RIYADH: Affirming the evolution of Saudi Arabia’s entertainment industry, a recent report from the Ministry of Commerce has revealed that the Kingdom’s cinema sector grew by 30 percent in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the same period a year ago.
In its Business Sector Bulletin for the second quarter, the ministry noted that 1,700 commercial registers were issued in the film production sector, compared to 1,300 in the second quarter of the previous year, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Elevating promising industries, including cinema, is one of the key goals outlined in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, as the Kingdom is steadily diversifying its economy, which has been dependent on oil for several decades.
According to the report, Riyadh issued 953 commercial registers, followed by Makkah with 501 and the eastern region with 155.
The report further pointed out that Madinah and Qassim issued 51 and 22 commercial registers, respectively.
Saudi Arabia’s film industry has witnessed massive progress over the recent years as movies from the Kingdom have attracted global attention in several international film festivals.
Earlier this month, “Banel & Adama,” a film backed by the Red Sea Fund, bagged two jury prizes at the inaugural Nouvelles Vagues International Film Festival in Biarritz, France.
On July 2, Saudi filmmaker Mohamed Al-Salman’s “Raven Song” — the Kingdom’s entry for this year’s Academy Awards — had its British premiere at the annual SAFAR Film Festival.
In May, during the Cannes Film Festival, Saudi Arabia’s Cultural Development Fund unveiled a historic $100 million film sector fund to foster the growth of local film and media.
“Through the Film Investment Program, Saudi Cultural Development Fund aims to enable the financial sector to participate in the growth of the film sector and help financial institutions to be able to provide financing to areas which they had not considered before,” Najla Al-Nomair, chief strategy and business development officer of the Cultural Development Fund, told Arab News in May.
In January, Saudi Entertainment Ventures, also known as SEVEN, took over US-headquartered AMC Entertainment Holdings’ 85 cinema screens in the Kingdom after buying 100 percent of the firm’s stake in the country.
As part of the deal, SEVEN, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund, kept the brand name of AMC Cinemas — which in 2018 became the first cinema operator in the Kingdom.
