“We’re approaching [collaboration with Chinese entities] different than what’s been done in the past,” said Robert Simonds, the chairman and chief executive of STX, at a recent conference hosted by Swiss financial services provider UBS.
Simonds said this involved creating “a new infrastructure and ecosystem that enables people who actually know how to connect with their audience”, which means having Chinese partners participate in the creative process and not just simply write a cheque to finance a project.
The mainland is widely expected to surpass the United States next year as the world’s largest film market in terms of box office revenue.
“We believe the key for China’s box-office growth remains the quality of movies,” said Citi Research analyst Alicia Yap in a recent report. “The traction and success of imported firms played a critical role in supporting overall box office sales thus far.”
STX has managed to carve its niche in Hollywood with medium-budget films in the US$20 million to US$60 million range. Its latest international co-production is The Foreigner, with veteran Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan.
STX, in which Legend Holdings-owned private equity firm Hony Capital was an early investor, could also raise fresh funding of about US$500 million and attain a US$3.5 billion valuation from its anticipated initial public offering in Hong Kong next year, according to sources cited in a Wall Street Journal report last week.
Unlike the existing Hollywood studios and their outdated ways of doing business, Simonds touted that STX has formed an integrated platform spanning intellectual property creation, creative development, production, distribution and marketing.
STXsurreal, a unit of STX, last month formed an alliance with Google to establish a pay-per-view, high-quality mobile virtual reality platform.
Actor-producer Mark Wahlberg added that he hoped “to do plenty of things” with STX amid the continued growth of the Chinese entertainment industry.
Both Wahlberg and Berg are currently in pre-production for the STX action film Mile 22. Wahlberg had completed work in the STX-backed crime movie All the Money in the World, which will be released in December.
New York-listed Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Source: South China Morning Post by Bien Perez