Chinese companies Huahua Media and Shanghai Film Group have made an investment into Vin Diesel’s “XXX: Return of Xander Cage” through Paramount and Revolution Studios.
Huahua Media and Shanghai Film Group made the investment into the action-thriller through a joint venture. They did not disclose the size of the investment, which also calls for the Huahua/SFG venture to assist as China marketing partners for the film.
Diesel reprises his character in the movie as government operative Xander Cage from the 2002 movie “XXX.” The film, which opens Friday in the United States, also stars Samuel L. Jackson, Donnie Yen, Deepika Padukone, Ruby Rose, Kris Wu, and Nina Dobrev.
Huahua Media and Paramount have worked together on “Star Trek Beyond,” which generated $66 million in Chinese box office since its September release. Huahua was also one of Paramount’s China marketing partners for Michael Bay’s 2014 film “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” which became the first foreign film to gross more than $300 million at the Chinese box office.
Megan Colligan, Paramount’s president of worldwide distribution and marketing, said, “We are pleased to collaborate once again with Huahua Media and the Shanghai Film Group. 'XXX: Return of Xander Cage’ is a film that delivers incredible action and great entertainment and we anticipate a strong showing for the film in China, where our stars Vin Diesel, Donnie Yen, Kris Wu, and Nina Dobrev have such dedicated fan bases.”
Shanghai Film Group oversees more than 2,000 cinema screens and incorporates a multitude of companies, including the Shanghai Film Studios. It owns over 640 feature films, 30,000 minutes of animation films, 1,555 documentary films and about 10,000 episodes of TV series.
'XXX: Return of Xander Cage” is produced by Diesel, Jeff Kirschenbaum, Joe Roth and Samantha Vincent. D.J. Caruso directed from a script by F. Scott Frazier, Chad St. John and Rich Wilkes.