- Three companies expand production deal announced last year.
- Aim is to fund blockbuster Mandarin-language content appropriate for IMAX screens, especially in China.
- Four remastered Chinese films will screen on IMAX at theaters this summer.
IMAX will expand its China slate by five pictures. (IMAX)
IMAX Corporation, IMAX China, and China Media Capital (CMC) have completed formative agreements to establish the IMAX China Film Fund, with initial capitalization of US$50 million.
The China Film Fund will co-finance approximately 15 Mandarin-language tentpole films over three years. The fund will target contributions of between $3 million and $7 million per film, according to an IMAX statement Thursday.
The news comes a year after the same three parties announced they would be establishing the fund. At the time, the parties had decided to co-finance only 10 films.
“The fund will further deepen our ties in the China film industry and allow us to generate the highest-quality Mandarin content for Chinese and international audiences alike,” said IMAX CEO Richard L. Gelfond.
IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond said the company’s commitment to the success of the business in China and the country’s filmmaking community is unwavering.
“The Fund will further deepen our ties in the China film industry and allow us to generate the highest-quality Mandarin content for Chinese and international audiences alike,” he said.
CMC Chairman Li Ruigang said he hoped the fund will “support the creation of more tentpole Mandarin-language films.”
Li acquired a 10 percent interest in IMAX China in 2014. The fund has left the door open to potentially bringing in other investors to increase the size of the fund.
IMAX China Chief Chen Jiande said the fund would contribute to a trend, already seen in the country, towards more locally-produced blockbuster content.
Earlier this week, IMAX and its China subsidiary unveiled a slate of four digitally remastered films that will screen in over 290 IMAX theatres across China this summer.
The slate includes Jackie Chan’s Skiptrace; Wanda Media-released For a Few Bullets; Edko Films’ Cold War 2 starring Chow Yun-fat; and Time Raider, co-produced by Le Vision Pictures and Shanghai Film Group.
