CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -During the cinema ban, the only public theater in Saudi Arabia was a single IMAX cinema located in Khobar at the Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Science and Technology Center.

Detailed explanation-2: -Saudi Arabia is to allow cinemas to open for the first time in 35 years as it continues a push to overhaul its society and image after decades of hardline rule. The first movie theatres will be opened by March and it is intended that up to 2, 000 screens will be in place within 12 years.

Detailed explanation-3: -Cinema was banned in Saudi Arabia in the early 1980s, under pressure from religious conservatives. But now the country is making an unlikely pitch to become a Hollywood of the desert. Cinemas are opening in every town.

Detailed explanation-4: -Saudi Arabia’s first cinemas appeared in the Eastern Province in the 1930s, established by Westerner oil workers. By the 1960s and ‘70s, cinemas had sprung up in major cities across the country.