Saudi Arabia to host cinema test screening with ‘Black Panther’

RIYADH: Blockbuster action flick “Black Panther” will play at a cinema test screening in Saudi Arabia Wednesday, the first in a series of trial runs before movie theatres open to the wider public next month.

The kingdom lifted a 35-year ban on cinemas last year as part of a far-reaching liberalisation drive, with US giant AMC Entertainment granted the first licence to operate movie theatres. Anticipation had been building after the authorities announced earlier this month that Saudi Arabia’s first cinema in over three decades would open on Wednesday in Riyadh. But officials this week said it would be a test screening at the new cinema in the King Abdullah Financial District and movie theatres are expected to open to the public in May. “It will be the first in a series of test screenings, attended by industry specialists, that will be held... to support final preparations for the opening of the cinema to the wider public,” said the information ministry’s Centre for International Communication. AMC Entertainment, whose chief executive Adam Aron will attend Wednesday’s screening, signed a non-binding agreement in December with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to build and operate cinemas across the kingdom.

Saudi state media has said the company expects to open 40 cinemas across 15 Saudi cities over the next five years. International theatre chains have long eyed the kingdom as the Middle East’s last untapped mass market of more than 30 million people, the majority of whom are under 25.