Fans flocked to theatres on Tuesday to watch ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,’ marking the start of Marvel superheroes’ re-entry into China’s enormous film market following what appears to have been a nearly four-year ban. The enormously popular properties from the Disney-owned company have been missing from Chinese television since 2019 without any justification.
The first Black Panther movie alone made $105 million in Chinese theatres, and Marvel blockbusters have amassed billions of dollars in worldwide box office revenue. With their return to one of the greatest movie markets, Disney may potentially earn hundreds of millions of dollars.
The apparent lifting of the Marvel movie embargo coincides with China’s relaxation of the stringent zero-Covid regulations that for years caused havoc in the country’s entertainment sector.
China’s communist rulers have also recently eased a tech crackdown, including on the lucrative gaming sector.
A 2020 report by the anti-censorship group Pen America said Hollywood studios changed scripts, deleted scenes and altered other content to avoid offending Chinese authorities.
The report said they had to completely avoid sensitive issues including Hong Kong, Xinjiang, the portrayal of LGBTQ characters and Taiwan, a self-ruled island China considers its territory.
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