Riyadh: The Saudi Arabia’s homegrown cinema chain Muvi Cinemas on Wednesday announced the opening of the biggest multiplex cinema in the Kingdom’s capital Riyadh, with 25 screens and a wide range of unique concepts.
The new theatre was unveiled by Muvi Cinemas in Riyadh Boulevard City with the premiere of brand-new Hollywood blockbuster ‘The Batman’.
“As the biggest movie theatre in Saudi Arabia, our customers will experience best-in-class entertainment experiences while enjoying the latest cinematic technologies,” Sultan Al-Hokair, founder and CEO of Muvi Cinemas was quoted by the Arab News as saying.
The Muvi cinema is well-known for its VIP experiences, offering luxury Muvi Suites and features a wide range of unique concepts such as the 4DX screen that promises to give moviegoers an immersive filming experience.
The unique concept is called Muvi Boutiques—which are theatres with a theme, each boutique features a different city or popular place including London, Beverly Hills and a Hollywood-themed boutique.
Muvi Cinema is reportedly the largest in the world in terms of the number of seats it offers. Although it was only launched in 2019, Muvi Cinemas now has 21 theatres across the country with a total of 195 screens.
Prohibition of cinema hall lifted
Saudi Arabia abolished a decades-long ban on theatres in 2017, as part of crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s commitment to reinvent the ultra-conservative country to an “open, moderate Islam” and eliminate extremist beliefs.
Despite objections from conservatives who have traditionally demonised movie theatres as vulgar and immoral, reviving cinemas constituted a paradigm change in the monarchy, which is pushing entertainment as part of a broad reform strategy for a post-oil period.
