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Black Panther to Be First Movie to Screen in Saudi Arabia’s Cinemas

Cast member Chadwick Boseman poses at the premiere of 'Black Panther' in Los Angeles, California, US, January 29, 2018. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/Files
Cast member Chadwick Boseman poses at the premiere of 'Black Panther' in Los Angeles, California, US, January 29, 2018. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/Files
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Black Panther to Be First Movie to Screen in Saudi Arabia’s Cinemas

Cast member Chadwick Boseman poses at the premiere of 'Black Panther' in Los Angeles, California, US, January 29, 2018. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/Files
Cast member Chadwick Boseman poses at the premiere of 'Black Panther' in Los Angeles, California, US, January 29, 2018. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/Files

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has completed his plans by visiting Los Angeles and holding meetings to accelerate changes. His visit to the global cinema stronghold wasn’t for the sake of knowledge but to implement required changes and put them on the right track

To serve a population of more than 32 million, Saudi Arabia wants to set up around 350 cinemas in the coming years. Every cinema will contain eight to ten screens (maybe more).

AMC Theaters is not the biggest cinema institution but the oldest, founded in 1920, ahead of Regal Entertainment Group and Cinemark Theaters. The Company didn’t cease growing, especially in the past two years. In 2016, it acquired similar firms such as Odeon, UCI and Carmike, adding 2,200 screens in 244 cinemas in Europe alone, in addition to 8,200 screens in 661 cinemas in the United States.

Black Panther will be the first movie shown in a Saudi Arabian movie theater on April 18.

This movie is considered among the most successful movies of the year – its most recent box revenues surpassed billion American dollars. It is a US comics figure, which was founded by Marvel in 1966, which was the premier appearance of the African hero of superpowers.

Unlike other super heroes, Black Panther has other features such as intelligence, fighting skills, capabilities to endure gravity and control time. The message of the movie wouldn’t be complete without mentioning that he doesn’t fight alone but has a female assistant.

The kingdom’s decision to open cinemas and allow the showing of movies has been described as the event of the year 2017.

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Varieties

Santa and Mrs. Claus Use Military Transports to Bring Christmas to Alaska Native Village

Santa Claus arrives at the school in Yakutat, Alaska,, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).
Santa Claus arrives at the school in Yakutat, Alaska,, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).
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Santa and Mrs. Claus Use Military Transports to Bring Christmas to Alaska Native Village

Santa Claus arrives at the school in Yakutat, Alaska,, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).
Santa Claus arrives at the school in Yakutat, Alaska,, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).

Forget the open-air sleigh overloaded with gifts and powered by flying reindeer.
Santa and Mrs. Claus this week took supersized rides to southeast Alaska in a C-17 military cargo plane and a camouflaged Humvee, as they delivered toys to the Tlingit village of Yakutat, northwest of Juneau, The Associated Press reported.
The visit was part of this year’s Operation Santa Claus, an outreach program of the Alaska National Guard to largely Indigenous communities in the nation’s largest state. Each year, the Guard picks a village that has suffered recent hardship — in Yakutat's case, a massive snowfall that threatened to buckle buildings in 2022.
“This is one of the funnest things we get to do, and this is a proud moment for the National Guard,” Maj. Gen. Torrence Saxe, adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard, said Wednesday.
Saxe wore a Guard uniform and a Santa hat that stretched his unit's dress regulations.
The Humvee caused a stir when it entered the school parking lot, and a buzz of “It’s Santa! It’s Santa!” pierced the cold air as dozens of elementary school children gathered outside.
In the school, Mrs. Claus read a Christmas story about the reindeer Dasher. The couple in red then sat for photos with nearly all of the 75 or so students and handed out new backpacks filled with gifts, books, snacks and school supplies donated by the Salvation Army. The school provided lunch, and a local restaurant provided the ice cream and toppings for a sundae bar.
Student Thomas Henry, 10, said while the contents of the backpack were “pretty good,” his favorite item was a plastic dinosaur.
Another, 9-year-old Mackenzie Ross, held her new plush seal toy as she walked around the school gym.
“I think it’s special that I have this opportunity to be here today because I’ve never experienced this before,” she said.
Yakutat, a Tlingit village of about 600 residents, is in the lowlands of the Gulf of Alaska, at the top of Alaska’s panhandle. Nearby is the Hubbard Glacier, a frequent stop for cruise ships.
Some of the National Guard members who visited Yakutat on Wednesday were also there in January 2022, when storms dumped about 6 feet (1.8 meters) of snow in a matter of days, damaging buildings.
Operation Santa started in 1956 when flooding severely curtailed subsistence hunting for residents of St. Mary’s, in western Alaska. Having to spend their money on food, they had little left for Christmas presents, so the military stepped in.
This year, visits were planned to two other communities hit by flooding. Santa’s visit to Circle, in northeastern Alaska, went off without a hitch. Severe weather prevented a visit to Crooked Creek, in the southwestern part of the state, but Christmas was saved when the gifts were delivered there Nov. 16.
“We tend to visit rural communities where it is very isolated,” said Jenni Ragland, service extension director with the Salvation Army Alaska Division. “A lot of kids haven’t traveled to big cities where we typically have Santa and big stores with Christmas gifts and Christmas trees, so we kind of bring the Christmas program on the road."
After the C-17 Globemaster III landed in Yakutat, it quickly returned to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, an hour away, because there was nowhere to park it at the village's tiny airport. Later it returned to pick up the Christmas crew.
Santa and Mrs. Claus, along with their tuckered elves, were seen nodding off on the flight back.