10 Movies That Were Re-Edited After Release (And Why)
7. Django Unchained
China is notoriously selective when it comes to choosing the films it will show to its audiences, and even if a movie does get released there, there are no guarantees it will make it past censors untouched, as Django Unchained discovered.
The film was first released in China on 11 April 2013, but shortly after, it was pulled entirely, with officials citing "technical reasons" as their excuse. After this, news about a possible re-release failed to materialise, and it wasn't clear if the film would be shown in China ever again. This silence resulted in the film being heavily pirated, since Chinese viewers thought they'd lost their shot at seeing it.
But then, in May 2013, the film came back to cinemas - but not without being chopped down a bit. Roughly three minutes of mature footage had been removed from the initial cut, including scenes like Schultz's flashback about a man being mauled by dogs, and Django and Broomhilda being tortured while nude.
Because it returned to cinemas during a busier time period, the film was ultimately a disappointment in China, pacing well behind other Hollywood releases at that time.