A multi-billion dollar Chinese tech company pulled out of funding for the new smash sequel “Top Gun: Maverick” because it was concerned about angering Communist Party officials due to the film’s overly pro-American theme, a report said. According to.
In 2019, Tencent Holdings made a commitment to Paramount Pictures that it would provide financial support for the film in which Tom Cruise reprized his role as hot-shot naval aviator Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.
Tencent was expected to help Paramount market the film to domestic audiences in China, where film executives expected the sequel to the 1986 hit “Top Gun” to gross about $80 million.
In return for its multi-million dollar investment, Tencent, the Internet giant whose holdings include dozens of Asian startups in the video game, social media and venture capital space, is due to acquire a 12.5% stake in the film. Was.
But according to The Wall Street Journal, the US military’s celebration of the film has raised concerns among Tencent executives that the firm may shy away from Beijing.
Tencent’s involvement in the project was doomed in late 2019 as diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing deteriorated sharply during the past three years, the Journal reported.
At the time, Chinese companies were under pressure to take an oath of allegiance to the Communist Party as part of President Xi Jinping’s so-called “anti-corruption crackdown”.
The 59-year-old cruise still has tremendous power to rock the box office.
Paramount Pictures said Sunday that in its first three days in North American theaters, the long-running sequel raked in an estimated $124 million in ticket sales.
Including international performances, it has a worldwide total of $248 million.
It was the first time in Cruise’s illustrious acting career that he starred in a film that grossed over $100 million at the box office on its opening weekend.
But the film has yet to be cleared for screening in China, a country of 1.4 billion people, and Paramount seems to have given up on its hopes of showing the film there for the time being.
The post has reached out to Paramount seeking comment.
American companies, including major Hollywood motion picture studios, are eager to do business there, but geopolitical constraints have significantly complicated the situation.
US firms have been criticized for bending backwards to please Chinese officials.
The Walt Disney Company was slammed by conservatives for Chinese human rights abuses in Xinjiang after producing a live action version of “Mulan”.
Paramount Pictures even changed the insignia on the bomber jacket worn by Cruise’s character in “Top Gun: Maverick” so that the Chinese would not shy away from censors.
post with wires
