Amid the setback that the recent capital controls imposed by Beijing have caused to various China-Hollywood deals, local film-making firm Huayi Brothers Media Corp. has announced its intent to renew its partnership with STX Entertainment.
In an interview with Bloomberg, CEO James Wang Zhonglei lauded the plans of the Robert Simonds-helmed company while disclosing Huayi Brothers' plan to further expand its agreement with them.
"We'd like to renew and deepen our cooperation with STX beyond slate financing. STX has a lot of plans in television and multimedia. They also have a lot of new ideas for the Asian market. We have had a lot of contacts in this regard," he remarked.
In 2015, Huayi and STX Entertainment inked a three-year deal to co-finance, co-produce and co-distribute majority of the latter's films. The accord served as the first time that a Chinese firm involved itself in producing, distributing and marketing U.S. film projects.
It was in the same year when Simonds, who has produced over 30 films back then, launched STX Entertainment together with private-equity investor Bill McGlashan.
Though Wang declined to give the plan's specifics, he shared that the two companies have already held in-depth meetings about the said expansion.
Huayi Brothers' announcement comes despite the tightened security the Chinese government has imposed over what it touts as "irrational" agreements, particularly singling out deals made in the real estate, entertainment and sports sectors.
This has resulted in the collapse of various accords, even those that include high-profile firms. These partnerships include Dalian Wanda Group Co.'s takeover of Dick Clark Productions Inc., which is known for producing the Golden Globe Awards.
According to Wang, their plans of going into more global cooperation were "affected by capital control" to some extent.
"It's fortunate that our overseas business plan is not acquisition-driven, nor are we financial investors, so our needs for foreign exchange are not vast," he further explained.
Meanwhile, a 2012 deal between Washington and Beijing about Hollywood's access to China is also up for renegotiation this 2017. The agreement was responsible in increasing the number of movie projects that could be exported to the world's second-largest film market.
For Wang, "China's film industry needs to be more diversified and internationalized," adding that "Chinese companies need to be tested in an international environment."
"There's still a lot of potential waiting to be unleashed from the China's film market, such as the incremental gains from new screens and the arrival of new, young film-making talent," he remarked.