Barbie | July 21, 2023 | Warner Bros | Margot Robbie is Barbie. Ryan Gosling is Ken. | Second most profitable movie of 2023

[Gavin Feng]

asian governments are ridiculous. Protesting against western by punishing their own people. 

[MrPink]

I don’t think we know whether there’s something else in the film, but regardless, one has to wonder why the dashes near China are even there at all, regardless of how crude it is. But Vietnam is essentially an Authoritarian country so it’s not like everything is going to be fully rooted in objective logic. And it also achieved a specific goal, creating worldwide headlines and drawing attention to the issue that people are clearly not much aware about. It’s a very silly thing, yet can’t deny it’s been a lot more effective to the government than releasing a film that makes maybe a million there at best. 

Edited July 5, 2023 by MrPink

[Issac Newton]

48 minutes ago, KP1025 said:

And in Vietnam, TLM grossed like $0.5 million so doubt Barbie would have been that much higher. But you are right that anything can happen.

Lol, this was likely to happen when you go against "Doraemon: Nobita's Sky Utopia" which is the new ATG among Japanese Film - $3.8M till date. Vietnamese are renewing ATG of Japanese Film almost many times a year and Doraemon is really more popular in Vietnam then in Taiwan (Among Outer Two Big Markets (China &US))

[Dbui8743]

6 hours ago, Issac Newton said:

Agreed but Actually, I didn't take humor into count but Vietnam/Philippines have literally no local film restricting the potential growth of any Imported Film outside Blackout days like MMFF in Philippines and Spring Festival in Vietnam. Minions 2 literally broke into All-time Top 10 in Vietnam while its performance in compare to rest of South East Asia was quite underwhelming in compare to Minions.

 

All-Time Top Grossers ~ Vietnam (Admits)

 

1. Nhà bà Nữ - 5.70M (5.8M)
2. Bố già - 5.34M (5.6M)
3. Avengers: Endgame - 3.49M 
4. Avatar: The Way Of Water - 3.46M
5. Doctor Strange: In The Multiverse of Madness - 2.51M
6. Hai Phượng - 2.50M
7. Minions: The Rise Of Gnu - 2.49M
8. Cua lại vợ bầu - 2.39M
9. Avengers: Infinity War - 2.35M
10. 6/45 (Korea) - 2.27M

 

Dis Figures are in Brackets. Gross ~ Nhà bà Nữ (₫475B) &Bố già (₫434B). 

The reason why you don't see local films restricting growth of international films is because film makers in Vietnam suck and are myopic. 

 

They know that they have no talents and if they show their films during non-festival period when people are not ready to spend money willy nilly, their films will lost heaps of money. That's why most big films are released during spring festival (Tet/Lunar New Year), hence it seems we don't have blackout days for local films. 

 

As to why TLM didn't make much money, there was a lot of discord about black mermaid on Facebook within Vietnamese film communities. Barbie on the other hand has been pretty welcomed up to the point of the map.

 

Me personally think banning because of the map is stupid, but we gotta to take a stand and be indiscriminate about it. We already banned John wick 4 lol. And to the poster above brushing it off because Vietnam is a authoritarian country, well we are not as big as a bully as China and just not as big, and we still are trying to oppose to the blatant territorial hoarding, that's gotta say something. 

[Issac Newton]

3 minutes ago, Dbui8743 said:

- snip -

I be like wow. I have read articles earlier about Vietnamese films getting bankruptcy because production cost exceeding 1 billion VND. Gotta not point out fingers on Vietnamese Film Industry but really loved "Bố già" and also thanks for the analysis!

[MrPink]

4 hours ago, Dbui8743 said:

The reason why you don't see local films restricting growth of international films is because film makers in Vietnam suck and are myopic. 

 

They know that they have no talents and if they show their films during non-festival period when people are not ready to spend money willy nilly, their films will lost heaps of money. That's why most big films are released during spring festival (Tet/Lunar New Year), hence it seems we don't have blackout days for local films. 

 

As to why TLM didn't make much money, there was a lot of discord about black mermaid on Facebook within Vietnamese film communities. Barbie on the other hand has been pretty welcomed up to the point of the map.

 

Me personally think banning because of the map is stupid, but we gotta to take a stand and be indiscriminate about it. We already banned John wick 4 lol. And to the poster above brushing it off because Vietnam is a authoritarian country, well we are not as big as a bully as China and just not as big, and we still are trying to oppose to the blatant territorial hoarding, that's gotta say something. 

To be clear, I’m not saying that China’s claims to the territory is justified or that they aren’t being a bully in this case. They definitely are being bullies. I’m saying that regardless of the crudeness of the drawing or whether it is actual intent by someone in the film crew, the Vietnamese government can do whatever it wants when it comes to banning the film in this case, whether it’s intentional or an honest mistake. They’re choosing to err on the side of caution, and I can understand that, it’s just….unexpected to be happening over Barbie of all movies.

Edited July 5, 2023 by MrPink

[Issac Newton]

China reacts after 'Barbie' movie depicts controversial map favored by Beijing

China is dismissing the growing anger over the upcoming "Barbie" movie’s reported decision to feature a map that supports Beijing’s controversial territorial claims.

 

When asked about the controversy during a press conference on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was dismissive of Hanoi’s outrage.

 

"China’s position on the South China Sea issue is clear and consistent," the official said, adding that Vietnam "should not link the South China Sea issue with normal cultural exchange."

[vale9001]

Not Barbara the movie impacting foreign politics 

Edited July 5, 2023 by vale9001

[Valonqar]

1 minute ago, vale9001 said:

Not Barbara the movie impacting foreign politics 

 

Made The Marvels run away screaming. Made Oppenheimer add sex to have R rating excuse when it doesn't open at #1. Impacted foreign politics. Sold out shows everywhere. Barbara truly KEN't stop winning. 

[WorkingonaName]

Marvels would have gotten slaughtered in its original spot. 

[eddyxx]

Barbie affecting geopolitics. I’m dead. We stan.

[vale9001]

and everything for that map designed from some intern

Edited July 5, 2023 by vale9001

[Spidey Freak]

3 hours ago, MrPink said:

I don’t think we know whether there’s something else in the film, but regardless, one has to wonder why the dashes near China are even there at all, regardless of how crude it is. 

 

Possible some smart ass tried to sneak it in and claim plausible deniability if caught like the guy who drew a penis tower on the original Little Mermaid VHS cover

[vale9001]

 Out cover with the lgbtq actors

 

 

[WittyUsername]

Why not just get edit out the map altogether? I don’t just mean for Southeast Asia, I mean in general. 

[kayumanggi]

4 minutes ago, WittyUsername said:

Why not just get edit out the map altogether? I don’t just mean for Southeast Asia, I mean in general. 

 

WB is definitely pandering to China. I see no other reason. The 9 dash line does not even exist on normal maps. China is the only one that uses that. And WB unconsciously included it? Haha. NO.

[roxas11]

33 minutes ago, kayumanggi said:

WB is definitely pandering to China.

 

I don't buy this at all now dont got me wrong, I'm not saying that WB are not capable of bending of backwards in order to please china because they definitely are, but in this case That silly map was clearly meant as nothing more than a dumb joke

 

As I said in my last post, The map looks like a child drew it, and it's clearly not meant to be taken seriously at all. They can edit the film if they want but honestly I can't see them going out of their way to address this ridiculous controversy

 

Edited July 5, 2023 by roxas11

[kayumanggi]

16 minutes ago, roxas11 said:

 

I don't buy this at all now dont got me wrong, I'm not saying that WB are not capable of bending of backwards in order to please china because they definitely are, but in this case That silly map was clearly meant as nothing more than a dumb joke

 

As I said in my last post, The map looks like a child drew it, and it's clearly not meant to be taken seriously at all. They can edit the film if they want but honestly I can't see them going out of their way to address this ridiculous controversy

 

 

How is it a joke? Again, the 9 dash line does not exist on world maps. Why include it then? It is deliberate.

 

Don't tell me WB decided to include a "funny" map and based it on a map only one country in the world uses.

 

But yeah, whatever floats their boat. It's their money anyway.

Edited July 5, 2023 by kayumanggi

[roxas11]

24 minutes ago, kayumanggi said:

 

How is it a joke? Again, the 9 dash line does not exist on world maps. Why include it then? It is deliberate.

 

It's a joke because nobody in their right mind should take this map seriously lol

 

 

Let's just be honest about this, the map is ridiculous and is obviously not meant to be realistic at all. I don't for 1 second think that the people who made this map was thinking about the Geopolitics of Asia. frankly If WB knew this silly map would be such an issue, they probably would not have even had the scene in the movie in the first place and It definitely would have not been in their trailers if they thought it was going to cause them some PR problems

 

 

Edited July 5, 2023 by roxas11

[kayumanggi]

4 minutes ago, roxas11 said:

 

It's a joke because nobody in their right mind should take this map seriously lol

 

 

Let's just be honest about this, the map is ridiculous and is obviously not meant to be realistic at all. I don't for 1 second think that the people who made this silly map was thinking about the Geopolitics of Asia. If WB knew this dumb map would be such an issue, they probably would not have even had the scene in the movie in the first place and It definitely would have not been in their trailers if they thought it was going to cause them some PR problems

 

 

 

Which takes us back to my argument that they are pandering to China. It's weird because those who made the map were more aware about a version that China uses than the version that the rest of the world uses? 😅 They don't care about the 'smaller' territories since, just like some have pointed here out, they won't earn much from those markets. I dare WB edit that scene and see how China reacts. 🤣 It's just a silly map anyway.