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Faced with stagnant box-office growth at home, Hollywood studios are keen to enter China, now the world's second-biggest film market. Box-office receipts in China totaled $2.7 billion last year, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. That pushed the Chinese market past Japan's, now the third-biggest. For their part, China's leaders are hoping to use expertise gleaned from joint ventures to rapidly develop their country's cultural industries to expand their influence abroad. Chinese audiences adore Hollywood fare such as "Avatar" and the "Kung Fu Panda" series. Meanwhile, locally produced hits, such as last year's No. 1, road trip movie "Lost in Thailand," have flopped overseas. "The natural step in a growing Chinese film industry is to make films that successfully take Chinese-based stories to international audiences," said Rance Pow, Shanghai-based founder of film consultancy Artisan Gateway. "Legendary brings Hollywood credentials, and global distribution and marketing relationships to the collaboration." Other examples of recent Hollywood-China collaborations include DreamWorks Animation working with local partners to make "Kung Fu Panda 3" and Disney teaming up with Beijing-based DMG on the recently released "Iron Man 3." Legendary East was set up in 2011 with the aim of making one or two "major, event-style films" starting in 2013. But the company had remained quiet since then and a plan to raise $220.5 million through a deal with a Hong Kong construction company was scuppered by rocky financial markets. ___ Online: Legendary Entertainment:
http://www.legendary.com/
[Associated
Press;
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