He’s the director of the biggest movie hit of all time, and he’s about to follow that up with, well, the biggest movie hit of all time (again), but that’s not gonna cut it in China. Never one to be shy about exerting their muscle and showing some homegrown love, the Chinese government has decided to yank “Avatar” from 1,628 2D screens this week in favor of the Chow Yun Fat biopic “Confucius”. The reasons? A little bit of this and a little bit of that. Mostly, it’s China, baby.

According to a report in the Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, the move was made at the urging of propaganda officials who are concerned that “Avatar” is taking too much market share from Chinese films and drawing unwanted attention to the sensitive issue of forced evictions.

Millions of Chinese have been uprooted to make way for high rises and government infrastructure projects. “Nail House” is a popular term given to homes of dwellers who refuse to leave though they are surrounded by demolished homes. In “Avatar,” human colonists try to demolish the village of an alien race in order to obtain a precious resource buried below it.

However, David Wolf of Wolf Group Asia, a media consultancy based in Beijing, said the decision to pull “Avatar” had more to do with the upcoming Chinese New Year holiday.

While pulling foreign films in favor of homegrown fare isn’t new to China, “Avatar” is a little different: it’s already the highest grossing movie of all time in China, having made $76 million, and would seem to still have plenty of leg. Despite the loss, “Avatar” remains on 900 3D-equipped screens.

Oh well, I guess James Cameraon will just have to make due with the gazillion dollars he’s already made. Poor James.