Games and Media Lift China’s Tencent to 30% Profit Increase

Influential Chinese video platform Bilibili has taken a 9.9 percent stake in Huanxi Media, the rising film and TV studio that counts blockbuster directors Xu Zheng, Zhang Yimou and Ning Hao as major shareholders. Bilibili agreed to invest $513 million Hong Kong dollars ($66 million) in Huanxi in exchange for almost 347 million shares in the studio, which is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

China's blockbuster war epic The Eight Hundred earned a healthy $69 million during its second weekend on Chinese screens, retaining the global box office crown over Christopher Nolan's Tenet. Tenet brought in $53 million-plus from 41 international markets, including Canada, according to Warner Bros.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChinese war film, “The Eight Hundred” was the highest scoring film in the world over the weekend.According to data from Artisan Gateway, “The Eight Hundred” grossed $69 million between Friday and Sunday, its second weekend on release in China.

Rebecca Davis editorChina this week became the first global market to make a “full box office recovery” according to targets developed by the U.K.-based film industry analytics firm Gower Street, the company said Thursday.The firm created five targets to track and compare the paths of different territories’ exhibition sectors back to recovery.

Nancy Tartaglione International Box Office Editor/Senior ContributorChristopher Nolan’s Tenet has begun its offshore rollout, and while Warner Bros is keeping a tight lid on grosses until fully reporting Sunday, some international box office information is available on the highly-anticipated title.In Korea, one of the key plays on Tenet, the Wednesday opening day was a little over $827K from 2,228 screens.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefStarlight Media, the Hollywood-focused Chinese film financier behind “Crazy Rich Asians,” is to go further in its promotion of filmmaking diversity. It has unveiled details of a $100 million film and talent development fund.The company’s Stars Collective initiative will support aspiring female and BIPOC filmmakers and creative storytellers.

Black Myth: Wukong.The pre-alpha footage was uploaded to YouTube and showcases the game’s Souls-like combat as the protagonist ventures through a lush forest. The style is inspired by the Chinese tale, Journey To The West, and includes the legendary figure The Monkey King, often known as Sun Wukong.One of the unique elements shown is the Monkey King’s ability to transform into various other creatures.

Vivienne Chow Mainland Chinese streaming giants iQIYI and Tencent are set to be banned from operating in Taiwan from next month, following the revision of an existing law that will bar their local partners from providing services for them.Companies and individuals in Taiwan will be banned from providing services for OTT operators from mainland China, Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs said in an announcement on Tuesday.

DEALSTencent Music is in the midst of a deals frenzy. Following its big new agreement with Universal Music, last week the Chinese company also announced it now had a direct deal in place with Kobalt.

Rebecca Davis editorPeter Chan’s hotly anticipated biographical sports drama “Leap” is set to hit China on Sept. 30, becoming the first of the Chinese New Year blockbusters canceled due to COVID-19 to set a theatrical outing.Local animation “Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification,” which was also originally scheduled to premiere over the lunar new year, will premiere the day after.

Rebecca Davis editorSome moviegoers feel China’s exhibition sector has been unfairly targeted by prolonged closures and excessive COVID-19 prevention measures, Variety found in a WeChat-based survey of cinema patrons.Survey respondents, who participated on the condition of anonymity, felt the protective measures required of cinemas helped to lower the risk of movie-going, but that the exhibition sector had been subject to overly cautious treatment.The vast majority of the 36 respondents —

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChina Literature, which is both China’s leading online bookstore and owner of one of the country’s top TV producers, swung from profits of $55 million a year ago to net losses of $465 million in the six months to June.

Rebecca Davis editorUniversal Music Group (UMG) announced Monday that it has signed multi-year direct licensing agreements in China with both Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) and its competitor NetEase Cloud Music, breaking the past precedent of signing exclusively with the former. The move signals a shake-up in the major labels’ approach to the Chinese market.

Hong Kong media mogul and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai has been arrested over alleged foreign collusion, under provisions of the controversial new national security law. Lai, the founder of Hong Kong's leading newspaper Apple Daily and the media company Next Digital, was detained Monday morning according to a report in Apple Daily.