The Saudi Box Office demonstrated remarkable resilience in April 2025, generating SAR113.1 million in revenue with local production ‘Shabab EL Bomb’ capturing 20% market share
The Saudi cinema market demonstrated remarkable resilience in April 2025, generating SAR113.1 million in total box office revenue despite typical post-holiday adjustments, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Culture. This performance culminated in strong upward momentum, with the final week recording SAR21.4 million in revenue—a 26.6% increase from the previous week, signaling sustained consumer engagement across the cinema exhibition sector.
According to Gower Street Analytics, this acceleration aligns with the international box office (excluding China), which recorded the highest grossing month since December 2024 ($2.8 billion) with an April total of $2.1 billion—representing a 36% increase over April last year. Internationally, ‘Minecraft Movie’ and ‘Sinners’ powered the box office where there were still gaps expected to be filled in May with a denser, IP-driven, high-profile, and diverse schedule. However, the Saudi market demonstrated a distinctive strength by filling these same programming gaps with regional content, as evidenced by the exceptional performance of multiple Arabic productions.
This regional content advantage is exemplified by the Saudi production ‘Shabab EL Bomb 2,’ which emerged as the undisputed market leader, maintaining the top position for three consecutive weeks and amassing SAR 24.9 million across 537,300 admissions. This single title accounted for over 20% of the month’s total box office revenue, highlighting the growing influence and commercial viability of regional content within the Saudi cinema ecosystem.
Ministry data reveals a classic market recovery pattern throughout April, with weekly revenue stabilizing after an exceptionally strong start. The month began with SAR39.6 million during the week of March 30-April 5 (Eid Al-Fitr holidays), before adjusting to SAR 19.7 million in the second week. This adjustment phase subsequently gave way to a period of steady improvement, with revenues ultimately climbing to SAR 21.4 million in the closing week of April 27-May 3.
The Hollywood action thriller ‘A Working Man’ also delivered a strong performance with SAR 17.4 million and 318,200 admissions, reinforcing the region’s demonstrated preference for international action titles. ‘A Minecraft Movie’ established a solid franchise foundation with SAR 17.3 million across 361,800 admissions over five weeks, highlighting the market’s expanding capacity to sustain diverse content simultaneously.
Several releases exhibited notable growth patterns worth examining. ‘Asaf’ demonstrated consistent week-over-week box office increases, culminating in SAR 7.9 million from 152,300 admissions. Illustrating the effectiveness of strategic release planning in the Saudi market, ‘Siko Siko’ implemented an effective slow-build distribution strategy, starting modestly before gaining significant market traction in its second week to reach SAR 5.0 million from 90,700 admissions.
Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts’ entered the market in the final week of April with SAR 3.4 million from 55,400 admissions, with industry projections suggesting continued momentum based on strong critical reception and established franchise appeal.
Data from Motivate Val Morgan’s proprietary cinema intelligence platform for advertisers CineMeasure reveals substantial audience engagement across our circuit, with 1.81 million admissions recorded between March 27 and April 30 2025. This audience represents premium consumer segments with demonstrated purchasing power and heightened brand receptivity within the distraction-free cinema environment.
Our detailed analytics identify significant opportunities within premium viewing experiences, which continue gaining substantial market share. Luxury screens accounted for 8% of total admissions, providing brands unprecedented access to high-net-worth consumers in receptive environments. Further enhancing this premium segment, experience formats such as IMAX and Dolby contributed 14% of admissions—collectively catering to diverse tiers of already-affluent moviegoers. All of these create targeted engagement opportunities for precision marketing initiatives.
The established box office trajectory, combined with the acceleration potential of both Eid al-Adha and the subsequent summer blockbuster calendar, creates unprecedented opportunities for brands seeking meaningful consumer engagement in an increasingly fragmented media landscape.
The regional exhibition sector including Saudi is poised to enter its most commercially productive period of 2025. This critical revenue window begins with Eid al-Adha celebrations in early June—historically generating 2.5-3x normal weekly admissions—and continues through the summer months with a strategically diversified content pipeline.
The seasonal slate balances culturally-relevant Arabic productions including ‘Restart,’ ‘F1,’ ‘Ahmed W Ahmed,’ and ‘Darwish’ with tentpole Hollywood franchise entries such as ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,’ ’28 Years Later,’ ‘Superman ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ and more—creating multiple strategic entry points for targeted advertising initiatives.
This powerful convergence of holiday timing, premium audience demographics, and diversified content offerings positions the Saudi and regional cinema market for exceptional growth through Q2-Q3 2025. The guaranteed audience concentration during these peak periods reinforces cinema’s status as the region’s dominant exhibition platform and an advertising medium that never misses its audience.
Sources: Saudi Ministry of Culture, CinePlan and CineMeasure
According to Gower Street Analytics, the 2025 box office projections indicate global revenues reaching an 8% increase over 2024
Leading industry analytics firm Gower Street Analytics has released its latest forecast for the global cinema market, projecting box office revenues to reach $33 billion in 2025. Their forecast represents an encouraging 8% increase over 2024 estimates, signalling continued momentum in this entertainment sector.
The cinema industry demonstrated remarkable resilience, ultimately achieving approximately $30.5 billion in global revenues in 2024. This despite facing significant headwinds, primarily due to content pipeline disruptions stemming from the SAG-AFTRA strike. Initial forecasts had painted a concerning picture, with analysts predicting potential revenue declines of $5-8 billion and some even suggesting a possible regression to 2022 levels of $25.9 billion. However, the 2024 year-end numbers were far robust.
This impressive performance was largely driven by the strong reception of several major theatrical releases. The year gained momentum with the success of ‘Dune: Part Two,’ followed by a robust summer season featuring blockbusters such as ‘Inside Out 2,’ ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ and ‘It Ends With Us.’ The positive trajectory continued through year-end with anticipated releases including ‘Gladiator II,’ ‘Wicked,’ ‘Moana 2,’ and ‘Sonic 3.’
The Middle East market emerged as a particularly bright spot, successfully avoiding the content drought experienced in other international territories. This success can be attributed to the strong performance of regional Arabic-language productions such as ‘Lahazat Lazeeza,’ ‘El Hawa Sultan,’ and ‘Welad Rizk 3.’ The region further benefited from successful Asian cinema releases, including major Indian productions like ‘Pushpa: The Rule – Part 2’ and ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ ‘Manjummel Boys’ and more.
Looking ahead, the 2025 Gower Street Analytics’ detailed industry analysis reveals several key trends.
In the North American domestic market, projections indicate a 9% increase over 2024, with revenues expected to reach approximately $9.7 billion. This prediction was further validated by other film journalists such as Pamela McClintock, senior film writer at The Hollywood Reporter who predicted the North American domestic box office to reach $10 billion and more.
The international market, excluding China, is expected to generate approximately $16.8 billion, marking a 7% improvement over 2024 estimates.
The Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region continues to show promising recovery trends, with 2025 revenues projected at $9.1 billion. This forecast positions EMEA at 6% ahead of 2024, making it one of the fastest-recovering international markets in the global cinema landscape.
The projected global revenue of $33 billion would position the industry at just 14% below the average of the pre-pandemic years (2017-2019), when adjusted for historical currency rates.
Though actual performance will ultimately depend on various market factors, these projections from Gower Street Analytics provide valuable insights into the industry’s trajectory, and the strength of the upcoming theatrical slate. The data suggests a continuing and gradual return to pre-pandemic performance levels, with some regions showing particularly encouraging signs of recovery.
As the region’s leading cinema advertising company, Motivate Val Morgan’s internal analysis aligns with these positive industry projections. Avinash Udeshi, Chief Operating Officer of Motivate Val Morgan, shares this optimistic outlook: “We have achieved 33 million admissions across our cinema circuits in 2024 – measured through our cinema planning and reporting tools CinePlan and CineMeasure. According to the advanced analytics prediction from the system, we anticipate a 7% increase in cinema admissions in 2025.”
“This projection further reinforces the positive trajectory of the cinema industry in the region and underscores the growing opportunity for brands to engage with cinema audiences.” He added.
The 2025 theatrical calendar promises an exceptional slate of highly anticipated releases that could further boost these projections. From Hollywood blockbusters like ‘Superman, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’, and ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’, to Asian and Arabic titles such as ‘Dev (Hindi)’, ‘L2 Empuraan (Malayalam)’, ‘Sikander (Hindi)’, ‘Restart (Arabic)’ and many more blockbusters lined up throughout the year. Experience the excitement of what’s coming to theaters in 2025 by watching our exclusive sizzle reel here for a sneak peek of these upcoming cinematic spectacles.
Sources: Gower Street Analytics, Motivate Val Morgan CinePlan and CineMeasure, Saudi Ministry of Culture
Saudi Arabia’s film industry is experiencing significant growth, marking a new era in the Kingdom’s entertainment sector. According to Prince Badr Bin Abdullah, the Minister of Culture, Saudi box office sales reached an impressive 8.5 million tickets in 2024, with revenues exceeding US$112.4 million in the first half of the year alone. This surge in popularity is particularly noteworthy as Saudi movies have risen to prominence, with two of the top three titles in 2024 being local productions.
سوق صناعة السينما مزدهرة، حيث وصلت مبيعات شباك التذاكر السعودي إلى 8.5 مليون تذكرة بإيرادات تجاوزت 421.8 مليون ريال خلال النصف الأول من العام الحالي، وفيلمان سعوديان ضمن أعلى 3 أفلام مبيعاً. #رؤية_السعودية_2030
Saudi box office sales have reached 8.5 million tickets with… https://t.co/joTkWZOAm4
— بدر بن عبدالله بن فرحان آل سعود (@BadrFAlSaud) September 10, 2024
The success of Saudi cinema is part of a broader global trend of box office recovery. August marked a notable surge in the global box office, driven primarily by two major releases featuring real-life couple Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively: Deadpool & Wolverine and It Ends With Us. The global box office grossed US$3 billion in August, pushing the year-to-date total to approximately US$21.1 billion. This narrowed the gap to the three-year average to -21%, an improvement from the -28% deficit reported at the end of May, despite the ongoing disruptions from the SAG-AFTRA strike in 2023, according to Gower Street’s latest Global Box Office Tracker (GBOT).
For the third month in a row, the global box office exceeded projections. The combined international (excluding China) and domestic markets generated US$2.46 billion in August, making it the second-highest month since the previous August. Although slightly below July’s $2.84 billion (-13%), this figure was still ahead of June’s US$2.4 billion (+2%).
The North American market (Domestic) stood out, surpassing the box office average for the same months in 2017-2019 by 15%. This is the highest level since the beginning of the decade and marks only the third instance where the domestic market has reached or exceeded pre-pandemic levels in any month.
The global theatrical industry enjoyed three consecutive months of increased revenue, bolstered by a more robust calendar of blockbuster releases. This resurgence brought box office performance closer to last year’s summer heights, including the addition of two films, Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine, to the top 21 all-time global box office list. Remarkably, seven of the top 21 highest-grossing films globally have been released since December 2021.
While the final four months of the past two years saw a significant drop in releases, this year, globally, promises a fuller schedule with a wider array of attractive titles such as Joker: Folie à Deux, Gladiator II, Mufasa: The Lion King, Kraven the Hunter, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, likely to lift the box office further.
As Saudi Arabia continues to invest in its burgeoning film industry and global cinema recovers from recent challenges, the outlook for the box office remains positive. The diversity of offerings, from local Saudi productions to international blockbusters, is appealing to audiences both in the Kingdom and worldwide, setting the stage for continued growth in the cinema sector.
Source: GowerStreet, X
