Considering the amount of persecution that Christians there face (which includes things such as being buried alive), they (the government) naturally fear a movie that could end up inspiring them to resist more boldly against them (and especially inspire more people to willingly become martyrs and lead to further dissent). Especially when that movie is about, you know...
edited 3rd Jun '16 6:39:05 AM by Quag15
Regardless of the way Gibson portrayed the whole event (which was, in any case, fairly brutal, even if not as graphic as that), Chinese Christians do not care about what is torture porn and what is not. They care about Jesus (and feel, therefore, inspired to bravely endure persecution and even outright actual torture), which is something that upsets the Chinese government.
Christianity outside the West has retained a very hardcore spirit. Possibly because the spirit is stronger when Christians are a minority, rather than a majority, within a country. So, the Chinese government does not like to see minorities (especially religious minorities) "getting uppity".
On another note, it's also a bit sad that the Mel Gibson movie has only managed to ellicit reactions of 'ugh, it's so violent and exploitative', rather than stimulating discussion about endurance of suffering, heroic sacrifice, acceptance of death and other very interesting themes and topics. But this is a subject for another thread.
edited 3rd Jun '16 2:37:31 PM by Quag15
The Pirate franchise is as good as death anyway. I absolutely love the first one, but everything which came after nearly ruined the movie for me. I was surprised that the last one still did good, but with so many other franchises taking up the attention now, I think it would have come to an end anyway.
Also, the majority of the audience doesn't know or care about Johnny Depp's private life. I honestly only know that he apparently did something scandalous because there were a few mentions on the net, but I haven't bothered yet to find out what it was exactly. If someone is really into those Pot C movies, he will watch them, no matter what, and everyone else is mostly likely not interested in them anyway.
It doesn't make me feel worried at all if the lesson the studios learn is that investing in quality pays off. If I never see another half-a... sequel again, I will be happy. And yes, I am happy that Alice finally puts a crack into live-action remake idea. Disney has to do better with those or leave them be.
edited 6th Jun '16 6:51:04 AM by Swanpride
I just feel that if (or when) Disney gets a complete dominance over film market, it won't keep the quality control because it doesn't feel the need to due to lack of competition. It's the kind of concern I have over any big corporation in any industry, really.
Continuously reading, studying, and (hopefully) growing.Yeah, but that year also had Inside Out, Age of Ultron, and The Force Awakens.
Whatever loss the movie caused, it got recuperated pretty darn quick.
(As for John Carter, that year Disney only had one megahit to offset the loss)
edited 6th Jun '16 7:49:29 AM by dRoy
Continuously reading, studying, and (hopefully) growing.That year Disney had Frozen and Iron Man 3 (each of them grossed over $1.2 billion, because holy shit), as well as Monsters University and Thor: Dark World, both of which grossed over $650 million.
As for the game, well, I don't know that much.
Continuously reading, studying, and (hopefully) growing.![]()
$126 million domestically.
edited 6th Jun '16 8:01:22 AM by Spinosegnosaurus77
Peace is the only battle worth waging.I thought Disney Infinity did well, other than that Disney doesn't care much about its video game division.
Non Indicative Username

The only R-rated movie that actually made fair bit of money in China is Kingsman: The Secret Service, which made $74 million there out of $414 million.
Most R-rated movies simply don't get released in China. Passion of the Christ was (somehow) released there, but it only made $1.6 million.
So basically, if you are going to make an R-rated movie, go crazy and tell China to go fuck itself.
Continuously reading, studying, and (hopefully) growing.