Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia joined Kuwait and Qatar in the decision of not to screen in their theaters the $200 million big-budget adventure film Eternals in its present form. Bahrain and Oman too will not be screening the controversial film while Walt Disney, the distributors, ruled out any possibility for cuts in the film.

Omar Abu Bakr, spokesman of the Saudi General Commission for Audiovisual Media, revealed that screening of the movie Eternals in Saudi Arabia depends on the decision of the producing company, which was asked by the commission to make a number of alterations in the content, and that otherwise the film will not be screened.

The spokesman said that if there are scenes in a movie that do not comply with the content regulations stipulated in the Kingdom’s Audiovisual Media Law and its executive regulations, the commission will request modifications to those scenes.

The blockbuster movie was originally scheduled to be screened in the Gulf States on Nov. 11, but it was met with a series of requests from local censors to make some cuts that Walt Disney Entertainment was not willing to make. Therefore, the dates that were scheduled to screen the film were removed from the list of cinemas.

Deadline Hollywood site stated that the film, produced by Disney/Marvel’s posted $7.6 million on the first day of its release, but the foreign box office, which is expected to enjoy strong demand, will exclude theaters in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman.