Ex-Disney exec in China deal
A Chinese investment firm partners with Dick Cook to launch entertainment studio.
BEIJING — In Hollywood’s latest big-money deal with China, former Walt Disney studio Chairman Dick Cook launched his own entertainment company with $150 million from a Chinese investment group.
The new L.A.-based entity, called Dick Cook Studios, will focus on creating family-oriented movies, TV shows and other entertainment.
The company will develop, produce and distribute live-action as well as animated movies and television shows and digital and educational products. The deal with investor CITIC Guoan was announced Monday by Cook at the Beijing Film Market, part of the city’s
International Film Festival.
“This has been quite a journey for all of us,” a beaming Cook said at the festival. “It takes time to find the right company and people you want to be in business with.”
Cook’s career with Disney began as a ride operator at Disneyland in 1970. He moved to the studio in the late 1970s and took over as Disney studio chairman in 2002, serving seven years, until he was ousted in 2009.
Cook had been seeking to start a family-entertainment-focused production company for a number of years. In an interview, he said his new company would start with two or three films per year stateside. “We’re not looking to do 15 movies. We’d probably never do more than six to eight movies, if we get that far.”
In addition, Cook said the company would set up a joint venture in China aimed at producing Chinese films, with a goal of making three movies in the first four years. No projects have been decided, he said.
“There is a real treasure trove of stories and fables and myths and legends that we’re going through, trying to figure out the stories we want to tell and in what order,” Cook said.
Deals worth close to $1 billion between China and Hollywood have been announced in recent months.
China’s Hunan TV closed an agreement to invest $375 million in Lionsgate’s movie slate over three years; real estate firm Fosun last year put $200 million into Jeff Robinov’s new Studio 8 production company; and Beijing-based Huayi Bros. studio announced last month that it was investing in an 18picture slate with Robert Simonds’ STX Entertainment.
Three years ago, real estate giant Dalian Wanda bought AMC Theatres for $2.6 billion.
Bennett Pozil, executive vice president at Pasadenabased East West Bank, said the trend of Chinese investment in Hollywood is just at its beginning stages and will continue to grow, despite some initial skepticism.
“A couple of years ago, or even as recently as last summer, there was a feeling in Hollywood that Chinese companies would kick the tires but they wouldn’t buy,” said Pozil, who worked on the Lionsgate deal and scores of other film financing projects in China. “But Chinese companies have taken their time to learn what they’re getting into. That’s why it took some time.”
CITIC Guoan is a branch of China’s massive stateowned CITIC Group and has business interests worth more than $15 billion, including TV, tourism, publishing and sports. Chairman Li Shilin said he chose to partner with Cook and his team because of their long record of experience.
“They appreciate and understand traditional Chinese culture, and they look forward to telling Chinese stories that will play to families across the globe,” he said.
New film studios have a mixed track record of success.
For example, Steven Spielberg in 2009 relaunched DreamWorks Studios through a partnership with India’s Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. Though it has boasted hits including “The Help” and “Lincoln,” the current iteration of DreamWorks has struggled as of late.
Cook has kept a relatively low profile since his abrupt exit from the Disney studio, where he worked for 38 years. He has also served on the board of directors for Thomas Tull’s Legendary Entertainment, and served as executive producer for the 2013 Jackie Robinson biopic “42.”
But mainly the executive, who is well-liked among Hollywood talent, has spent the last few years looking for funding for his new venture.
Cook said he had traveled to China four times over the last year or so seeking to seal the deal. For now, the company’s start-up offices are based in Burbank, on Forest Lawn Drive near Warner Bros. Cook would not say how many staffers he planned to hire in Southern California.
“We will continue to be there for a while,” Cook said. “We will gradually build up; we’re not going to have huge overhead — we are going to be overhead-averse. We’re not looking to do a gazillion movies — we don’t want to be the biggest, just the best.”
Hollywood has seen waves of foreign investment before — notably from India a few years ago, as well as Europe. But the synergies with China go deeper, Pozil said, because China is now the No. 2 movie market in terms of box office, behind only North America, and it’s growing at about 35% annually.
China has become an increasingly important source of revenue for U.S. studios. Last year, box-office revenue for the world’s most populous nation jumped 34% to $4.8 billion, helping the industry set a global box-office record in 2014, according to the Motion Picture Assn. of America.
Movies in the U.S. and Canada generated $10.3 billion in ticket sales last year, but analysts project that China will surpass the U.S. to become the top box-office territory within a few years.
“If you look at China right now, it’s the most exciting market on the planet,” Cook said. “There are great filmmakers, great companies who know the market here [in China].... You’re taking the two best markets and putting them together.”