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Warner Bros taps China's cinema
market
SHANGHAI - Shanghai
Cinema Group announced on Tuesday plans to invest 200
million yuan (US$24.16 million) to build 10 multiplex
cinemas in China in cooperation with Warner Brothers
International Theaters of the United States.
The
American film studio will own 51 percent of at least two
theaters, including a 2,200-seat theater in Nanjing, the
capital of east China's Jiangsu province, and another in
Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei province.
Industry sources said the Warner Brothers move
means foreign investment will be granted a controlling
right in joint-venture cinemas in China, where annual
box office revenue is only around US$100 million.
China's State Administration of Radio, Film and
Television promised foreign investors earlier this year
that it would allow them to hold controlling rights of
joint venture cinemas in seven major cities, namely
Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xi'an, Nanjing
and Wuhan.
"We hope to shoot more films in China
but we need to expand the film market by building more
theaters in the country first," said Millard Ochs,
president of Warner Brothers International Theaters.
Earlier this July, Time Warner cooperated with
Shanghai Yongle Co, a member of the Shanghai Cinema
Group, to launch a luxurious multiplex cinema in
Shanghai, but was granted a share of only 49 percent.
(Asia Pulse/XIC)
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