Saudi box office did a total of US$238 million in 2021, a 95% increase compared to the previous year.
Saudi Arabia in 2021 continued its exponential growth as a theatrical box office market with revenue totaling US$238 million for the year, a 95% increase compared with 2020 when the total intake had been $122 million, according to figures provided by Comscore.
Four years after the removal of the kingdom’s 35-year-old ban on movie theatres, Saudi Arabia has now achieved the status as the West Asian region’s top theatrical market in terms of gross box office, surpassing the UAE, which achieved a box office of US$130m for the year 2021.
Saudi cinemas witnessed the release of 340 new films in 2021, up from 222 films in 2020. The top-grossing 2021 title was Egyptian comedy Waafet Reggaala (A Stand Worthy of Men), which did US$15 million, making it the country’s top grosser ever since moviegoing was reinstated in January 2018.
Spider-Man: No Way Home was the top-grossing Hollywood title in Saudi Arabia in 2021, earning US$11.2 million and continuing to do well in 2022, ranking the No. 2 spot on the chart. It was followed by Cruella, which grossed US$9.1 million, and Guy Ritchie’s Wrath of Man, which made US$8.3 million in Saudi cinemas.
Egyptian comedy, Mesh Ana (Not Me), featuring local megastar Tamer Hosny, weighed in at No. 5 on the 2021 Saudi box office chart with US$8.2 million, while another release from Egypt Mama Hamel (Mom Is Pregnant), about a 60+ woman who is somehow expecting a child, came in at No. 10, pulling US$5.9 million.
Saudi Arabia’s surge in box office grosses is clearly driven by the increase in multiplexes across the nation. The number of multi-screen movie theaters in Saudi Arabia grew from 33 locations at the start of 2021 to 53 locations by December 2021, an increase of 20 new locations, according to Comscore.
According to figures revealed in December during the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah by Bahaa Abdulmajeed -an official from the Saudi Investment Ministry, Saudi Arabia now has 430 screens and counting, and has an ambitious target of reaching 2,600 screens by 2030. Several analysts, including PwC, see Saudi as becoming a billion-dollar movie market in the next few years.
Currently, Saudi-owned Muvi Cinemas operates the highest number of local cinemas, with 21 locations (including its drive-in cinema) across the Kingdom. They are followed by VOX Cinemas with 15 locations. U.S. theater chain AMC Cinemas with 10 locations, Lebanon’s Empire Cinemas with 5 locations and Mexican-owned Cinépolis Cinemas which now operates 2 multiplexes in Saudi.
Top 10 Box Office Hits in Saudi Arabia in 2021
Source: Variety
2021 witnessed the return of movies to the big screen with the release of the most anticipated movies that were delayed by the pandemic.
Hollywood had an active year with a variety of films released, such as sci-fi flicks, Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, musicals, character dramas, thrillers, and animations. The audience were quick to re-embrace cinema as their favourite cultural activity.
As we are nearing the end of 2021, let us look back at some of the highlights from the year 2021 that helped bring movies back to the big screen.
UAE:
KSA:
Egypt:
Oman:
Kuwait:
Bahrain:
Qatar:
Lebanon:
(based on Box Office)
10 blockbuster ads (in no particular order) that lit up the big screen in 2021, as featured in Campaign Middle East :
Brand: Cartier
Title: Expo 2020 Women’s Pavilion
Agency: MediaCom MENA
Brand: Yas Island Abu Dhabi
Title: Stayin’ On Yas
Agency: Starcom
Brand: stc
Title: Our Culture is Our Future
Agency: Universal Media KSA
Brand: Etisalat
Title: #TogetherMeans
Agency: Initiative Abu Dhabi
Brand: Hermès
Title: The Legend of Hermès Della Cavalleria
Agency: Havas Media ME
Brand: NEOM
Title: Made to Change
Agency: Starcom
Brand: Mercedes
Title: The New Mercedes-Maybach S-Class
Agency: OMD
Brand: TRA Bahrain
Title: Digital Theft
Brand: Gulf Bank
Title: AlDanah
Agency: Wavemaker MENA
Brand: Porsche
Title: Macan – Your Sidekick,Everywhere
Agency: BPG Kuwait
There are a dizzying amount of exciting new movies coming to theaters in 2022. These are the top 10 movies you should be looking forward to in the coming year:
For more on the movies coming out in 2022, be sure to check out our sizzle reel, which launches towards the end of January 2022
Souces : Vox Cinemas, IMDB, Box Office Mojo
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – Marvel’s first epic to star an Asian hero and Disney’s first theatrical-only release since 2019, had a lot of factors against it, but it didn’t just overcome them, it practically somersaulted over.
According to tracking website Box Office Mojo, Shang-Chi earned $8.8 million from Thursday night (September 2) previews which began at 7pm across North America, the second highest preview result of the pandemic era behind Black Widow‘s $13.2 million, but rang up an estimated US$75.5 million at U.S. theaters between Friday September 3, and Sunday September 5 (labor weekend). As of September 19, the blockbuster has garnered US$160.9 million and US$112 million at the domestic and international box office (respectively), which equates to over US$272.9 million at worldwide box office (1.8 times the production budget of US$150 million), and is the second biggest opening of 2021.
Bob Chapek, Disney’s CEO, described the film as an “interesting experiment”, for the movie was the first franchise by studio to exclusively release in theatre, without the simultaneous release on Disney+, since the outbreak of the pandemic. But Simu Liu, the lead actor in Shang Chi, wrote on twitter – “We are not an experiment… We are the surprise.”
Media and industry pundits too labeled Shang-Chi as a ‘gamble’ for the studio’s choice of committing to a theatre only release, citing various reasons: the pandemic affected box office ticket sales, the fact that Labor Day weekend is typically slow for theaters, and the protagonist is a newcomer (with tweethearts of social media even referring to Liu as ‘Shang-Who’). However, based on movie reviews and box office figures: Shang-Chi broke the high-risk perception by major studios of releasing exclusively in theatres and not having a simultaneous streaming release, proved that the pandemic won’t stop people showing up for Marvel, and that even on a traditionally slow weekend, audiences were willing to return to the big screen for highly anticipated blockbusters.
After Black Widow, Jungle Cruise and Cruella concurrently released on Disney+, the studio announced last week that the rest of its 2021 slate — including Marvel’s Eternals and Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of West Side Story — will each screen exclusively in theaters. The news is promising for cinema exhibitors, for Disney films are routinely among the highest-grossing of the year.
Next up for Marvel are Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home, releasing October 21, November 4 and December 16, 2021.
Contact us for cinema advertising alongside these upcoming blockbusters.
Sources: npr, The Numbers, Variety, Vulture, L.A Times and Cinemablend
The recent release of the fashion spectacle – Cruella, on the BIG screen will be followed by a few other female-centric movie over Q3 and Q4 of 2021.
As history has witnessed, numerous female-centric films have performed well at box office and have been acknowledged and appreciated by audiences and critics alike:
Captain Marvel
Worldwide BO – Over $1.12M
UAE Admissions – Over 425k
Padmaavat (Hindi)
Worldwide BO – $741,630,951
UAE Admissions – Over 357K
Ocean’s 8
Worldwide BO – $741,630,951
UAE Admissions – Over 236k
Wonder Woman 1984
UAE BO – $3,171,866
This year’s Academy Awards also witnessed females bag awards across a range of categories – the Oscar for Best Director was won by Chloé Zhao for her movie Nomadland, Frances McDormand won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in Nomadland. and Yuh-Jung Youn took home the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Minari. Here are the female-centric movies that are a must-watch on the big screen over the rest of 2021:
A Quiet Place II
Real life couple and reel life iconic pairing of director-actress duo John Krasinski and Emily Blunt are back with the sequel to their 2018 thriller. In The Quiet Place II, the Abbott family face the terrors of the outside world. Forced to venture into the unknown, they realize the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats lurking beyond the sand path. Catch the eerie blockbuster in cinemas on 10 June 2021.
Black Widow
In Marvel Studios’ action-packed spy thriller, Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff confronts the darker parts of her life when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger. This blockbuster resales on 9 July 2021.
Respect
Directed by Liesl Tommy, Respect is the biography of iconic singer, Aretha Franklin. Aretha sings in her father’s church choir as a child and grows up to become an international musical superstar and legend. Catch the highly anticipated musical delight in cinemas on 19 August 2021.
Other blockbusters starring a female(s) in a lead role include:
The Suicide Squad
The sequel to the 2016 Suicide Squad, is set to release across cinemas on 5 August 2021. The movie revolves around super-villains Harley Quinn, Bloodsport, Peacemaker, and a collection of cons at Belle Reve prison who join the super-secret Force X. Heavily armed, they are dropped off at the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese where they must fight to live.
Eternals
The Marvel debut of award-winning Director Chloé Zhao witnesses the Eternals be a part of various historic changes throughout the centuries during their time at Earth, however they have never interfered….until now. The visual spectacle releases in cinemas on 4 November 2021.
Is your brand looking to target female audiences? Be part of the BIG Ticket female-centric event on the BIG Screen in 2021 and reach your ideal audience.
Contact us to make cinema an integral part of your media plan.
Sources: IMDB, Aviation Analysis, Whip Media and Zoella
Here’s an extensive line-up of movies releasing in cinema over summer in 2021!
With the global rollout of the vaccine, cinemas in parts of the US now open and UK set to open its doors to cinemagoers in May, multiple production houses have now confirmed the theatrical release date for most movies postponed as a result of the pandemic, with cinema lovers now having lots to look forward to this summer.
Here’s a comprehensive list of movies set to hit the BIG screen this summer:
Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway
A sequel to the 2018 animation blockbuster, the second installment witnesses Peter Rabbit move to the big city upon finding the garden life redundant. However, not every sail must be smooth – he meets people from different walks of life in the big city and eventually ends up creating havoc for his family! Join Peter on this journey in a cinema near you on 13 May 2021.
Cruella
The live-action movie stars Emma Stone as a young Cruella de Vil – the famous villain from ‘101 Dalmatians’. The story revolves around Cruella’s years as a fashion designer in the 70s, when she becomes obsessed with dogs’ skin – especially Dalmatians. The movie is set to release on the BIG screen on 27 May 2021.
Fast & Furious 9
Make way for the 9th installment in the Fast Saga! The plot of the movie centres on Dominic Toretto and his crew having to join forces to battle the most skilled assassin and high-performance driver they’ve ever encountered, who also happens to be Dom’s forsaken brother Jakob. Will Dom be able to save those he loves, or will he go down fighting? Find out on 25 June 2021.
The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It
Real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren are back with a chilling story of terror, murder and unknown evil. The third installment of the real-life inspired series revolves around the fight for the soul of a young boy, which leads to something that is unknown in U.S history – a murder suspect claiming demonic possession as a defense. The movie is set to releases in cinema on 3 June 2021.
A Quiet Place II
The sequel to the 2018 blockbuster follows the events at the home of the Abbott family, who now face the terrors of the outside world. Compelled to resort to the unknown, the Abbott’s realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threat lurking beyond the sand path. Venture into the unknown with them on 10 June 2021 at a cinema near you.
The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard
The world’s most lethal odd duo – bodyguard Michael Bryce and hitman Darius Kincaid, have taken on another life-threatening mission – to save Darius’s wife Sonia. The trio get caught amidst a global plot only to find that they are all that stand between Europe and a vengeful and powerful madman. Join the fun deadly mayhem on 17 June 2021.
Black Widow
In Marvel Studios’ action-packed spy thriller, Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff confronts the darker parts of her life when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger. This action-packed blockbuster resales on 9 July 2021.
The Suicide Squad
The sequel to the 2016 Suicide Squad, is set to release across cinemas on 5 August 2021. The movie revolves around super-Villains Harley Quinn, Bloodsport, Peacemaker, and a collection of cons at Belle Reve prison who join the super-secret Force X. Heavily armed, they are dropped off at the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese where they must fight to live.
Free Guy
After multiple reschedules, this blockbuster starring Ryan Reynolds is set to release on 12 August 2021. The movie’s plot is based on a bank teller named Guy, who realizes he is a character in a video game that is soon going offline! Will he win the race against time to save the game before the developers can shut it down? Find out this summer.
Candyman
A sequel to the 1992 horror film, Candyman makes a comeback to a reestablished neighborhood of Chicago where the legend began. A decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, Anthony and his partner move into a loft in the now gentrified Cabrini, unknowingly opening a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifying wave of violence. This spine-chilling thriller is set to release in cinema on 24 August 2021.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
Once the booming home of pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corporation, Raccoon City is now a dying Midwestern town. The company’s production plant has left the city as a barren wasteland with great evil brewing below the surface. A small group of survivors must work together to uncover the truth behind the crimes of Umbrella Corporation and make it through the night. Watch the eventful night unfold in a theatre near you on 2 September 2021.
The Boss Baby 2: Family Business
The Templeton brothers have become adults and drifted away from each other, but a new boss baby with a cutting-edge approach is about to bring them together again – and inspire a new family business.
Other movies set to release over summer in 2021 include:
Troll: The Tale of Tail (May 2021), Spirit Untamed (June 2021), The Forever Purge (July 2021), Jungle Cruise (July 2021), Reminiscence (August 2021), Stillwater (August 2021), Shang-Chi: The Legend of the 10 Rings (September 2021), The Addams Family 2 (September 2021), Invasion (September 2021), The Many Saints of Newark (September 2021) and more.
From action-packed blockbusters, hair-raising thrillers and a heap of light entertainment, the big screen is set to be your go to destination this summer.
Contact us to display your brand alongside these upcoming blockbusters on the BIG screen!
