In 2022, it was reported that Spider-Man: No Way Home was denied a release after the CFA asked the film's distributor, Sony, to remove the Statue of Liberty from scenes they deemed too “patriotic”.
Experts have speculated the reasons could include the inclusion of LGBTQ characters, comments critical of China by people involved in the films, like “Eternals” director Chloé Zhao, and broader U.S.-China tensions over trade and other issues.
Spider-Man movie wasn't shown in China after Sony refused to edit out Statue of Liberty. No way.
What caught the censors' attention in the most recent Spider-Man installment was the film's climactic scene set atop the Statute of Liberty. According to recent news reports, Chinese censors demanded that Sony remove all scenes showing one of the most familiar symbols of American liberty.
The Marvel titles that were blocked from release in China include Black Widow, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Eternals, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder.
Sony struck a major blow against censorship after defying a Chinese government demand to delete the Statue Of Liberty from “Spiderman: No Way Home” ahead of its release. The bombshell rejection was revealed by “multiple sources,” per a recent article by Puck.
“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).
The Chinese government asked Sony to remove scenes that had been deemed too “patriotic.” However, the company declined to make any changes to Spider-Man: No Way Home. Though not censoring meant that the studio lost a major chunk of revenue, it soared at the box office without it.
Spiderman in Chinese – 蜘蛛侠Zhīzhū xiá
"Thor: Love and Thunder," which dropped this past summer, wasn't approved by China's censorship authorities due to LGBTQ+ themes throughout, per the Hollywood Reporter.
Now, after over three and a half years, the country with the second-largest box office in the world has finally lifted its ban on Marvel films. The next installment is slated for a 2024 release.
Chinese censorship of American movies is hardly a new problem—bans date back to 1977's Star Wars: A New Hope. Other banned movies include Back to the Future (whose inclusion of time travel was labeled a, “dangerous fictional element”), Ben-Hur (superstitious), and even Despicable Me 2 (unspecified).
It has also been speculated that a split-second shot of The Epoch Times—an extremely conservative paper that opposes the Chinese Communist Party and is associated with Falun Gong (a religious movement)—in Doctor Strange 2 was enough reason for China to ban the film.
The 2013 zombie action flick was not released in China - this was reportedly because films which feature zombies and ghosts are typically not permitted in the country (Ghostbusters is also technically banned).
Is Disney+ Blocked in China? No, the Disney+ service isn't blocked in China.
“Avatar 2” was released in China on Dec. 16, 2022, and would normally have seen its run come to an end on Jan. 15, 2023. The extension means that it should now be able to play until mid-February.
Top Gun: Maverick never received permission to release in China, but it did more than fine at the global box office anyway, earning just shy of $1.5 billion — the most of any film in 2022 so far. So what happened to China's answer to Maverick?
In recent years, Marvel films have become very popular in China and it has become the second biggest movie market in the world. It has been said that Chinese moviegoers account for 20% of all revenue earned by Marvel films internationally, and that some Marvel films make more money in China than in the US.
In an attempt to strike a compromise, Chinese censors asked to minimize the presence of the Statue of Liberty during the final sequence. The censors also requested the elimination of Tom Holland's scenes at the top of the crown, as well as a dimming of the lighting. Once again, Sony refused to make these adjustments.
Despite the delay, China became Spider-Man: Homecoming's largest market outside the U.S., grossing $116 million in box office receipts.
This was a fun movie to watch, especially if you have seen all of the most recent spiderman movies. For younger viewers: skip the 1st scene in the apartment as sexual references are mentioned.
It's a first-party title that Sony owns, and it's not getting pulled from digital stores. It's only leaving the service because Sony thinks it can make a couple of extra bucks in the lead up to Spider-Man 2.
Spider-Man: No Way Home has some nudity and sexual activity. For example: Peter is briefly shown in his underwear while changing out of his Spider-Man costume. Another character is naked after changing back into his human form.
Meeting Peter Parker
Peter Parker informed "Nick Fury" that he could not operate as Spider-Man while in Europe because his identity needed to remain a secret.