How Saudi Arabia’s $150M Blockbuster ‘Desert Warrior’ Became a Box-Office Disaster

Key facts

• Budget ballooned from $70 million to at least $150 million, per MBC Group internal accounting.
• Film opened on 1,010 US screens and grossed $472,000, failing to crack the top ten.
• Principal photography ran from September to December 2021, using 12,500 extras and crew from 40 countries.
• Director Rupert Wyatt was stripped of editing control, later returned to complete the film after an executive shuffle.
• Vertical acquired distribution in February 2026, four years and seven months after filming began.
• The film’s release coincides with US-Iran conflict, dampening audience appetite for desert warfare stories.

A Vision Unravels in the Desert

Desert Warrior, once touted as the first Saudi-produced Hollywood-style blockbuster, has crashed onto American screens with a mere $472,000 gross from 1,010 theaters, failing to crack the top ten. The historical action epic, conceived under Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 to diversify the kingdom’s economy beyond oil, was meant to showcase Saudi Arabia’s filmmaking ambitions. Instead, it has become a cautionary tale of overreach, with a budget that swelled from $70 million to at least $150 million, according to internal accounting by MBC Group, the studio’s corporate parent.

From Neom’s Promise to a Parking Lot Soundstage

When cameras rolled in September 2021, the state-of-the-art Neom Media complex—a multibillion-dollar facility attached to the futuristic city of Neom—was far from complete. The production team was forced to improvise, building a makeshift soundstage in the parking lot of the Grand Millennium Hotel in Tabuk, cooled by giant fans against the desert heat. “It was like an inflatable stadium,” recalled a set source. The crew constructed a cavernous throne room for Sir Ben Kingsley’s Emperor Kisra, large enough for gladiator battles and rampaging elephants, but the lack of permanent studios meant the film effectively built its infrastructure mid-production.

A Dual Narrative of Ambition and Dysfunction

Talk to more than a dozen people involved, and two competing stories emerge. On one hand, Desert Warrior was a triumph of practical filmmaking—a Braveheart-esque “Middle-Eastern western” relying on in-camera effects, shot amid 120-degree heat and sandstorms, with roads nonexistent. Production designer Paki Smith called it “quite the miracle.” Sharlto Copley, who plays a bloodthirsty warlord, dismissed the “troubled” label as a distortion. Yet behind the scenes, an array of challenges—missing infrastructure, COVID border closures, and “creative differences”—stalled the project. An internal 2022 audit of MBC Group revealed wild overspending, unclear strategy, and lack of controls, derailing the studio’s aspirations.

The Battle Over Editing and a Stripped Director

After principal photography wrapped in December 2021, Desert Warrior entered postproduction hell. Early cuts were either well-received or disastrous, depending on the source. MBC fired Wyatt’s editor, Richard Mettler, and stripped the director of oversight; Wyatt departed—by some accounts fired, by others on hiatus. Test screenings of non-Wyatt edits proved disastrous. Only after the dismissal of the MBC executive regime demanding changes did Wyatt return to reedit the film. The movie languished for years, with no distributor willing to touch it after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, until Vertical acquired it in February 2026.

Casting Controversy and a Shifted Focus

MBC enlisted British producer Jeremy Bolt (Resident Evil) and screenwriter David Self (Road to Perdition) to craft a seventh-century pre-Islamic Arabia tale. Director Rupert Wyatt, fresh off rebooting Planet of the Apes, pitched it as “Lawrence of Arabia meets Mad Max.” After an uncredited rewrite by Gary Ross, Wyatt and his wife Erica Beeney shifted focus to Princess Hind, played by British Saudi actress Aiysha Hart. The film follows Hind as she evades capture and unites Arab tribes against the Persian-Sasanian army. But casting Anthony Mackie—a Black American star—drew confusion from some Saudi royals, per a source, though MBC’s Ali Jaafar called that characterization “entirely inaccurate.”

Geopolitical Irony and a Harsh Box Office Reality

Desert Warrior’s release coincides with the US at war with Iran after two and a half years of the Israel-Hamas conflict—a twist MBC’s Jaafar calls “delicious irony.” The film, in which Arab heroes rise against Persian villains, now reaches audiences weary of desert warfare. “Man makes his plans and the gods laugh,” Jaafar said. The movie’s failure underscores the gap between Saudi Arabia’s entertainment ambitions and the realities of global filmmaking. With no market research for its target demo, the film pleased neither Arab audiences—who deemed it inauthentic—nor Western viewers. As one insider noted, “Nobody in the West gives a shit about Princess Hind.”

The bottom line

• Desert Warrior’s budget more than doubled to at least $150 million, yet it grossed only $472,000 on opening weekend.
• The film’s production was hampered by incomplete infrastructure, forcing ad hoc solutions like a parking-lot soundstage.
• Director Rupert Wyatt was initially stripped of editing control, later returned after an executive shakeup.
• Casting Anthony Mackie as the male lead reportedly caused confusion among Saudi royals, though MBC denies this.
• The film’s release amid US-Iran conflict undercut its appeal, as audiences are fatigued by desert warfare narratives.
• MBC Group’s internal dysfunction, revealed in a 2022 audit, stalled the studio’s broader ambitions for Saudi cinema.