Marvel's superhero blockbuster Black Panther is set to be shown inside Saudi Arabia's first public cinema in decades.

The new movie theatre will open on 18 April and is part of a deal done with cinema chain AMC to open up to 40 cinemas across the country over the next five years.

Black Panther will play for five days in Riyadh and will be swiftly followed by Avengers: Infinity War, which is being given a release date of 26 April.

The 620-seater cinema is a converted symphony hall in the King Abdullah Financial District, and will not be segregated by gender like most other public places in the kingdom.

The move to reopen cinemas is part of a modernisation drive by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The conservative Muslim kingdom had cinemas in the 1970s, but they were closed at the behest of hardline Islamic clerics.

International theatre chains have long eyed the kingdom as the Middle East's last untapped mass market of more than 30 million people, the majority of whom are under 25.

Saudi Arabians are avid consumers of Western media and culture, since, despite the cinema ban, they watch Hollywood films and latest television series.

On 25 March, Black Panther was officially declared the highest-grossing superhero movie, successfully surpassing The Avengers, released in 2012.