Huayi Brothers seeks to expand cooperation with STX Entertainment in the United States

Wang Zhonglei, vice chairman and CEO of Huayi Brothers, revealed,"In addition to project investment, we will renew and deepen cooperation with STX. STX has a lot of plans in television and multimedia, and they have a lot of new ideas for the Asian market."

Original title: Huayi Brothers will expand cooperation with STX

The cooperation agreement between Huayi Brothers and Hollywood's STX Entertainment will expire on April 1, 2018. Huayi Brothers recently stated that it will deepen and extend its cooperative relationship with STX.

At the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2017, Wang Zhonglei, Vice Chairman and CEO of Huayi Brothers, revealed,"In addition to project investment, we will renew and deepen cooperation with STX. STX has a lot of plans in television and multimedia, and they have a lot of new ideas for the Asian market."

On April 1, 2015, Huayi Brothers and STX Entertainment of the United States signed a three-year cooperation agreement. The two parties will jointly invest, shoot and distribute no less than 18 cooperative films before the end of 2017. Huayi Brothers not only enjoys the distribution rights of the two parties 'cooperative films in Greater China (including mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Singapore), but also enjoys a share of the global revenue of all cooperative films and copyright based on their share.

However, Huayi's cooperation projects with STX are all medium-and low-budget films, and most of them are thriller and horror themes. Only one "Bad Mom" last summer was a big success (with an investment of US$20 million and a global box office of US$179 million). Most of the rest can only be said to have a mediocre response.

Recently, China has implemented stricter capital control measures, causing transactions between China companies such as Wanda and Shanghai Film Group and Hollywood companies to fail or face the risk of suspension. In this regard, Huayi is no exception. Wang Zhonglei admitted,"We have plans and prospects to carry out more international cooperation, but we are affected to a certain extent by capital controls." However, he added,"Fortunately, our overseas business plans are not acquisition-driven, and we are not financial investors, so our overseas transaction needs are not that great."

Editor: Nancy