Top Gun: Maverick changes Jacket for Chinese Audiences

Now this story has largely been flying under the radar, but apparently this was big news in Japan and Taiwan and I thought it was interesting and shows yet again the tendency of Hollywood to throw in things, even sometimes subtle things to make sure films can appeal more in China as China becomes more of a lucrative box office nation.

Just thought it was interesting and something you’ll possibly see more and more of as time goes on unless China completely bans Western movies.

I didn’t quote a news story with this one cause for me it’s really obvious and straight forward why such a thing would be done but there’s plenty of stories now out there if you want to read more.

Jetboogieman said:

Now this story has largely been flying under the radar, but apparently this was big news in Japan and Taiwan and I thought it was interesting and shows yet again the tendency of Hollywood to throw in things, even sometimes subtle things to make sure films can appeal more in China as China becomes more of a lucrative box office nation.

Just thought it was interesting and something you’ll possibly see more and more of as time goes on unless China completely bans Western movies.

I didn’t quote a news story with this one cause for me it’s really obvious and straight forward why such a thing would be done but there’s plenty of stories now out there if you want to read more.

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Yeah, unfortunately China is such a huge box office market, especially considering it's saved movies that would've been box office failures, had they not been released in China. Therefore, Hollywood finds pretty much every way to placate them. Like, I remember in like Transformers 4, when they went to China for no reason, other than Michael Bay wanting that sweet, sweet China money.

That's 100% more overt than this, but still.

To be fair, “foreign” films are often heavily edited, censored, dubbed or simply completely remade for Western (mostly American) audiences too and that’s only when they’re even considered in the first place. In the grand scheme of things, a minor adjustment to a bit of costume is minuscule by comparison.

Jetboogieman said:

Now this story has largely been flying under the radar, but apparently this was big news in Japan and Taiwan and I thought it was interesting and shows yet again the tendency of Hollywood to throw in things, even sometimes subtle things to make sure films can appeal more in China as China becomes more of a lucrative box office nation.

Just thought it was interesting and something you’ll possibly see more and more of as time goes on unless China completely bans Western movies.

I didn’t quote a news story with this one cause for me it’s really obvious and straight forward why such a thing would be done but there’s plenty of stories now out there if you want to read more.

Click to expand...

This is Chinese soft power at work. But I’d leave fiction alone other than being up front when asked about it. Like “We have Chinese investors and they requested (or required) these changes”. China won’t like it, but tough ****. They are using American expertise because Commies don’t have adequate imaginations to produce popular movies.

On the bright side, at least both parties agreed the American flag was OK!

HonestJoe said:

To be fair, “foreign” films are often heavily edited, censored, dubbed or simply completely remade for Western (mostly American) audiences too and that’s only when they’re even considered in the first place. In the grand scheme of things, a minor adjustment to a bit of costume is minuscule by comparison.

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This is true and especially in the context of more conservative countries, films are changed and chopped and scenes edited out completely sometimes.

However... This change, clearly aimed at getting past Chinese censors to more easily get the film released in China and avoiding nationalistic backlash by Chinese audiences which is something even the Chinese government has at times, struggled to control when it's got out of hand (even when they have sometimes encouraged it against Japan) has affected the total version and I think that is notable.

TheGoverness said:

Yeah, unfortunately China is such a huge box office market, especially considering it's saved movies that would've been box office failures, had they not been released in China. Therefore, Hollywood finds pretty much every way to placate them. Like, I remember in like Transformers 4, when they went to China for no reason, other than Michael Bay wanting that sweet, sweet China money.

That's 100% more overt than this, but still.

Click to expand...

What was even more overt was the Red Dawn remake- when they finished shooting it was the Chinese who were the bad guys that invaded the US, but by the time they released it to the theatres, the invaders became North Koreans lol

While this specific instance doesn't bother me much, I do have a pet peeve about edits of this sort:

The whole "Han Solo shot first!" thing wrecked Star Wars for me.

Before Terminator 3 ruined their franchise for me by changing the rules of time travel, the original Terminator had an audio edit on later editions where they converted the sound of the T-101's gunfire in one scene to sound like it had a suppressor on it and completely lost the point of the scene.

My GOAT film True Romance had a for-TV edit that made the female lead look rather passive, where in the original edit she was involved in some of most brutal violence of the film.

So not a new thing, but also the sort of thing to only bother folks who are susceptible and/or passionate about the story.

When all things are considered it all comes down to money. It’s just out in the open more than in the past.

Hollywood says China will soon be world’s top film market, as ticket sales overtake US-Canada in 2018 | South China Morning Post



Almost a billion and a half pairs of eyes......