First Saudi cinema opens with Black Panther

​Riyadh: The lights dimmed and the crowd of men and women erupted into applause and hoots as Hollywood's blockbuster "Black Panther" premiered in Saudi Arabia's first movie theatre. Though it was a private, invitation-only screening on Wednesday evening, for many Saudis it marked one of the clearest moments of change to sweep the country in decades. 

It's seen as part of a new era in which women will soon be allowed to drive and people in the kingdom will be able to go to concerts and fashion shows, and tuck into a bucket of popcorn in a cinema. 

"It's a new era, a new age. It's that simple. Things are changing, progress is happening. We're opening up and we're catching up with everything that's happening in the world," said Rahaf Alhendi, who attended the show. Authorities said the public would be able to purchase tickets online on Thursday for shows starting from Friday. But there may be delays. Movies screened in Saudi cinemas will be subject to approval by government censors, and Wednesday night's premiere was no exception. 

Scenes of violence were not cut, but a final scene involving a kiss was axed. Still, it's a stark reversal for a country where public movie screenings were banned in the 1980s during a wave of ultraconservatism that swept 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 pushed through a number of major social reforms with support from his father, King Salman, to satiate the desires of the country's majority young population. 

US-based AMC, one of the world's biggest movie theater operators, only two weeks earlier signed a deal with Prince Mohammed to operate the first cinema in the kingdom. "This is a historic day for your country," Adam Aron, CEO of AMC Entertainment, told the crowd at the screening. 

AMC and its local partner hurriedly transformed a concert hall in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, into a cinema complex for Wednesday's screening. Aron said the company plans to rip out the current concert-style seats and replace them with plush leather recliners and build three more screens in the complex to accommodate up to 5,000 movie-goers a day.  

Samer Alsourani travelled from Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province for the event. He commended the crown prince for following through on his promises to modernise the country. "This is the first time that we really see something that's really being materialised," he said.  The social reforms undertaken by the 32-year-old heir to the throne are part of his so-called Vision 2030, a blueprint for Saudi Arabia that aims to boost local spending and create jobs amid sustained lower oil prices. 

For the most part, though, until now Saudis who wanted to watch a film in a movie theater had 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.