Chinese Conglomerate Acquires Legendary Entertainment For $3.5B Cash
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group announced Tuesday that it has acquired Legendary Entertainment, the Burbank-based production company behind blockbuster films such as "The Dark Knight," "Jurassic World," and "Godzilla" for as much as $3.5 billion in cash.
The deal represents the largest acquisition to date of a U.S. production company by a Chinese firm and the latest sign of the deepening ties between Hollywood and the world's most populous country, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The deal announced Tuesday is not the conglomerate's first foray into the American entertainment industry. In 2012, Dalian Wanda Group acquired AMC cinema for $2.6 billion, making the company the world's largest movie theater company. A year later, Wanda donated $20 million to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its film museum on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art campus.
Wanda began as a commercial real estate firm and is now a massive diversified conglomerate, with holdings including luxury hotels, entertainment companies and e-commerce firms. The company's subsidiary, Wanda Cinema Line, is China's biggest cinema chain, with a 14.5 percent share in the country's burgeoning box office.
Buying Legendary fits Wanda's goal of creating a global media company and becoming a major player in film production. Wanda is building what it touts as "the world's largest film and television studio" in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao.
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