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The latest movie in the Despicable Me franchise premiered in China on Friday \u2013 albeit with a different ending, as local viewers discovered.<\/p>\n
Minions: The Rise of Gru follows antihero Gru in his teenage days and sets up his evolution into a supervillain later in the series.<\/p>\n
Warning:\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>There are plot spoilers ahead.<\/em><\/p>\n But unlike the original movie, the Chinese version does not end with Gru and his mentor Wild Knuckles riding off into the sunset.<\/p>\n Instead, Wild Knuckles is jailed while Gru \u201cbecomes one of the good guys\u201d.<\/p>\n Posts and screenshots of the film, shared on Chinese microblogging site Weibo, showed censors had added a series of subtitled still images into the credits sequence.<\/p>\n In it, they explain that Wild Knuckles was caught and locked up for 20 years after a failed heist. He also discovers a \u201clove of acting\u201d and sets up a theatrical troupe.<\/p>\n Gru, meanwhile, \u201creturned to his family\u201d and being a father to his three girls became his \u201cbiggest accomplishment\u201d.<\/p>\n The change was derided by many in China.<\/p>\n \u201cThe real story is in a parallel universe,\u201d one person wrote.<\/p>\n Others said Gru\u2019s alternate ending conveniently promoted China\u2019s\u00a0three-child policy, as the country tries to raise its birth rate. The subtitled stills were also widely compared to PowerPoint presentation slides in quality.<\/p>\n DuSir, a popular movie blogger with more than 14 million followers on Weibo, called the changes \u201coutrageous\u201d.<\/p>\n In an article, he questioned why only Chinese people needed \u201cspecial guidance and care\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cHow weak and lacking judgment do they think our audiences are?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n Despite this, the movie \u2013 the fifth instalment in the series \u2013 went on to find success at the box office, reportedly grossing a pandemic record of about 21.74m yuan ($3.2m; \u00a32.7m) on its opening day in China, according to entertainment site Deadline.<\/p>\n It is not the first time a popular foreign film has had its ending altered for China, which has some of the world\u2019s strictest censorship rules.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, a version of 1999 cult American film Fight Club released on Chinese streaming platform Tencent Video had its original ending \u2013 where the protagonist blew up several skyscrapers \u2013 removed and replaced with a message saying that authorities had won and saved the day.<\/p>\n The changes sparked a backlash, even prompting responses from director David Fincher and author Chuck Palahniuk, who wrote the 1996 novel the movie was adapted from. Human Rights Watch described the new finale as \u201cdystopian\u201d.<\/p>\n Tencent later reversed most of the changes, only retaining cuts of scenes featuring nudity.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n