Vox Cinemas open doors in Jeddah
Details
Rebecca Hawkes
| 28 January 2019

Vox Cinemas is launching in Jeddah on 28 January, following the lifting last year of a decades-old ban on movie theatres in Saudi Arabia.

The cinema, in Red Sea Mall, is the first of a planned 600 theatres planned by Vox Cinemas in the kingdom over the next five years, with a proposed investment of US$533 million.

Last April, the doors opened in Riyadh to Saudi Arabia’s first cinema for 35 years. The Development and Investment Entertainment Company (DIEC) – subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – is licensed to operate that cinema, in collaboration with the US-based company AMC Entertainment.

The opening of cinemas is part of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s Vision 2030 initiative, which hopes to diversify the economy from oil production with the growth of new industries, including entertainment.

Recent research from PwC Middle East estimates total cinema revenue in Saudi Arabia will reach $1.5 billion by 2030. The forecast, based on a projected 2030 population of 39.5 million, would see the country host 2,600 cinema screens, the consultancy said. PwC expects Saudi Arabia to open cinemas in up to 370 locations by 2030.

Across the Gulf region as a whole, there is planned development of more than 1,000 new cinema screens in the next three to five years, making a total of 2,300. The majority of these are to be in Saudi Arabia.

“The cinema industry in the GCC is coming of age with Saudi Arabia – the largest Arab economy – opening the market means massive opportunity for all industry stakeholders,” said Leila Masinaei, managing partner of Great Minds Events, organiser of November’s MENA Cinema Forum.

“Saudi Arabia’s Development Investment Entertainment Company (DIEC) which is armed with a budget of SR10 billion for the development and expansion of the cinema screens across the Kingdom, is acting as a catalyst in the development of the cinema sector that is projected to directly contribute SR1 billion to the Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product (GDP).”