Burger King, Russia is now seeking a ban on the film It in the country.
Reportedly, they have complained to the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) about the clown character Pennywise from the film, looks identical to Ronald McDonald. As per the complaint, Burger King has claimed that the film is serving as an advertisement for their competitor McDonald’s.
The filed the complaint last week, and its copy was accessed by Russian financial publication, Vedomosti. The fast-food chain has claimed that Pennywise happens to be a replica of Ronald McDonald.
They further elaborated that the colors worn by Pennywise as well as the balloons that he used to tempt kids are the same colors as seen on Ronald McDonald.
“We can’t be concerned with the content of the film because the writer and director have their own creative understanding of any character,” the fast-food chain spokeswoman told The Hollywood Reporter.
FAS spokesperson stated on Monday that their board would have a look at IT to see whether the film had any unethical product placement or contained advertising for McDonald’s. There is, however, one problem that this complaint by Burger King is likely to face about the Andy Mushietti directed film which has Bill Skarsgard playing Pennywise and the problem is that the film has been playing in Russia since September 7.
It grossed over $7.2 million on its first weekend in the country while it went on to break the box office records in the US with the first-weekend collection of $123 million as informed by Newsweekreports. It has gone past $475 million globally, and that makes it the most successful horror film commercially in the cinema history.
