatre and Wilton Group to expand the cinema network in Malaysia and abroad, forming a joint venture named Premier Cinemas Sdn Bhd.
In 1996, Perlis Plantations restructured its cinemas and leisure operations by injecting Golden Communications Assets into that of Cathay Cinemas Sdn Bhd, creating a new business entity called PPB Leisure Holdings Sdn Bhd. By that time, Cathay cinemas owned the largest chain of cinemas in Malaysia, totaling 47 of them when accounting Premier Cinemas and Cathay Organisation operations.
Brand merger and consolidation into Golden Screen Cinemas (1998–present)
In January 1998, Golden Communications (GC) Circuit and the Malaysian branch of Cathay Organisation were officially merged and consolidated into one major brand: Golden Screen Cinemas. The newly established cinema chain had 30 cinemas nationwide at the time.
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On 2 December 1999, GSC opened the Asia' largest multiplex with 18 Screens - GSC Mid Valley at Mid Valley Megamall. To celebrate this momentous occasion, it gave away 18 local and international movie tickets for free during its one-week Movie Marathon Campaign, with those patrons completed their rounds of all movie watching offered grand prizes like trip to selected tourist destinations, season pass and T-shirts. That very same date, the International Screens concept was introduced at the all-new Mid Valley Branch to distribute highly acclaimed international movies from places like Hong Kong and Hollywood.
On 12 January 2000, Malaysia Book of Records under management of Director Danny Ooi recognised the Mid Valley multiplex as the largest in the country and awarded the title to the cinema chain.
From Wikipedia’s article on Golden Screen Cinemas, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4