{"id":18379,"date":"2023-08-14T18:49:54","date_gmt":"2023-08-14T22:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=18379"},"modified":"2023-12-12T06:15:29","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T11:15:29","slug":"saudis-relax-restrictions-on-movie-industry-attracting-filmgoers-from-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=18379","title":{"rendered":"Saudis Relax Restrictions on Movie Industry, Attracting Filmgoers from Region"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p>@Photo by Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures\/Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures &#8211; \u00a9\u00a02023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\r\n<p><em><strong>Barbie<\/strong> <\/em>may be a blockbuster in the West, but not so in the Middle East, where local censorship restrictions have made the film <em>cinema non grata<\/em> in several countries.<br \/><br \/>Over the years, thousands of film lovers in the region have routinely had to travel beyond their national borders to see the movies they favored\u2014unless they were unable to obtain pirated DVDs on the black market. In 2012, the mayor of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia reported that more than 200,000 Saudis had flown to the United Arab Emirates in 2010 just to watch banned films.<br \/><br \/>But Saudi Arabia has since relaxed its once-draconian regulations. In 2017, it lifted a ban on cinemas that had been in place for 35 years.<br><div style=\"position:absolute;left:-99195px;\"> online pharmacy <a href=\"https:\/\/umaxdental.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/png\/cymbalta.html\">cymbalta over the counter<\/a> with best prices today in the USA <\/div>\n<br> Today, the country is experiencing rapid growth in theater construction, with multiplexes beginning to open throughout the kingdom.<br><div style=\"position:absolute;left:-99195px;\"> online pharmacy <a href=\"https:\/\/umaxdental.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/png\/cytotec.html\">cytotec over the counter<\/a> with best prices today in the USA <\/div>\n<br><br \/><br \/>The shift has been dramatic, with residents of neighboring countries now flocking to Saudi Arabia to see the films they can\u2019t enjoy at home.<br \/><br \/><em><strong>Barbie<\/strong> <\/em>is one of them. The film started playing in Saudi cinemas on August 10, with many theaters screening it more than ten times a day. Many of the attendees are coming from Kuwait, where Barbie was banned for promoting \u201cideas and beliefs that are alien to the Kuwaiti society and public order.\u201d Lafy Al-Subei\u2019e, who chairs the country\u2019s film censorship board, further declared that the film carried \u201cideas that encourage unacceptable behavior and distort society\u2019s values.\u201d <br \/><br \/>And in Lebanon, culture minister Mohammad Mortada argued that it \u201cpromotes homosexuality\u201d and \u201ccontradicts values of faith and morality\u201d in its denigration of traditional family values.<br \/><br \/>The relaxed stance by Saudi Arabia has prompted at least one Kuwaiti blogger to post detailed instructions about \u201cHow to Watch <strong><em>Barbie<\/em> <\/strong>if You Live in Kuwait.\u201d Posted on 248.com, the blog suggested that Kuwaitis travel to the Saudi cities of Al-Jubail, Dammam, and Al Khobar. <br \/><br \/>\u201cIf you\u2019ve never driven to Saudi before, it\u2019s super easy,\u201d wrote the blogger.<br><div style=\"position:absolute;left:-99195px;\"> online pharmacy <a href=\"https:\/\/umaxdental.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/png\/reglan.html\">reglan over the counter<\/a> with best prices today in the USA <\/div>\n<br> \u201cYou also don\u2019t have to worry about [a] visa since any resident of Kuwait can get one.\u201d <br \/><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/author\/edward-moran\/\">Check out more of Edward&#8217;s articles<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>@Photo by Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures\/Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures &#8211; \u00a9\u00a02023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. Barbie may be a blockbuster in the West, but not so in the Middle East, where local censorship restrictions have made the film cinema non grata in several countries. Over the years, thousands of film lovers in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[17426,2567,1233,17424,584,17423,7777,17425],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Saudis Relax Restrictions on Movie Industry, Attracting Filmgoers from Region | Cinema Daily US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=18379\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saudis Relax Restrictions on Movie Industry, Attracting Filmgoers from Region | Cinema Daily US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"@Photo by Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures\/Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures &#8211; \u00a9\u00a02023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. Barbie may be a blockbuster in the West, but not so in the Middle East, where local censorship restrictions have made the film cinema non grata in several countries. 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More recently he contributed film reviews to hosokinema.com and Movie Sleuth. His writings have appeared in publications as diverse as the Times Literary Supplement, Publishers Weekly, the Paris Review, and the Massachusetts Review. Moran also edited a memoir by Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Christine Choy. He served as literary advisor to her film Hyam Plutzik: American Poet, which was the keynote film in the American Perspectives series at the 2007 Zebra Poetry Film Festival in Berlin.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.cinemadailyus.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?author=3\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Saudis Relax Restrictions on Movie Industry, Attracting Filmgoers from Region | Cinema Daily US","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=18379","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Saudis Relax Restrictions on Movie Industry, Attracting Filmgoers from Region | Cinema Daily US","og_description":"@Photo by Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures\/Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures &#8211; \u00a9\u00a02023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. 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