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China Exclusive: China's Wanda acquires Hollywood studio Legendary for $3.5 bln

Xinhua, January 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

China's property and entertainment giant Dalian Wanda Group announced its acquisition of leading Hollywood film producer Legendary Entertainment for 3.5 billion U.S. dollars on Tuesday.

The deal is the largest overseas "cultural acquisition" by a Chinese company to date, Wanda said in a statement.

Legendary founder and CEO Thomas Tull will remain in charge of the studio's operations and will "significantly" participate in the company's business with Wanda, according to the statement.

Tull said Wanda and Legendary will create a completely new international entertainment company to meet the growing demand for quality content worldwide, particularly in China.

Wanda Chairman Wang Jianlin, also one of the country's richest, said the deal will make Wanda Film Holdings the highest revenue-generating film company worldwide, boosting its presence in China and the U.S., the world's two largest movie markets.

A diversified company with business in film, television, digital media and publishing, Legendary is known for churning out big budget global blockbusters such as "Jurassic World", "Inception", the "Dark Knight" Batman trilogy and "Pacific Rim". Legendary's films, including the above-mentioned, have grossed more than 12 billion U.S. dollars at the box office worldwide

The U.S. company now will join Wang's growing global entertainment empire, which already includes AMC Entertainment, the second-largest U.S. cinema chain and Hoyts, Australia's second biggest movie-theater chain.

The acquisition is widely seen as the latest example of Wang's ambition to strengthen Wanda's already powerful film arm.

The conglomerate has been pushing to diversify its core real estate businesses since 2012. It owns China's largest cinema chain, Wanda Cinema Line, which was the country's first to be listed on the domestic stock exchange.

Wanda's film production and distribution operations have also increased their market share. Though relatively new, they outperformed the cinema business last year.

It is a great time for Legendary to join Wanda, as they are planning IPOs for their film production and distribution businesses, Wang said at the signing ceremony.

In November, China Daily, the country's leading English newspaper, revealed that Wang already planned for the two businesses to go public "within a year," positioning Wanda "at the top of the business chain".

Prior to that, Wang told Xinhua he expected the Chinese film market will surpass the United States in 2017, and will account for half of the global market share in ten years.

After the acquisition, "Wanda's businesses will encompass the full scope of film production, exhibition and distribution, enhancing Wanda's core competitiveness and amplifying our voice in the global film market," said Wang at the signing ceremony.

Legendary is producing "The Great Wall," set to be the largest film shot entirely in China for global distribution. The cast includes Oscar winner Matt Damon and Asian star Andy Lau. Endi