From car chases to hilarious and embarrassing moments, there are a number of things about movies that are universally fascinating. However, when it comes to the finer details, the things that audiences find appealing can vary from one region of the globe to the next one.
This is something that studios and filmmakers have always kept in consideration and as such, it's common for some movies to chop, add, or replace specific scenes for foreign markets. At times, these changes have helped make the movies more popular while on other occasions, the target audience barely recognized the effort.
10 Zootopia (2016)
The creators of Zootopia acknowledge the fact that certain animals are symbols of specific countries. A different breed of animal is, therefore, featured as a newscaster depending on where the movie is released. For example, the co-anchor is a koala in Australia while in Japan, a tanuki is used.
This differs from the original version released in Canada and the US where the character is a bear. Since the newscaster's mannerisms depend more on their anthropomorphic nature than their animal attributes, the switches don't affect the movie in any major ways. Such little wholesome elements are what make Zootopia one of Disney's greatest-ever animated movies.
9 Die Hard (1988)
There are topics that particular countries are sensitive about hence Hollywood tries to be considerate sometimes. At the time of Die Hard's release, domestic terror groups such as the Baader-Meinhof Gang and the Red Faction were causing havoc in Germany hence 20th century felt it would be appropriate to make changes to the scene where the villain, Hans Gruber, is introduced.
Instead of being labeled a German terrorist, Gruber is described as a former IRA member. Well, the change is problematic because Alan Rickman doesn't sound Irish at all but given that the majority of German fans watch dubbed and sub-titled versions, the accent is likely less of an issue.
8 Lincoln (2012)
Lincoln isn’t normally considered one of Steven Spielberg's greatest movies but he treats it with the same kind of precision that he does for his other works. The film gets right into Abraham Lincoln's involvement with slave emancipation without offering a lengthy background story of how that happened.
However, Spielberg was wise enough to know that foreign audiences weren't exactly familiar with the former President's whole story and so for international releases, the director himself appears at the beginning to provide an introductory preamble. To contextualize the events even further, several black-and-white photos that were taken in the period are also included.
7 Fatal Attraction (1987)
It could be argued that Fatal Attraction is one of the best movies with the worst endings since Alex causes plenty of mayhem only for her to get shot in the typical cliché manner by her husband's wife. Well, audiences in Japan got a much more mind-blowing ending where Alex commits suicide and frames her lover for it.
The latter ending is much more suitable for a saga that was already complicated enough. Interestingly, it was originally the intended conclusion. Actress Glenn Close revealed that she was forced to shoot the new scene six months after production had ended and that she totally hated it (via ABC). Her frustrations make sense because her character is forced to kill someone over something that he initially had nothing to do with.
6 Demolition Man (1993)
Product placement is deemed necessary in order to boost revenues and enable a movie to break even. Demolition Man thus goes the extra mile by not only including Taco Bell logos but also having characters reference the brand in the dialogue. For foreign releases, the brand is changed to Pizza Hut.
It all makes sense because back in the early '90s, Taco Bell wasn't the major brand that it is now. Since both Taco Bell and Pizza Hut were owned by PepsiCo at the time, making the switch was fairly easy because the parent company had already made the necessary payments. Still, the Taco Bell logo can be spotted in certain scenes of international releases, making the "Pizza Hut won the franchise wars" statement feel like a lie.
5 Iron Man 3 (2013)
Iron Man 3 is considered one of the worst MCU movies because of its weak villain and disjointed storyline, but Chinese audiences might not feel that way. That's because various sections of the superhero flick have been heavily tweaked to appeal to them.
There is more inclusivity, since Dr. Wu, who only appears in the US version in a supporting role has more scenes. Additionally, an assistant, played by Fan Bingbing, exclusively appears in China's version of the film. On top of that, there is the blatant product placement of the Chinese milk brand Gu Li Duo.
4 The Shining (1980)
The Shining's scene change is inspired by Stanley Kubrick's perfectionism. For the scene where Jack Torrence suffers from writer's block and keeps repeating "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" on his manuscript, the director typed in four additional languages so that the key European countries would get to read it in their language.
It could be argued that including French, Spanish, German, and Italian manuscripts weren't really necessary since subtitles would simply have done the trick. In spite of that, the director can't be faulted for trying to make the early '80s horror masterpiece as believable as possible.
3 Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Steve Rogers misses out on a lot of pop culture developments during the decades in which he remains frozen. Eager to catch up, he writes a to-do list in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and he features American references such as Steve Jobs and Rocky.
Though there is a high probability that many people outside America would be familiar with the names on the list. Marvel Studios goes the extra mile by having Rogers scribble different names in the particular list for each country. In Russia, the astronaut, Yuri Gargarin, is included while in the United Kingdom, there is Sean Connery and the 1966 World Cup which England won.
2 Red Dawn (2012)
It's common for American studios to go over and beyond to appeal to the Chinese market, given the country's high population. A movie is always guaranteed to underperform at the box office if it's banned in the region but a similar move to ensure international success still didn't work for Red Dawn.
Red Dawn had a delayed release date because MGM figured it would be better if the villains were changed from Chinese to North Koreans. All the Chinese flags are thus switched with North Korean ones. In addition to that, the opening scene is altered to establish new motivations. Sadly, the action drama was still not permitted in China, so the version meant for the country was released in the US anyway.
1 Monster's University (2013)
Good gestures always go a long way in establishing friendships. In the American version of Monster's University, the character, Randal Boggs, extends a hand to other fraternities by baking cupcakes with icing that reads, "Be My Pal." For international versions, the words are replaced with a smiley face.
The words "Be My Pal" do a better job of explaining the intended objective, but a smiley face also does the trick. Anyone that's offered a cupcake with a smiley face will easily realize that the generous person wants to be in good graces with them. After all, smileys look cuter and are appropriate for a movie that's targeted at children.