Saudi Audiences Flock to Indian, South Korean Content in Hot Market: ‘Streaming Had Positive Effect on Global Audiences’

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Muvi Studios, the production arm of Saudi Arabia’s leading exhibition chain Muvi Cinemas, is ramping up production of Arabic movies with plans to release 10 titles spawned by its own pipeline in 2024, starting with comedy “Esabet Azeema” that will bow locally on Jan. 4. “Esabet Azeema,” which toplines Egyptian icon Esaad Younis making her hotly anticipated return to the big screen, is part of a co-production pact that Muvi struck in 2022 with prominent Egyptian studio Al Arabia Cinema.

Saudi director Ali Kalthami’s thriller Night Courier (Mandoob) has posted a record-breaking opening at home, generating 114,000 admissions for a $1.58 million gross to beat Warner Bros. blockbuster Wonka.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabian thriller “Mandoob,” about a struggling man who becomes an illegal booze runner, beat “Wonka” over the weekend to top the Saudi box office chart while also scoring the biggest opening to date for a local film in the territory. The groundbreaking Saudi movie, which world-premiered positively in Toronto in September – and more recently bowed regionally at the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah – tallied 114,000 admissions and a $1.58 million gross box office intake following its Dec.

Georgina Rodríguez and Cristiano Ronaldo took a trip to the desert of Saudi Arabia, which offers breathtaking landscapes.

Metallica played their first ever show in Saudi Arabia this week – check out fan-filmed footage below.The metal icons performed at the Soundstorm festival in Riyadh on Thursday (December 14) in their final show of 2023, running through a 16-song setlist including hits such as ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’, ‘Master Of Puppets’ and ‘Enter Sandman’.When it was announced on November 27, Metallica’s performance was billed as the first ever show from a major international heavy metal act in the country, but technical death metal band Cryptopsy got there first when they played in Riyadh on December 1.Check out fan-filmed footage and view the setlist below:METALLICA LIVE AT RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIAA dream came true

Caroline Brew editor Director Abdulelah Alqurashi sat down with Variety’s senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay at Variety’s Artisans Screening Series to break down his film “Alhamour H.A.,” Saudi Arabia’s official Oscars submission. The film is based on the true story of one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest con artists, a former security guard named Hamed who grows rich by convincing people to make dubious investments. Alqurashi lived in Jedda as a banker while the scam was happening.

Paris Fury has shared a look inside the family's incredible winter break to Saudi Arabia. Paris and Tyson are taking some time for themselves ahead of Christmas, after a busy year for the latter with boxing, and for them both following the arrival of baby Rico, whom they welcomed in September.Tyson, 35, and Paris, 33, were joined by friends as the group of 14 boarded a huge private jet to their destination.The couple are also parents to Venezuela, 13, Prince John James, 11, Prince Tyson II, seven, Valencia, five, Prince Adonis Amaziah, four and Athena, two. While on holiday, the family decided to sign up to a hair-raising session of parasailing across the crystal clear Red Sea.

Like the Japanese with their Godzilla movies, the Koreans are partial to a bit of post-apocalyptic social satire, and Um Tae-Hwa’s box office hit Concrete Utopia follows a path trailblazed in 2013 by Bong Joon-ho’s cult sci-fi Snowpiercer. Adapted from the popular webtoon Pleasant Outcast by Kim Soong Nyung and partly inspired by British writer J.G. Ballard’s 1975 novel High-Rise, it centers on a Korean apartment block whose residents become lawless after a terrifying earthquake rips through the country.

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor The third edition of the Red Sea Film Festival, wrapping Saturday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, felt like a direct response to a burning question from executives and investors present at the festival’s market arm last year: Could Saudi Arabia step out from drama and comedy and head into genre filmmaking? The answer offered by the festival, it turns out, was a resounding yes. “Arabs are closer to fantasy than the Western world,” director Yasir Al-Yasiri told Variety of this year’s Red Sea Film Festival opening film, “HWJN.” The film, a sprawling fantasy about the Arab Jinn culture set and shot in Jeddah, comes at the “right time,” according to the director.

Michael Nordine author Greed may not be good, but it is universal. And while America would appear to have a monopoly on movies about the pursuit of wealth for wealth’s sake, plenty of other nations have exported their version of the rags-to-riches tale — of which Saudi Arabia’s Oscar submission, “Alhamour H.A.,” is just the latest.

Nick Holdsworth An “eco-system” of finance, lending and talent development is driving the creation of Saudi Arabia’s nascent film industry, key figures in the Middle Eastern kingdom’s cultural sector said this week. Speaking during the third edition of the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, Abdullah Alkhaldi, chief investment and credit officer at Saudi Arabia’s Cultural Development Fund, said its aim was to be “the financial enabler in pursuing and achieving a cultural vision.” The fund, which launched two years ago, has $152 million available for lending to cultural projects along with a $80 million Film Investment Fund, which was announced in Cannes last May.

There were a bunch of Hollywood A-List stars in Saudi Arabia today for the closing night gala of the 2023 Red Sea International Film Festival!

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Rising Saudi Arabian star Yaqoub Alfarhan, who is known for playing the titular drug trafficker and serial killer in hit MBC TV series “Rashash,” plays a very different role in the drama “Norah” by pioneering Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi, which is set in 1990s Saudi Arabia when conservatism was at its height and all forms of art and painting were banned for religion-related reasons. In “Norah,” which world premiered at the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, Alfarhan plays an artist named Nader who has given up painting and moved to a remote village to be a schoolteacher. There he intersects with this film’s titular character, played by Saudi newcomer Maria Bahrawi.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic The urge to dazzle can be its own straitjacket, and it’s one that weighs heavily on Meshal Aljaser’s feature debut “Naga.” He aims for a hurtling virtuosity, à la “Run Lola Run,” in depicting a disobedient young Saudi woman’s extreme travails in trying to get home before her strict curfew. But that quarter-century-old German thriller’s simplicity of plot supported its hyperbolic style, while here the writer-director is so preoccupied with camera and editorial calisthenics, nothing else has a chance to come into focus.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Dubai-based distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment has acquired Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region distribution rights to groundbreaking Saudi drama “Norah,” which world premiered in competition at the Red Sea Film Festival. Directed by pioneering Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi, making his feature film debut, “Norah” is set in 1990s Saudi Arabia, when conservatism was at its height and all forms of art and painting were banned for religion-related reasons.

Banijay Asia Unveils Leadership Team Following Endemol Acquisition

BTS are to begin their mandatory South Korean military duties soon, their management agency said.Big Hit Music said in a statement Tuesday that the enlistments are “upcoming” but didn’t disclose the starting dates.South Korean media reported that all four members will begin their duties next week — RM and V on Dec. 11 and Jimin and Jung Kook, who are scheduled to enlist together, on Dec.

Saudi Arabia‘s Red Sea International Film Festival is midway through its third edition, running November 30 to December 9 in the palatial surroundings of the seafront Ritz Carlton in the port city of Jeddah.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Kidnap thriller “Fourth Wall” and romance story “Chasing Red” are the first two titles to be shot at Saudi Arabia’s Film AlUla as part of its partnership with Hollywood indie Stampede Ventures. The film entity, which is looking to attract international productions to a spectacular swathe of northwest Saudi, recently announced its partnership with Stampede Ventures that will bring 10 productions to the region over the next three years with a projected $350 million spend. Stampede is headed by U.S.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Netflix has boarded Saudi Arabian multi-hyphenate Fatima Al-Banawi’s feature film debut “Basma” which tackles the theme of mental illness in her country. The groundbreaking film is set in Jeddah, the city on the Red Sea’s eastern shore where Saudi’s Red Sea Film Festival is currently underway.