‘Barbie’ suffers early box office blow after being banned in Vietnam over territorial dispute

Vietnam has blocked the release of Barbie, the incoming Greta Gerwig-helmed fantasy comedy film, from being released in its cinemas.

Per Variety, the decision came after officials noticed that a scene in the film contained a map of the world with the “nine-dash line,” a map segment that indicates certain territorial claims by China in the South China Sea. Claims that have frequently been disputed by Vietnam, as well as other Asian states such as Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

The film was set to receive its Vietnamese release on July 23, two days after its North American bow.

A 2016 arbitral tribunal undertaken by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea decreed that the nine-dash line is not recognized by wider global law and that China has no legal or historical basis to lay claim to the geographical contents of the nine-dash line. Rulings of this nature, however, haven’t done much to stop China in the past, and territorial disputes still continue to this day. All in all, it remains a hot-button issue for Vietnam and the wider Asian community, and judging by how the country has come down on Barbie, it seems there’s very little wiggle room for anything resembling even acknowledgment of the nine-dash line.

Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, Barbie follows the existential plight of the two dolls who ditch Barbie Land and take off for the real world, hoping to find themselves outside of the restrictive walls of their homeland.

Barbie is due in theaters on July 21.