CHANGE: Saudi Arabia Prepares for First Public Cinema Opening in 35 Years.

At roughly 9 p.m. in Riyadh (11 a.m. PT), around 600 guests will sit down in a refitted ultra modern conference hall in the King Abdullah Financial District to watch Black Panther usher in a new cultural era for the country.

The Marvel superhero blockbuster – already a major cultural landmark – will add another historic string to its bow when it becomes the first film to get an official public screening in the kingdom at the first movie theater to open there for 35 years. Saudi Arabia lifted its decades-long cinema ban in December.

Awwad Alawwad, Saudi’s minister of culture and information who first announced the end to the ban, is set to attend the event, alongside Adam Aron, CEO of AMC Entertainment, which won the first licence to operate movie theaters in the kingdom and runs the Riyadh cinema, one of 350 expected to open across the country by 2030.

THR understands from Disney’s regional distributor Italia Film that just 40 seconds of the film has been removed. While they wouldn’t elaborate on which scenes these came from, the censoring is believed to be in line with cuts made to Black Panther across the region.

Crown Prince Bin Salman’s baby steps towards reform are adding up.