Dalian Wanda film unit just raised about two-thirds of the money it spent on its majority stake in Thomas Tull‘s Legendary production company in a recent sale of its film unit’s shares.
The Chinese conglomerate’s film division raised 15.88 billion Chinese yuan, or about $2.4 billion, according to an executive’s briefing reported by Bloomberg.
That executive, group vice president Liu Zhaohui, said Wanda Pictures’ share sale was oversubscribed and was completed in a month and a half.
Earlier this year, Wanda sealed a $3.5 billion deal for a controlling stake in Legendary, the biggest China/U.S. media tie-up to date. It marked a high point in a series of warming ties between Hollywood and the world’s most populous country. For two years, corporations in both regions have embraced each other, with Chinese companies enticed to invest in U.S. entertainment’s success and studios tantalized by China’s market.
Wanda also owns the No 2. theater chain in the U.S., AMC Theaters, as well as China’s biggest line of cinemas and its own production studio in China.
Legendary, the company that helped finance such hits as “Jurassic World” and “Straight Outta Compton,” has big-budget releases like “Warcraft” and “The Great Wall” set for 2016.