Saudi Arabian cinema in 2024 achieved sales that are roughly 8 times the entire sales of Iranian cinema in 1403 (2024/25). This striking figure (about 225 million dollars versus 29 million dollars) is at once a warning bell and a serious opportunity for Iranian cinema.
On the one hand, a regional market in Iran's neighborhood is growing and flourishing rapidly, while the economic capacity of Iranian cinema, because of structural constraints and exclusive focus on the domestic market, has remained very low. On the other hand, this is also evidence of the enormous capacity of regional markets for Iranian cinematic products.
This shift points to a strategic necessity: for Iranian cinema to grow and benefit from this regional boom, it has no choice but an active presence in international markets—especially the region's growing market.
Read the full text of the note "Saudi Arabian cinema sells 8 times more than Iranian cinema!" on the Namafar website.
See the original infographic (Persian)
Machine-translated from Persian by Namafar; the Persian original is authoritative. Read the original in Persian