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BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese authorities have told mainstream media not to cover Walt Disney Co’s release of “Mulan,” in an order issued after overseas controversy broke out over the film’s ties to the Xinjiang region, four people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Disney, which opens in local theaters on Friday, had high hopes for Mulan in China, but depriving it of publicity in the country’s strictly censored media would be another blow to the $ 200 million production.
Starring renowned Chinese-born actors Jet Li, Gong Li, Donnie Yen, and Liu Yifei, and based on a popular Chinese story, Mulan was designed to appeal to audiences in China, the world’s second-largest film market.
But mixed reviews online and capacity limits in theaters due to coronavirus prevention measures would likely affect their box office performance, even before major media outlets received a notice telling them to refrain from covering the movie. movie.
Three sources told Reuters media that they had received the notice, two of which said it was sent by the China Cyberspace Administration. A fourth source from a major Chinese newspaper said he received a text message with a similar order from a senior colleague.
No reason was given in the notice, but sources said they believed it was due to overseas backlash over the film’s ties to Xinjiang.
Neither the Cyberspace Administration nor Disney immediately responded to requests for comment.
Filmed in part in Xinjiang, Mulan’s credits included thanking the authorities there, prompting calls abroad to boycott the film. China’s crackdown on ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang has been criticized by some governments, including the United States, and human rights groups.
On Wednesday, the Global Times, a tabloid run by the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily, criticized the backlash against the film in an editorial in its English edition, describing it as “yet another manifestation of extreme ideologies about China among public opinion. U.S”.
Disney had worked to ensure that Mulan performed well with the Chinese public, and the company’s chief financial officer told investors on Wednesday that he was “very pleased” with the initial results of its launch elsewhere.
The film was released on Disney’s streaming service in many markets, rather than in theaters, due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Mulan is likely to be shown on more than 40% of screens in China on Friday, according to data from Maoyan, a ticketing platform backed by Tencent. Chinese cinemas are currently limiting capacity, typically 50 percent.
The film had sold tickets worth 9.78 million yuan ($ 1.43 million) as of Thursday afternoon, accounting for 55% of all ticket sales sold in China for Friday’s shows.
One analyst, who declined to be named because he said the situation is delicate, predicted that the film would earn 150 million yuan at the mainland box office, given early criticism from the audience.
The movie, which many have already watched online, received a score of 4.7 out of 10 on the popular social networking site Douban, where users leave reviews of movies, books and music.
($ 1 = 6.8389 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Information from Beijing and Shanghai newsrooms; edited by Tony Munroe and Simon Cameron-Moore)
