Normally, woke Hollywood can be expected to back down to Chinese demands for censorship that fits with their cultural biases, particularly when it comes to keeping black and gay characters in the movies, characters Hollywood loves to insert, minimized.
Not only that, but the execs behind the movies and studios are even known to bow down to Red Chinese demands that the plot or details in it be changed, such as the removal of the Taiwan patch from Maverick’s jacket in the new Top Gun Film or the replacement of Chinese soldiers with North Korean soldiers in the terrible remake of Red Dawn.
However, it looks like a few of those normally spineless executives finally got some steel in their backs, as they refused to censor a scene in the new Spider-Man movie to appease Red China, which wanted a patriotic scene censored so as to not risk letting their people see American patriotism.
According to Puck, an industry trade publication, the Red Chinese authorities wanted Sony to delete a scene involving the Statute of Liberty from the end of the film.
As that outlet put it, “According to multiple sources, when the authorities got back to Sony, they had a request: Delete the Statue of Liberty from the ending of the film. Yes, seriously.”
What the CCP apparently wanted was for the producers to minimize or darken certain scenes, if not delete those scenes, that showed the good guys fighting the villains on top of the Statue of Liberty because of the American patriotism that could be stirred by the scene and the subtle message about liberty.
Shockingly, Sony refused to do so. It refused to go woke or appease Red China and kept the scene in the film, with Puck reporting that “Sony immediately said no” to Red China’s censorious demand.
The Daily Wire, reporting on the result of that refusal, notes that “Analysts estimate that Sony’s decision to pass up the rich box office potential in the world’s largest movie market likely cost the film between $170 and $340 million.”
So the execs gave up hundreds of millions of dollars in refusing to bow to the demands of the Chinese censors.
Fortunately, American consumers loved the film, buying enough tickets to make it the third highest-grossing film of all time, earning around $800 million in the US.
So, though Red China refused to screen the film, American consumers rewarded the film studio and director handsomely for producing a fabulous film.
More films need to stand up to Red China and refuse to censor, particularly when it comes to patriotic scenes or little details that infuriate the communists, but this is a good start, particularly given the high profile of the film.
America, to properly compete with China and beat it in the new Cold War, needs to economically decouple from it and preserve its freedom of action. Perhaps one way to do so is acting like Sony did: companies should “just say no” when the Chinese censors attempt to crackdown on American cultural products.
By: Gen Z Conservative, editor of GenZConservative.com. Follow me on Parler and Gettr.
This story syndicated with permission from Will, Author at Trending Politics