Moviegoers in Egypt can now enjoy the magic of movies in the safety of their cars at the new VOX drive-in cinema at Mountain View Ras El Hikma in North Coast, Egypt.
VOX Cinemas launched a new cinematic experience, the first of its kind in Egypt – VOX Cinemas Drive-In by the Sea, on Thursday 20th August 2020.
The new drive-in cinema located at Mountain View, Ras El Hikma in North Coast accommodates approximately 105 cars and will screen 2 sessions per day – 9pm and 12am.
The experience is priced at EGP350 and EGP550, both tickets are valid per car (maximum of four people) and include a food and drinks package. The Drive-In Supreme pack costs EGP350 and includes the admission of one car along with two medium popcorns and two water bottles. While the Drive-In Deluxe pack costs EGP550 and includes the admission of one car along with one Deluxe nachos, three large popcorns, one M&M’s pack, two soft drinks and two water bottles.
Once parked, audiences can simply tune into a designated radio frequency for the movie audio to be streamed straight into their in-car entertainment system.
Click here to view movie times.
Contact us for cinema advertising at the new VOX Drive-in cinema at Mountain View Ras El Hikma in Egypt.
Source: VOX Cinemas
Muvi Cinemas – Saudi Arabia’s first home-grown cinema brand, has opened the first Dolby Cinema screen in KSA, located at the U-Walk Boulevard, Arabian Centres in Riyadh
Dolby Cinema™ is a premium cinema created by Dolby Laboratories that combines Dolby proprietary technologies such as Dolby Vision™ and Dolby Atmos®, as well as other signature entrance and intrinsic design features, designed to make every visit a completely captivating cinematic event.
Dolby Vision™ brings the story alive with amazing brightness and darker darks to offer a more lifelike sense of depth, rendering colors and detail unlike other movie screens, and Dolby Atmos® transports audiences into the movie with breathtakingly realistic, moving audio that fills the room, while the clarity and precision creates a stunning, textured soundscape that adds layers of depth to each scene.
Films to be screened at the Dolby Cinema in U-Walk include Arabic drama/comedy Shams Al Maarif, English films My Spy and animation Trolls World Tour and Arabic comedy Al Ghasala.
There are a total of 251 Dolby Cinemas globally, with an additional 200 Dolby Cinema screens committed, and more than 300 movie titles being released or announced in Dolby Vision™ and Dolby Atmos®.
Speaking on the opening of the Dolby Cinema at U-Walk, Sultan Alhokair, CEO of Muvi Cinemas, said: “We are very excited to be opening Dolby Cinema and bringing the most powerful image and sound technology to Saudi Arabia. Dolby Cinema will provide a different experience for Saudi cinemagoers and will be the first of three screens to be added to our extensive portfolio of offerings.”
Muvi Cinemas was established in 2019 with headquarters in Riyadh. Last year, Muvi announced an expansion plan to launch 250 new screens across the Kingdom within 24 months to offer unique and exclusive experiences for all guests, and recruit and train more local talent. The cinema chain operates a total of 41 screens across the following locations in KSA: Mall of Arabia (Jeddah), Al Hamra Mall (Riyadh), Nakheel Mall (Dammam) and U-Walk (Riyadh).
Contact us for cinema advertising opportunities across the four locations of Muvi Cinemas in Saudi Arabia.
Sources: Muvi Cinemas, Arab News and BroadcastPro Middle East
Shot with IMAX Cameras, Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated sci-fi thriller, from Warner Bros., Tenet will release in cinemas across the UAE, KSA and Lebanon on Thursday 27th August (Wednesday 26th August in Egypt).
Towards the end of July, Warner Bros. confirmed that Tenet would release in cinema, towards the end of August, in 70 overseas territories including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United Kingdom.
The studio is still waiting for the go-ahead to debut Tenet in China – the world’s second-largest movie market. When theatres in the country first started to reopen, there were concerns that Tenet wouldn’t be able to screen there as exhibitors were not able to play movies that exceeded two hours in length — and Tenet clocks in at just over 2 hours and 30 minutes. But cinema owners have recently booked Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Inception and other old titles with lengthy runtimes, suggesting that China has eased up or doesn’t plan to enforce the restriction.
Warner Bros. also confirmed that the studio plans to move away from traditional global day-and-date release — a surprising break from tradition since North America is the world’s biggest film market and remains pivotal for major movies to turn a profit. Instead of a global day-and-date release, the studio hopes to innovate and recalibrate given the fact that foreign markets are already starting to reopen safely and is in desperate need for new Hollywood movies to entice audiences.
AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron praised Warner Bros. for sticking to its promise of a theatrical release for Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, saying the studio is “doing something heroic.”
Watch the trailer for Tenet below:
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Source: Variety
VOX Cinemas opened its tenth cinema at Tabuk Park in Saudi Arabia (the first ever cinema in the city of Tabuk) on Monday 27th July 2020, in line with its commitment to expand its footprint to new cities across the country.
The 11-screen multiplex has a seating capacity of 831 and features VOX Cinemas’ signature concepts including two KIDS screens, a colourful and dedicated auditorium for young movie lovers, and VIP, which offers guests a more luxurious experience. VOX Cinemas Tabuk Park combines world-class entertainment with an enhanced range of innovative and homegrown food and beverage options, including a Nutella Bar as well as the VOX Cinemas Candy Bar.
Tabuk Park is the second VOX location to open in Saudi Arabia since the reopening of cinemas in the country following the COVID-19 cinema closure. With a total of 112 screens across 10 movie theatres in four cities, VOX Cinemas is the largest exhibitor by screen count, admissions, market share and the largest independent distributor in the Kingdom.
Speaking on the opening of Tabuk Park, Mohamed Al Hashemi — Country Head, Majid Al Futtaim Ventures KSA said, “We are extremely proud to be bringing the magic of motion picture to Tabuk for the first time, which demonstrates our commitment to supporting the Quality of Life Program by enhancing participation in cultural and entertainment activities and creating job opportunities in the film industry. It also marks another major milestone for VOX Cinemas, which surpassed 100 screens in Saudi Arabia with the opening of VOX Cinemas Sahara Mall, Riyadh in June. We continue to build on that momentum by expanding our footprint in new cities such as Tabuk with plans to open in Hail and Jubail in the coming months. We will also be bringing our world class experiences to Jeddah at the end of the year, in line with our ambitious plans to build 600 cinema screens across the Kingdom by 2023 as part of a SAR 2 billion investment. Saudi Arabia has a burgeoning entertainment sector and we look forward to leveraging the growth opportunities that Vision 2030 presents.”
Motivate Val Morgan congratulates VOX Cinemas on the opening of Tabuk Park and warmly welcomes this new location to our regional cinema circuit.
Contact us for cinema advertising opportunities at this new VOX location in KSA.
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Source: VOX Cinemas
Attention movie-lovers!
While cinemas in certain countries still remain closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and big movie titles keep shifting global cinematic release dates, there’s still some interesting news from the world of movies which you ought to know.
Here’s a round-up of the big announcements made in July 2020:
20th Century Studios has released a new teaser trailer for the long-delayed The New Mutants.
The New Mutants was produced by 20th Century Fox and writer/director Josh Boone shot the film back in 2017, when it was understood that it would be released as a new Fox Marvel movie akin to Logan or Dark Phoenix. However, the film was consistently delayed and pushed back to the point that when Disney bought Fox, The New Mutants was still unreleased. It’s a ‘holdover’ film that doesn’t have any specific connective tissue to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so fans have been eager to see how Disney would handle it.
The film is currently slated to hit cinemas on August 28 – but Disney/20th Century Studios may continue to hold onto its theatrical release if things don’t improve on the COVID-19 front.
Check out the teaser trailer below:
Read more on this at Collider
Studios continue to move movie premiere dates due to US theatres remaining closed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some of the shifts announced in the month of July 2020:
Tenet (August 12, 2020 to TBD, 2020)
Mulan (August 21, 2020 to TBD)
The Broken Hearts Gallery (August 7, 2020 to TBD)
Bill & Ted Face the Music (August 28, 2020 to September 1, 2020)
A Quiet Place 2 (September 4, 2020 to April 23, 2021)
What About Love (September 25, 2020 to February 12, 2021)
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (September 11, 2020 to June 4, 2021)
The French Dispatch (October 16, 2020 to TBD)
Top Gun: Maverick (December 23, 2020 to July 2, 2021)
Image Credits: Ng Han Guan-AP-Shutterstock
Movie theatres in China began reopening in July, and Chinese authorities also gave the go-ahead for cinemas in Beijing to reopen. With about 835 cinemas open across the country (about 12% of the total), the Chinese box office has been steadily climbing in July with films such as Sheep Without A Shepherd, Dolittle, and Bloodshot drawing audiences back to cinemas. More big Hollywood titles are to follow including the anniversary re-release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 1917, and Bad Boys for Life.
This is definitely good news for the cinema industry as China was the fastest growing film market in the world prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Read more on this at Deadline
Warner Bros. has taken Christopher Nolan’s latest espionage thriller Tenet off the release calendar due to the surge COVID-19. The film was set to become the first major studio film back in theatres, however, the studio assured fans that the film is still coming to theatres in 2020.
However, Warner Bros. has mentioned that they will be tossing the traditional global day-and-date release, and working on a non-traditional strategy to maintain its commitment to the theatrical experience around the world by first releasing overseas where cinemas have reopened – Europe, Asia, Middle East and 12% of the total in China, for two thirds of the global box office for a blockbuster such as Tenet typically comes from outside the US.
The studio is giving exact release dates, but sources elsewhere say the studio hopes to begin opening Tenet in international markets in late August before it arrives in the US in the first part of September (even if only in select cities).
Fingers crossed for Tenet – the push we’ve been waiting for to jump-start the cinema industry in times of post COVID-19 recovery.
Read more on this at The Hollywood Reporter
With most countries starting to reopen borders, especially Europe, Tom Cruise is hoping to return to Norway with his crew this fall to continue filming Mission: Impossible 7.
The upcoming sequel is back on track with filming and was recently granted permission to start shooting again after being delayed by the pandemic. Cruise is also continuing his plans to make history with the first narrative feature shot in space, and Universal Pictures is in negotiations to land the new film, which will be shot in cooperation with NASA on the International Space Station.
Read more on this at Deadline
Image Credits: The Playlist
Edgar Wright, the beloved filmmaker behind movies such as Shaun of the Dead and Baby Driver, has signed on to develop, executive produce, and direct a ghostly film named Stage 13 – an adaptation of one of novelist/screenwriter Simon Rich‘s recent short stories. Despite the presence of a ghost, Stage 13 won’t be a traditional horror film. The film centres on a young, aspiring director who’s plucked from obscurity and hired to direct a movie on major film studio’s backlot – only to discover that the only reason he was given the chance in the first place is because the sound stage is haunted and the studio head is trying to get rid of the ghost, an aspiring actress who still desperately wants to be a star.
Read more on this at /Film
Image Credits: Paramount Pictures
Paramount’s Grease prequel Summer Lovin’ is revving up its engine, with the studio tapping Brett Haley to direct the film. The new movie tells the story of greaser Danny and good girl Sandy’s summer fling, originally hinted at in the song Summer Nights in the original 1978 movie. Leah McKendrick penned the script with Temple Hill and Picturestart producing.
The film will mark Haley’s first film at a major studio after cutting his teeth on the indie and streaming service circuit.
Read more on this at Deadline
Image Credits: Warner Bros
In a live web panel at the first inaugural Justice Con, Zack Snyder revealed that Zach Snyder’s Justice League (The Snyder’s Cut) will be more than 214 minutes and confirmed none of Joss Whedon’s shots will be in this version.
The director didn’t come empty handed, for he shared a brief unfinished clip, along with a few details about the process of completing his film.
Snyder also said that he was in the process working on restoring the aspect ratio of the film back to the full frame, IMAX cut what he originally intended. He also revealed that he’s been collaborating with composer Junkie XL as they complete the score alongside the film’s additional footage.
Justice Con ran from 25 – 26 July 2020 and was organized by The Nerd Queens (Cole and Nana) and Wonder Meg, Justice Con. The event brought together fans, cast and crew members Snyder’s Justice League, and charitable organizations Ink to the People, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, for a series of live panels dedicated to the release of the Snyder Cut and its charity affiliates.
Read more on this at The Hollywood Reporter
As part of the latest offering by cinema exhibitors in the UAE – in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Reel Cinemas has launched its latest drive-in cinema in Abu Dhabi, brining the total count to five drive-ins across the UAE.
Reel Cinemas launched its third drive-in cinema at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi on Thursday 9th July 2020, and will screen movies three nights a week on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:45pm. The entrance to the drive-in cinema is located at Yas Marina Circuit’s East Gate.
The cinema accommodates 63 cars, with a limit of up to five people per vehicle if family or up to three if not. Tickets are priced Dh160 per car, and includes a food and drinks package (popcorn, soft drinks, water and chocolate). Extra snacks can be ordered from inside the car, by alerting staff using the hazard lights.
Upon entry, guests will have their temperatures checked, before being directed to a specific parking spot. Visitors are requested to remain in their vehicles at all times, with the exception of using the toilets. Wearing of facemasks are mandatory if windows are lowered to speak to event staff, or when leaving the car.
Reel Cinemas launched its first drive-in experience at The Dubai Mall in late May, followed by another in Dubai Hills Estate in the fourth week of June – both launching after VOX Cinemas’ drive in at Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates, and the announcement by Urban Entertainment of a free drive-in cinema in Sharjah at Madar – Aljada (which opened to the public on Wednesday 1st July 2020).
For more information on movie schedules, visit www.reelcinemas.ae, and don’t forget to check out their Drive-in experience FAQs.
Please Note: Drive-in movie sessions at Yas Marina Circuit currently show up to 1st August 2020. Additional movie sessions beyond 1st August will be added closer towards those dates.
Related Articles:
Reel Opens Second Drive-in Cinema at Dubai Hills
Reel Launches Drive-in Cinema at The Dubai Mall
VOX Opens Rooftop Drive-in Cinema at Mall of the Emirates
Sources: The National & Reel Cinemas
Saudi Arabia lifted its national curfew on June 21, 2020 and resumed commercial activities, which included the reopening of cinemas across the country.
Following the reopening of cinemas by VOX and Muvi cinemas in KSA, AMC Cinemas reopened its doors to the public on Thursday 2nd July 2020. In line with government restrictions, social distancing remains in place and wearing a face mask is mandatory.
The cinema exhibitors has also posted videos on its social media channels highlighting the safety and precautionary measures they have taken to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for cinemagoers:
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
Similar to all cinemas across the region, AMC Cinemas will screen previously released blockbusters from 2019 and early 2020, until new blockbusters start releasing from August 2020.
Visit amccinemas.com for more information on movies screening across its locations, and contact us for cinema advertising opportunities across the AMC cinema circuit in KSA.
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VMLY&R Dubai has been named MENA’s regional best agency of the past 10 years in Cannes Lions’ first Lions Creativity Report of the Decade – an award presented to the agency that has performed best across the festival’s annual agency rankings over the last 10 years.
VMLY&R (previously Y&R until it merged with WPP sister agency VML in 2018) has produced Cannes Lions-winning work over the past 10 years for clients including the Interreligious Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with whom it created ‘One Book for Peace’ and ‘One Poster for Peace’, which won Gold in 2017 and 2018. The work on this project helped to show Christians and Muslims that there is more they have in common than that which divides them.
On winning the award, Kalpesh Patankar, CCO of VMLY&R MENA, told Campaign Magazine Middle East: “Our big learning of the decade is that no matter where you work, you have to be willing to break the rules. I’m very grateful to all of the people who have brought us this far and contributed passionately to our story. In the next decade I hope we can write a story that is even bigger and bolder.”
Georges Barsoum, CEO of VMLY&R MENA, said: “This couldn’t have happened without wonderful clients who believed in our ‘connected brands’ philosophy, whereby great storytelling is empowered by technology to create brands that not only live in people’s culture but rather bend it to create impact. Thank you Cannes Lions for being such an inspiring platform that pushes the bar higher and higher.”
TBWA Hunt Lascaris, Johannesburg, South Africa and Ogilvy, Johannesburg, South Africa secured second and third rankings (respectively) for the MENA region.
WPP was named the best holding company in the rankings. The business, which has its headquarters in the UK and owns the Grey, Ogilvy, VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson networks, was named Holding Company of the Year at seven straight Cannes Lions festivals from 2011 to 2017, although it was surpassed at the last two events by US rival Omnicom, which finished second over the decade, followed Interpublic who came in third.
Motivate Media Group and Motivate Val Morgan (the representatives of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in the UAE) congratulates VMLY&R Dubai on winning this prestigious accolade.
Source: Campaign Magazine Middle East
VOX Cinemas launched its ninth cinema in Saudi Arabia at Sahara Mall (Riyadh) on Wednesday 24 June 2020.
The cinema features 11 screens with a total seating capacity of 991 seats and includes VOX Kids and GOLD cinema experiences.
The launch of the cinema at Sahara Mall also marked a significant milestone for VOX, having surpassed 100 screens in Saudi Arabia in just over two years.
With the opening of Sahara Mall closely following the reopening of cinemas after a three-month closure in KSA due to the COVID-19 pandemic, VOX has undertaken extensive precautionary measures and has implemented thorough sanitization and physical distancing protocols across all cinema locations in the country.
Majid Al Futtaim also conducted extensive research to identify the top safety measures that would make guests feel comfortable about returning to its venues and used the findings to proactively reimagine the guest experience, which translated into a comprehensive site and training plan to ensure that all leisure, entertainment and cinema experiences were completely prepared for the reopening.
Mohamed Al-Hashemi, Country Head, Majid Al Futtaim Ventures, said, “We look forward to reopening VOX Cinemas, Little Explorers, Magic Planet and Yalla! Bowling in the Kingdom and welcoming our guests back through our doors. After weeks of preparation, we have introduced innovative new health and safety measures which have been successfully implemented across our entertainment experiences in Dubai.
“Since we reopened last month, 93% of guests have said they are satisfied or extremely satisfied with our enhanced measures. We will ensure a best in class experience in the Kingdom across our experiences with health, safety and customer satisfaction at the core of our reopening plans.”
“Having established VOX Cinemas in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, we are excited to expand our footprint in Tabuk, Hail and Jubail later this year. We remain greatly appreciative of the ongoing support and guidance given to us by the Ministry of Media, GCAM and the Quality of Life Program.”
VOX Cinemas presently operates 101 screens across 9 locations in KSA.
Motivate Val Morgan congratulates VOX Cinemas on the opening of Sahara Mall and warmly welcomes this new location to our regional cinema circuit.
Contact us for cinema advertising opportunities at this new VOX location.
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VOX Cinemas Opens at Al Qasr Mall in Riyadh
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Sources: VOX Cinemas and Zawya
VOX Cinemas, the dedicated cinema arm of Majid Al Futtaim, the leading shopping mall, communities, retail and leisure pioneer across the Middle East, Africa and Asia has revealed findings of a new research study which demonstrate that the cinema industry in the MENA region will bounce back as an overwhelming 98% of respondents intend to return to movie theatres soon after reopening.
The research was conducted in waves between April to May 2020 by Majid Al Futtaim’s Happiness Lab — its proprietary market research online community in the UAE — and surveyed 1,240 respondents during the temporary closures of cinema, leisure and entertainment experiences. The research findings explored consumer sentiment as well as the health and safety measures that consumers would expect to see when returning to the cinema.
After dining out at a restaurant or café, going to the cinema was the second-most missed activity during restrictions and 75% of respondents stated they are eager to resume their cinema-going habit within just four weeks of reopening.
When asked to identify the top safety measures that would make them feel most comfortable about returning to the cinema, physical distancing in queues was deemed the most important by 86% of respondents, with 81% citing a preference for advance contactless booking of tickets and F&B online to avoid queuing altogether. Other factors encouraging the movie-going population to return include staff wearing masks and gloves (81%) and physical distancing between seats (73%).
Commenting on the research, Cameron Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer of Majid Al Futtaim Cinemas and Majid Al Futtaim Leisure & Entertainment said, “We remain fundamentally confident about the future and resilience of the cinema industry. This research demonstrates that the industry will bounce back and the culture of cinema-going will resume. We have proactively reimagined the guest experience at all of the Majid Al Futtaim entertainment experiences, including VOX Cinemas, Ski Dubai and Ski Egypt, Magic Planet and Dreamscape, and we are delighted that the measures put in place are all aligned with the feedback that was evidenced in these surveys.”
Mitchell added “Internationally, cinemas have reopened across Europe and Asia, as well as in a number of American states, and attendance is increasing week on week. The theatrical box office in the cinema-going nation of South Korea, for example, has recently showed a significant sign of recovery, with weekend ticket sales reaching 402,000, a week-on-week gain of 112%. These figures bode well for the future of cinema and we are confident that ticket sales in other markets will follow a similar trend.”
Jocelyn Davies, Head of Customer Experience and Insights at Majid Al Futtaim, Leisure, Entertainment and Cinemas added, “Listening to our guests is a core value at Majid Al Futtaim, and during our period of closure, it was essential to understand customer sentiment to enable us to develop new concepts and evolve the entire cinema experience. We are delighted that the new measures included have reassured our guests, with over 93% of guests who have returned since reopening being satisfied/extremely satisfied with the new protective measures that we have in place.”
In addition to its already stringent sanitisation standards, VOX Cinemas has introduced extensive precautionary measures including disinfecting auditoriums using fogging machines and sanitizing surfaces after every guest interaction. It is also now mandatory for employees to wear masks and gloves, and all team members have their temperatures checked on arrival for shifts.
Safe distancing ambassadors have been introduced and instructional signage has been installed to guide guests on best physical distancing practices. The capacity in auditoriums has been reduced and seats in front of, behind and next to a guest’s selection will be left vacant to maintain physical distancing. The occupancy has also been decreased in other public areas such as restrooms and elevators.
Guests can enjoy a queue less cinema experience by advance booking their tickets and F&B options online as well as a contactless collection service. To further minimize physical contact and exposure, VOX Cinemas offers contactless payment options and guests can self-scan their tickets before entering the auditorium.
Source – Majid Al Futtaim (Press Release)
