evidence: As Greta Gerwig’s "Barbie" flies past $1 billion at the worldwide box office, the film has nabbed an official theatrical release in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. [...] Previous direct-to-consumer animated "Barbie" features have been banned in Saudi Arabia for portraying non-traditional gender roles. The property was first introduced in Saudi Arabia in the early 1990s, where it has remained a regular lightning rod for controversy. The dolls have been periodically banned in various Middle Eastern territories, but their popularity has rarely waned, even with local companies offering more demographically targeted alternatives like Fulla. [...] Either the initial rumors were ill-informed or the powers that be in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere decided that the calculus of letting the film play as intended was better for overall messaging, in terms of being a more progressive region than the blowback of not allowing its "subversive" messaging to reach paying moviegoers.