agree with Variety, Malaysian theater operator Golden Screen Cinemashas announced that ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ will not be broadcast in that country.
The postponement move is the second missed release of a Disney-handled film in Malaysia in just two months. In June, the premiere of the animation of pixar “Lightyear” it was canceled after the country’s censorship authority (LPF) requested cuts of the film, especially the scene involving a same-sex kiss.
Disney declined and is expected to post “Lightyear” directly to the Disney+ Hotstar streaming service. Malaysia was one of nearly 20 countries, in its mmajority of Muslim origin, who opposed homosexual overtones.
But Malaysia is not the only country canceling, another of the most recent films of Marvel Studios“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”, made box office news even before it came out when it was revealed that the film would not be making its way to theaters in some Middle Eastern nations, including Saudi Arabia, following a decision not to do a requested edit on the film. The edition in question referred to some form of content LGBTQ+but Disney he made the decision not to release the film rather than do the editing.
This is the latest move in what has been an ongoing attempt to Disney to better represent LGBTQ+ communities. For a company that has been making movies for almost 100 years, it’s been a long road to get to where it is right now.
A new investigation of monash university, published in the Journal of Business Ethicsfound that LGBTQ+-represented movies significantly outperform non-LGBTQ+-represented movies when it comes to box office receipts.
“In analyzing movies, we categorized all movies into three categories: non-LGBT+ movies, LGBT+-inclusive movies, and LGBT+-themed movies. LGBT+-inclusive films are those that include LGBT+ characters or plots, but do not make them the main focus or theme of the film,” says Yimin Cheng, Senior Lecturer at Monash Business School.
“Our findings, analyzing 4,126 movies, show that movies that include LGBT+ earned a staggering 29 percent more box office revenue than movies without LGBT+ content.
“With global box office receipts reaching $42 billion in 2019, this means films that include LGBT+ are big business on and off screen.”
the bet of Disney it’s no surprise. In this case, the company did not comment on Thor: Love and Thunder but confirmed that the launch will not go ahead.
Variety mentioned that Malaysia asked for cuts to LGBTQ+ scenes that the studio chose not to do.
the pain of Golden Screen Cinemas for the loss of another important title of Hollywood reflects the economic damage Malaysian cinemas have suffered over two years of intermittent Covid control measures. Movie admissions plummeted from an average of 77 million per year in 2017-2019 to just 3.72 million in 2021. Exhibitors also complain that the movie window in the country has now halved. 90 days to only 45 days.
So what the future holds is anyone’s guess. Disney certainly seems committed to continuing to include representation.nLGBTQ+ in its films, but many feel that what the company is doing now is not enough.