Tyrants are petty. Red China was all set to show Tom Cruise's Top Gun: Maverick.
Then one of the censors noticed something.
Yahoo reported, "Chinese regulators quickly rejected Top Gun: Maverick due to the presence of the Taiwanese flag on the back of Cruise's Capt. Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell's combat jacket. Beijing notoriously does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country.
"Maverick also ran into problems early on its production after Chinese production company Tencent Pictures, which signed on to co-finance the film in 2019, eventually dropped out due to the blockbuster's pro-U.S. messaging."
Oh no!
What a dilemma. Hollywood has convinced itself that the Red Chinese market is too important to the film industry to run afoul of the censors. Concessions are always made.
Not this time.
Poor Tom Cruise.
Yeah right.
IGN reported, "Top Gun: Maverick has crossed $700 million at the domestic box office to become the fifth-highest grossing movie in North American history.
"As reported by Variety, Top Gun: Maverick overtook Black Panther on its way to fifth place, and it also, according to Paramount, has become the only film to ever place first at the domestic box office for both Memorial Day and Labor Day holidays."
The Tom Cruise film wasn't the first, though, to tell Red China's censors no.
Earlier this year, the producers of Spider-Man: No Way Home refused to remove the Statue of Liberty from the film. Red China banned it. The film racked up $1.9 billion in ticket sales around the world.
Hollywood is learning not to bow to Chairman Xi and his henchmen. This is something Hollywood refused to do in the 1930s when film company's catered to the Nazis to tap into the German market.
Red China is a bigger market than America, sure, but the rest of the world is way bigger than Red China. India is only a few thousand people smaller. The USA is third in population followed by Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Brazil, Bangladesh, Russia and Mexico. They all have their own film industries. And many Americans are fond of Bollywood films. But their audiences still want their Spider-Man.
The days of appeasing the thugs who run Red China are nearing the end. And Tom Cruise is helping to teach the film industry to just say no to thugs.
He also doesn't look or act 60. But he is. He was born on July 3, 1962.
"And Tom Cruise is helping to teach the film industry to just say no to thugs.""
ReplyDeleteTop Gun is a movie. Cruise is an actor, not a fighter pilot or a politician or a movie exec.
He's a star who refused to take down the Taiwan flag. His box office is such the studio could not force him. They had $200 million invested in it. He was the only one who could be Maverick, so yes, credit him.
DeleteSo now Cruise is Maverick in real life.
DeleteEN2 SS
DeleteDoesn't matter who/what Cruz is, he's standing up to communist china better than the entire political system in America is.
Ok Deep, you crawl into a jet fighter or tie yourself to the upper wing of a Stearman then experience a roll with no 'chute. You first.
DeleteWhen I was in my late 20s, I adored Tom Cruise and would have gladly married him!! (Haha, I know. And he is now way too out there for me so I would have to say No to him.) We are close in age. No, he doesn't seem his age at all so we would still work well together (sarc 110%). Anyway, now that my confession is out there, I would say that it's about time that Hollywood stopped catering to China. Good for Tom Cruise on this front! Stop appeasing commie Red China with movies and on all fronts. Decouple from China. I read an interesting article by Gordon Chang this morning saying that its stimulus programs are no longer creating growth. Chang has been talking about the coming collapse of China for years. I hope he is right this time.
ReplyDeleteHas Gordon Chang ever been right?
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DeleteHave you, Fred?
No, Gordon Chang has never been right. But I don enjoy reading his pronostications however wrong they are.
DeleteNot far behind Mexico in population are Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam. Their people tend to like Americans too.
ReplyDeleteDuring the 1930s, only the Warner Brothers stood up to Germany with "Confessions of a Nazi Spy." It took Alfred Hitchcock, a fan of Churchill, crossing the Atlantic to give Hollywood a backbone. His "Foreign Correspondent" was a critically acclaimed box office success and opened the floodgates.
'Foreign Correspondent'...Props to fxm for putting that classic in their rotation. zb
DeleteI love that movie and I love all Hitchcock movies.
DeleteAnd Turner Classic Movies shows many of those excellent movies made after the floodgates opened.
DeleteI'm a fan of TCM.
DeleteTell it to the NBA and their expert on international affairs, Lebron James.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Lebron = Commie lackey
DeleteGreat picture, Cruise is a wonderful actor and an inspiration for his hard work and dedication.
ReplyDeleteI’ve never been a fan of Cruise. But I am glad he did what he did and gave Communist China the finger.
ReplyDeleteHollyweird's been doing this ever since Charlie Chan went to the '36 Olympics. Too bad there wasn't a Tom Cruise back then.
ReplyDeleteFrom unrealfacts.com about “You Nazty Spy” (1940): The Three Stooges movie was the first that openly satirized Hitler and the Nazi’s. Hitler was so pissed off at the film that he wanted the Three Stooges killed. Even in the US, some government representatives believed that the movie was designed to be a anti-nazi propaganda film designed to sway public support for entering the war.
DeleteLive free or die.
ReplyDeleteFreedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. Don't tread on me.
These are not just slogans or a song lyric. These are the American creed.
I know cruise is a weirdo into scientology, but Hollywood hates him. He's made brilliant drama films (the one where he's part of the plot to kill Hitler is merely one of them) and he gets no love from them. It's weird.
ReplyDeleteI've decided it's because he must not be a pedo. And they never had anything on him, despite being a scientologist. So not surprised he isn't into Chicoms either.
I liked him in Tropic Thunder
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