Scheduled for completion in August 2018, the 408-acre complex will boast 30 soundstages.
Flanked by the likes of actor Matt Damon and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Wang offered big incentives to make movies in China.
Washington, in response, should do all it can to prevent Beijing from taking another iconic American industry.
Washington, in response, should do all it can to prevent Beijing from taking another iconic American industry.
Wang, who started the year as Asia’s richest individual, opened his wallet and that of the Qingdao regional government, offering a 40% production rebate from a $750 million fund. Rebates per film will be limited to $18 million.
It looks like the incentives will work. “I hear on the grapevine that people in Hollywood still have qualms about issues like pollution, systemic corruption, and culture clashes—but money talks,” said Ilt Jones, a location manager, to the Hollywood Reporter. “And when studio execs who make the decision to send productions over don’t necessarily have to spend much time there themselves, I’m sure there will be a healthy flow of production to Qingdao.”
Even before the first dollar is disbursed from Chairman Wang’s bulging fund, Hollywood is moving production to Qingdao. Pacific Rim 2 and Godzilla 2 will be shot there.
In a sense, that’s no surprise. Both films are from Legendary Entertainment, which Wanda purchased this year for $3.5 billion.
Wanda is on a tear to buy up “the industry.” The company acquired AMC Entertainment in 2012, and last month, after failing to acquire Viacom’s Paramount Pictures, it announced a production deal with Sony Pictures. Wanda is now going after Dick Clark Productions. AMC this year concluded an agreement to buy Carmike Cinemas, the No. 4 theater chain in the U.S.
Wanda is not the only Chinese firm moving in on Hollywood. Alibaba Pictures Group, a Hong Kong-listed unit of Alibaba Group Holding, on October 9 announced that it had entered into “a comprehensive strategic partnership” on co-production and other matters with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners.
Source: Forbes by Gordon G. Chang