Barbie Finds Audience In West Asia (Image: twitter.com/voxcinemas)

Pink abayas, pink popcorn… Feminist film-maker Greta Gerwig”s tongue-in-cheek movie Barbie is hitting an unchartered territory these days and finding audience in theatres… The Arabian peninsula.

Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, this American fantasy comedy film is based on Barbie fashion dolls by Mattel and also the first live-action Barbie film after numerous computer-animated films and specials.

The movie hit the theatres in UAE on August 10, weeks after its international release. Being reported as a new cultural phenomenon in the conservative Arab world, fans queued up to watch movie in theatres in UAE and Saudi Arabia, reported AFP. The movie has been released in Bahrain, but Kuwait has banned it while it hasn”t been released in Qatar and Oman.

As it is visible in photos released by news agency AFP, cinemas in Dubai are adorned with memorabilia and photo booths shaped as doll boxes.

“We never imagined that such a movie would be shown in Gulf countries,” Wadima Al-Amiri, an 18-year-old UAE citizen told AFP at a packed Dubai cinema.

The film follows Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) on a journey of self-discovery following an existential crisis.

The movie has already grossed USD 1.28 billion from across the world albeit a tight competition from Christopher Nolan’s historical drama Oppenheimer which collected USD 718.4 million across the world.

The UAE Media Council had granted the Barbie movie the approval to be screened in the UAE’s licensed cinemas after completing the necessary procedures in line with the standards of media content and the UAE age classification in August first week.

The movie’s screenplay was done by director Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach.