Walt Disney Co. is preparing to make Disney-branded films in China and at least one will be in production within a year, Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger said in an interview, the first major project from a local co-development deal in what will soon be the world’s largest film market.
“We have a lot of development activity right now to make Disney-branded films in China,” he said, speaking at the 963-acre Shanghai Disney resort, its first in mainland China that’s scheduled to open June 16. “We are very far along on this process, including developing ideas, concepts for films and identifying talent to make those films.”
The company is partnering with state-owned Shanghai Media Group Pictures to make Disney-branded films in China, a Disney representative said. Disney signed a multi-year tie-up with the company in 2014 to co-develop movies for China and other markets.
The stakes are high for Disney in the race to capture China’s growing middle class and dominate the country’s US$180 billion media and entertainment industry. The ambitious US$5.5 billion resort in Shanghai is seen as a capstone of Iger’s legacy with the company searching for a successor after his contract ends in 2018. Adding movie production in China would maximise the company’s ability to reap profits in the country and heat up the battle at the box office with billionaire Wang Jianlin’s Dalian Wanda Group Co.
Dalian Wanda, which is looking to expand its global entertainment empire, said in April that it is consolidating its film operations into its Shenzhen-listed Wanda Cinema Line unit, including its US$3.5 billion acquisition of Hollywood studio Legendary Entertainment. Wanda Cinema is building movie-production facilities in the coastal province of Shandong in Qingdao city, which will be the world’s biggest movie studio when completed in 2017.