China Ruined Brad Pitt’s Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Franchise, But It’s Blowing Up On Streaming Anyway

By Rick Gonzales
| Published 22 seconds ago

It’s now nearing fifteen years old, and Brad Pitt’s apocalyptic zombie movie World War Z is suddenly blowing up big on streaming. It’s the most-watched movie on Paramount+ in the United States and one of the most-streamed films in the world this week. Except for in China, where the film was banned upon release.

World War Z is the 2013 Brad Pitt zombie-apocalypse film based on the 2006 novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by best-selling author Max Brooks (son of legendary filmmaker Mel Brooks). Brad Pitt plays Gerry Lane, a former UN agent who is stuck in heavy Philadelphia traffic with his wife, Karin (Mireille Enos), and their two daughters, Rachel and Connie. While trying to maneuver through the slog, the city is overcome by zombies.

As the city falls, the Lanes are able to escape to Newark, New Jersey, where they take refuge with a couple and their son Tommy in an apartment. Things quickly go bad as the Lanes have to move fast when the zombies invade, turning Tommy’s parents into the hungry undead.

Brad Pitt’s character, Gerry, is able to contact an old friend, Deputy UN Secretary-General Thierry Umutoni, who is able to get a helicopter to Gerry and his family, which now includes Tommy, as they barely escape the zombie horde. The Lanes are taken to a U.S. Navy vessel sailing safely in the Atlantic. Onboard are scientists and military personnel who are studying the nature of the infected.

World War Z then takes on a global outlook. Gerry and crew head over to a military base in South Korea, where they are promptly attacked by zombies. Not all survive as Gerry finds that his next destination is Jerusalem. When Gerry arrives, he finds large walls built to surround the city. Safety behind the wall doesn’t last, as the zombies, upon hearing the celebratory singing of refugees inside, team up to scale the walls and overrun the city.

How China Killed The World War Z Trilogy

Initially, Paramount saw World War Z as a trilogy. The film’s successful opening in the United States left Paramount thrilled, so they announced they were moving ahead with a sequel. They found a new director and a new screenwriter. But time moved on, and nothing materialized.

The sequel film went through its share of pre-production, and at one point, David Fincher was involved, but it was eventually canceled. If you’re wondering why, blame China. Hollywood has now become totally dependent on the Chinese box office, and the original World War Z was banned in the country. The sequels would be too.

Solstice Studios CEO Mark Gill said at the time: “It’s not cultural, it’s government policy… And the reason it’s government policy is that you have a government trying to maintain control over a population where there is a fair amount of unrest. One of the things that seems to particularly stir revolts or riots is superstition.”

China’s government policy automatically bans movies featuring zombies or ghosts from being shown in the country. For this reason, films like Jordan Peele’s Get Out or the zombie hit Zombieland also never saw a release in China.

World War Z’s Reception

Nevertheless, World War Z did, without Chinese money, a respectable job at the box office. Director Marc Forster was handed a budget that started at $125 million, eventually ballooning to upwards of $200 million, and he rewarded Paramount’s faith by bringing in nearly $541 million at the box office.

World War Z earned surprisingly strong reviews from critics and audiences alike. Critics praised the movie for turning what looked like a doomed blockbuster into a tense, fast-moving zombie thriller that leaned more on large-scale suspense than gore, with many reviewers singling out its globe-trotting pace and massive action sequences as highlights. Some longtime fans of Max Brooks’ novel criticized the film for abandoning almost everything that made the book unique, but general audiences were far more forgiving. .