Barbie Movie Stalls Across the Arab World as Censors Cite LGBTQ+ Concerns

Promoters across the Arab world had planned a big launch for the "Barbie" movie, with pink popcorn boxes, pink slushy drinks, a human-sized Barbie-toy box and even pink abayas for female fans in Saudi Arabia. Then the delays began. "We were told we had to postpone opening, but no one knew why," said Anis Tabet, a Beirut-based film critic and promoter.

The film, which opened globally in July and has earned $1.34 billion at the box office, became the latest target of the region's censors. No official reason was given for the delays, though many speculated they allowed time to negotiate cuts. "Barbie" opened in August in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain. Any alterations were not immediately apparent, and Warner Bros. had no comment on the delays.

Elsewhere the outcome was harsher. The movie was banned in Kuwait and Oman and pulled from theaters in Algeria after a brief run. Whether it will screen in Qatar or Lebanon remains unclear. The main snag was concern over LGBTQ+ messaging, even though the film has no explicit LGBTQ+ content; its cast includes one transgender actress and several gay members.

Ignace Lahoud, chief executive of Majid Al Futtaim Leisure, Entertainment & Cinemas, the regional distributor and also an exhibitor, said the priorities differ from those in the United States. "In the last couple of years, most of the issues with censorship have been related to LGBTQ references," he said. This summer, "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" was banned in all Arab countries except Tunisia over a three-second shot of a poster reading "Protect Trans Kids." Last year, "Lightyear" and "Doctor Strange 2" were blocked over a same-sex kiss and a character with two mothers, respectively.

Unlike those films, though, "Barbie" arrived during a surge of anti-gay sentiment among politicians and commentators in the Middle East. "'Barbie' has become part of a broader game. It's not about the movie, but about LGBTQ, trans and gender fluidity," said Ayman Mhanna of the Beirut-based Samir Kassir Foundation.

In Lebanon, traditionally the region's most liberal country, Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada, who is affiliated with Hezbollah, urged the censorship board to block the film, saying it "promotes sexual deviance and transsexuality" and ridicules the role of mothers. Last week, a Christian group calling itself Jnoud El Rab attacked a Beirut club that hosted a drag show, and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah recently called homosexuality a "perversion." In Iraq, lawmakers ordered media and telecom companies to replace the word "homosexuality" with "sexual deviance" and are weighing harsh penalties for same-sex relations. A Jordanian lawmaker and a prominent Bahraini preacher also condemned the film.

Some residents simply want to judge for themselves. Julianna Aoun, 32, said, "It's a movie. Who cares?" Ibrahim Khatib, 21, called bans pointless given piracy and streaming. Sandra, 34, who withheld her surname for fear of workplace backlash, said she agreed with the PG-15 rating in Saudi Arabia and felt a toy movie need not highlight sexuality.

Analysts say studios are increasingly unwilling to make regional cuts. "Now filmmakers have more power," said David Hancock of Omdia, noting that tailoring some 130 major-studio releases a year for each country would be burdensome. Lahoud said distributors serve as intermediaries between censors and studios: "Often we get refusal. Go back. Negotiate. And we end up getting the movies passed."

In Lebanon, "Barbie" had been cleared to premiere Thursday, but word came that the release would probably be postponed, and cinema websites removed it from their "Coming soon" pages. It also would not open in the region's other remaining markets. For now, many of the pink popcorn boxes and Barbie-toy boxes will stay in storage.