Saudi Arabia marks cinema opening

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia held a private screening Wednesday of the Hollywood blockbuster "Black Panther" to herald the launch of movie theaters in the kingdom, and tickets go on sale Thursday for public showings Friday.

Authorities planned the invitation-only event in a concert hall converted into a cinema complex in the capital, Riyadh. The screening, attended by both men and women, will be followed by a rush to build movie theaters in major cities.

The Saudi government dubbed Wednesday's event as "the showing of the first commercial film in the kingdom after more than 35 years."

Audience members clearly enjoyed the moment, eating popcorn and erupting into applause and hoots when the movie started.

"This is a landmark moment in the transformation of Saudi Arabia into a more vibrant economy and society," Saudi Minister of Culture and Information Awwad Alawwad said in statement ahead of the screening.

It's a stark reversal for a country where public movie screenings were banned in the 1980s during a wave of ultraconservatism sweeping Saudi Arabia. Many Saudi clerics view Western movies and even Arabic films made in Egypt and Lebanon as sinful.

Despite decades of ultraconservative dogma, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has sought to ram through a number of major social reforms with support from his father, King Salman.

The crown prince is behind measures such as lifting a ban on women driving taking effect this summer and bringing back concerts and other forms of entertainment to satiate the desires of the country's majority young population. The social push by the 32-year-old heir to the throne is part of his so-called Vision 2030, a blueprint for the country aiming to boost local spending and create jobs amid sustained lower oil prices.

The Saudi government projects the opening of movie theaters will contribute more than $24 billion to the economy and create more than 30,000 jobs by 2030. The kingdom says there will be 300 cinemas with around 2,000 screens built by 2030.

Over the past several years, Saudi Arabia has gradually been loosening restrictions on movie screenings, with local film festivals and screenings in makeshift theaters. For the most part, though, Saudis who wanted to watch a film in a movie theater would have to drive to nearby Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates for weekend trips to the cinema.

In the 1970s, there were informal movie screenings, but the experience could be interrupted by the country's religious police, whose powers have since been curbed.

Saudi writer and dissident Jamal Khashoggi describes the theaters of the 1970s as being "like American drive-ins, except much more informal."

By the 1980s, movie screenings were largely banned unless they took place in private residential compounds for foreigners or at cultural centers run by foreign embassies.

Access to streaming services, such as Netflix, and satellite TV steadily eroded attempts by the government to censor what the Saudi public could view. By 2013, the film "Wadjda" made history by becoming the first Academy Award entry for Saudi Arabia, though it wasn't nominated for the Oscars.

Movies screened in Saudi cinemas will be subject to approval by government censors, as is the case in other Arab countries. Scenes of violence are not cut, but scenes involving nudity, sex or even kissing often do get axed.