China’s state-owned film distributor is making its first investment in Hollywood movies by taking a stake in two Legendary Entertainment productions.
China Film Co (中國電影公司) will make an “eight-figure equity investment” in two upcoming films, Seventh Son and Warcraft, the Chinese unit of Legendary Entertainment said yesterday.
The exact amount of the US dollar investment was not specified.
Seventh Son is a fantasy adventure starring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore that is scheduled for release on Feb. 6 next year. Warcraft, based on a popular video game series, is slated for release on March 11, 2016.
If approved for release in China, China Film would distribute the movies under current rules and regulations for foreign films, which are limited to just 34 a year. The deal calls for China Film to be credited on the movies.
China Film, which is planning to go public, owns stakes in movie theater chains that make up half of the country’s box office receipts. Its parent, China Film Group, is the gatekeeper for foreign studios because it controls film imports and coproductions.
The projects are the first since Legendary and China Film teamed up about a year ago to produce global blockbusters. It is one of a number of recent tie-ups between companies in the world’s two biggest movies markets.
As box-office revenue growth flattens out at home, Hollywood studies are keen to move into China, now the world’s second-biggest movie market with US$3.6 billion in ticket sales last year.
China’s leaders hope that entertainment companies can benefit from the joint ventures by acquiring know-how to develop their own cultural industries in order to expand influence abroad.
Legendary Entertainment’s films include The Dark Knight and the Hangover trilogy and last year’s sci-fi action adventure Pacific Rim.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
AVIATION: Despite production issues in the US, the Taoyuan-based airline expects to receive 24 passenger planes on schedule, while one freight plane is delayed The ongoing strike at Boeing Co has had only a minor impact on China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), although the delivery of a new cargo jet might be postponed, CAL chairman Hsieh Su-chien (謝世謙) said on Saturday. The 24 Boeing 787-9 passenger aircraft on order would be delivered on schedule from next year to 2028, while one 777F freight aircraft would be delayed, Hsieh told reporters at a company event. Boeing, which announced a decision on Friday to cut 17,000 jobs — about one-tenth of its workforce — is facing a strike by 33,000 US west coast workers that has halted production
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
RSS