Why Every Keanu Reeves Movie Was Once Banned In China

Keanu Reeves is one of the most famous American action stars, someone who can reliably boost a movie's box office returns. This reputation took a small hit a few years ago however, when Reeves drew the ire of one of Hollywood's biggest sources of revenue: China. 

In March 2022, Reeves attended a pro-Tibet benefit concert, one that reportedly enraged Chinese nationalists. There was a major backlash against Reeves on Chinese social media platforms, which included calls to boycott his films. It's not clear how much this affected the Chinese box office returns of "The Matrix: Resurrections," which performed poorly in China for reasons that may have been similar to why it performed poorly in the US. The real damage to Reeves' box office potential happened a few weeks later, when China quietly scrubbed his movies from all their major streaming sites. Hit movies like "The Matrix," "Speed," "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" were no longer available to Chinese viewers.

Reeves has never apologized for his support of Tibet however, nor has he really acknowledged the backlash much. Perhaps the video he made defiantly reciting the Alan Ginsberg poem "Pull My Daisy" was meant to be his final statement on the subject:

Despite all the backlash in 2022, there have been signs lately that the Chinese nationalists have moved past their anger at Reeves' support of Tibet. The big sign was the recent release of "John Wick 4" in Chinese theaters. It released in March this year, approved by the censors without any cuts. This was particularly surprising given that none of the previous "John Wick" films enjoyed a theatrical release in the country, and American R-rated films in general don't tend to be approved. 

What's most impressive about Reeves in recent years is how little he's seemed to care about the Chinese censors' approval. It's a well-documented issue in Hollywood that studios will often cut certain material to appease China. The first "Doctor Strange" film in 2016, for instance, reportedly "whitewashed a major Tibetan character for fear of jeopardizing the title's chances of success in China," and LGBTQ+ content is regularly removed from American movies for China's sake. 

China is the biggest movie market in the world, so it's common for Hollywood to throw any moral principles out the window to appease it. In contrast, it seems admirable for Reeves to seemingly not care at all about the money China brings in; most actors would've folded to keep their potential movie audience as wide as possible, but when it comes to his position on Tibet, Reeves has stayed strong.