No Dark Knight for China
By Alexandra Heilbron on December 26, 2008 | 8 Comments
Despite its record breaking success in North America and Europe, Warner Bros. execs have opted not to release The Dark Knight in China. “Based on a number of pre-release conditions that are being attached to The Dark Knight as well as cultural sensitivities to some elements of the film, we have opted to forego a theatrical release of the film in China,” the studio said in a statement. But Eonline.com reports the move is not likely to put a huge damper on the film’s ticket sales ($996 as of today), but it may keep The Dark Knight from beating Titanic‘s staggering ($1.8 billion in sales).
curious – exactly what “cultural sensitivities” are they referring to?
I’m thinking I can guess what it is, but it’s an incredibly weak argument for those screaming the film is anti-Chinese.
if that’s the case, maybe Batman should wear a white cape too – please, enough already.
p.s. Why can’t we have a Filipino version?
They’re talking about the Chinese mobsters in the beginning. Also, there’s a cameo appearance by a popular Chinese singer/actor and he had some photos of him and several women thrown up on the internet.
Thanks, I figured as much about the mobsters, and also a few lines referring to them but didn’t know about the actor.
How many previous films have portrayed Chinese villains? Are they all denied theatrical release there?
I’m glad they are not releasing it and I hope they don’t change anything in the future to satisfy their mandates. Guess if they want to see it bad enough they’ll have to fly over to that fantastic little FREE nation called Taiwan where you can watch what you want and say what you want.
Being enjoyable among dudes of one culture doesn’t prevent this ‘comic’ being seen as total crap by another cultural mainstream, to a point that nobody bothers uttering a syllable of sympathy over its direct trajectory into the trash bin.
jokerheathcollectibles, while i agree with everyone else’s opinion, what you said isn’t really necessary. Being able to say what you want or do what you want isn’t deemed ‘free’ and the amount of political turmoil happening in Taiwan should be enough to support that. But really, the Dark Knight is a great movie. It’s a shame that some people won’t be able to watch it.
China doesn’t care..they get pirated copies of the dvd for cheap, as there are no copyright laws in China.
As for ‘cultural sensitivities’, I don’t recall anything derogatory or offensive. The chinese mafia were portrayed as money launderers for the two other mobs(italians, blacks). But I think clowns from all over the world were insulted by Heath Ledger’s portrayal 🙂
aaawww thats too bad china is being deprived of one of the greatest movies with one of the greatest actors RIP