IMAX Corporation and VOX Cinemas, the Middle East’s leading cinema exhibitor, announced Tuesday a sales agreement for a minimum of four new IMAX theatres in Saudi Arabia.

The announcement comes on the heels of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture and Information’s decision to open up the Kingdom to movie theatres in 2018 for the first time in 35 years.

Four theatres will be added to new multiplexes in Riyadh and other prime locations at some of the Kingdom’s most prominent shopping malls including those owned by VOX Cinemas’ parent company, Majid Al Futtaim, a leading shopping mall, communities, retail and leisure pioneer across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

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The first IMAX theatre has opened at VOX Cinemas’ new four-screen multiplex in Saudi Arabia at Riyadh Park Mall. VOX Cinemas was awarded its licence to operate cinemas in the Kingdom and plans to invest SAR2B (US$533.3M) to open 600 screens in Saudi Arabia over the next five years.

In addition, IMAX theatres will be featured at VOX Cinemas in Majid Al Futtaim’s City Centre Ishbiliyah and Mall of Saudi.

The agreement brings the IMAX contracted network in Saudi Arabia to at least five, with two currently open, as IMAX also operates the IMAX dome theatre at the Sultan Bin Abdul Science Center in Al-Khobar, which opened in 2005.