Alibaba invests in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Star Trek films
Alibaba Pictures, a subsidiary of Chinese ecommerce and media giant Alibaba, has announced two investments in Hollywood studio Paramount Pictures.
It is investing in upcoming productions ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows’ and ‘Star Trek Beyond’, marking its second deal with Paramount Pictures.
The company said it made the decision to invest in the films because of the large fanbases and the expectation that they will be imported by China Film and distributed by China Film and HuaXia Film in the second half of 2016.
Alibaba first partnered with Paramount Pictures when it invested in ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation’. Zhang Wei, President of Alibaba Pictures, said: “We had a great experience working with Paramount on Mission: Impossible, and are very excited to join forces again for these two pictures, both of which have terrific fan bases in China that we hope to cooperate with Paramount to grow even larger.”
As part of the deal, the film will be supported via two of Alibaba Picture’s platforms, online ticketing service Taobao Movies and entertainment crowdfunding platform Yulebao.
Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount said, “Our most recent collaboration showed us this new internet-powered movie and television company has in areas such as promotion, distribution and movie-related merchandise.”