DreamWorks Animation, China's Wanda Group Reveal Collaboration Plans (Report

Speaking at a panel discussion in the Chinese city of Chengdu, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Wanda CEO Wang Jianlin said their two companies have “reached an initial co-operation agreement.

HONG KONG – DreamWorks Animation has reportedly inked an initial co-operation agreement with China’s Dalian Wanda Group to work together on future projects, the heads of the two companies revealed at a public panel discussion in the Chinese city of Chengdu on Thursday.

Speaking at a Fortune Global Forum panel, Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said he could “confirm” that the animation studio – which has already established the Shanghai-based Oriental DreamWorks company with an assortment of powerful state-backed Chinese companies – will be working with Wanda, according to a Sichuan Online report carried on the ifeng.com news portal.

Wang Jianlin, the real-estate mogul whose company is the largest cinema operator in China and also the owner of American cinema chain AMC, said Wanda has already “reached an initial co-operation agreement” with DreamWorks Animation.

“With the development of information technology, there’s a great future for the animation industry,” he said during the on-stage discussion alongside Katzenberg. “I’ve known Jeffrey for a long time but it’s only recently that we reached this agreement.”

Praising Wanda’s domestic performance as an exhibitor in China, Katzenberg said the Dreamworks collaboration will bring about “new changes” to China’s entertainment industry.

The two CEOs did not reveal further details of the planned partnership.

Katzenberg arrived in Chengdu alongside Jennifer Yuh, the Korean-American director of Kung Fu Panda 2, in what was likely an attempt to launch a charm offensive there: the city is the provincial capital of Sichuan Province, the largest breeding ground of pandas in China.
Kung Fu Panda 2 remains the highest-grossing animation film ever released in the country, having grossed $99.1 million (608.35 million yuan) there in 2011.

Culled from The Hollywood Reporter