In recent years, China has put up regulatory obstacles to prevent big Hollywood movies from being released in the country. This is the best option after an explicit ban. However, this hurts the American film industry, since China is a major market for its films. That was not the case before. But that all changed when 2009's "Avatar" raked in an unprecedented $200 million for 20th Century Fox, and then the big studios began doing everything they could to secure a Chinese release. And to pass the country's strict censors, they had to remove anything the Communist Party might find distasteful, including the obvious ones like nudity and sex, but also the less obvious ones like homosexuality, black actors, images of recognizable American symbols like the Statue of Liberty, and so on.
Even as China has tightened censorship, it has tried to match the scale and scope of Hollywood epics in government-funded projects, and there have been hits like 'The Battle at Changjin Lake', which was the second film More box office. 2021 film globally after 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'.
Director: Liu Xiaoshi
Stars: Yibo Wang, Jun Hu, Yosh Yu
But there was a project so ambitious and expensive called 'Born to Fly' that it was abandoned without consideration. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film was meant to be China's answer to 'Top Gun: Maverick,' starring Tom Cruise. Like 'Maverick', the film, produced in association with the People's Liberation Army Air Force, was to be a showcase of China's airborne firepower, specifically the J-20 stealth fighter jet.
It was to be released on September 30 and was hailed by many as the next Chinese hit. But it was dropped, with a statement saying it was postponed to show "better production effects".
According to THR, the filmmakers realized after watching 'Top Gun: Maverick' that their film's visuals were vastly inferior compared to Hollywood film and they, along with the Chinese Communist Party, feared that the country and its industry films were the object of ridicule and ridicule throughout the world.