But is Hollywood willing to do that, knowing that it takes China out of the equation?”
![gay men kiss sex art gay men kiss sex art](https://i.etsystatic.com/21488374/r/il/46c7e6/2463711012/il_fullxfull.2463711012_cd3o.jpg)
“And if Hollywood really wants to change the narrative, they need to do it in a global franchise. “I would love to see Hollywood use its soft power to foster LGBTQ acceptance on a global scale,” Fenton says. Now, he argues, Hollywood should exert that influence worldwide by making a tentpole with gay characters and themes so interwoven into the plotline that those elements would be impossible to snip without losing the film altogether. He cites 1993’s Philadelphia and 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club, smaller domestic films which centered on characters dying of AIDS and helped to shift public opinion on the illness in the U.S., as examples of the industry’s ability to effect social change. Iron Man 3 co-producer Chris Fenton is the author of Feeding the Dragon: Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, & American Business, and has been an outspoken critic of Hollywood kowtowing to China’s censors. “The strength of China’s box office has manifested in Hollywood movies being altered marketing campaigns being changed for that marketplace.”Ĭhina may even have a chilling effect at the green-light stage, given that the major studios - Paramount, Disney, Universal, Warner Bros., and Columbia Pictures - release a film with a gay protagonist with about the same frequency as leap years.
GAY MEN KISS SEX ART MOVIE
“China was the second-biggest movie market in the world until Covid hit, and then the North American box office dropped significantly and China raced to the front of the line,” explains Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. And on the big screen, gay characters continue to be largely relegated to the sidelines - and edited out of movies altogether when they are deemed too high a financial risk. The streaming giant Netflix recently came under fire for releasing comedy specials from both Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais which featured jokes targeting the transgender community. In the spring, Disney drew widespread criticism for opting not to release a statement condemning Florida’s so-called Don’t Say Gay bill, and for donating funds to politicians who supported the legislation, which bans instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. By some measures, the entertainment industry even appears to be moving backward. While Hollywood outwardly signals blanket support for LGBTQ+ rights, its track record often tells a different story. The underwhelming performance seemingly did not go unnoticed: This September, Bros, Universal’s gay rom-com starring Billy Eichner, will mark the first major studio release to show gay male sex onscreen in more than three years. After a triumphant bow in Cannes, complete with John and Egerton dueting on the beach, Rocketman ‘s worldwide haul totaled just $195 million. (By comparison, Bohemian ’s scant references to Mercury’s sexuality were simply cut for its China release.) The film was also denied release in the Middle East. Rocketman never received a release in China, where homosexuality is not legally recognized and gay-themed films are routinely barred from distribution.
![gay men kiss sex art gay men kiss sex art](https://i.etsystatic.com/18197002/r/il/4d8b85/1586861828/il_794xN.1586861828_c8q6.jpg)
And sadly, that historic moment of progress may have hurt the film’s chances at the kind of global domination Bohemian enjoyed. There was one notable difference between the films when it came to telling their subjects’ stories, however: While Bohemian glossed over the topic of Mercury’s queerness, Rocketman met John’s love life head-on, becoming the first major studio film to depict gay male sex onscreen. Paramount Pictures had taken a big gamble with Rocketman, spending $41 million on the production and entrusting the lead role to an actor who wasn’t quite a household name (Taron Egerton), but the success of Bohemian - for which Rami Malek had won a Best Actor Oscar in March - augured good things. Just months earlier, Bohemian Rhapsody, another rock-music biopic, this one centered on Queen’s Freddie Mercury, had pulled off a surprise box-office coup, raking in $911 million worldwide. When the Elton John biopic Rocketman opened at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2019, expectations were sky-high.