Barbie Movie Banned in Two Countries

Barbie may be an international smash hit bringing in more than a billion dollars at the global box office and climbing, but there are two countries that won’t be adding to the film’s success. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Barbie has officially been banned in Kuwait and Lebanon is following right behind. Per the report, the chairman of Kuwait’s film censorship committee Lafi Al-Subaie has accused Barbie of “carrying ideas that encourage unacceptable behavior and distort society’s values”. In Lebanon, culture minister Mohammad Mortada claimed that Barbie “promotes homosexuality” and “Contradicts values of faith and morality” by diminishing the importance of the family unit.

Barbie being banned in Kuwait and a ban in Lebanon imminent comes roughly a week after it was reported that the film was seeing its release in the Middle East delayed. However, both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — two of the Middle East’s biggest two markets — have since given the film an August 10th release date. It had been requested that some edits be made to the film due to complaints from censors about alleged LGBTQ-related narration and dialogue, though it’s uncleared if those edits have been made.

Barbie Has Hit $1 Billion at the Box Office

Last Sunday, the film not only won its third weekend in a row at the box office, but it also officially crossed the $1 billion worldwide threshold at the box office, making Gerwig the first woman to solely direct a billion-dollar grossing film. The Barbie Instagram celebrated the milestone with a new celebration video as well.

“Here’s to our incredible Barbies and Kens from all around the world for making our Barbie dreams come true. We’re excited to share that #BarbieTheMovie has hit $1 Billion at the Global Box Office. 💞,” the Barbie movie shared.

Barbie Star Margot Robbie Predicted The Film’s Massive Success

In a sense, Barbie’s huge success isn’t a total surprise. Star Margot Robbie predicted that Barbie had billion-dollar potential in her pitch to the studios.

“I think my pitch in the green-light meeting was the studios have prospered so much when they’re brave enough to pair a big idea with a visionary director,” Barbie star Margot Robbie previously told Collider. “And then I gave a series of examples like, “dinosaurs and [Steven] Spielberg,” that and that, that and that – pretty much naming anything that’s been incredible and made a ton of money for the studios over the years. And I was like, “And now you’ve got Barbie and Greta Gerwig.” And I think I told them that it’d make a billion dollars, which maybe I was overselling, but we had a movie to make, okay?!”

In Barbie, to live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken. From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig comes Barbie, which hit theaters on July 21st. Barbie stars Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, Ariana Greenblatt, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, and Will Ferrell. The film also stars Ana Cruz Kayne, Emma Mackey, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Scott Evans, Jamie Demetriou, Connor Swindells, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren. Gerwig directed Barbie from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach, based on Barbie by Mattel. 

Barbie is in theaters now.