After almost four years of absence, Marvel films will return to cinemas in China, the American studio announced on Wednesday, January 18. The immensely popular Marvel superhero films in the country have been absent from theaters since the July 2019 release of Spider-Man: Far From Home.
China only allows theatrical release of a few dozen foreign feature films each year. In the hope of gaining clearance in the Chinese market, Hollywood studios sometimes take it upon themselves to cut certain scenes considered too violent, too revealing, disturbing or deemed politically sensitive by the authorities.
Marvel Studios, owned by the Disney group, announced on Tuesday, January 17 the release in China on February 7 of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It will be followed 10 days later by that of its latest production, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Marvel said on the Weibo social network.
Cinemas, like other entertainment venues, were among the first to close in China during the Covid-19 outbreak. The rooms were then able to reopen but with a drastic limitation of the number of viewers to avoid contamination. A situation that did not encourage the Chinese to go to the cinemas. The lifting of most health restrictions in China last month marks a gradual return to normalcy in the country. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will be released in Chinese theaters on the same day as in the United States.