Alibaba inks deal to screen Peppa Pig Chinese New Year film in US theatres
Alibaba Pictures, the e-commerce giant’s film division, has inked a deal with STX Entertainment to screen the Peppa Pig film, ‘Peppa Celebrates Chinese New Year’ in US theatres.
Peppa Pig's Chinese New Year film is to be screened in US theatres / Alibaba Group
The deal follows a surge of interest in the film by Mandarin-speaking audiences in the US after the film trailer went viral.
STXfilms chairman Adam Fogelson told Yahoo Finance, the company was approached by Alibaba to exclusively distribute the film in the US in time for Lunar New Year.
The film, which is a co-production between Alibaba Pictures and Britain’s Entertainment One, will be released on 6 February across 32 markets in the US.
The film, which will be subtitled in English, will screen in areas with high concentrations of Chinese-American consumers such as Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.
Wei Zhang, President of Alibaba Pictures said the film is “an important film for Alibaba Pictures so finding the right partner to help us introduce the film to American audiences was essential”.
The film’s trailer, which was released last month, attracted more than 60 million views within two days. The hashtag #WhatIsPeppa has been viewed more than 1.45 billion times on Sina Weibo.