In the 1980s, movie theaters were shut down in Saudi Arabia during a wave of ultra-conservatism in the country.
In December, the 35-year-old ban was lifted thanks to the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Up until now, the citizens had to travel to a neighboring places such as Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and other countries, according to uk.reuters.com.
While the idea of showing commercial movies were allowed, the Crown Prince still needed to pick films that would remain within the kingdom’s moral values.
So the children’s films “The Emoji Movie” and “Captain Underpants,” were shown during the double screening in a makeshift theater.
“ I understand they chose those because of moral values. But what’s the point of lifting a ban just to show something that’s censored and geared towards children? You might as well have the ban… also I think that those movies do have subliminal messages hidden in them so are they really censored?” said Shaleen Chand, a Delta student when asked about what she thought about the lift on the ban.
Another student, Jennifer Nguyen, had a different opinion.
“I think these choices are fine. This shows that their society is slowly changing,” said Nguyen.
According to the Reuters website, the first permanent theaters could open as early as March 2018.
NBC News reported this lift on the ban was included in a list of things that the Prince was determined in changing, such as allowing women to drive, bringing back concerts and other forms of entertainment.
