Industry | Film |
---|---|
Headquarters | , |
Key people | Fan Luyuan (chairman & CEO) |
Parent | Alibaba Group |
Subsidiaries | Amblin Partners (minority stake) |
Website | www |
Alibaba Pictures Group Limited is a Chinese film company under the Alibaba Group. The film company was formerly ChinaVision Media, of which Alibaba Group bought a majority stake in late 2014. It subsequently was renamed from ChinaVision to Alibaba Pictures Group. By April 2015, it was the largest Chinese film company by worth, with a market value of US$8.77 billion [1] and by June of the same year it was worth US$9.6 billion. [2]
According to researchers, Françoise Paquienséguy and Miao He, there are almost 30 companies, varying from investment groups to media and film studios, under the Alibaba umbrella. “These include, but are not limited to, such leading companies as Youku Tudou Inc., Enlight Media, Huayi Brothers, Bona Film Group, Wasu Media, Sina Weibo, XiamiMusicand Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao Football Club. In addition, Ma Yun also occasionally engages in capital operations, such as establishing Yunhuang and Yunxi Capital…” (Paquienséguy, He).
In March 2014, Alibaba Group bought a 60% stake in ChinaVision Media for $805 million. [3] Alibaba initially registered a film company in the following April with the name Alibaba Films Group before changing it to Alibaba Pictures Group later in the month. Two heads from ChinaVision were listed as directors of Alibaba Pictures. [4] In June 2014, ChinaVision Media was officially renamed to be Alibaba Pictures Group. [5] The following July, Zhang Qiang resigned as vice president of China Film Group to become the head of Alibaba Pictures. [6] Later in the month, Alibaba Pictures entered agreements with filmmakers and film companies, including director Wong Kar Wai and the Hong Kong-based film production company Block 2. [7]
The company purchased Yueke and at the end of 2015, Taobao Movie and Yulebao. [8] On October 9, 2016, Amblin Partners struck a deal with Alibaba, in which Alibaba acquired a minority equity stake in the company and will handle marketing, distribution, and merchandising of Amblin Partners films in China in addition to co-financing Amblin and DreamWorks films worldwide. [9] [10] As described by the Financial Times , "Amblin Partners and Alibaba Pictures teamed up to "finance, produce, market and distribute films in China and globally." [11] Alibaba Pictures released the projection in February 2017 that its unaudited 2016 losses could be over US$140 million. The company stated the losses resulted from a promotion known as Tao Piao Piao, where theater tickets are subsidized. [11]
In July 2017, Alibaba increased its stake in Tao Piao Piao, an online ticketing platform, from 87.6% to 96.7%, for 1.3 billion yuan. [12]
Alibaba Pictures has become a giant in film production and finance. [13] Its success is not limited just to mainland China. Through its first domestic release See You Tomorrow, the company combined both mainland Chinese and Hong Kong values, reaching both audiences in new ways. The installment also saw “ the ongoing mainlandization of Hong Kong filmmaking practice and the corresponding Hong Kongification of contemporary Chinese popular cinema,” according to Mark Gallagher, author of “Alibaba Goes to the Movies.” [14]
Alibaba Pictures’ mid-2010s expansion was not limited only to Hong Kong however. [15]
2015 saw Alibaba Pictures’ first investment in U.S. cinema, with their financial support of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation .
In 2016, Alibaba Group partnered with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners, an American film production company. [16]
The partnership drew international attention, with Hollywood’s highest-grossing director and one of the most active Chinese film studios coming together for production, distribution and financing.
In 2019, Alibaba Pictures financed 23 films, “ accounting for one-fifth of China's total box office,” according to Alizila, an Alibaba news outlet. [17]
At a briefing regarding the partnership in Beijing, Spielberg was quoted by Reuters as saying, “Some of the stories I’m hoping Jack and I can tell in this new partnership between Amblin Partners and Alibaba Pictures will be able to bring Chinese-themed stories to the American audience, and we can do co-productions between our company and your company…” [18]
Alibaba Pictures partnered with California-based STX, an American entertainment company, to bring “Peppa Celebrates Chinese New Year” to American silver screens in 2019.
After a substantial show of interest in the film on social media by Mandarin-speaking audiences STX and Alibaba partnered together for a U.S. release, with the goal of audiences being able to see the film in the States while it was still in theaters in China according to STXfilms chairman Adam Fogelson in Yahoo Finance. [19]
“The increasing appreciation for and interest in Chinese culture, the fact that the story of a family dynamic during the holiday, and the entry point of Peppa, which most American audiences are familiar with, creates a dynamic where there certainly could be — not on the Marvel level of course — broad interest,” said Fogelson, “…Our first goal was to make sure that Mandarin speakers in the U.S. would have access to the film while the movie was playing in China.”[ citation needed ]
Touchstone Pictures was an American film production label of Walt Disney Studios, founded and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Feature films released under the Touchstone label were produced and financed by Walt Disney Studios, and featured more mature themes targeted at adult audiences than typical Walt Disney Pictures films. As such, Touchstone was merely a pseudonym label for the studio and did not exist as a distinct business operation.
Amblin' Entertainment, Inc., formerly named Amblin Productions and Steven Spielberg Productions, is an American film production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg, and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1980. Its headquarters are located in Bungalow 477 of the Universal Studios backlot in Universal City, California. It distributes all of the films from Amblin Partners under the Amblin Entertainment banner.
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. Originally a Canadian company, it was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is currently headquartered in Santa Monica, California.
ABC Inc., doing business as Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, previously known as Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc., is an American film distributor within the Disney Entertainment division of the Walt Disney Company. It handles theatrical and occasional digital distribution, marketing and promotion for films produced and released by the Walt Disney Studios, including Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Studios; the Searchlight Pictures label operates its own autonomous theatrical distribution and marketing unit.
Walter F. Parkes is an American producer, screenwriter, and media executive. The producer of more than 50 films, including the Men in Black series and Minority Report, he is the co-founder and co-chairman of Dreamscape Immersive.
Bona Film Group Company Limited, also known as Polybona Films or the Bona Film Group, is a Chinese production company and distributor of films from mainland China and Hong Kong. It is run as a subsidiary of the China Poly Group, and is one of China's largest share-holding film distribution companies.
Reliance Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. is an Indian media and entertainment company. It is a division of Reliance Group, handling its media and entertainment business, across content and distribution platforms. The company was founded on 15 February 2005, as two entities, namely Reliance Big Entertainment and BIG Pictures. Four years later the two companies were merged into Reliance BIG Pictures in 2009, and the company's name was changed to Reliance Entertainment the following year.
IM Global, LLC was an American independent film and TV production company, The company was founded by Stuart Ford in April 2007 and operating in international film, television and music production, as well as sales and international distribution. The company financed or produced over 30 Hollywood feature films and controlled a library of over 300 films.
Huayi Brothers Media Corp. is a Chinese multinational entertainment company that owns a film studio, a television production company, a talent agency, a record label, entainterment theme parks, and a movie theater chain founded in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau, & Taipei by Dennis Wang Zhongjun and James Wang Zhonglei in 1994. The company made world news on October 30, 2009, when the Shenzhen Stock Exchange ChiNext Board was halted, after HBMC's stock price reached 122.74 percent above its IPO price, to open at 63.66 yuan per share. Patrick Frater of Variety called it "China’s largest private sector film conglomerate". In 2014, the company was the seventh-largest film distributor in China, with 2.26% of the market.
Entertainment One is a Canadian multinational entertainment company. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition and production of films and television series.
DreamWorks Pictures is an American film studio and distribution label of Amblin Partners. It was originally founded on October 12, 1994, as a live-action film studio by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen, of which they owned 72%. The studio formerly distributed its own and third-party films. It has produced or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses of more than $100 million each.
Bron Studios is a Canadian motion picture company based in British Columbia owned by Bron Media Corporation. Bron's notable productions include Joker, Bombshell, Queen & Slim, Greyhound, Judas and the Black Messiah,The Mule, Henchmen, Roman J. Israel, Esq.,Rudderless, Welcome to Me, The Addams Family,TheWilloughbys, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
The BFG is a 2016 fantasy adventure film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and based on Roald Dahl's 1982 novel of the same name. The film stars Mark Rylance, Ruby Barnhill in her film debut, Penelope Wilton, Jemaine Clement, Rebecca Hall, Rafe Spall and Bill Hader. In the film, a ten-year-old orphaned girl named Sophie befriends a benevolent giant dubbed the "Big Friendly Giant", who takes her to Giant Country, where they attempt to stop the man-eating giants that are invading the human world.
Wanda Film Holding Co. is a cinema operator, film production and film distribution company in China, headquartered in the Wanda Plaza in Chaoyang District, Beijing. It is a part of the Wanda Group. As of 2014 Wang Jianlin is the head of the company. As of January 2018, Wanda Cinema remained China's largest film distributor. Some locations are named Wanda International Cinemas with Hollywood and Chinese movies as the main offering.
STX Entertainment is an American independent entertainment and media company. Founded in March 2014 by film producer Robert Simonds, the studio produces film, television, and digital media projects.
Tencent Pictures is a Chinese film distributor and production company owned by Tencent. It has created films based on books, manhua, donghua and video games. In 2015, Tencent set up Tencent Penguin Pictures (Shanghai), a new movie production unit, focusing on online drama and minority investments in feature films.
Storyteller Distribution Co., LLC, doing business as Amblin Partners, LLC., is an American independent entertainment production company. It develops and produces films under the Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks Pictures banners, as well as television series through Amblin Television. The company's investment partners include Reliance Group's Reliance Entertainment, Lionsgate Studios, Alibaba Group's Alibaba Pictures, and NBCUniversal/Comcast's Universal Pictures. Films produced by Amblin Partners are primarily distributed by Universal in North America and select international territories, and by third-party distributors through Mister Smith Entertainment in other countries.
Tao Piao Piao, or Taopiaopiao, is an online movie ticket distributor and film promotion service.