Dalian Wanda Group, the Chinese media and real estate conglomerate, is in advanced talks to buy the U.S. studio Legendary Entertainment, a person familiar with the matter told the Los Angeles Times.
Wanda is closing in on a deal to acquire a majority stake in Legendary for at least $1 billion, said the source, who was not authorized to comment publicly on the negotiations, the newspaper reported Tuesday morning.
Legendary’s best known films include last year’s hit “Jurassic World,” as well as “The Dark Knight” and “The Hangover” movies.
Legendary already has a significant presence in China, where it has an agreement to co-produce movies with the powerful state-owned China Film Co. The co-productions include the big-budget science fiction movie “The Great Wall,” the upcoming Universal Pictures release starring Matt Damon.
A deal with Wanda would give Burbank-based Legendary a stronger foothold in a market expected to surpass the size of the North American box office by 2017, according to The Times.
At the same time, a deal with Legendary could significantly boost the ambitions of Wanda — China’s largest cinema company — to expand into film production. Parts of “The Great Wall” were filmed in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao, where Wanda is building Wanda Studios Qingdao. The company bills the facility as “the world’s largest film and television studio.
—City News Service