/ 23 August 2011

Hollywood targets Chollywood

The Hollywood producer behind the Hangover movies and Inception has joined forces with a Chinese studio to create a $220.5m venture aimed at China’s increasingly lucrative film market.

The partnership between Legendary Entertainment and Huayi Brothers Media Corp plans to make one or two “major, event-style films” a year for worldwide audiences starting in 2013.

The two companies said they were selling a 50% stake in the venture, Legendary East, to Hong Kong construction company Paul Y Engineering.

The deal allows Legendary Entertainment to bypass Chinese import restrictions that limit the number of foreign movies released in China to about 20 a year and restrict box office takings for foreign firms.

An enormous audience

Hollywood is increasingly targeting the Chinese market, which is adding 1400 screens a year. Chinese box office takings rose 64% to $1.5bn in 2010, a fraction of the US’s $10.6bn receipts, but a growth rate that puts the country on course to become one of the largest film markets in the world.

Legendary Entertainment’s chairman, Thomas Tull, said: “With China’s rapid economic growth and rich cultural background, this is a film-making marketplace on the rise.”

Kelvin Wu, chief executive of Legendary East, said: “We want to do globally appealing movies, so there will be a lot of elements involving east meets west.”

Recent Huayi releases include Aftershock, a record-breaking disaster movie directed by Chinese box-office favourite Feng Xiaogang, the kung fu drama Shaolin and critically acclaimed fantasy epic Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame. Its films accounted for 17% of China’s box office in 2010.

“There’s huge room for growth and we want to be ready to enjoy the bigger market when it’s there. We don’t want to come in when the market is mature,” said Wu.

Making inroads
The joint venture is the latest in a series of Sino-US ventures as Hollywood targets “Chollywood”. Walt Disney has worked on several co-productions with Chinese firms, including a reworking of its hit High School Musical, in partnership with Huayi Brothers.

Beijing-based DMG Entertainment recently agreed to finance Looper, a sci-fi movie starring Bruce Willis, after the production signed up Chinese star Xu Qing. Relativity Media, producer of Cowboys and Aliens, recently agreed to make and distribute movies in China with Beijing-based Huaxia Film Distribution Co. The remake of Karate Kid, starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith, was produced by Sony’s Columbia Tristar and state-owned China Film Group. News Corp’s Fox Searchlight and Beijing-based IDG China Media teamed up for Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Wendi Deng, wife of News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, is listed as a co-producer.

The rise of China is even redefining Hollywood villainy. MGM recently cut the Chinese baddies out of its remake of submarine drama Red Dawn and replaced them with North Koreans. Chinese flags were digitally altered and dialogue re-dubbed for fear of angering the Chinese authorities, which have a history of banning western film-makers.