Red Dawn remake: How America was extorted to alter its enemy.
 

This should actually go in DC but...

Did anyone follow the storyline involving the drama between Hollywood and China when this movie was set for release?

China was so offended that they were portrayed as the invading force that they told Hollywood if not changed, they would stop doing business in America. Hollywood then caved. It took almost three years to digitally alter the chinese emblem before the movie could be released.

Just curious if anyone noticed like I did that when America is threatened by a superpower, it usually acquiesces.

Are you high?

Also, DC.

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funny you ask, but why you ask? do you fear i made this story up?:D

I have an office a couple doors down from one of the producers of this and I can tell you that is not exactly what happened.

Yeah, I'm sure that it had nothing to do with alienating 1.3 Billion people from potential ticket sales.

I didn't realize 'America' was synonymous with 'Hollywood'.

Dammit Obama.

What year is this? Red dawn remake sucked.

Anyone else picture Nickhead getting just high as **** then coming to ChiefsPlanet to share his various random thoughts?

correct the remake was bad.

well, by now you would think one would know that the media doesn't tell the whole story.

its the first time in history a movie was edited due to external forces. (i made that part up :D)

btw: what version were you presented with? i dont buy it was due to potential box office sales. not many chinamen would want to see america win a war.

that may be a fairly accurate assessment. aside from the 'getting' part :D

not sure how irritating ya'll find me, but i find you all amusing as hell. :D

Marketing to China is a gigantic facet of movie production these days. They're a gigantic audience and US domestic sales have taken a pretty steady (almost exponential now with streaming and HD...) nosedive since the mainstream introduction of home video starting in the 80s. Overseas box office is essential.

I don't know if this is true or not but I hear it's why Disney/Marvel have been releasing many of their movies over seas first and then America a week later...

Only 20 foreign movies get a China release every year. Many studios have taken to making partnerships with Chinese companies to be able to call their movie a co-production and not be subject to that limit. Any Chinese production company is partially operated by the state, and that significantly complicates things. Even co-productions are often pulled from theaters if they do better than a local only product. It is extremely complicated business but with a huge audience market that makes it worthwhile. I don't know the Red Dawn story, but it could have been as simple as one trusted US based "expert" consultant saying you should change that for future opportunities. I can't imagine they ever thought they'd get a release there, so it was likely only about future opportunities, and it was only because it would be seen in pirated form as most US movies are seen there. That is a long way from being an open market.

Russia on the other hand is a frequent early target because american movies do really well there, and it is good news to start off with a great opening. Each country is different which is why it costs alot more to distribute internationally than domestically. The order of openings is complex, like never open in Germany before other European countries because they like a really long thorough trailer that gives the whole story away. Can't let that get on the internet before other markets where people don't like to know the whole story before seeing the movie.

The best returns on a movie by percentage are still domestic and that won't change for a while longer, but the overseas markets are crucial to movies with 100m plus budgets. The financing for movies is now global even for most indies so the market will follow the money. You really can stop calling out "Hollywood" now. "They" really don't exist anymore.

Most studios that are opening early in China are doing so to avoid piracy

Right, but since China restricts which movies get shown there the studios have a huge incentive to not to do anything to piss China off.

I think that is really bad. I don't see what can be done about it, but it is still bad.

Another thing I don't really like: the high budget films get revenue all around the world. So if you make a high budget film, you have to be constantly asking will this film work in a lot of different places and different cultures. So fast paced action films with not very subtle dialogue travel well, more nuanced films frequently don't. Not that action films are bad, but I would rather see more variety.

Totally agree. I can't tell you how many times I have looked at the listings for the 18plex near me and lamented that there are only 6-8 movies playing there, and even when there is more variety, I wonder how the hell most of those got made. But I also know that alot of movies are made with financing from wealthy individuals looking for a play date with Hollywood. They get the best experience with assholes who care more about the party than the film they are making.

When I went to film school, I truly believed that no one set out to make a piece of shit. 20 years later, I know they plan it that way sometimes. It was a pretty rude awakening. (I am obviously allowing for the Corman/Troma fringe to exist in its limited influence outside of that judgement!)

okay, here is the deal. if these hollywood execs were so worried about offending an entire nation of profit potential, why was this politeness not figured out until AFTER the movie was made? this makes no sense. thats like holding a clan rally and saying sorry afterwards that the sheets were offensive. i am curious how much money this movie made in china for hollywood. i had a thread with links to other articles, but that site is no longer around. will try and refind.

this was clear cut extortion by the chinese government. :D

Because the studio that made it does not distribute their own movies. The changes were done in post, before distribution.

And I looked up the returns. It made next to nothing overseas, and was not released in China. As far as future concerns, that distributor has only 14 films showing on the charts, and none have had a China release, so it made zero difference.

Correction: One has a China release but it was a year before Red Dawn, so still no effect.

What a disaster of a film. It lost at least $30 million for that studio.

IIRC, it was in the can for more than 2 years before it was released, too.

i guess this sorta proves my point too. they spent how much money removing chinese symbols for nothing in return. i get the 'excuse', but to me it makes no sense.

Hopefully this along with some other remakes that tanked (Point Break and Ghostbusters, along with The Magnificent Seven not receiving great buzz before its release) will convince these studios that the public isn't as high on remakes as they were led to believe and start coming up with some original content.

The remake makes no sense...

There was no way this movie was ever going to be selected to be shown in China. I don't see this as extortion in any way shape or form.

Well if any media is saying that upsetting the Chinese is the reason they changed the movie (which, again, isn't what happened), then they're wrong.

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so they will manipulate their own people, but not from other countries?

shameless bump 5 years or so later!

was i wrong, in hindsight?

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I think you have to separate America the country from American businesses. American businesses (Hollywood included) have long catered to countries where they can make significant profits.

Hollywood, for example, prevented any negative films about Nazi Germany from being released until 1940.