Will Saudi Arabia finally open its movie market? Yes, it seems so!

[Fullbuster]

 

Quote

 

Are movie theatres coming to Saudi Arabia?

Members of General Authority for Enter­tainment are ac­tively discussing public screenings of family-oriented films, sports events.

Jeddah - The big question on every Saudi’s mind following the formation of the Gen­eral Authority for Enter­tainment is whether Saudi Arabia will allow cinemas, which have been banned from the king­dom for more than 30 years.

The issue remains a mystery but General Authority members are ac­tively discussing public screenings of family-oriented films and sports events, according to a person famil­iar with the new authority’s meet­ings who spoke on the condition that his name not be published be­cause he is not authorised to release details.

“They want to start with outdoor screenings but they don’t want to call it ‘cinema’ yet,” the source said. “They will show family movies and football matches, that sort of thing, but it hasn’t been confirmed.”

 

http://www.thearabweekly.com/?id=5179

 

 

That wouldn't be a surprise, many reforms recently started to take shape in the kingdom. With 30 million inhabitants, great wealth and a very young population you could say Saudi Arabia has a big potential. Accepting family-oriented movies could be particularly profitable for Disney and will help to accelerate the growth of the global movie market.

 

What do you think?

 

 

 

 

 

[Purple Minion]

Don't know how reliable this info is based on the post above, but Saudi Arabia is considered as the most expensive country in the world to go to the movies: $60 per ticket.

 

http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Cost-of-living/Cinema-ticket-price/International-release

[Jason]

16 minutes ago, Fullbuster said:

Accepting family-oriented movies could be particularly profitable for Disney and will help to accelerate the growth of the global movie market.

 

Assuming, of course, that Saudi Arabia's definition of family-friendly is similar to ours. I can see the clerics that got cinemas banned in the first place going completely apeshit over a film like Zootopia, or even Frozen. 

[Fullbuster]

1 hour ago, Purple Minion said:

Don't know how reliable this info is based on the post above, but Saudi Arabia is considered as the most expensive country in the world to go to the movies: $60 per ticket.

 

http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Cost-of-living/Cinema-ticket-price/International-release

Probably a flawed source or accessible in luxury hotels.

[marveldcfox]

Fox should bribe the sheikhs in return for IDR to be the first movie to get released. Maybe it will manage to do 15-20 million thanks to very expensive movie tickets. 

Edited June 27, 2016 by marveldcfox

[Fullbuster]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

 

Assuming, of course, that Saudi Arabia's definition of family-friendly is similar to ours. I can see the clerics that got cinemas banned in the first place going completely apeshit over a film like Zootopia, or even Frozen. 

 

That's true. Zootopia features animals so it could get the green light somehow. Frozen, featuring strong, independent women, could be a problem though.

 

Still, it's good to see this closed, very conservative market opening to the world quite a bit, if successful they could further.

[MinaTakla]

Guys sorry it's not happening. I am from the region and can assure you, it's not hapenning at least in the next few yrs.

 

[cannastop]

52 minutes ago, Fullbuster said:

 

That's true. Zootopia features animals so it could get the green light somehow. Frozen, featuring strong, independent women, could be a problem though.

 

Still, it's good to see this closed, very conservative market opening to the world quite a bit, if successful they could further.

Zootopia also has a strong, independent woman, you know.

 

[Fullbuster]

1 minute ago, cannastop said:

Zootopia also has a strong, independent woman, you know.

 

 

Yes, but they could be ok given it's a bunny   At least we can hope they're stupid enough not to think too much about it

[Fullbuster]

16 hours ago, MinaTakla said:

Guys sorry it's not happening. I am from the region and can assure you, it's not hapenning at least in the next few yrs.

 

 

I'm not convinced, you'll need to prove it.

 

This overture is logical : it's part of the project called Vision 2030 to open the economy to stop being so dependent on oil revenues. That makes sense, Saudi Arabia is slowly changing after decades of isolation.

[MinaTakla]

3 hours ago, Fullbuster said:

 

I'm not convinced, you'll need to prove it.

 

This overture is logical : it's part of the project called Vision 2030 to open the economy to stop being so dependent on oil revenues. That makes sense, Saudi Arabia is slowly changing after decades of isolation.

Prove what?

That it isn't happening? I live right next to Saudi and it's all press speculation. Aint happening and that 2030 vision applies to the UAE and Qatar more.

This story has been going on ever since 2015 and it's all been denied and/or proven to be speculation here in the local media.

Even Saudi's own Oscar submitted film wasn't screened here.

Edited June 28, 2016 by MinaTakla

[Fullbuster]

Just now, MinaTakla said:

Prove what?

That it isn't happening? I live right next to Saudi and it's all press speculation. Aint happening and that 2030 vision applies to the UAE and Qatar more.

 

The fact you live near Saudi Arabia is irrelevant.

French people living Germany don't know squat about laws and political orientations in Germany, same thing for Americans living near Mexico and Chinese living near Vietnam.

 

You can't just write that and expect us to believe it. Have you informal contacts with the people in the know in the Saudi government? Are you a journalist working for a state-funded newspaper?

 

I'm not a Donald Trump supporter, I do care about facts.

[MinaTakla]

3 hours ago, Fullbuster said:

 

3 minutes ago, Fullbuster said:

 

The fact you live near Saudi Arabia is irrelevant.

French people living Germany don't know squat about laws and political orientations in Germany, same thing for Americans living near Mexico and Chinese living near Vietnam.

 

You can't just write that and expect us to believe it. Have you informal contacts with the people in the know in the Saudi government? Are you a journalist working for a state-funded newspaper?

 

I'm not a Donald Trump supporter, I do care about facts.

 

There is no need to get so defensive. I was adding knowledge from those I have seen and known from KSA who say it is all speculation.

So far there are no facts that this is happening and in Saudi at the moment, there is a religious organization that is very powerful and is against this move. For this to happen, there has to be a policy change. Hasn't happened yet. 

[Fullbuster]

1 hour ago, MinaTakla said:

 

There is no need to get so defensive. I was adding knowledge from those I have seen and known from KSA who say it is all speculation.

So far there are no facts that this is happening and in Saudi at the moment, there is a religious organization that is very powerful and is against this move. For this to happen, there has to be a policy change. Hasn't happened yet. 

 

I'm not angry at you or else, I just tell you you should be more cautious and use terms such as "I think it's not gonna happen because.." because the way you said this sounded like you're a know-it-all and arrogant. When people do that I ask them to prove that with clear, serious sources. Nothing personal.

 

While there are no real changes in Saudi Arabia  there are slow changes in many ways : 5% of Saudi Aramco will be available on the stock exchange, the Saudi stock exchange is now open to foreigners, they think about decreasing public spending, to have a sovereign fund worth $2,000B to invest around the world and diversify their assets.

It's slow but it's really happening, or you could say there is a will to do that.

 

So maybe movie theaters won't open there but at least they're talking about it.

[Claudio]

Does it mean that Arabian people never watch any movie at the cinema until now and maybe a next few years??

If that's true then wow.......

How can they live without watch any movie??!!!

Sent from my F1f using Tapatalk

[Fullbuster]

27 minutes ago, Claudio said:

 

Does it mean that Arabian people never watch any movie at the cinema until now and maybe a next few years??

If that's true then wow.......

How can they live without watch any movie??!!!

 

Sent from my F1f using Tapatalk

They probably watch them illegally, like in Iran where Friends was a very well-liked TV show despite US shows being banned there.

[MinaTakla]

50 minutes ago, Claudio said:

 

Does it mean that Arabian people never watch any movie at the cinema until now and maybe a next few years??

If that's true then wow.......

How can they live without watch any movie??!!!

 

Sent from my F1f using Tapatalk

Arab people, and I am one of them, watch movies in cinemas normally.

Only Saudi Arabia doesn't have cinemas but all other Arab countries do

[Fullbuster]

What I've said seems to be confirmed, the Crown Prince MBS really wants to allow cinemas, museums and public spaces where sexes mix while bringing the number of cultural events from 190 to 400 a year.

 

Interesting times

[Planodisney]

What's weird is that IMDB shows a release date for Dory in Saudi Arabia.

Ive never seen that before.

[cannastop]

Oh hey turns out Saudi Arabia actually did allow movie theaters after all. In 2018 though.

 

Also this:

 

https://variety.com/2019/film/news/saudi-arabia-movie-theaters-invest-35-billion-dollars-1203180529/

 

$35 billion for movie theaters.