Dead-poe-l

I don't get why China might be offended.

The Hollywood Reporter announced today that the R-rated Deadpool has been banned by China's media regulator. Although film studios often edit films to accommodate China's policies, apparently Deadpool is just too sexy and bloody to edit out the offending material without altering the plot (yay! :D ). There are no plans to adjust the film to screen it for audiences in China.

I find this really interesting. Marvel is owned, just like you and me, by Disney, and 20th Century Fox produced Deadpool. In effect, this is the exact same media/entertainment team that brings us the Star Wars franchise.

Remember The Telegraph article that discussed the big financial stakes involved if China, the world's second largest film market, bans a film, say, for containing a gay character that is portrayed in a positive light? Maybe this is an indication that Disney and Fox will not necessarily put the breaks on a major property film just because it won't play in China.

Also, get this. The Force Awakens opened two weeks ago in China on January 9, but it was only the 20th biggest opening weekend box office for a film in China, as opposed the number 1 biggest opening weekend film in the U.S. Also, in the U.S., the box office dropped 33% after the first week, and another 51% after the New Year. In China? The box office dropped 61.3% after just one week.

So Star Wars, while still huge in China, certainly doesn't have the same momentum there as other cinematic classics like Transformers: Age of Extinction (lol wut?). The box office takings would be diminished by China banning Episode VIII, no doubt, but would it really be enough to not tell a good story that's worth telling? Let's see what happens with the Deadpool numbers.

I'm no box office analyst, but if I was a studio exec deciding whether to take a risk on including content that might get a Star Wars film banned in China, I might say, "Fuck it, make that helluva pilot a helluva homo!"