Hollywood won’t budge for Chinese censors anymore

Hollywood has long bent over backwards to give Chinese censors what they want. Not anymore.To get more news about chinese movie, you can visit shine news official website.

Over the past year, producers behind some of the hottest US blockbusters have kept in scenes that could irk China’s censors, apparently less concerned about the potential loss of access to theaters across the country of 1.4 billion people.

As a result, some of the most anticipated movies released in recent months — including “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Lightyear” — have not, and may never, hit the world’s second largest box office.

All films publicly screened in China need a permit from regulators. Censorship is rife, with authorities increasingly clamping down on what they perceive to be inappropriate, including in some cases the appearance of cleavage, tattoos or people smoking, as well as more obviously politically sensitive elements.

Take the new “Top Gun” sequel, now the biggest picture of the year. In a trailer released in 2019, the movie appeared to omit Taiwan’s flag, after a Chinese backer urged producers to do so, according to the Wall Street Journal. Later, once the investor, Tencent (TCEHY), reportedly dropped out, the symbol was reinstated on Tom Cruise’s iconic bomber jacket.

China and Taiwan have a complex relationship. Beijing’s Communist leadership has long claimed Taiwan, a self-governed democratic island, as part of its territory, despite having never ruled over it.The move was followed by another rebuff by Disney (DIS) and Pixar, which were reportedly asked by authorities in countries including China to remove a brief, same-sex kissing scene from their latest animated release, “Lightyear.” China has long cracked down on depictions of homosexuality.

Disney declined to make the cut, its producer, Galyn Susman, told Reuters, adding that she believed the film would also not open in the country. The movie, which has Chris Evans voice the role of titular space ranger Buzz Lightyear, premiered elsewhere last month.

A person familiar with the matter said that Disney had submitted the film for release in mainland China, and was awaiting an official response.

Sony (SNE) Pictures also found itself in a tight spot late last year, when it was asked by Chinese regulators to cut out or minimize the appearance of the Statue of Liberty in a scene in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” according to the publication Puck. The company reportedly refused, and the movie was never shown in mainland theaters.

Sony and Disney did not respond to a request for comment, while Paramount declined to comment. China’s film regulators did not respond to a request for comment.So why would these companies push back, putting tens or hundreds of millions of dollars at risk? For one, industry veterans say that China’s movie market isn’t what it used to be.

In recent months, film studios have begun to rethink the trade-off associated with appeasing censors in China, particularly as the country’s box office becomes more insular, more heavily regulated, and continues to be battered by Covid-19 restrictions, according to experts.

“There is 100% a shift” in how Hollywood regards Chinese censors, said Chris Fenton, former president of DMG Entertainment and author of the book “Feeding the Dragon: Inside the Trillion-Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, and American Business.”

“Pleasing Beijing no longer guarantees big revenues in China,” he told CNN Business. “Such risk and effort no longer guarantee results, and I expect this lack of certainty to prolong this era of pushback for quite some time.”