Eternals, Marvel Studios’ cosmic superheroes, opening weekend have smashed the box office regardless of the critical mixed movie reviews and being banned in some international markets.
The latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was the highest-grossing movie in theaters over the weekend. The film’s opening weekend earned an estimated $161.7 million at the global box office and $71 million domestically.
According to Entertainment Weekly, a week before Eternals was set to premiere in some Middle East regions—specifically Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman on November 11, censors decided to pull the film. Supposedly it was due to the movie’s same-sex kiss and same-sex relationship between Brian Tyree Henry and Haaz Sleiman. Censors wanted more cuts beyond, but Marvel Studios declined.
But the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt will be screening a version of Eternals without the same-sex content and the Marvel’s first sex scene between two heterosexual characters.
In a recent roundtable discussion with News.com.au, Eternals Thena star Angelina Jolie spoke about the issues these regions had with the film. “I’m sad for [those audiences]. And I’m proud of Marvel for refusing to cut those scenes out,” she said. “I still don’t understand how we live in a world today where there’s still [people who] would not see the family Phastos has and the beauty of that relationship and that love. How anybody is angry about it, threatened by it, doesn’t approve or appreciate it is ignorant.”
Sleiman, who is openly gay man raised in a Muslim family, also voiced his support of Disney and Marvel refusing to cut the scenes from the movie for countries in the Gulf. “They stood their ground and said, ‘Nope, we are not going to compromise the integrity of our film,'” he told Variety. “It made these Arab countries look so ignorant and pathetic.”
“I have no respect for those governments,” Sleiman added. “They have displayed to the world that they are not only a disgrace to humanity, but to God. Hopefully this will inspire the Saudi people, the Kuwaiti people, and the people in Qatar to fight back.”
With all the international controversy, Eternals opening weekend still managed to pull the biggest opening weekend during the pandemic era.
Eternals is directed by Nomadland Oscar-winner Chloé Zhao and it stars Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Don Lee, Barry Keoghan, and Lia McHugh as the comic beings who were sent to Earth by the Celestial Arishem to protect humans from the Deviants. It also stars Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington as Dane Whitman.
Marvel’s Eternals is now playing in theaters.
