Wanda Cinema to add 4000 RealD 3D screens in China

[donaldk]

Wanda is going all out today with the biggest IMAX deal ever, and the largest 3D equipment deployment deal ever, adding 4000 new RealD 3D screens to its existing 1600 RealD 3D screens, during the next four years, bringing the totla to 5600 RealD 3D screens. This implies Wanda will be opening at least 2811 new screens in its new or existing theater complexes across China, as its current screen count totals 2,789.

Michael V. Lewis, CEO and Founder of RealD announced today the largest ever 3D installation agreement in the history of the format, with Wanda Cinema Line Corporation as the companies expand their growing relationship and commit to equipping a total of 5,600 screens throughout China with RealD's state-of-the-art projection technology.

As part of the pact, Wanda will install no less than 4,000 new RealD 3D projection systems during the next four years in Wanda Cinema Line theaters across China. Wanda has already equipped 1,600 of their screens with RealD's 3D technology.

The deal significantly expands the 3D footprint in China, which is already the world's most important 3D market. RealD is the world's leading and dominant 3D technology provider as the company currently equips and licenses more than 28,000 screens with 3D systems. Through this agreement, RealD will expand to more than 32,000 screens in 72 countries worldwide.

RealD and Wanda first began collaborating together in 2010.

"As audiences throughout China continue to seek more and more 3D content, Wanda is investing in the very best systems and technology that allow for the highest quality presentation of 3D movies. Our RealD equipped theaters have been a significant part of our growth strategy and we are pleased to expand our partnership with RealD with this history making installation agreement.  We believe with RealD's superior technology and Wanda's commitment to building and equipping exceptional movie theaters, we will continue to create the very best experience for moviegoers," said Mr. Xiaobin Liu, Executive President of Wanda Cinema Line Corporation.

"China has steadily become the world's most significant 3D market and the scale of this installation agreement signals an unprecedented commitment to the growth of 3D in this critically important entertainment region," said Michael V. Lewis. "We are enormously proud of our partnership with Wanda Cinema Line. As one of the pre-eminent global exhibitors, Wanda is known for investing in premium quality brands and equipment and we could not be prouder of their support and commitment to RealD as they expand and enhance their chain throughout China."

"Wanda has always been the most forward thinking market leader in China and they are known as innovators in the global exhibition business.  Wanda's tremendous expansion and success mirrors the rapid growth of the Chinese cinema business as well as the movie business in China as a whole. It's been our privilege to partner and grow together and we are thrilled and honored to be selected as their 3D provider as they enter this exciting new phase of growth. RealD provides the best state-of-the-art technology as well as quality-control services to ensure a premium cinema experience to the widest Chinese audience," said Anthony Marcoly, President of Worldwide Cinema for RealD.

Along with expanding the install base with Wanda, RealD and Wanda have also committed to upgrading visual quality in theaters they jointly equip. In 2014, RealD launched a quality assurance and management program known as RealD 6FL Certification. Wanda Cinema Line was the first cinema circuit in Asia committing to the program.

RealD 6FL Certification ensures that qualified theaters will always show 3D movies in the optimal level of 6 Foot Lambert brightness. Certified theaters regularly receive quality inspections to ensure that the 3D projection maintains certain standards of brightness and quality control.

Indeed 6fL is considered optimal by RealD, not attainable, economical, and still a target in commercial theaters, but 'optimal'.

[DCI forum]

With big moves come big risks, potentially a few hundred million in share buy backs at 15% interest, according to this report:

Wanda’s Big Week: Two Steps Forward, One Legendary Step Back
6:30 AM PDT 8/2/2016 by Patrick Brzeski

While the dust was settling on the $350 million Mtime deal, Wanda suffered a serious setback, shelving a $5.6  billion plan to reorganize its entertainment assets. It’s been a roller-coaster week for Dalian Wanda Group.

On July  27, the conglomerate headed by Wang Jianlin,China’s richest man, agreed to acquire Beijing-based film marketing and media company Mtime for $350  million. The move adds a powerful suite of movie-related internet services to Wanda’s burgeoning film empire, pitching it into even fiercer competition with BAT, or the internet firms turned media and entertainment giants Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.

“This is one more piece on the board in the rivalry,” says Manatt attorney Lindsay Conner. “But it’s also a very interesting and intelligent step in the evolution of Wanda’s business.” Still relatively unknown in the West, Mtime was established in 2005 by former Microsoft executive Kelvin Hou as a listing site for movie times but over a decade has become something like China’s answer to Fandango, IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and an e-commerce platform for licensed movie goods. As with most things in the Middle Kingdom, the scale is bigger: When Fandango acquired Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes in February, it said the combined services reached 20  million unique visitors per month; Mtime boasts an estimated 160  million unique visitors monthly.

Still, while the dust was settling on the Mtime deal, Wanda suffered a serious setback Aug.  1, when it shelved a $5.6  billion plan to reorganize its entertainment assets. Wanda was looking to fold its movie production subsidiaries — including Thomas Tull’s U.S. studio Legendary Entertainment, which it acquired for $3.5  billion in January — into the group’s publicly listed movie theater unit, Wanda Cinema Line. Wanda said market conditions had changed, but the central problem appears to have been Legendary, which THR reported in May had lost more than $500  million in 2015. In a regulatory filing, Wanda said Legendary should show it can turn a profit on its own before a merger. After releasing Warcraft in June ($433  million), it has several big films in the pipeline, including Matt Damon’s The Great Wall and Kong: Skull Island.

As early as March, Wanda Group vp Liu Zhaohui claimed the company had raised $2.4  billion from Chinese investors for its film production units; the funds were expected to help offset Legendary’s acquisition. But one deal term stipulated that if Legendary and Wanda Media failed to go public in 2016, either through an IPO, backdoor listing or an asset injection into another listing vehicle, Wanda Culture Holding Co. would buy back shares from investors at a 15 percent annualized interest rate. It appears the group now could be on the hook for a few hundred million dollars.

But the next day, Wanda was back to buying, revealing Aug.  2 that it would build 150 Imax theaters in China — the largest single booking pact in its history. “This one deal represents 15  percent of our entire network,” Imax CEO Richard Gelfond tells THR. “Our relationship with Wanda is organization-wide now.”