Chapman Taylor has designed and delivered many of the world’s largest and most striking cinema projects. Working for, and with, leading industry names, Leisure Director David Wallace has decades of experience in creating state-of-the-art cinema environments which enhance moviegoers’ experience and maximise value and impact for the cinema developers. In this piece, David discusses the extraordinary expansion of cinema taking place in Saudi Arabia since the ban on cinemas was lifted in 2018, taking a comparative look at the challenges and opportunities presented.

After a ban on cinema exhibition for more than 35 years, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) opened its first new cinema – the 620-seat, single-screen AMC cinema in Riyadh – on 18 April 2018. The opening up of the commercial cinema sector is a key part of the Kingdom’s VISION 2030 – a gradual opening-up, relaxation and modernisation of the entire country.

The press photo for this event, published worldwide, showed KSA dignitaries and officials, both male and female, with the AMC CEO, all seated together. Kingdom officials, foreigners and women, all together; this was indeed a moment of change. The film they were watching, the first for 35 years, was Black Panther – a movie with a primarily non-white cast. There was very little censorship of the film. This was not the KSA of old.

That one photo illustrated how quickly KSA was changing – and how cinema had arrived.

What is different now?

There is now a desire to modernise and open up the Kingdom. Currently, KSA is an economy heavily reliant on oil dollars; it is estimated that one in eight barrels of world oil production is from KSA. In the near future, the world will be less reliant on oil, and even more interconnected via the internet, so KSA has a need to find new sources of income, be more progressive and be better aligned for the benefit of the younger generation.

Cinema has its place in all of this change, having always been at the forefront of cultural shifts. Cinema buildings themselves are a very visible change, and one that the population can immediately experience and enjoy. Only 17 years ago, China also opened up to cinema when Warner Bros. opened the first modern cinema in 2003. Now, there are over 60,000 screens in the country.

Shortly after AMC opened KSA’s first cinema, VOX Cinemas opened their four-screen cinema at Riyadh Park. Since then, multiple cinemas licenses have been awarded and many cinemas have opened. The KSA authorities have announced that 300 locations, hosting 2,000 screens, will be built before 2030. AMC has announced plans to open 50 locations before 2023, and VOX will open 600 screens before 2023.

All of these cinema announcements seemed to happen almost overnight. In fact, they were built almost overnight! When I visited VOX at Riyadh Park, I was informed by the manager it took just six weeks to build, and I understand that the AMC project, although involving only one screen, was assembled in only a few weeks. For those involved in the delivery of these projects, it was a huge race to catch up with the rest of the world after the 35-year absence of cinema.

Chapman Taylor’s market entry

At this time, Chapman Taylor was busy developing cinemas in the UAE for Reel Cinemas; we were involved in building eight locations in Dubai over a two-year period. I often noticed many KSA visitors at the Dubai cinemas, recognisable by their distinctive red and white head-dress and smart collars. They would often watch many films continuously, sometimes throughout the night. It was clear that KSA nationals enjoyed cinema. It was also clear that, once cinema was permitted in KSA, it could only be a huge success.

One dark and miserable October Monday morning, while taking the kids to school in the UK, I received a phone call from KSA’s largest retail developer, Fawaz Al Hokair, which wanted to start its own brand of cinema. These were to be built within its own ‘Arabian Centre’ shopping malls. They asked me to meet them and discuss the idea.

I was in Riyadh the following evening and met the client early on the Wednesday morning – leaving that afternoon with four cinema projects to design as quickly as we possibly could. The first opened in October 2019 at The Mall of Arabia, which, at that time, was the largest cinema in KSA. A further two are now open in Riyadh and Dammam, with a further seven locations now under construction seven more due on site in the next month. Muvi Cinemas’ plan is to have 20 cinemas opened by the end of 2020.

A speedy pace of development is the norm in KSA. During a typical week in KSA, it is easy to fall into the rhythm of design, eat, sleep, design, eat, sleep, design, don’t eat, don’t sleep – and so on. To design, build and open 20 cinema locations in just over one year is astonishing. However, VOX is developing at a similarly ambitious pace, closely followed by many others. The KSA’s stated aim of opening 300 locations by 2030 is not just possible, it is well under way.

KSA has many ambitious plans on the drawing board, from resort cities larger than Dubai at NEOM City to the world’s tallest tower (1km-high) at Jeddah Economic City. The holy city of Madinah is planning to increase Islamic tourism from 16 million pilgrims to 35 million pilgrims in less than five years. A new railway station to cater for the predicted influx of pilgrims is already open, and Chapman Taylor is currently designing shopping and entertainment destinations and several hotels in Medinah to accommodate this growth.

Unprecedented expansion

I have been fortunate to be involved at the beginning of modern cinema development in a number of countries, including the UK, China, Portugal, Italy, Mongolia, Germany, Japan, Spain and Vietnam. However, the KSA is unique for the sheer speed of development.

In all the other countries mentioned, cinema development was happening as the movie industry was just beginning to grow again after decades of neglect. Cinema worldwide was almost dead in the 1980s; consequently, cinema developers were cautious with their development plans for the first few years, to see how the public reacted to the new multiplex building types.

KSA cinema development, by comparison, is exploding from nothing during a period of record attendance and record film revenues for movie companies worldwide. This healthy environment for cinema will mean the KSA cinema industry will expand at unprecedented speed – even faster than China, where initial growth was hindered by the limited availability of film products. It is exhilarating to be involved in this period of the country’s cinema development. It is as sure a bet as a bet can get that cinemas in the KSA will prosper as quickly as they can be built.

It is interesting and informative to compare the KSA’s cinema start with the UK’s 1990s restart; it’s a comparison which clearly demonstrates the massive change that has occurred in cinema within that period.

The first of the new generation of cinemas in the UK appeared in the early 1990s. At that time, cinema was in decline throughout the world (except perhaps for India, where it is deeply embedded in the culture). The first UK cinema exhibitors could not find willing development partners, so many of the first new UK cinemas were built by the exhibitors themselves.

It was a risky move, and investment was low. This cautiousness was reflected in the design; the early cinemas were such that, if the cinema concept failed, the interior could be quickly and easily removed, and the building shell converted into a simple retail shed – which at that time was a much better bet for property developers.

There were relatively few blockbuster movies released in the early 1990s, centred on school holidays, which made the business of cinema cashflow one of massive peaks and troughs. I recall listening to cinema operators saying, when Jurassic Park was released in 1993, that they made as much money from that one film as they did for the entire previous year. Such was the business of cinema at that time.

For the first few years of this phase of UK cinema, there was a general suspicion among property developers that cinema would not prosper and would not enhance their shopping centres. As such, these early cinemas were built as an appendage to malls – the rents paid by cinemas were low, so why give them centre stage in the mall?

Compare that to KSA right now – the roles of retail and cinema have reversed. Worldwide cinema attendance has been, on average, one of continuous growth, and any aspiring retail development must have a cinema. The cinemas we are designing are taking centre position within malls – their immediate success will draw customers through the mall and increase footfall.

When cinema developers were preparing their business plans in the early 1990s, the occupancy rate was expected, on average, to be 20%. The actual occupancy rates for the first cinemas in KSA are close to 100%. Of course, this is likely to reduce as more cinemas are built, but the difference is still very clear to see.

When the first modern multiplex cinemas opened in the UK, each auditorium had the same design, seats and offer; there was little competition and uncertainty about the prospects of success. By contrast, when we designed the Muvi Cinema at Mall of Arabia, it included SUITES VIP cinemas, the Kingdom’s first Screen X and Muvi Cinemas’ own brands, such as Muvi XPERIENCE and Muvi JUNIOR for children.

At the 13-screen Muvi Cinema at U Walk, Riyadh, which opened in March 2020, the offer includes SUITES VIP, Screen X, the Kingdom’s very first Dolby Cinema and the first Onyx (the massive LED screen from SAMSUNG). This is the most advanced cinema in KSA for now.

Challenges

The challenge for exhibitors, designers and construction companies is the lack of locally available skills and materials to serve such an explosion of development. Local knowledge of cinema design norms and construction techniques is very limited, and is a challenge for those involved. Building materials that are specific to cinema are being imported for now, until the local suppliers and manufacturers can catch up.

Imported electrical items, of which there are many in any modern cinema, now have to comply with the recently introduced Saudi Arabia Standards Institute (SASI certification). Many items are being tested for the first time, and the time taken to test and certify often does not match the speed of the cinemas’ construction.

The spaces offered for cinema development tend to be existing spaces within shopping malls – spaces previously designed for retail. Cinema has many differing requirements for key design parameters, such as structural loading, acoustics, spatial heights and column arrangements. A square metre of cinema generally needs more electrical power supply than a comparable square metre of retail.

All of this makes designing and constructing a cinema much more of a challenge in comparison to a purpose-built project elsewhere. However, this will change as existing retail spaces are built out and new purpose-built developments come on stream.

The future

There are many questions about the future direction of cinema being asked by those interested in the industry. Will LED screens be the norm? Will VR finally make a massive technological shift and allow cinema to become truly immersive? Will screens beyond 40 metres in width be achievable? What countries will develop next? Will Netflix influence cinema attendance?

Perhaps some already-developed countries, such as Spain and Germany, where cinema grew quickly in the 1990s but now have poor attendance, will reboot and follow the UK’s example of boutique cinemas and recliner seats?

The cinema industry will respond, as it always has, to any challenges it faces. KSA’s current rapid development will be a key influence on the debate in years to come, given the level of investment and the desire of the country to provide the best cinema experience available anywhere in the world. Therefore, the way we are designing cinemas in the KSA now will be a very important part of the evolution of the cinema sector in the years to come.