'Barbie' Movie Gets Banned in Lebanon for 'Promoting Homosexuality'

Anghami, the Arab world’s answer to Spotify, is eyeing further expansion following a fresh $5 million investment by SRMG Ventures.

With Tuesday’s grosses, Illumination/Nintendo/Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie has crossed the $100M (13.74B yen) mark in Japan. In doing so, it becomes Universal’s top title ever there. In local currency, Mario overtakes Top Gun: Maverick as the No. 6 Hollywood film of all time in Japan, and is the No. 1 studio picture since the beginning of the pandemic.

Randall Park feels Hollywood execs are missing the important takeaway from the wild success of the movie.The alum recently spoke with amid the theatrical release of his directorial debut, and reflected on representation, diversity and how it's often hard for the head honchos in Hollywood to see the big picture.«I feel like, just in general, this industry is taking the wrong lessons,» Park said. «For example, is this massive blockbuster, and the idea is: Make more movies about toys! No.

Barbie has been banned in multiple countries following its release.Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, the fantasy comedy has become the second highest-grossing film of 2023 worldwide behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie, passing the $1billion mark earlier this month at the box office.The film’s success also crossed another milestone, becoming the highest-grossing live-action movie solely directed by a woman.Ahead of its release in July, Barbie was banned in Vietnam due to a scene featuring a map depicting China’s contested territorial claims in the South China Sea.As reported by Reuters, the scene shows “an offending image” of the “nine-dash line”, which is used on Chinese maps to illustrate its claims over large areas of the South China Sea, which is contested by Vietnam.A number of films have recently been banned in the country for the same reason, including Sony’s Uncharted and Dreamworks’ animated film Abominable.Kuwait subsequently banned Barbie after the film promoted “ideas and beliefs that are alien to the Kuwaiti society and public order”, according to Lafy Al-Subei’e, an under secretary of the Ministry for Press and Publication in the country (via the New York Times).Around the same time (August 9), Lebanon’s culture minister, Mohammad Mortada, made moves to ban Barbie, saying that the film was found to “promote homosexuality and sexual transformation”.

Ellise Shafer “Barbie” has been banned in Algeria in its third week of release, according to Reuters. In a statement to the news site, an unnamed “official source” said that the film “promotes homosexuality and other Western deviances” and “does not comply with Algeria’s religious and cultural beliefs.” The news was first reported by local site 24H Algerie on Monday, which wrote that the North African country’s Ministry of Culture and Arts had asked theaters showing the film to immediately remove it from their schedules.

Algerian authorities have pulled runaway box office hit Barbie from local cinemas over its “damaging morals”.

CMU’s sister media ThreeWeeks is currently covering the Edinburgh Festival, the world’s biggest cultural event, which takes over the Scottish capital for three weeks with a packed programme of comedy, theatre, music, musicals, dance, cabaret, spoken word and a whole lot more.Here in the CMU Daily we’ll pick out some of the highlights of this year’s coverage, including interviews with people who are performing there this year. Today Victor Esses, who is performing a show called ‘The Death & Life Of All Of Us’.“When I was nineteen, I interviewed my great aunt, Marcelle, in Rome, after she lost touch with the family for 30 years”, he explains.

After another weekend at the top of the box office, rumours are emerging that a “Barbie” sequel is in the works.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International The Venice Film Festival is rolling out a juried impact award that will mark the first time a major film festival has awarded a prize focused solely on impact. Impact campaigns are crafted around documentaries and some narrative films that have strong social or political messages that can inspire action among audiences and the industry at large.

Barbie movie has been banned in Kuwait and now faces calls for a ban in Lebanon amid complaints in the Arab nations about the film’s social values.Kuwait’s state news agency said that the nation acted to protect the country’s “public ethics”, while Lebanon’s culture minister accused the film of “promoting homosexuality”.The film is however still being shown in other conservative parts of the region, including Saudi Arabia.Barbie, which is directed by Greta Gerwig and stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has grossed more than $1bn (£784m) worldwide within weeks of its release.Lafi al-Subaiei, the head of Kuwait’s board of film classification, said that the board usually asks for movie scenes to be cut if they are deemed to flout the country’s culture. But when a film promotes behaviour the state considers unacceptable, it is banned outright.The film “promulgate[s] ideas and beliefs that are alien to Kuwaiti society and public order”, a spokesman for the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information said (via BBC News).On Wednesday, the Lebanese Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada asked the interior ministry to “take all necessary measures to ban” Barbie.He said the film “promotes homosexuality and transsexuality… supports rejecting a father’s guardianship, undermines and ridicules the role of the mother, and questions the necessity of marriage and having a family”.Meanwhile, in the US, comedian and actor Marc Maron recently hit out at the film’s conservative critics, describing them as “insecure babies”.“The fact that certain men took offence to the point where they, you know, tried to build a grift around it in terms of their narrative as right wing [expletive] is so embarrassing for them.

Lebanon has banned “Barbie” screenings entirely.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Lebanon, once thought of as among the most liberal parts of the Middle East, is poised to ban global hit movie “Barbie.” More conservative Kuwait said Wednesday that it had gone ahead with a ban due to its promotion of homosexuality. Lebanon’s culture minister Mohammad Mortada said on Wednesday that the Warner Bros. film was found to “promote homosexuality and sexual transformation” and “contradicts values of faith and morality” by diminishing the importance of the family unit.

topped $1 billion in global ticket sales, some countries still aren’t on board.The bubblegum pink flick won’t see a premiere in Kuwait to protect “public ethics and social traditions,” Reuters reported.Lafi Al-Subaie, chairman of the film censorship committee in Kuwait, has accused “Barbie” of “carrying ideas that encourage unacceptable behavior and distort society’s values,” according to the Hollywood Reporter, which cited local media reports. And in Lebanon, per Reuters, the film has been accused of “promoting homosexuality.”Minister Mohammad Mortada, who is supported by the powerful political party and militant group Hezbollah, said the movie was found to “promote homosexuality and sexual transformation” and “contradicts values of faith and morality,” as it lessens the “importance of the family unit.”Because of Mortada’s statements, Lebanon’s interior minister, Bassam Mawlawi, has asked the General Security’s censorship committee to review the film and give its recommendation, according to Reuters.The Post reached out to Warner Bros.

Deadline has confirmed that Warner Bros’ billion-dollar grossing Barbie won’t be getting a release in Kuwait, and it’s skating on thin ice in Lebanon.

grossed more than a billion dollars worldwide — and eight months from now, a million more Barbies could be saying “hi” to the world, info from one popular baby naming website suggests.According to Nameberry, searches for “Barbie” have surged by 603% since April, when the trailer for the Greta Gerwig-directed summer blockbuster was released.The film, which swept into theaters in July, stars Margot Robbie as in the titular role and Ryan Gosling as Ken.Searches for “Ken” — or “Kenneth” — saw a 293% increase in the same time period.“Barbie and Ken are piquing parents’ interest, but this doesn’t mean that will translate into actual usage,” Nameberry’s editor-in-chief Sophie Kihm told People.Prior to the film’s release, Kihm noted, “Barbie” had been a very popular name with Amish parents.And while the spike in interest has been impressive, Kihm said the two names are not expected to crack the top 10 anytime soon.“Barbie and Ken are both dated names that aren’t due to come back yet, so while there may be a slight bump from the movie, neither will be among the most popular baby names of 2023,” she explained.Currently, “Barbie” ranks 1,896 out of 2,000 of the most popular names for 2023 on the website.

Follow OK! on Threads here: https://www.threads.net/@ok_mag Matt Hancock has been savagely mocked after posting video to TikTok where he can be seen lip-syncing to a track from the Barbie movie, which features Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. In the clip, Matt can be seen walking on a beach toward the camera as he sang along to Ken actor Ryan's I'm Just Ken song, which features in the smash-hit film.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Ryu Seung-wan’s female-led crime caper “Smugglers” topped the South Korean box office for a second weekend, ahead of new release title “Ransomed.” “Smugglers” enjoyed a strong hold in its second weekend of release and commanded 42% market share. It delivered $7.09 million, a drop of only 20% on its opening weekend, giving a 12-day cumulative of $26.2 million, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

Mattel is unveiling a new doll inspired by Kate McKinnon’s role in the Barbie film.

Project Angel Food’s The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Campus in Los Angeles, Chuck Lorre revealed he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis when he was just 22. “When I was a young man, I was really really very ill. I was severely ill with ulcerative colitis.

Eva Mendes is channeling her inner Barbie. The 49-year-old actress shows off a quick tease of her dance moves in a new video on Instagram, set to Dua Lipa's infectious «Dance the Night» song from the official movie soundtrack.