If you get in bed with the devil, don’t be surprised when you get burned. That’s a lesson that Hollywood is learning after the communists shut out all four of Disney’s Marvel movies from releasing in China last year.
Those movies were Disney’s highest-grossing of 2021, which means the home of Mickey-Mouse took a major hit in the pocketbook by being frozen out by the Chi-coms.
China blocked all four of Disney’s Marvel movies from being released in its theaters in 2021, a grim sign for U.S. film giants being squeezed out of the world’s fastest-growing box office.https://t.co/wqwvKFrxEe
— Axios (@axios) January 18, 2022
China blocked all four of Disney’s Marvel movies from being released in its theaters last year, a grim sign for U.S. film giants being squeezed out of the world’s fastest-growing box office.
What is the point? Chinese Communist Party makes domestic movies as their main channel for mass messaging that aims to achieve political goals. It leaves little room for foreign perspectives.
Hollywood has never seen such pantsing. The ultra-liberal institution has courted the Chinese for decades, ignoring human rights abuses while virtue signaling about the most mundane things domestically (see: Georgia’s voting law). In doing so, Hollywood tied itself to a tyrannical state that was always looking to eventually box them out, and that’s exactly what’s happening now.
China’s goal is to continue to grow its domestic entertainment industry into a dominant force. That isn’t coming via free-market competition either. Instead, the CCP banned American media products to increase domestic revenue and maintain control over messaging. Xi Jinping, and his associates see everything as a propaganda chance. Few things are more important than the big screen. Hollywood knew what was behind the curtain for years, but it still fell prey to the communist teet.
The movie industry also ignored China’s desires and needs, often producing extremely preachy, sub-par content. Hollywood was able to lecture normal Americans in a false morality about climate change and transgenderism while they ignored the actual atrocities occurring in China.
Hollywood, despite its often shameful efforts to maintain communist funds flowing, is now being kicked out of the picture and left to plead with Chinese officials to allow them to eat the apple. There’s certainly some poetic justice in that.
What will happen next? I think the American movie industry is going to be back invading America, asking them to increase their garbage intake. However, I don’t think that will happen. Hollywood arrogantly flew too close to the sun, and I think it’s all downhill from here.