Disney: Do you know this rule followed to the letter in all Marvel movies ?

© Marvel

In March 2015, Disney CEO Bob Iger surprised everyone the world at an annual shareholders' meeting by announcing a new rule applicable to films from the group's various studios.

During this conference, an investor asked him what what he intended to do to protect young people from smoking, while 43% of Marvel movies featured a character smoking. The CEO responded immediately:

We are extending our no-smoking policy in film to all properties: Marvel, Lucas, Pixar, and Disney. Except when we are depicting a historical figure who may have smoked in their lifetime. For example, if we were making a movie about Abraham Lincoln, he was a smoker, and we would consider that acceptable.

Film has a role to play against smoking

He added: “But as far as new characters are created for either of these movies, under either of these labels, we would absolutely ban smoking in all of these feature films”.

More than nine years later, this rule remains set in stone, and no one dares to question it any more. The question may however arise for some new characters integrated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000

Subscribe to Lemon squeezer

This is the case of Wolverine who is seen smoking a cigar in previous productions as can be seen in this video. It also remains to be seen if this protagonist will return, but nothing is impossible as long as the last Deadpool was a huge success at the global box office.

In any case, we can salute this effort from the big-eared firm, because we know that the image conveyed by these superheroes has a major impact on children and adolescents. It is at this key period of life that many of them decide whether or not to start smoking and cinema and series have a major role to play in this public health problem.

In fact, there is still a long way to go if we are to believe this figure quoted in 2023 by Europe 1. Our colleagues then stated that 90% of films released that year included characters smoking. This was particularly the case in feature films such as Oppenheimer, or Killers of the Flower Moon by Martin Scorsese.

Quoted by the radio, Loïc Josseran, president of the Alliance against tobacco, specified: “It is important to understand that a French film is about three minutes of smoking, which corresponds to five or six TV advertising spots”.

📍 To not miss any Presse-citron news, follow us on Google News and WhatsApp.

[ ]