Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot has been enjoying generally decent/good reviews so far (you can check out ours here), and looks set for a very respectable opening weekend at the U.S. box office – but THR is reporting on some news that might just put a dampener on the positivity parade. According to them, the film has been denied a release in China, which is the No. 2 movie market in the world.
The country has some very strange and obscure laws about depicting the supernatural in cinema which has led to several films being banned in the past, and Sony took steps to try to ensure they dodged that bullet by re-titling the picture 超能敢死队, which translates to “Super Power Dare Die Team.” But, it turns out that wasn’t actually the reason Ghostbusters wasn’t picked up for release there.
“It’s been confirmed that Ghostbusters won’t be coming to China, because they think it’s not really that attractive to Chinese audiences,” says one Chinese executive. “Most of the Chinese audience didn’t see the first and second movies, so they don’t think there’s much market for it here.”
Whether that’s the whole truth of the matter or not remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure, the reboot will feel the international box office pinch if it doesn’t manage to secure a Chinese release date.
Ghostbusters hits U.S. theaters this weekend.