Universal Pictures: Film Cut Dilemma Amid Geopolitical Conflict

Universal Pictures’ animated movie Abominable was scheduled for release in Malaysia on November 7, 2019. However, Malaysia’s Film Censorship Board ordered the studio to cut the scenes showing a map with the controversial “nine-dash line.” Without those cuts, the Malaysian government would not allow the movie’s release in Malaysia. The nine-dash line was a geopolitically sensitive issue in the South China Sea region, pitting China against neighbouring countries. China claimed historic rights over the territories bound by the nine dashes it had drawn on a map in the South China Sea. In contrast, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Brunei also claimed the part of the sea adjacent to their coastline. The US government also challenged the Chinese claims under the nine-dash line.

Universal Pictures was in a fix: Not deleting the map scene would mean that Malaysia and other countries in the South China Sea could ban the movie. However, deleting the scene could provoke the Chinese government, which in the past had reacted strongly against studios and actors who had disregarded Chinese restrictions. China was a significant market that no Hollywood studio could afford to lose. But should Universal Pictures focus only on its commercial interests at the cost of taking a morally sound position?