Others News
- Shanghai News
Date: 22-May-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
U.S. entertainment giant Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (MGM) said it is teaming up with a Chinese property developer to build an MGM Studio World in Shanghai.
Under a licensing agreement with Hong Kong-based Tengxun Entertainment and Management Ltd., the developer Shanghai Tianhong Real Estate Investment Co. will invest up to 1.2 billion yuan (US$156.5 million) to build MGM Studio World in Shanghai, MGM said in a statement released over the weekend.
The MGM Studio World will be built around the MGM brand and others that it owns, it said. MGM said it will not make any financial investments in the project or operate it, serving instead as 'the licensor and creative collaborator?for the entire project.
Media and entertainment industries are highly regulated in China and foreign investments are restricted in the two sectors. But the entertainment industry is growing rapidly in the world's fourth-largest economy.
Cinema ticket sales in China climbed 30 percent to 2 billion yuan in 2005 and are expected to maintain strong growth for several more years at least, according to State media.
Last year, the government required foreign investors to cede control to Chinese partners, a policy change that led MGM's U.S. rival, Time Warner Inc., to pull out of its investments, including three of six cinemas in China.
MGM Studio World, which will be located in the southern part of Shanghai, the birthplace of China's film history, is designed to be an indoor venue combining dining, retailing, night-time venues and entertainment, MGM said in the statement.
MGM, partly owned by the U.S. unit of Sony Corp. and Comcast Corp., has the largest modern film library in the world and has received 208 Academy Awards in its history, giving it one of the biggest award-winning collections of films in the world.
MGM Studio World, which is expected to be launched in the summer of 2010 when Shanghai hosts the World Expo, will include special MGM events as well as promotions of its movie and TV content, MGM said in the statement without elaborating.
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