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.
Their first collaboration, the comedy “Etneen Lil Egaar” (“Two For Rent”) about two losers who post a video on social media saying they are available to do any job for money, was released in Jan. 2023 through Front Row Arabia, Muvi’s joint venture with Front Row Filmed Entertainment. “Two For Rent” had a nice theatrical run in the region scoring more than 300,000 admissions before being picked up by Netflix.
Next up in the Muvi-Al Arabia co-prod pipeline is an untitled film toplined by popular Egyptian actor and rapper Ahmed Mekky.
“We have 10 movies in different stages of production that will have their theatrical release in the next 12 months,” said Muvi’s head of production Fouad Alkhateeb, noting that “five are Saudi and five Egyptian.”
Alkhateeb added that the output goal for Muvi Studios is “to be somewhere between 20 to 24 films in 2025,” with the same 50/50 ratio between Saudi and Egyptian titles.
Meanwhile the next Saudi film from Muvi Studios is the comedy “El Senor” directed by New York Film Academy alum Aymen Khoja that started shooting Dec. 9.
Muvi Cinemas, which currently have 205 screens across 21 locations and 10 different cities across Saudi, are the kingdom’s market leader in terms both of screen and market share. Muvi CEOAdon Quinn pointed out that while Hollywood movies are performing well, five years after the removal of Saudi’s 35-year-old religion-related ban on cinemas,“the growth of the box office in Saudi is going to be driven by local content,” he said, noting that 34% of Saudi grosses so far this year have come from Arabic content, mainly Egypt and Saudi, even though films from the region only account for 13% of releases.
The most recent case in point is Saudi Arabian thriller “Mandoob,” released Dec. 14 by Front Row Arabia. The Riyadh-set film about a struggling man who becomes an illegal booze runner has beat “Wonka” to top the Saudi box office chart while also scoring the biggest opening to date for a local film in the territory.
