In this era of director's cuts, extra DVD footage and "special editions," it's not exactly a big deal for there to be multiple versions or lengths across its different theater and home viewing iterations. Far less common, however, is a studio making two different versions of the same movie for its theater releases in different countries, which is about to happen when Iron Man 3 opens in the U.S. and China on May 3.

In an announcement from Marvel Studios today, the company revealed that the Chinese version of the movie will include "significant Chinese elements" created in co-operation with Chinese media company DMG, which is distributing the movie in China.

"Both versions of the film include Iron Man 3 footage filmed in Beijing in December," the announcement explains, but "the Chinese version of the film will also feature a special appearance of China’s top actress, Fan Bingbing, and will offer specially prepared bonus footage made exclusively for the Chinese audience."

This is another example of American studios becoming more aware of the importance of China as a foreign market, and with good reason; last year, China became the second largest international market for U.S.-made movies (behind Japan) after box office receipts rose 31 percent to around $2.75 billion, and is expected to overtake the U.S. market by 2020.

While the Iron Man 3 variant edition is one of the most extreme changes made by U.S. moviemakers to date for Chinese releases, it's far from the only one; the Chinese version of last year's Looper similarly featured additional scenes in Shanghai, a location replaced with Paris in the version released in the rest of the world.

Similarly, scenes that were deemed potentially offensive to Chinese viewers from Men in Black 3 were removed from the Chinese edition of the movie, and in a larger example of studio caution, MGM chose to digitally alter the nationality of the invaders in their remake of Red Dawn from Chinese to North Korean for all editions of the movie, through fear of alienating a potential audience.

When the news broke of the MGM alternation last year, one Hollywood producer spoke anonymously to the L.A. Times, calling it "a clear-cut case - maybe the first I can think of in the history of Hollywood - where a foreign country's censorship board deeply affects what we produce." It may have been the first, but as today's Iron Man 3 news suggests, it may not be the last as American studios try to become far more conscious of where the money is these days.