Cinema in Saudi Arabia since 2018: three stages in eight years
From fewer than a million tickets in the first year to 18.8 million in 2025, with local films that made a place for themselves in cinemas and festivals.
Work's history · Mashhad editorial team · 4 November 2026
Cinemas returned to Saudi Arabia on 16 April 2018. According to Al Eqtisadiah newspaper, box office revenue from that year through 2025 reached about SAR 5.4 billion, from about 95.5 million tickets.
The newspaper divides these years into three stages: the launch in 2018 and 2019, rapid growth from 2021 to 2023, then relative stability in 2024 and 2025.
The difference between the start and now is large: fewer than a million tickets in 2018 against 18.8 million in 2025. The number of films shown rose from 279 in 2020 to 538 in 2025.
On the local side, the Sollywood site names among this period's milestones “Shams Al-Ma'arif”, “Had Al-Tar”, “Sattar”, “Night Courier” and “Hobal”, as well as “Norah” by Tawfik Alzaidi, which received a special mention in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival.
Sources: Al Eqtisadiah, Sollywood
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