China is fast becoming the biggest international market for movies; in 2012, China passed Japan as the largest international source of box office revenue, contributing $2.7 billion. This makes it a territory Hollywood is eager to please (see: Marvel’s recent changes to IRON MAN 3 for the country); more importantly, a territory Hollywood doesn’t want to offend.
The Wrap is reporting today that Paramount executives have altered WORLD WAR Z slightly in order to avoid pissing China off (to put it bluntly). In the film, characters seeking to pinpoint the origin of a global undead epidemic point to China as the potential culprit. Evidently, the studio asked the movie’s producers to cite a different country, in order to dodge any risk of China not showing the Marc Forster film at all.
This is a minor change that won’t necessarily effect the movie one way or another, but it’s telling, all the same: a studio is willing to compromise the filmmakers’ artistic vision in an effort to please a market. While I realize studios are forever tampering with their products, it could be the start of an even more touchy trend of making sure certain countries/nationalities aren’t insulted by certain material in films.
The Wrap article is quite interesting; check it out HERE.
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