Enlight Pictures, one of China’s top film studios, has struck an output deal for IM Global to handle international sales of its titles.
The deal was announced on the eve of the FilMart convention and market to be held from Monday next week in Hong Kong. IM Global expects to pitch up to six Enlight titles at the event.
These include “The Devotion of Suspect X,” a thriller adapted from a novel by Japan’s Keigo Higashino which opens at the end of the month in Chinese theaters. Starring Wang Kai and Ruby Lin, the title was recently acquired by China Lion for North America, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.
Enlight’s upcoming slate also includes Lien Yi-chi’s romance “All About Secrets,” “City of Rock” from Dong Chengpeng (“Pancake Man”,) and action/thriller “Animal World,” directed by Yan Han (“Go Away Mr. Tumor.”)
The deal was negotiated by Enlight’s international sales and distribution manager Heidi Sun and by IM Global’s SVP sales and acquisitions Asia, Leslie Chen.
Enlight is one of China’s most established film production-distribution groups and has seen its films gross a combined $2.9 billion (RMB20 billion) in the past ten years. Titles have included “Lost in Thailand,” The Breakup Guru,” and “The Left Ear.”
IM Global previously handled sales of Enlight’s “Buddies In India,” Zhang Yibai’s “I Belonged to You,” Yang Shupeng’s “Blood of Youth” and “Mojin the Lost Legend,” which was co-produced with both Wanda and Huayi. IM Global opened a satellite office in Beijing in 2013 and last year sold a majority of its shares to the U.S.-China investment group Tang Media Partners. It also has a television production joint venture with Tang and Tencent Holdings.