Actually, it may have taken that with the check it wrote for \u201cSouthpaw,\u201d an R-rated Weinstein Co. drama about a boxer. Wanda\u2019s role as financier puts it a beat ahead of Chinese rivals including Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings that are staking their Hollywood claims with investments and deals but haven\u2019t yet carried the full freight of a U.S. film.<\/p>\n
The partnership with the award-winning Weinstein studio has moved Wanda closer to becoming \u201ca complete international entertainment company,\u201d said Marc Ganis, co-founder of Jiaflix Enterprises, which helps market and distribute films in China.<\/p>\n
\u201cSouthpaw\u201d might not be a big movie, with forecasts it\u2019ll sell about $45 million in tickets during its U.S. run. But it\u2019s generated media attention since studio Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein showed a clip at the Cannes Film Festival that revealed Gyllenhaal\u2019s startling transformation into a ripped prize-fighter; he has said he gained 15 pounds of muscle.<\/p>\n
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The movie, which premiered at the Shanghai International Film Festival, cost more than $25 million to make, with Wanda Pictures picking that up and the Weinstein studio covering $35 million in marketing expenditures, according to a person familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n
For Wanda, \u201cSouthpaw\u201d was a \u201crare experience\u201d to study Hollywood\u2019s modus operandi, the company said in a press release, in which it declared itself the first from China to \u201csolely finance an American movie.\u201d Film budgets aren\u2019t public, but no other investors from China have made the claim.<\/p>\n
Alibaba, Tencent, Huayi Brothers Media Corp. and more have been busy doing other deals. They want stakes in the American entertainment business to gain content for their outlets at home, and for expertise. \u201cThe Chinese are looking to the U.S. for \u2018know how\u2019 in making films with international appeal,\u201d said John Burke, head of the entertainment and media practice at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.<\/p>\n
FTA can act as your Hollywood Celebrity Agency and help you contact book any Hollywood Celebrities<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Wanda said in the release that the Chinese movie business \u201cbadly needs industrialization.\u201d Maybe so, but the country\u2019s movie market is the second-largest by box office receipts and growing annually by 40 per cent, according to the Chinese Film Producers\u2019 Association. China could overtake the United States in cinema ticket sales before 2020.<\/p>\n Wang, whose net worth the Bloomberg Billionaire\u2019s Index put at $41.8 billion on Thursday, told Bloomberg Markets magazine in March that buying Hollywood studios would give him the content and distribution outlets to conquer that market.<\/p>\n He said then that Wanda was in talks to buy a stake in Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., the studio behind \u201cThe Hunger Games\u201d films, but nothing has come of the negotiations.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A former People\u2019s Liberation Army soldier, Wang started talking to the Weinstein studio about investing in a movie before Wanda\u2019s 2012 purchase of the AMC Entertainment theatre chain, said David Glasser, the studio\u2019s president. \u201cWe met to discuss what Wanda wanted to do, how we can find a movie they can be proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSouthpaw,\u201d he said, \u201cwas the one that resonated most.\u201d It was directed by Antoine Fuqua, known for \u201cTraining Day,\u201d for which Denzel Washington won a best-actor Oscar.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really did this movie together,\u201d Glasser said. \u201cWe went through a lot of modelling, education of the process, how the business works. They were involved \u2013 it wasn\u2019t just a silent investment.\u201d<\/p>\n A gritty, violent drama about a one-time champion fighter who\u2019s hit bottom and stages a comeback, \u201cSouthpaw\u201d is a telling choice for the Wanda Group unit, said Janet Yang, a producer and consultant who splits her time between the U.S. and China. \u201cThey aren\u2019t just making conventional moves.\u201d<\/p>\n Yang predicted more alliances between Hollywood and Chinese companies, and more money flowing from east to west. \u201cWe are going to see funds and private equity players from China,\u201d she said. \u201cThey see this as a great arena to play in.\u201d<\/p>\n Partnerships aren\u2019t new; U.S. studios have long used them to market and distribute in China, where regulations restrict the number of foreign films that can be shown in theatres. And Hollywood is as eager as ever for Chinese money, courting investors, including state-owned enterprises, aware the government may censor their productions.<\/p>\n This weekend, one of the movies \u201cSouthpaw\u201d will compete against is Sony Corp.\u2019s \u201cPixels\u201d with Adam Sandler, partly financed by state-owned China Film Group, the country\u2019s largest film producer and distributor.<\/p>\n And coming soon, \u201cMission: Impossible \u2013 Rogue Nation.\u201d Alibaba Group, whose chairman, Jack Ma, is China\u2019s second- richest person, said in June that the Tom Cruise thriller marked its first-ever U.S. film investment, and that it will help Paramount Pictures with marketing in China. It opens July 31.<\/p>\n![\"Southpaw](\"https:\/\/ft-agency.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Southpaw-150x150.jpg\")
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