China has banned the West's biggest blockbusters, from Marvel movies to 'Top Gun. ' Here's why the new 'Minions' movie was approved.
"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" might be the latest Marvel Studios film to be banned in China. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film will likely be blacklisted along with DC's "Black Adam." A queer relationship shown in the film could be why the movie may never hit Chinese cinemas.
"Thor: Love and Thunder" earned over $300 million globally over the weekend, but wasn't released in China. It's the sixth MCU movie in a row, all during the pandemic, to be shut out of the region. It hasn't been approved by China's film censors over LGBTQ+ themes, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The latest Spider-Man blockbuster was banned from release in China after Sony refused to remove scenes of America that Beijing deemed "too patriotic", including images of the superhero swinging around the Statue of Liberty, according to a media report.
Disney has a long history of censoring its films to remain in the CCP's good graces. In 1996, the company was blocked from the Chinese film market after its production of Kundun, which displays Chinese oppression of the Tibetan people.
Are you traveling to China and worried about accessing your Netflix? Although most of the world has access to Netflix, the service is still unavailable in China. So if you want access to your home Netflix library, you must use a VPN.
Blockbuster movie Spiderman: No Way Home was BANNED in China after Sony refused government's demands to remove scenes showing the Statue of Liberty. Sony Pictures reportedly rejected the Chinese government's demand to remove scenes featuring the Statue of Liberty from Spider Man: No Way Home.
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” was not released in China after Sony rejected a request to delete scenes that include the Statue of Liberty, a new report claims. In China, films are reviewed by the China Film Administration under the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
According to Puck News, for example, Spider-Man: No Way Home didn't receive a Chinese release because the country's authorities wanted Marvel/Sony to remove the Statue of Liberty from the film.
Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige said in 2019 that "the answer is yes" when asked if there would be an LGBTQ storyline in Thor: Love and Thunder, and the new film does make explicit that when all the other valkyries were killed by Hela, the Thompson character's girlfriend was among them.
Black Widow was effectively banned in China, reportedly due to negative word of mouth concerning Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which itself reportedly passed the government censors but never received a release date.
Hollywood-owned Universal films franchise Fast & Furious is globally popular. The latest Fast & Furious 9 has been released in Russia, the middle east, South Korea and China.
According to Wion, Black Panther joina a long list of Western films that have been censored or banned in China. The reason behind the ban has not been specified, but some resources claimed the reason could be the gay relationship scene in the movie.
And thanks to more than 1,000% growth in its domestic box office during this time, China's share of the MCU's global grosses grew as well. For the five-movie run starting with Avengers: Infinity War and ending with Spider-Man: Far From Home, China generated 19% of global revenue.
Marvel Studios' Thor: Love and Thunder is unlikely to get a release date in China, a major theatrical market, due to the inclusion of LGBTQ+ scenes.
Marvel's "Phase Three" films at the box office. 2017′s “Spider-Man: Homecoming” generated around 13.3% of its total box office from China, about $117 million, and 2019′s “Spider-Man: Far From Home” saw 18.25% of its global haul, or $204.9 million, from the region, according to Comscore data.
The first two Spidey films starring Holland, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home grossed a respective 116 million USD and 199 million USD in China alone, making it by far the most profitable overseas market for the two movies.
The overseas release of the original Avatar in 2009 and rereleased versions accounted for $2.13 billion of its $2.9 billion in total gross. Around $265 million of that came from China, where the film industry has grown quickly in the more than a decade since.
That, in the world of Top Gun, China doesn't even exist is an example of how subtly Beijing exercises influence in Hollywood. The film is not playing in China - but that's not really what it's about.
In the larger scheme of things, Shang-Chi is known to take place after Disney+'s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but before Eternals, both Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man No Way Home, and Disney+'s Hawkeye.
No Way Home director Jon Watts previously said in an interview (via CinemaBlend) that it "felt right" for Endgame to be Stan Lee's last cameo. So excluding a Stan Lee cameo makes sense for No Way Home. The film still pays homage to Stan Lee.
In cases where the entire site is banned due to one particular video, YouTube will often agree to remove or limit access to that video in order to restore service. As of September 2012, countries with standing national bans on YouTube include China, Iran, and Turkmenistan.
Google pulled its search engine from China in 2010 because of heavy government internet censorship. Since then, Google has had a difficult relationship with the Chinese market. The end of Google Translate in China marks a further retreat by the U.S. technology giant from the world's second-largest economy.
Is Youtube legal in China? Even though Youtube is blocked in China, it's not illegal to watch it. There is no precedent of anyone being charged with a crime for watching Youtube or using a VPN. China is well aware of the fact that many internet users are accessing blocked websites using VPNs.