From Marvel to Fan Bingbing, who benefits from Hollywood’s courting of China?
Hollywood is increasingly seeking to attract Chinese film-goers as the industry realigns – and major players on both sides of the Pacific want in on the action
With China on course to become the world’s biggest box-office market within two or three years, Hollywood studios have been tripping over each other for a ticket to ride what Stephen Colbert recently dubbed “the pander express”.
It’s hard not to be cynical when efforts to engage Chinese audiences usually seem to involve such screenwriting masterstrokes as getting your giant robots to lay waste to Shanghai instead of San Francisco, or some lantern-jawed action hero displaying an unlikely taste for hanzi-labelled soy milk. The world of cinema is supposedly bracing itself for complete realignment, but you could be forgiven for thinking the only people benefitting at the moment are washed-up American directors on the funding trail and Chinese stars looking to raise their global profile.
But it’s time to look closer – billions of dollars and soft-power pre-eminence are on the table. Here are 10 parties with big stakes in Hollywood’s drive eastwards.
1. Wang Jianlin
Hollywood’s involvement in China is not a one-way street. Looking for finance doesn’t just mean via the box office – especially with China’s top media players keen to invest directly in the American industry. At the front of the queue is Wang Jianlin, Asia’s richest man and chairman of the Dalian Wanda conglomerate, who now owns AMC (the second largest cinema chain in the US), Legendary Entertainment (producers of The Dark Knight and Jurassic World) and Dick Clark Productions (responsible for the Golden Globes).
