Why Cinemas was banned in Saudi Arabia.

In the 1970s, there were many movie theaters in Saudi Arabia and they were not considered un-Islamic, though they were seen as contrary to Arab cultural norms.

In 1979, seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the government closed all cinemas and theaters.

Cinema still banned in Saudi Arabia, due to censorship, Saudi get upset no cinema in Riyadh, and they don't know we're going to watch? They went to the border allowed to watched there is United Arab Emirate, Qatar, Jodan and Bahrain have cinema around the world better than Saudi Arabia has no cinema. The first introducing videotape came out in the 1980s, and they can watch movies on at home or hiding private cinema compound.

Video rental stores started appearing in the 1980s and offered Arabic, Western, and Asian movies. They used camera and phone recorded the cinema outside world and create DVD selling bootlegging films at video rental stores. The security checking the camera and several people arrested for selling bootlegging DVD illegal in Europe, and North American. In Egypt and Saudi Arabia still, available at video stores.  

In 2017 or 2018, re-introducing cinema for the first time and released the wost animation films "The Emoji movie". 

Go to the link.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-film/saudi-arabia-lifts-cinema-ban-directors-and-movie-chains-rejoice-idUSKBN1E50N1 

Cinema of Saudi Arabia on wikipedia.