TNSSaudi Arabia has said that public cinemas, after a ban that has spanned 35 years, it would allow cinemas to reopen with a likely March 2018 date touted.
Awwad Alawwad, the kingdom’s Minister of Culture and Information said:
As the industry regulator, the General Commission for Audiovisual Media has started the process for licensing cinemas in the Kingdom. We expect the first cinemas to open in March 2018.
Public cinemas in the country have been illegal since the 1980s, but a plan to reintroduce them has been mooted by the head of the General Authority for Entertainment, Amr al-Madani, as part of the government’s Vision 2030 slate of cultural and economic reforms.
Chief proposals include a reduction in unemployment from 11.6 percent to seven per cent and upping the private sector’s contribution to the economy from 40 percent to 65 percent.
