Saudi Arabian family comedy Sattar, set against the world of freestyle wrestling, has continued its record-breaking run at home to become one of the country’s top five highest-grossing local movies ever.
Since its release on December 29, the film has sold 723,000 tickets for a box office gross of $9.2M to date. Distributor Front Row Arabia said that the film now sits in the fifth slot in Saudi Arabia’s historic box office charts after Top Gun: Maverick ($22.6M), Spider-Man: No Way Home ($17.4M) and two Egyptian films, Bahebek ($15.7M) and Waafet Regala ($15.6M).
The success comes just five years after the lifting of Saudi Arabia’s 35-year cinema ban at the end of 2017, and bodes well for the country’s burgeoning local filmmaking scene.
Kuwaiti filmmaker Abdullah Al Arak directs a cast led by stars popular Saudi actor and stand-up comedian Ibrahim Al Hajjaj, best known for the hit action series Rashash and Netflix’s Six Windows in the Desert.
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