AOL to Build $483 Million Movie Studio in China

Yahoo / SG News ^ | 10/25/2002 | Staff

[ex-Texan]

AOL to Build $483 Million Movie Studio in China

Media titan AOL Time Warner Inc plans to invest $483 million to build an outdoor movie studio that is also expected to become a tourist attraction, the official Xinhua news agency said on Friday.

Company executives toured Linan city in China's eastern province of Zhejiang and met its mayor during a trip aimed at finding a suitable location for the massive filming base, it said.

The big-budget studio would be the largest-ever foreign investment in the film industry, surpassing Rochester, New York-based Eastman Kodak Co's $4 million stake in a Shanghai cinema.

AOL Time Warner, the world's largest media firm, and government officials were not immediately available for comment.

China promised it would allow more foreign investment in its film industry when it joined the World Trade Organization ( news - web sites) last year.

Warner Bros film studio, an AOL subsidiary, said in July it had struck a deal to edge into the Chinese movie market by buying a stake in Shanghai Paradise Film Distributing Co, which owns a 1,400-seat theater in Shanghai.

The Warner Bros stake in Paradise Cinema was below a 49 percent ceiling set by the WTO agreement, official media have reported.

[ex-Texan]

Looks like AOL Time Warner has made another really bad business decision. Bet the stock holders will go Ape Sh!t when they hear about this .... Crazy, crazy, crazy .... Time to sell your stock (if you still have some).

BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Carry_Okie]

I'd bet those high-priced special effects programmers at Dreamworks are sweating bullets right about now.

[snopercod]

Cool! Bet we'll get some really authentic Kung-Fu movies now.

[kellynla]

China? Oh thanks. And while you're at why don't you just ship yourselves over there too since you're feeling so frigging P A T R I O T I C!

[Pagey]

$483 million to build an outdoor movie studio

You can't even "think about" creating a movie studio w/out a couple Billion Dollars in backing alone.Outdoors? Ted Turner Buys Montana, and Steve Case wants to own a sliver of China...Go on Steve, why not invest in the Chinese Market, rather than lose( which his company will ) 1/2 a billion dollars? LOL

[Sungirl]

I thought they were close to bankruptcy! 483 million??

[Bush2000]

Looks like AOL Time Warner has made another really bad business decision. Bet the stock holders will go Ape Sh!t when they hear about this .... Crazy, crazy, crazy .... Time to sell your stock (if you still have some).

First, I have the feeling that this isn't really going to be an operating movie studio as much as it will be a tourist theme park like Universal Studios. It will probably have theme park rides and crap like that. Hollywood doesn't have much to worry about here. Second, AOL is getting something else here that isn't being put on the table. I suspect that the Chinese are giving AOL some kind of dispensation for making the investment; for example, a large stake in online dialup or broadband expansion in China. Watch.

[kezekiel]

You know, I'll bet that there are a whole bunch of talented, hard working Chinese CEOs who would be happy to work for far less than eight figures a year, and board members wouldn't have to mortgage the company to pay for their deferred comp and golden parachutes. How 'bout we start shipping some of our CEO jobs to China?

[mewzilla]

It'll be interesting to see what all the Hollyweird lefties have to say about this...Or will their silence be deafening?

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

Way to go AOL. We’ll show those totalitarian regimes they can’t mess with us.

http://www.aolwatch.org/

[Man of the Right]

You don't invest a half-billion in a communist country unless you want to lose a half-billion.