www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

US EUROPE AFRICA ASIA 中文
Business / Talking Business

More to Wanda's Hollywood foray than meets the eye?

By Siva Sankar (China Daily) Updated: 2016-01-14 10:44

More to Wanda's Hollywood foray than meets the eye?

Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, announces the company's acquisition of the United States-based Legendary Entertainment in Beijing on Jan 12, 2015. Wanda took control of the Hollywood film studio for $3.5 billion. [Photo/China Daily]

There must be more to Dalian Wanda Group's $3.5 billion deal for control of Hollywood film studio Legendary Entertainment than meets the eye.

The price appears reasonable as last year alone, as many as seven Hollywood flicks, including Legendary's Jurassic World, grossed more than $1 billion each at cinemas worldwide. Of the seven, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which has already raked in $1.73 billion, is not yet done at the box office.

These are just box office receipts. Movie revenues also stream from DVDs, Blu-rays, television broadcast rights, pay-per-views, merchandising, so on. The 2009 sci-fi epic Avatar holds the all-time revenue record (nearly $3 billion). Clearly, successful Hollywood movies make a lot of money. But money is not what cash-flush Wanda appears to be chasing through Legendary.

For perspective, try this: At the end of 2015, the diversified conglomerate had assets worth 634 billion yuan ($97 billion), up 21 percent year-on-year. Last year's revenue of 290 billion yuan, up 19 percent year-on-year, exceeded the group's target. Bulk of it (190 billion yuan) came from commercial properties, in the form of real estate contract revenue, rent and hotel business.

Its 2015 film and cinema revenue was just 8 billion yuan, or 2.75 percent of the total, including 6.3 billion yuan from sale of 151 million tickets at its 292 cineplexes with 2,557 screens in China.

I think small change is not what Wanda's "legendary" - there, I've said it - boss Wang Jianlin, already the Chinese mainland's richest man, is hoping to spin from the Hollywood studio.

Wang implied as much while announcing the deal in Beijing on Tuesday. If money were the prime motive, he would have targeted more well-known names - the Warner Bros, Walt Disneys and the Universals.

Wanda described the deal as "China's largest cross-border cultural acquisition to date". Wang told the BBC that if US films wish to succeed in the high-growth Chinese market, the world's second-largest, they "should do something to cater to Chinese audiences' interests - if they don't, there might be trouble".

What better way to pre-empt "trouble" than taking control of a Hollywood studio? That way, you can do "something" about "cultural" aspects. Correct? Afraid, not. Then, all that talk is just corporate-speak? Probably.

So, let's look beyond cash and culture then, at Wanda the conglomerate. The world's biggest cinema company - tick. Film production - yes. Studio complexes - of course. Commercial real estate, department stores, hotels, theme parks, resorts, schools, hospitals, museums, yachts, sports clubs, sports marketing, people-based sports competitions... Tick, tick, tick....

Given the global reach and influence of Hollywood films, control of a reasonably successful but not iconic studio, it appears, would fit well with Wanda's apparent desire to expand its media business outside China, without shocking everyone and lifting American brows.

If you are nursing global media ambitions, if a studio deal is just the tip of the iceberg - more on this in a bit, bear with me for now - you wouldn't want to give the game away now by buying out iconic labels.

With Legendary and the 379-cinema, 5,261-screen AMC already in its pocket in the US, Wanda could milk Hollywood for all its worth to publicize its businesses without spending an extra buck on advertising.

A subliminal insertion here and a film shoot in its theme park there, a shot with its hotel in the backdrop here, a film role for one of its football players there... and, soon, the whole world will know who is Wanda and what China has. Why "something", Wanda stands to win everything.

Wang may or not have heard of Indian media tycoon Ramoji Rao who has already blazed a trail by making billions from a news business spanning print, broadcast and online media, film and studio businesses, hotels, commercial property, financing, food and what have you.

Okay, now for the "tip-of-the-iceberg" theory. Going by the financial muscle, frenetic expansion and ambition of Wanda, I would not be surprised if it plumps for the New York Stock Exchange to list the combined entity comprising Legendary and its own film production unit.

And then? I can visualize screaming headlines like, "Wanda snares New York Times", "Wanda swallows CNN", "Wanda pockets eBay". Watch out Alibaba Group's Jack Ma, here comes Wanda's Wang.

Hot Topics

Editor's Picks
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 国产一区二区在线视频播放 | 亚洲综合小视频 | 美女视频黄色在线观看 | 国产精品va一级二级三级 | 国内精品七七久久影院 | fc2ppv在线观看| 午夜三级网站 | 美国一级毛片完整高清 | 欧美日韩在线视频一区 | 亚洲国产成a人v在线 | 三级做人爱c视频18三级 | 亚洲欧美日韩在线一区二区三区 | 高清不卡日本v在线二区 | 目韩一区二区三区系列片丶 | 萌白酱福利视频 | 99精选视频 | 欧美成人极品怡红院tv | 曰本黄页 | 亚洲国产欧美在线不卡中文 | 美国全免费特一级毛片 | 92手机看片福利永久国产 | 一区二区三区欧美在线 | 成人性免费视频 | 日韩欧一级毛片在线播无遮挡 | 97视频在线观看免费 | 欧美一级别 | 香港经典a毛片免费观看看 香港经典a毛片免费观看爽爽影院 | 国产成人狂喷潮在线观看2345 | 99国产精品免费观看视频 | 中国一级片免费看 | 亚洲天堂在线视频播放 | 亚洲国产精品第一区二区三区 | 精品国产高清毛片 | 亚洲国产成人va在线观看网址 | 亚洲艹 | 5388国产亚洲欧美在线观看 | 免费观看一级成人毛片 | 成年人免费视频观看 | 色播亚洲 | 亚洲狠狠ady亚洲精品大秀 | 国产激情一级毛片久久久 |