When it comes to global box office, China is projected to overtake the United States
as the biggest market in the world by 2020.
Chinese law, however, only allows 34 Hollywood films to be released on the mainland each
year, meaning there's an intense competition to earn one of those coveted slots.
And since Chinese censors are notoriously strict, outright banning movies they don't
like, Hollywood studios are more than happy to make changes to their films in order to
get a piece of the action.
Here's a look at some movies Hollywood was forced to change for China's sake.
Doctor Strange
Whitewashing is nothing new in Hollywood, but the problem has come to a head in recent
years with a bunch of controversial against-race castings.
In 2016, Marvel Studios came under fire for Doctor Strange, which cast Tilda Swinton in
the role of The Ancient One, who, in the comics, was a Tibetan mystic.
According to the film's co-writer, C. Robert Cargill, that presented Marvel with a major
problem, because the Chinese government refuses to recognize Tibet as an independent country.
He told the Double Toasted podcast, "The Ancient One was a racist stereotype who comes from
a region of the world that is in a very weird political place.
He originates from Tibet.
So if you acknowledge that Tibet is a place and that he's Tibetan, you risk alienating
one billion people [...] and risk the Chinese government going, 'Hey, you know one of the
biggest film-watching countries in the world?
We're not going to show your movie because you decided to get political.'"
Skyfall
2006's Casino Royale made history as, after 20 previous attempts to get him there had
proven unsuccessful, James Bond was finally introduced to China.
And the cost was just a few new lines of dialogue from Dame Judi Dench glossing over that whole
Cold War thing.
"In the old days if an agent did something that embarrassing he'd have the good sense
to defect.
Christ, I miss the Cold War."
However, 2012's Skyfall was subjected to heavy editing at the hands of Chinese censors, who
removed all references to torture tactics used by the Chinese authorities as well as
cutting a scene in which a Chinese security guard is killed during an assassination.
They decided to leave in a scene in which Bond asks a Chinese casino hostess about child
prostitution, though the Chinese subtitles deliberately misquote the secret agent, changing
his question to one about connections to the mafia as opposed to trafficking.
"Tattoo on your wrist is Macau sex trade.
You belong to one of the houses.
What were you, 12?"
Iron Man 3
One of the most shameless attempts at a China cash grab in recent years, Marvel's Iron Man
3 was influenced by Hollywood's newest eastern audience in more ways than one — the first
being the new take on Tony Stark's arch-nemesis.
There was clearly no way the racially insensitive Mandarin would ever be allowed to appear on
the big screen in China in his original comic book form.
So Marvel Studios and Iron Man 3 director Shane Black decided to scrap that version
entirely in favor of an all new, non-Asian, fake Mandarin played by Sir Ben Kingsley.
"Don't hurt the face!
I'm an actor."
"You've got a minute to live.
Fill it with words."
"Just a role.
The Mandarin!
See, it's not real."
But that was just the tip of the iceberg.
The studio also filmed a number of scenes specifically for the Chinese release, cutting
in four extra minutes of footage filled with product placement and a new Chinese mentor
for Tony Stark, Dr. Wu, who performs surgery on Stark and has a conversation with his computerized
assistant, J.A.R.V.I.S., in Mandarin.
The move backfired, however, with Chinese viewers seeing through the product placement
and questioning the logic of Dr. Wu's relevance to the story.
Since, y'know, he had none.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Hollywood movies weren't shown in China at all when the original Star Wars trilogy made
waves domestically, and as a result, George Lucas' space opera just isn't very well known
there.
That fact showed plainly in the meager box office takings for The Force Awakens.
Episode VII's poor reception was clearly a cause for concern at Disney, who made moves
to ensure that 2016's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story didn't suffer the same fate.
Chinese stars Jiang Wen and Donnie Yen were hired in genuine supporting roles in an effort
to drum up interest in the spinoff, and their inclusion created plenty of hype.
Hong Kong-born Yen, China's second biggest action star after Jackie Chan, initially refused
the role of Chirrut over fears that his participation was just a marketing ploy.
However, director Gareth Edwards managed to convince him otherwise.
Yen told the South China Morning Post, "When the director approached me, I began by asking,
quite frankly, if it's a real character, or if he's only casting me based on commercial
considerations for the [Chinese] market.
Once he told me what my character was going to be like, and some of my lines, including
the iconic 'May the Force be with you,' I recognized the importance of my character."
Unfortunately, despite Edwards sticking to his word and even allowing Yen to choreograph
his own action sequences, Chinese audiences still didn't buy it, and the film bombed there.
Jonathan Papish from China Film Insider told TheWrap that "the small number of Donnie Yen
or Jiang Wen fans who turned out to see their faces were completely confused or bored with
the rest of the story."
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Disney responded to reports that Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, had suffered
quite the cull at the hands of China's censors by admitting that there had been some cuts.
But the Mouse House declined to elaborate further.
The franchise's previous installment, Dead Man's Chest, didn't get a release at all because
of its ghostly elements.
So for the series' third movie, Disney was happy to part ways with a number of scenes
in order to push it through.
Surprisingly, though, the scenes Chinese censors asked to be cut all involved Chow Yun-fat,
one of the most famous action stars in Chinese cinema.
It seems strange that Chinese authorities would insist on scenes featuring one of their
homegrown stars being removed from the film, but they were reportedly very unhappy with
Yun-fat's character Sao Feng.
The pirate lord of the South China Sea appears in traditional Qing dynasty garb with a shiny
bald head and long, dirty fingernails, an image censors in the country found to be an
offensive stereotype.
Most of the scenes setting up the character were deleted, making his sudden appearance
and death very confusing to Chinese audiences.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1
China insists that 14 of the 34 Hollywood films it approves for mainland screening each
year must be presented in either 3D or IMAX, formats that have proven incredibly popular
there after heavy investment in the technology.
Lionsgate used this to their advantage when it came to releasing The Hunger Games: Mockingjay
– Part 1 in China, hoping to improve upon the disappointing returns of previous installment,
Catching Fire.
The first part of the franchise finale was converted to 3D especially for China, and
when it easily bested the previous films at the box office, Part 2 was given the same
treatment.
Converting movies to 3D to make a few extra bucks doesn't always work out, however.
The Bourne movies are very well known for employing an excess of shaky-cam in their
nauseatingly shot action sequences, yet Universal sought to milk fifth installment Jason Bourne
for all it was worth and released a 3D version in China.
According to Quartz, the result was "a line of people throwing up in the restroom of the
cinema," with one film fan begging Hollywood not to do anything that dumb again.
"Please don't offer 3D just to grab money anymore.
Chinese people are not stupid, we can vote with our feet and money."
Pixels
When Sony was subject to a cyber attack from what many suspect were hackers acting on behalf
of the North Korean government, a number of sensitive emails were dumped onto the internet
for all to see.
The leak revealed details of how the Adam Sandler comedy Pixels was changed for China:
a line of dialogue mentioning a "Communist conspiracy" was given the axe, and a scene
in which the country's beloved landmark the Great Wall comes under fire by the film's
arcade-themed alien invaders was cut from the script before filming began.
Li Chow, Sony's chief rep in China, told his stateside executives that "even though breaking
a hole on the Great Wall may not be a problem as long as it is part of a worldwide phenomenon,
it is actually unnecessary because it will not benefit the China release at all.
I would then, recommend not to do it."
Chow's recommendations didn't make a whole lot of difference in the end as the much-maligned
sci-fi comedy only pulled in $15 million there anyway.
Red Dawn
At one stage it looked as though the planned remake of 1984 Cold War cult classic Red Dawn
was going to be shelved when its original studio, MGM, ran into financial difficulties.
Contrafilm took the reins and the film finally got the green light for 2012, though even
after the production wrapped, the problems were far from over.
Chinese news outlets learned that the Soviet army that waged war on small-town America
in the original Red Dawn had been replaced by Chinese invaders.
The result came in the form of headlines, like "US re-shoots Cold War Movie to Demonize
China."
Naturally, the studio's execs panicked about their chances in the Asian market.
A decision was made to change the invading Chinese army to a North Korean one, with five
different special effects companies brought in to restore hopes of scoring big in China.
They were given the unenviable task of removing all references to a country that was essential
to the plot, digitally altering dialogue, and replacing every Chinese flag and symbol.
Dan Mintz from Chinese-based distributor DMG Entertainment said that if Red Dawn had been
released in its original form in China, "there would have been a real backlash.
It's like being invited to a dinner party and insulting the host all night long."
World War Z
Considering that World War Z spent years in development hell, with Paramount completely
rewriting and reshooting the last 40 minutes of the film at a cost of $75 million, you
wouldn't think the studio would have time to worry about trivial things like where the
offending virus originated.
As you've probably guessed by now, though, the zombie outbreak that ultimately consumes
the world in World War Z was supposed to start in China.
Instead, producers changed that to Hollywood's new favorite pariah — North Korea — minimizing
the risk of getting on the wrong side of the Chinese censors.
"Why'd you sell guns to the North?"
"Why not?"
"Are they surviving this?"
"Indeed they are."
In the end their re-shoots and nitpicking paid off in a big way, as Paramount was able
to boast that World War Z ended up becoming Brad Pitt's highest-grossing film to date.
While it failed to recoup its budget domestically, it earned more than $540 million after worldwide
receipts were tallied.
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