Riyadh

First cinema: Saudi Arabia is to open its first cinema for 35 years later this month, screening the global blockbuster Black Panther

(pictured). Men and women will be allowed to sit together at the luxury cinema built in a repurposed concert hall. More cinemas are planned in 40 Saudi cities over the next five years, part of the country’s drive – under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – to modernise and diversify its economy. The country did have some cinemas in the 1970s, but they were all closed down at the instigation of powerful clerics.