| One of China's largest cinema
chain owners has agreed to sell a stake to the Warner
Bros division of AOL Time Warner, a move signalling wider
opening of the Chinese film market, which has been sluggish
in recent years.
Shanghai Paradise Film Distributing Co, which owns
Paradise Cinema, said last week it would sell a stake
of the 1,400-seat cinema to Warner Bros.
Wu Hehu, deputy manager of the company, confirmed the
report over the weekend but declined to give further
details concerning the deal.
The deal would expand the tiny foreign presence in
China's film industry, as China has promised in its
World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, though Warner's
stake would be below a 49 per cent ceiling set by the
WTO agreement.
Two foreign companies - Eastman Kodak Co, based in
Rochester, New York, and Golden Harvest Entertainment
Cinema Co Ltd of Hong Kong - already own minority stakes
in two other Shanghai-based cinemas.
In the largest-ever investment in the industry, Eastman
Kodak, jointly with the Shanghai Film and TV Group Co,
invested US$4 million in a cinema which opened early
this year.
Golden Harvest Entertainment Cinema Co in 2000 co-invested
with the Shanghai Friendship South Business Co in another
cinema in the city.
The Warner Bros office in Beijing said all comments
regarding the stake sale would be fielded by its headquarters.
The introduction of foreign investment will help activate
the currently sluggish Chinese film market, said an
official of the film distribution and exhibition division
of the Film Bureau of the State Administration of Radio,
Film and Television.
The official predicted the introduction of new business
models and new ideas regarding management of film companies
will bring the industry to a new height.
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