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>I learnt right here from HN that there are no Chinese villains or bad portrayal of China anymore. That has more to do with the Chinese box office being a 9 bi
by TheOperator 8y ago
>I learnt right here from HN that there are no Chinese villains or bad portrayal of China anymore.
That has more to do with the Chinese box office being a 9 billion a year market than it does Chinese investors.
- jandrese 8y agoThis is what they call soft power.
- moorhosj 8y agoDoes it? The US market is greater than $10 billion and there are plenty of movies that portray Americans as bad guys. Seems more like the government of China might not allow that movie to be released in the first place.
- dx87 8y agoThe difference is that it's an American movie with an American bad guy. Take a look at the Chinese movie poster for "The Force Awakens", they minimized the presence of the black character because they knew he wouldn't be popular with Chinese audiences. https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/star-wars-china-poster-controversy.jpg https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/star-wars-chi...
- azeotropic 8y agoJust curious -- Is Finn actually popular with any audiences? Aren't minor villains from the original trilogy more popular than Finn?
- basil-rash 8y agoNobody knew that they didn't like Finn before the movie even came out though. This is TFA, not TLJ.
- azeotropic 8y agoThe TFA release date for China was almost one month after the rest of the world. Plenty of time to realize nobody really likes Finn,and adjust marketing accordingly.
- intertextuality 8y ago> Plenty of time to realize nobody really likes Finn [Citation needed] [Substantiation needed to show that marketing materials for films can be changed that quickly]
- azeotropic 8y agoFinn is consistently less popular than Grand Moff Tarkin and Boba Fett. I've even seen him ranked below Darth Maul, who doesn't even really have a personality at all. It's a poster. You take it to a printing press and ask for a few thousand new ones, it's NBD. If they didn't already have several alternate designs from before they selected this one, it's like an hour of mucking around in adobe CS to make Finn smaller and droids bigger, less if you have the original images on hand.
- FiddlyPack 8y agoWow, people don’t like Finn? This is not sarcasm, I am truly surprised. I thought he was a fantastic rebirth of the Han Solo ethos. I love him.
- azeotropic 8y agoI think you mean Poe. Finn is more parallel to C3PO.
- stevenjohns 8y agoIs this at all confirmed? I'd imagine they might have just seen Princess Leia/Han Solo as more recognizable on the posters for an audience that might not be into Star Wars as much as other audiences seem to be.
- darkpuma 8y agoIt wasn't an isolated incident. Disney, or whatever PR firm they're using for promotions in China, did it for Black Panther too. Either of these could perhaps be written off as coincidental, and I'm sure Disney PR in the West is eager to downplay it, but when it happens a few times a pattern starts to emerge. At the very least it's something to keep an eye on whenever Disney releases a movie with a prominent black character. https://0x0.st/zzxf.jpg https://0x0.st/zzxf.jpg
- moorhosj 8y agoLet's compare to the results for The Black Panther (a primarily black cast). The Force Awakens: US Box: $937M Foreign Box: $1.132M Chinese Box: $124M The Black Panther: US Box: $700M Foreign Box: $647M Chinese Box: $105M The Black Panther outperformed in China compared to The Force Awakens as a % of it's domestic box office and as a % of it's total foreign box office.
- b_tterc_p 8y agoTo white Americans, white Americans are normal people. It is unremarkable when they play any role. I’m sure China features plenty of movies featuring evil Chinese people.