Why Business Leaders Should Pay Attention to the Call to Boycott Disney’s Mulan Remake

Across social media today (particularly on Twitter), people called for a boycott of the new Disney live-action remake of Mulan. The boycott centers not on the quality or take on the familiar story, but rather on comments from Liu Yife, the movie’s star actress. Last August, Yife expressed support for Hong Kong police, who have been brutally cracking down on pro-democracy protesters. Calls to boycott the film started at that point and have been ongoing. But with the situation becoming even more sensitive over this past year, Yife’s words are the fore and drawing ire again with the release of the movie.

Support of violence that silences freedom isn’t laudable — that needs to be clear. But from a business and economic perspective, a boycott of the entire project is nothing to praise.

First, Yife is just one of many people who worked on the movie in some capacity — the average production number for a film is 588, but it’s not at all unheard of to see positions reach into the thousands. Boycotting the entire project affects every one of those people financially and influences the view others have of them for future hiring.

In this sense, the Mulan boycott call is not unlike the one that rose against Goya beans. That boycott centered around the fact that…