“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” has yet to secure a Chinese release, weeks after its record-setting global premiere. “Eternals” comes out in November, but its release in China is uncertain.
movies designed for box-office appeal in China have been embroiled in political controversies, complicating a decade of unprecedented success in the market for the world’s largest entertainment company.
Doing business in China means never being far from Chinese politics, a reality recent events show Disney and the broader entertainment industry are relearning as the world’s theatrical market opens as Covid-19 abates. The country went from being largely shut off to Western entertainment in the 1990s to the industry’s most important international market.
The Disney titles join several other movies in limbo in China. The October releases “Dune” and “No Time to Die,” the James Bond installment, are among the few major recent Hollywood movies to have secured release there. Months have gone by without word on other 2021 blockbusters, including Disney’s “Black Widow,” which has proliferatedWSJ’s Jonathan Cheng explains why Disney’s remake of ‘Mulan,’ a film tailored to please viewers in the world’s second-largest movie market, faced challenges there.
Disney and the other studios stand to lose potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in box-office grosses, as well as Chinese fans, who could lose interest in the Marvel superhero series if they can’t see films including “Shang-Chi” and “Eternals.” Though the Chinese censors never comment on a decision, Hollywood insiders have one theory as to why: Online sleuths in China recently discovered comments its lead actor, Simu Liu, made in 2017, when he assailed China as a country where people die of starvation.
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