Fox, Bona to partner on Chinese-language films

By Ben Fritz

Twentieth Century Fox and Chinese movie producer-distributor Bona Film Group have signed an agreement to co-produce several Chinese-language films.

The pictures, intended for the local Chinese market, will be made by Bona and the studio's Fox International Productions unit, which produces movies intended for overseas markets.

The agreement comes after Fox's parent company News Corp. acquired a 19.9% stake in Bona in May.

"This is a significant step in what we believe will be a long-term, multi-faceted collaboration with News Corp. and its subsidiary companies," Dong Yu, chief executive of Bona Film Group, said in a statement.

Beijing-baed Bona, which is publicly traded on the NASDAQ market, is the largest privately owned film distributor in China, with a market share of 16.5% in 2011.

The Chinese box office has been booming, growing 42% in the first half of the year to $1.3 billion, amid a surge of theater construction and a seemingly insatiable appetite for Hollywood blockbusters.

However, the Chinese government has taken steps to limit the box office receipts of imported movies, such as by opening some similar films on the same day, despite an agreement earlier this year to increase the quota on foreign films that can share in box office revenue to 34 from 20.

By making movies with a local company in a local language, Fox may be able to avoid any restrictions by qualifying the pictures as co-productions.

Fox Chairman Jim Gianopulos said in September that his studio was in negotiations for a similar partnership with China's Dalian Wanda Group.

Other studios that have established partnerships in hopes of gaining greater access to China, the world's second largest movie market, include DreamWorks Animation, Walt Disney Studios and Relativity Media.