China’s Bilibili Focuses on Growth as Losses Double

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefVivendi-owned European film and TV studio Studiocanal has sealed a deal with Shanghai Senyu Media to represent Studiocanal’s “The Adventures of Paddington Bear” animated series in mainland China. Rights are being promoted at the virtual edition of Hong Kong rights market FilMart.The series debuted on Nickelodeon in western markets and has already delivered two seasons.

Rebecca Davis editorDespite the ongoing trade war and frostier than ever ties between China and the U.S., “Detective Chinatown 3” producer and financier Shawn Yue (aka Yue Xiang) is still betting on collaboration in the film industry — though perhaps not in the way you’d expect.Chinese production budgets and visual ambitions have lately begun to outgrow China’s ability to achieve them, given the country’s lack of existing talent and resources to execute such projects.

Rebecca Davis editorLegendary documentarian Wang Bing is at HAF this year with his new project “I Come from Ikotun,” which follows two Nigerian families with a foothold in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou over the course of the pandemic.Known for his epically long, unflinching works that have previously tackled sensitive issues like China’s brutal re-education camps, Wang will this time turn his lens on a more cross-cultural subject.

Rebecca Davis editorChina appears to have blocked the encrypted messaging app Signal, which was frequently used by journalists, activists and dissidents as an alternative to heavily surveilled local social media channels.Although the app used to be accessible to anyone, it now can only be used with a virtual private network (VPN), according to users in the country. Without it, messages currently cannot send and calls won’t go through.

Amazon Hiring Head Of UK Originals Amazon is on the hunt for a UK head of originals, according to a job advert posted by the streaming giant. The successful candidate will report to Georgia Brown, the director of European originals at Amazon Studios. Amazon’s UK slate includes The Grand Tour and James May: Oh Cook, but the company has made clear that it is not planning a giant Netflix-style push into the British market. UK trade Broadcast first spotted the job ad.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChinese indie sales agency Blossoms Entertainment returns to FilMart with a slate of large-scale commercial pictures sourced from a clutch of China’s biggest film studios.The agency, operated by former IM Global staffers Vicky Ding and Leslie Chen, is pre-selling “Railway Heroes,” a tale of heroism and wartime sabotage which is targeting a National Day release in October.

You know it’s a good week on Real Time when the two stories that have consumed the week’s news — the accusations against Andrew Cuomo and the accusations against the Royal Family — take a backseat to weightier topics such as crony capitalism and the hegemony of China.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefBaidu, China’s search engine, entertainment and AI giant, Friday published detailed plans for its secondary share listing in Hong Kong which will bring in some $3.6 billion of fresh capital.The same day, finance industry sources are reporting that Chinese video entertainment group Bilibili has been given the green light by regulators for its planned share sale.

Rebecca Davis editorChina’s top law-making body will consider this week a popular proposition to ban actors who have used drugs from entertainment industry for life at its annual weeklong meeting, which kicked off Friday.The National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber stamp parliament, counts some 3,000 professionals from across the country as delegates, including directors Jia Zhangke, Feng Xiaogang and Chen Kaige, as well as Jackie Chan and Yao Ming.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefImax China, the supplier of giant screen cinema facilities and services in Greater China, is one of the purest plays on the mainland Chinese movie exhibition market available to investors.

Imax posted lower revenues during its fourth quarter, compared to pre-pandemic 2019, but an Asian box office resurgence helped the giant screen exhibitor offset a continuing hit to its North American theaters from the COVID-19 crisis. On Thursday, Imax reported a loss attributable to shareholders at $21.2 million, compared to a year-earlier profit of $18.2 million, and the adjusted loss per share was 21 cents, compared with a 35 cents-per-share profit in 2019.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaImax’s quarterly revenue beat Wall Street’s expectations even as its losses were steeper than expected. The theater company reported revenues of $56 million, a 55% drop from the prior-year quarter’s revenues of $124.3 million.

Rebecca Davis editorThe Chadwick Boseman-starring police action film “21 Bridges” will hit Chinese theaters on March 19, the first Hollywood action title to debut in the world’s largest film market so far this year.

Rebecca Davis editorChinese exhibitors should stop wantonly raising movie ticket prices or else prepare to face consumer backlash, a key government-affiliated consumer rights body said in a new report.The high price of movie tickets was one of the top categories of consumer complaints over the country’s big Chinese New Year holiday, according to the China Consumers Association.

Rebecca Davis editorCBS Films’ 2019 romantic drama “Five Feet Apart” is set to release on March 12 in China, where it is sensibly being marketed as a romance for the COVID-19 era.The announcement comes less than two weeks ahead from its debut, as Beijing appears to scramble to fill an otherwise rather empty screening calendar. Strong local titles have shied away from competing with holdover Chinese New Year blockbusters now reaching the tail end of their first month in theaters.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe end came quietly with the humdrum announcement of a deal between two state-owned TV groups, China Central Television (CCTV) and South Korean public broadcaster KBS.

Exactly one year ago, Chinese film buyers were almost entirely absent from Berlin's European Film Market as broad swaths of the world's second-biggest economy remained in a state of total shutdown. Business in the U.S.

Pierre Morel’s upcoming action thrillerThe Blacksmith, which recently lost its star Nick Jonas due to a scheduling conflict, has a deal in place for the important China market. Beijing-based distributor Infotainment China Media picked up rights to the film ahead of Berlin's European Film Market and plans to stick with the project despite the casting change-up.

Rebecca Davis editorAfter Chloe Zhao became the first Asian woman to ever win the Golden Globe for best director, Chinese social media was abuzz about everything related to Zhao—except the film itself.Although most Chinese viewers have yet to see the film, many cheered the Golden Globe win. Scores of posts praised Zhao’s heartfelt acceptance speech about compassion and described her as an inspiration to women in the arts.