RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—Saudi Arabia opens its first new cinema in 35 years this week with a screening of “Black Panther”—the story of a young royal trying to transform a wealthy but closed country that sits on vast amounts of a valuable natural resource.
It is a plot that sounds familiar to supporters of Saudi Arabia’s 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is touting new movie theaters as a sign of historic change in one of the most religiously conservative countries in the world.
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