Kuwaiti cinema chains VOX Cinemas and Cinescape announced on 24 September 2026 that Avengers: Endgame Encore would not be released in the country, cancelling screenings for which tickets had already gone on sale and issuing automatic refunds to customers who had booked online, according to thedisneyscoop.com. VOX’s Instagram notice read, in part, that the film “will no longer be released in Kuwait,” and the chain apologised to fans for the disappointment without giving a reason for the decision, per the same report. When customers asked why in the comments, VOX Cinemas replied only that the cancellation was due to “circumstances beyond our control,” a detail reported by comicbasics.com, citing SuperHeroHype.
The ban lands in the middle of what Marvel has framed as a coordinated regional and global rollout. Encore reinserts the 2019 original with roughly four additional minutes of footage tied to the December sequel Avengers: Doomsday, according to deseret.com, which quoted director Joe Russo calling the re-release “required viewing” ahead of Doomsday. The re-release opened this week across South Korea and Singapore, with screenings following in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar, according to cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com and thedisneyscoop.com, the latter noting that Kuwait had hosted exclusive VOX premieres for the original film back in April 2019 alongside Dubai, Beirut, Muscat, Jeddah and Bahrain.
A pattern of last-minute rejections
Kuwait’s censorship apparatus has a documented history of pulling major Hollywood titles after they were cleared or even scheduled for release. The original Endgame played in Kuwaiti cinemas in 2019 only after cuts were made to satisfy local censorship rules, according to thedisneyscoop.com. This time, no cut version was offered; the film was withdrawn entirely. Neither VOX Cinemas nor Kuwaiti authorities had publicly detailed the grounds for the ban as of 24 September, according to comicbasics.com, which noted that tickets for the Kuwait screenings had reportedly sold out before the cancellation was announced.
Avengers: Endgame Encore is directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo and stars Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson, according to thedisneyscoop.com. None of these named cast or crew members have commented publicly on the Kuwaiti ban, and no source has attributed any statement to them on the matter.
Marvel’s borderless marketing meets a national censor
Marvel and its distribution partners have promoted Encore as a unifying global event ahead of Doomsday, with the trailer reportedly drawing 77 million views in its first 24 hours, according to thedisneyscoop.com. That marketing framing sits uneasily next to a national censorship board’s ability to withdraw a title from circulation after tickets have already been sold and paid for, with no public explanation offered to the audience whose money was refunded. The refund notices from VOX and Cinescape treated the cancellation as a routine customer-service matter, thanking ticket holders for their patience, rather than addressing what, if anything, in the added footage or the underlying film prompted the reversal.
How the outlets framed it
Coverage of the ban split along familiar lines. Entertainment trade outlets such as thedisneyscoop.com and comicbasics.com treated the story primarily as a fan-facing logistics item, leading with refund mechanics, VOX’s apology and box-office context around the wider Encore rollout, while noting almost in passing that Kuwait has banned other Marvel and Warner Bros titles in recent years. Neither outlet pressed Kuwaiti officials or VOX for the specific rationale behind the ban, despite VOX’s own vague public language about “circumstances beyond our control.” That gap leaves the actual censorship decision, and the question of why a title cleared for release with cuts in 2019 was blocked outright in 2026, largely unexamined in favour of consumer-facing refund details.
