Tencent Music Launches US IPO
On December 12, Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME) officially launched its US IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. The music-streaming company’s initial public offering was priced at $13 per share for a total offering size of $1.066 billion. In the prospectus, the company was valued at $21.3 billion. TME has a very different business model compared with the unprofitable Spotify, which gains its revenues from paying subscribers (90%) and advertising (10%). TME, however, generates revenues from its music streaming services and, more importantly, social entertainment services. In the first three quarters of 2018, social entertainment services contributed 70.4% of the company’s profits, while music streaming service provided 29.6%. Much of its revenues come from live-streamed performances and online karaoke. With these two types of social entertainment services, TME is currently having over 800 million monthly active users with each user spending 70 minutes using its services per day. Moving forward, TME plans to increase net profits by generating more revenues from online music services, developing original music to reduce spending on licensing, and organizing offline events. Read more on Entertainment Capital
‘Alita: Battle Angel’ passes Chinese Censorship
Alita: Battle Angel, an upcoming American science-fiction film adapted from Yukito Kishiro’s manga Battle Angel Alita, has passed the Chinese censorship. Set in the 26th century, the film tells an action-packed story of one young woman’s journey to discover the truth of who she is and how her fight could change the world. James Cameron had long considered adapting the manga into a film, but the project was repeatedly delayed due to his work on Avatar and its sequels. The directorial work was then handed to Robert Rodriguez, who is the director of Sin City and also a fan of the original manga. Cameron has also been involved in developing this project, serving as producer and screenwriter. The film’s cast members include Rosa Salazar who plays the lead character Alita, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, and Michelle Rodriguez. Alita is scheduled for worldwide release on February 12, 2019, which is after the Chinese New Year Holiday. Read more on Mtime
A Look at 2018 Animated Films in China
In 2018, 61 animated films have been released in Chinese theatres so far. According to an analysis from 3wyu, a Beijing-based ACGN trade publication, the Chinese market for foreign animations is not as good as last year. Out of the 61 films, 27 imported animated films have grossed over 2 billion yuan. In 2017, the total box office of foreign animations was 3.7 billion yuan generated by only 24 works. The highest-grossing animation of 2018 is Boonie Bears: The Big Shrink, a local animation released during Chinese New Year holiday, which is also the only animated film that crossed the RMB 500-million mark. However, the average box office earning of a foreign film is still 26 million yuan more than that of a local production. The total box office of this year’s 34 local animations is 1.66 billion yuan. Another 8 animations are set to be released between now and the end of this year, including 4 local films and the highly anticipated My Neighbor is Totoro and The Grinch. Read more on 3wyu
