Wuxi Studio is not one studio. It is an industry park that will eventually house 500 firms. Speed Power, the Beijing firm that worked on Painted Skin: The Resurrection, is one of 60-plus companies that have already settled here.

"It’s the only film market that’s growing at 30 or 40 per cent a year,” Vancouver-based producer Harry Sutherland says. “This is the biggest single opportunity in the international film market anywhere in the world.”

"When the market is good, when the company is ready, we will look for IPO opportunities,” Li Yipeng, vice president of iQiyi, told the Chinict technology industry conference in Beijing today.

The companies say their first collaboration will be a project called Shanghai, which will start production early next year, followed by a feature titled Triangle.