Zai Jian! Disney Reverses Marketing Stance On China
This just in — the Magic Kingdom is done with the Middle Kingdom! After Star Wars: The Force Awakens underperformed in the lucrative Chinese market, the Mouse House is rethinking its marketing strategy for Rogue One and Episode VIII. Keep reading to see how Disney’s complete 180 on China will impact Star Wars films deep in production.
Disney chief Bob Iger’s has suffered his first black eye at the hands of China. The company’s tentpole Star Wars release failed to catch on in the second-biggest movie market in the world. The Force Awakens started strong with a $33 million opening haul but receipts have plunged ever since. The lukewarm reviews and near non-existent word of mouth among young Chinese proved insurmountable, even for Disney. Iger may have had unrealistic expectations when you consider most Chinese people have never seen any Star Wars film before. The market is also extremely fickle: most international blockbusters fail to catch on (Fast & the Furious being the exception) as Chinese audiences gravitate towards homegrown films such as Jackie Chan’s Dragon Blade, which smashed several box office records.
For the record, Star Wars did very well for a standard Hollywood film in China. It even broke a box office record — biggest Saturday-Sunday debut of all time with $53.7m — but to Iger those figures amounted to chump change, especially when you consider Disney’s courtship of China.
Who could forget the Star Wars press junkets, the TV special with a Chinese pop music sensation, or the greatest publicity stunt of all: stormtroopers lined up outside the Great Wall of China.
Disney even pandered to the Chinese in politically incorrect ways. The company played down the diversity in the film, pushing John Boyega into the background of the Chinese poster for The Force Awakens. (Apparently the country is none too fond of people outside the white-to-beige color spectrum.)
This blatant whitewashing earned Disney a well-deserved backlash in social media, but little else as Chinese audiences did not fall for the BB-8.
When it became clear China wasn’t going to help The Force Awakens unseat Avatar as the highest grossing film in history, Iger made a complete 180. Disney was now China’s jilted ex. Gone was their yellow fever, replaced by white-hot fury.
Mickey giveth, and Mickey taketh away
Iger quickly fired off a memo to high level employees at Disney and Lucasfilm. According to a source calling herself “YellowJacket” the note outlined a sea change regarding the international marketing strategy for Star Wars.
Here are the changes Iger demanded effective immediately:
Admiral Statura is No-more-a
Lost‘s Ken Leung, who portrays Admiral Statura, is the first victim of Disney’s breakup with China. After having shot several scenes for Episode VIII, Leung was informed his screen time would be cut down to 0:00:00 and his character’s death would be addressed via opening crawl or a non-Asian character’s dialogue. Most likely Lando or Finn.
Rogue One Marketing to Feature the Big Black Beautiful Face of Forest Whitaker On Everything
To spite China’s aversion to blacks, all product packaging and promotional materials will now be dominated by two men of color: Darth Vader and Forest Whitaker, who will be replacing Ben Mendelsohn and his white cape on the graphics. Emma Stone has also joined the ensemble cast as Whitaker’s love interest. As a result, the script has undergone extensive rewrites to minimize Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen’s characters in favor of fleshing out the interacial romance.
Jeong’s Gone
The Young Han Solo spinoff will no longer feature a Neimoidian comic relief character voiced by Ken Jeong.
One Size Does Not Fett All
The mantle of “Boba Fett” will never again rest upon the shoulders of a Maori or anyone else even remotely Asian or Asian Fusian Inspired. Sorry Daniel Logan.
According to “YellowJacket” Iger is so upset with China over The Force Awakens‘ lackluster performance, he’s put Mulan in his sights. First he plans to downgrade the character from “Disney Princess” status to “Lost Legend of Chinese Lady Boy.” Iger has also shelved the long in-production live-action Mulan film.
Hopefully Iger’s anger with China subsides in the coming months. And who knows, maybe one of the upcoming Star Wars films proves him wrong and redeems China by making a ton of money over there.
As always keep it locked to FakingStarWars for the latest made up news from a made up galaxy far, far away.
Zai Jian!
William “Willybobo” Bobo
