This Barbie is a doctor, this Barbie is an architect, this Barbie is a president. And this Barbie is bringing back Edgartown Cinemas.

Edgartown Cinemas, the Island’s only year-round movie theatre that screens first-run blockbuster movies, has never sold so many tickets — or been so pink. Not for last year’s chart-topper Top Gun: Maverick or Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Not even the Harry Potter series comes close to the Barbie effect on ticket sales, said house manager Anne Evasick.

“Those movies had great opening weekends of selling out shows and then it quickly calmed down,” she said. “This has not calmed down.”

No movie has sold out the Edgartown Cinemas like Barbie, said house manager Anne Evasick, pictured here. — Ray Ewing

Less than a month since its release on July 21, Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, has already hit the $1 billion mark worldwide. At Edgartown Cinemas nearly every evening screening and 80 per cent of matinees have sold out, adding up to almost 7,000 tickets sold to date.

But it’s not just the amount of tickets sold that catches the eye.

Twice a day, an intergenerational line of moviegoers decked out in Barbie pink assembles outside the theatre ­— teenagers, mothers and grandmothers, brothers, fathers and friends all abuzz with anticipation.

Ms. Evasick said that large groups of up to 14 moviegoers, all buying tickets together, is not typical. Barbie, she said, has made going to the movies an experience again after Covid and the rise of at-home streaming services contributed to a decline in ticket sales.

“People weren’t excited to come back to the movies,” she said. “It’s been growing slowly, but this just opened the floodgates. It has never been like this before . . . I call it my Atomic Pink Tsunami.”

Pink wigs, glitter eyeshadow and even outfits made of Barbie dolls are standard attire at the town’s little theatre every day.

From left to right: Oshi Dias, Hailey Mayhew, Elin Angelini, Dylan White, and Freya Mayhew get ready for Barbie. — Ray Ewing

For a recent showing, 10-year-old Molly Pollock prepared her extended family of 12 for their Barbie outing by stopping first at Chicken Alley Thrift Shop in Vineyard Haven, where she and her aunt, Karen Flathers, purchased as many pink accessories and clothing pieces as they could find.

Ms. Flathers said that the family rarely goes out to the movies while vacationing on the Island, but Barbie was an exception. Ms. Flathers makes crochet clothing for Molly’s Barbie dolls, an homage to the hand-sewn outfits that her own mother, Molly’s grandmother, made for her when she was Molly’s age. Molly brought her grandmother to the movie, along with her mother, father and three brothers to share in the Barbie joy.

Ashley Ranaldi and her two daughters, age 18 and 22, attended a showing together wearing matching pink tops.

“Any time they ask me to do anything, I’m on it,” Ms. Ranaldi said of spending time with her daughters.

Jai harris, left, and Mikayla Gaskins. — Ray Ewing

At the ticket booth, Ms. Evasick nearly disappeared in a group of 14 moviegoers — four mothers and 10 children — as they checked in.

Barbie is common ground, said 11-year-old Freya Mayhew.

“I heard that if you love Barbie, you’ll like it, and if you hate Barbie, you’ll like it,” Freya said.

Ms. Evasick said that unlike Barbie and Oppenheimer, which is also doing well after opening on the same day as Barbie, many other films released this summer are a part of franchises, including Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One. Those films are not nearly as popular as Barbie and Oppenheimer at Edgartown Cinemas, which Ms. Evasick attributes to franchise fatigue.

Barbie has brought in people of all ages. Here Karen Flathers, Sheila Flathers, Molly Pollock and Kate Flathers done loads of pink for the screening. — Ray Ewing

“Right now, it’s a Barbenheimer world,” she said. “What it proves to me after this whole summer is that people are just aching for original content.”

Barbie’s influence is also extending to other films at the cinema, helping to drive up ticket sales all over. Upon discovering that Barbie was sold out, some filmgoers decide to check out another movie, resulting this week in a pink hue invading a screening of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.

On Tuesday, after Barbie began and the fuschia wave subsided, Ms. Evasick and the cinema staff caught their breath among the glittery remnants of another good day of business and prepared for the next day’s certain reprise.

“It makes me hopeful that people want to come back to the movies, if you give them something worth seeing,” Ms. Evasick said. “Barbie could save the cinemas.”