The US-Israel-Iran war has entered its fourth week amid airstrikes in the Gulf and Lebanon, but there are early signs that the conflict’s impact on movie viewing in affected Arab countries is surprisingly not catastrophic.
Only short-term disruptions have been reported regarding movie theater closures. In one of these, Doha’s Novo Cinemas chain was closed for several days on Saturday, February 28, when Iran fired dozens of missiles at Qatar. However, it was open again the following Monday.
As is customary, box office revenues across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region fell during the month-long Ramadan period from February 17 to March 19, when daytime movie theater attendances plummeted due to fasting and television dominated. So the best way to start getting into the mood of watching movies during wartime is to watch the first frames of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan.
Gianluca Chakra, head of pan-Arab distribution company Front Row Filmed Entertainment, told Variety: “Early signs suggest Eid box office sales are softening across MENA, reflecting a combination of external pressures and loosening release schedules, but the market overall remains resilient.”
According to Comscore, attendance in the MENA region last weekend (March 19-22) actually increased by 48% year-on-year to 907,752 compared to the equivalent Eid weekend slot in 2025 (March 27-30). The comScore aggregate includes Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
However, the actual situation is not so rosy when it comes to Eid, as it is not possible to compare only weekend frames, but the entire week and holidays, which vary from country to country, need to be taken into account. For example, this year’s UAE box office peaked over the weekend, but people had to go back to work on Monday. Last year, Monday and Tuesday were Eid holidays. Its box office performance at the time was huge and was not included in ComScore’s 2025 comparison frame.
In Saudi Arabia, a major market in the MENA region, box office sales were relatively stable last weekend, with no major decline. Reflecting the strength of local titles, Saudi comedy “Shabab El Bom 3” topped the list with box office receipts of 3.9 million riyals ($1 million). It was followed by the Hollywood hit “Project Hail Mary,” which grossed 2.3 million riyals ($618,000). and the Egyptian comedy “Family Business” collected 1.8 million riyals ($500,000).
One of the big concerns is that the MENA distributor currently holds the title and has decided to postpone the release citing wartime turmoil. The release of several major Egyptian films has been canceled or postponed, primarily due to the uncertainty caused by the war, limiting box office receipts during what is traditionally a peak period for films.
Data for Qatar and Kuwait is still being merged, but “Kuwait has held up better than expected because the decline is less than 30%,” said Hisham al-Ghanim, vice chairman of the Kuwait National Film Company, Kuwait’s largest box office company. He added: “The market is showing resilience as conflicts remain subdued. However, it is clear that it is operating below what it should be at its peak.”
‘Resilience’ is also synonymous with Dubai’s arthouse film environment, as expressed in this moving commentary written by Busseina Kazim, founder of Dubai’s Cinema Akil, for the Abu Dhabi-based English-language newspaper The National.
“Following a short-term curfew across Dubai, on Friday 6th March we reopened the doors of Cinema Akil,” she wrote. “At noon, Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘Spirited Away’ was about to begin,” the testimony continues.
“Momo was waiting at the ticket office, Vic was at the projection tower, and Ansu was at the door with a scanner in hand, ready to welcome the community back. No one came. Ten minutes later, just as we were swallowing the quiet disappointment of our failed comeback, a figure appeared at the entrance, just as the alarm went off again. We were in a safe corner of the warehouse, waiting for everything to clear, and he gestured for us to join him.”
“Are you okay?” I asked, concerned for the lonely moviegoer. He smiled sheepishly, still holding the ticket. “I’m from Kabul,” he said.
“This is nothing new to me.”
