Universal Pictures (Photo : YouTube)
More Chinese movie companies are setting foot in Hollywood, either through by-ins or deals. The latest to join is China’s Perfect World Pictures which would ink a five-year $500 million (3.3 billion yuan) movie funding deal with Universal Pictures.
According to Variety, the investment is divided 50 percent between debt and 50 percent equity contributions to Universal’s movie slate. Under the deal, the investment by Perfect World would give it a 25 percent share of majority of the films released by Universal.
The partnership, likely to be officially confirmed next week, would consider the investment a strategic partnership although it may look like a co-financing deal.
The U.S. movie giant was behind blockbuster movies of 2015 such as “Minions,” “Fifty Shades of Grey,” “Jurassic World,” “Pitch Perfect 2” and “Furious 7.” However, the deal would likely exclude some hit franchises such as “Fast & Furious” and future “Minions,” including “The Secret Life of Pets,” produced by Chris Meledandri of Illumination Entertainment who also produced “Minions.”
That would mean it would be the lesser known titles that Perfect World would share the risk and profit. The Chinese company would also not be given rights to Universal’s revenue sharing imports in China.
Perfect World, a TV production company, is behind the production and distribution of “Spohie’s Revenge” in 2009, “Live is Not Blind” in 2011 and “The Piano in a Factory.” It co-distributed in China “Divergent,” “Ender’s Game” and “Insurgent.”
Universal is said to have offered the deal to several Chinese film companies before the studio giant settled for Perfect World.
Universal has an existing agreement with Legendary Entertainment, which last week sold for $3.5 billion its majority stake to the Dalian Wanda Group of China. Deadline reported that Universal would still enter an agreement with Perfect World because its deal with Legendary is limited, while it could cherry-pick which movies to include in the deal with Perfect World which would cover 25 percent of the budget of each movie.
