Chinese Internet company Tencent Holdings is leveraging its online gaming and literature resources to compete with Alibaba and Baidu for dominance in the country’s burgeoning film industry.
After dabbling in film production last year, Tencent on Wednesday launched “Movie Plus,” a project aimed at bringing its most popular online games, cartoons and novels to the theater. With the help of Hollywood studios and Chinese writer and Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan, The company will develop four to five movies every year.
"We have seen the potential of China’s film industry,” Cheng Wu, a Tencent vice president, told the 21st Century Business Herald. According to Cheng, the industry is poised to exceed 30 billion yuan ($ 4.88 billion) by the end of this year, up from 20 billion yuan ($ 3.25 billion) in 2013.
Tencent will first work on the film version of QQ race car, a game with more than 3 million users competing against each other in building the fastest race team. The company will also adapt Mo Yan’s novels to the screen, with production starting in the first half of 2016, reported Caixin, an influential journal based in Beijing.
The move comes as both Alibaba and Baidu have been piling resources into movie production. Alibaba is now changing the financing of films by launching in June an investment product that allows people to back a movie with as little as 100 yuan ($ 16). In March, it acquired a controlling stake at China Vision Media Group for $ 804 million. China Vision has subsequently changed its name to Alibaba Pictures Group.
Baidu is also moving to the big screen. The company’s online video streaming portal iQiyi in June launched its own in-house film production studio iQiyi Pictures. The studio plans to co-produce seven domestic films and one Hollywood movie in 2015.
Tencent has already had a taste of movie production. Roco Kingdom, a series of animation film adapted from its popular same-name online game, has a box office of 150 million yuan ($24.4 million), according to a company statement.
The “Movie Plus” Project has a genuine chance of success. One reason is simple economics. David Hancock, director of film and cinema at consultancy IHS Technology, says China is opening 10 new cinema screens every day. He estimates that the country’s cinema market will be worth $ 4.6 billion in 2014, almost a one-third increase on last year.
Chinese audience also has a big interest in TV series and films adapted from games. Legend of the Ancient Sword (Gu Jian Qi Tan), a TV series produced from a popular role-playing game with the same name, is the biggest hit across all video streaming websites. It has been played more than 100 million times so far this year, according to Internet consultancy iResearch. The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television has approved plans of turning it into a film.