Local films took SR122 million at the Saudi box office in 2025, a rise of 114% from SR56.8 million a year earlier. That was among the headline figures at the fourth Saudi Film Confex, which closed in Riyadh on Thursday, 29 October.
The two-day event at JAX Studios ran under the patronage of His Highness Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Farhan, Minister of Culture and chairman of the Film Commission's board. Under the theme "Industry Shapers", 40 speakers and trainers led 20 sessions and workshops on finance, distribution and artificial intelligence in animation. Vice Minister of Culture Hamed Fayez said in his opening remarks: "This edition of the forum opens a door for dialogue between industry leaders, filmmakers and investors."
The most telling numbers compare volume and return. Saudi productions made up under 3% of the 538 films shown in the Kingdom last year, yet earned about 13% of ticket revenue. On the production side, spending on commission-backed projects reached SR1.3 billion in 2025 across 71 projects, and 6,900 people trained on 22 specialist programmes.
Deals closed the event. Actor Abdullah Al-Sadhan signed an agreement to deposit his collection with the National Film Archive, FilmLab and Cine Wave agreed to distribute three Saudi films, and the Saudi Film Industry Annual Report 2025 was launched.
The wider argument came from Abdulatif Al-Abdulatif, CEO of the General Authority for Media Regulation, who told the forum that drama shapes how the world sees a country, with benefits for tourism, trade and investment.
