Within the years that adopted Saudi Arabia’s reopening of cinemas in 2018, the nation boasted arguably probably the most thrilling and dynamic box-office market on the planet. A cinema-building spree quickly grew the nation’s display screen depend to its present degree of round 612. This helped Saudi leapfrog to the highest of the Center East market — the nation accounts for a formidable 42% of area’s field workplace this 12 months.
In world phrases, it’s now the fifteenth greatest box-office market on the planet, able to delivering wholesome returns for the proper of movie. Success tales embrace 2024 motion thriller Dangerous Boys: Trip Or Die starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence — the fourth entry in Sony Footage Leisure’s franchise just isn’t solely the most important movie of the 12 months in Saudi however the greatest ever within the territory, with a wholesome $23.5m on the field workplace.
However there’s now far much less positivity concerning the Saudi exhibition market in comparison with the go-go early years. Since 2022, annual box-office takings haven’t simply plateaued across the $250m mark however have slipped gently into reverse this 12 months, regardless of extra cinemas coming on-line.
That is partly as a result of ticket costs have dropped to encourage audiences to maintain coming to the cinema within the face of streamer competitors. Tickets now value round $13, a fall of greater than 30% from their peak. Saudi has gone from having the most costly tickets among the many Gulf Cooperation Council nations to the fourth costliest, behind the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait.
However the drop in ticket costs has not considerably boosted the market, with the consequence that some exhibitors and distributors are hurting. There’s speak of some cinemas being closed in Saudi consequently. Others are mentioned to be opening solely a proportion of their screens in a bid to cut back overheads akin to staffing prices. Excessive ticket taxes are consuming into exhibitor and distributor margins, and an over-concentration of screens in key cities is including to the issues.
Not less than one of many main exhibitor teams working in Saudi is claimed to be exploring a attainable sale amid excessive debt ranges incurred throughout its fast growth. Final 12 months, AMC Leisure Holdings, the world’s greatest cinema chain, exited the Saudi market within the face of intense competitors, promoting to Saudi Leisure Ventures (Seven), which is operated by the federal government’s Public Funding Fund.
One distribution government that spoke to Display screen Worldwide, who most well-liked to stay nameless, claimed main studios are solely releasing large movies to at least one struggling exhibitor as soon as they’ve been paid cash owed. “They’re renewing their KDMs [key delivery messages required to play an encrypted movie] on a weekly foundation, simply to verify they’re going to receives a commission, in any other case they received’t give them their movies.”
The distribution market has additionally cooled. Amid the joy of the nation opening up, distributors paid aggressive sums for the rights to large impartial movies. Bidding wars for titles from main US sellers had been widespread, however much less so now. Minimal ensures have dropped consequently, reflecting the fact of a market that has levelled out. “When Saudi opened up, nearly any movie would work. However now audiences are much more selective,” says the manager.
One shiny spot is the marketplace for Arabic-language content material, significantly from Egypt. The figures underline the manager’s level: the highest 5 box-office movies of the 12 months up to now embrace two Egyptian titles (motion drama Sons Of Rizk 3 and romantic comedy Gawaza Poisonous) and one Saudi comedy (Shabab El-Bomb). In accordance with Comscore, Egyptian titles now account for a formidable 25% of the Saudi market, whereas native Saudi options have a 7% share. US movies, by comparability, take 53% of field workplace within the nation.
Adon Quinn, CEO of Saudi exhibitor Muvi Cinemas, believes that Arabic content material can assist drive future progress. He predicts Arabic movies would possibly cross the 40% box-office share of the market subsequent 12 months, and will hit 50% by 2026-27. One of many causes for the recognition of Arabic content material is that audiences grew up with it on TV, earlier than cinemas reopened. “There are such a lot of nice native tales being developed and folks can resonate with what they’re seeing on display screen,” provides Quinn.
He factors out the broader Saudi box-office slowdown echoes what has occurred in markets world wide this 12 months. Its primary trigger, he says, is the depleted provide of content material brought on by Covid and final 12 months’s Hollywooden actors and writers strikes. “The strikes had a big effect on the primary half of 2024,” he observes. “We’ve seen when the correct content material is there, the viewers is there.”
Quinn thinks 2025 will see a “slight uptick” on the Saudi field workplace, however will probably be 2026 earlier than the Hollywood provide returns to pre-2019 ranges and drives progress once more.
Motion stations
There’s typically little correlation between the US and Saudi box-office charts for Hollywood content material; the identical movie can carry out very in a different way in every market. Saudi champ Dangerous Boys: Trip Or Die is a living proof. At time of writing, it’s the eleventh greatest movie within the US however considerably overperformed in Saudi in comparison with different markets — actually Saudi was the movie’s second greatest market worldwide after the US.
One of many causes is that Smith and Lawrence stopped within the territory as a part of the world tour to advertise the movie. It was the primary ever red-carpet premiere for a Hollywood studio movie within the nation. “What Sony did with Dangerous Boys actually helped,” says Quinn. “Loads of the studios are actually taking a look at this and contemplating Saudi as a part of the junket tour.”
Additionally, Saudi typically over-indexes on motion motion pictures like Dangerous Boys, says Robert Mitchell, director of theatrical insights at Gower Road Analytics. He cites The Beekeeper, starring Jason Statham, which has taken $6.2m in Saudi and is the seventh greatest movie this 12 months within the nation. Saudi was the number-four market globally for the title, with solely the US, China and Germany delivering higher figures.
Animation can also be common in Saudi. Inside Out 2 is the fourth greatest movie of the 12 months up to now, whereas The Wild Robotic and Despicable Me 4 are in tenth and eleventh place. Mitchell says that “Saudi Arabia has develop into an extremely necessary territory as a result of — for the correct movies — it may be very vital”.
Superhero motion pictures, nevertheless, don’t carry out fairly as properly in Saudi. Deadpool & Wolverine is a living proof: at first look, the Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman movie carried out properly in Saudi — it’s the 12 months’s sixth-biggest movie on $7m. However Mitchell factors out that Saudi was solely the Twenty sixth-highest market worldwide for the Marvel Studios’ outing.
Muvi Cinemas’ Quinn suggests “that fatigue with superhero movies began [in Saudi] a bit bit sooner than the remainder of the world”.
Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice additionally carried out in a different way in Saudi in comparison with different markets. It stands at quantity 44 within the Saudi box-office rating, whereas it’s quantity 4 within the US. Extra not too long ago, Depraved solely opened at quantity three in Saudi (Gladiator II in its second week was high), largely as a result of the IP just isn’t so well-known within the nation. Indian motion pictures can even generate good returns, with releases from India at the moment accounting for round 3% of field workplace this 12 months, whereas final 12 months they took a 5% share.
Lacking hyperlink
Notably, Saudi lacks arthouse cinemas equal to the UK’s Curzon and Picturehouse chains. It means arthouse titles discover most of their audiences on streaming platforms. For some, this factors to a lacking component of the Saudi cinema business. Exhibitors are likely to goal at mass audiences with large movies, moderately than concentrating on discreet segments attracted by various fare. “There’s little or no counter-programming,” says one government. “The massive multiplexes will all guess on one movie on the similar time. And if it fails, then it’s an enormous drawback.”
For his half, Quinn is optimistic about the way forward for the Saudi market. Muvi has not opened any new cinemas this 12 months; it at the moment has 21 theatres and 205 screens. However it’ll proceed to increase. Quinn says Muvi will open one other 5 cinemas and 60 screens within the subsequent 12 months, taking its presence to 11 cities within the Kingdom.
Total, he estimates Saudi could have 1,300-1,500 screens by 2030 — greater than double the present quantity. It appears a bullish forecast given the box-office slowdown this 12 months. However he sees Arabic-language content material as key for driving progress within the coming years. “Arabic content material is what’s going to unlock a variety of the secondary cities,” he says. “Particularly Saudi content material — we’ve seen it frequently over-performing within the secondary cities the place language could also be a bit bit extra of a barrier.”
Mitchell additionally strikes an optimistic word concerning the market, and places its box-office efficiency this 12 months into a world perspective. “The Saudi box-office market is barely down this 12 months, however it’s performing higher than most different markets 12 months on 12 months,” he says. “The very fact Saudi is down on final 12 months isn’t essentially an indicator Saudi isn’t rising.”
