Golden Harvest

[GeneChing]

It should feel like the end of an era, but perhaps that era is long past already. I'm not sure how active Chow was in GH in recent years. The last time I remember hearing about anything from Chow was Jackie's Accidental Spy (http://www.martialartsmart.net/dvd10001.html).


Chengtian confirms Golden Harvest stake buy (http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/4856/1/)
Written by Patrick Frater
Friday, 02 November 2007

SANTA MONICA – Chengtian Entertainment Group, a Chinese talent agent and production outfit which has backing from Japan ’s Avex, has confirmed that it is to buy Raymond Chow’s stake in Hong Kong-based hardtop chain Golden Harvest (Variety, Oct 29, 2007.)

Move also signals return of Golden Harvest, once the biggest name in Chinese cinema, to production. For much of the last decade company has focused exclusively on exhibition and distribution activities.

Chengtian is paying HK$202 million ($26.1m) for the 24% share stake owned by Chow and his associates and their convertible bonds.

“By combining our creativity and drive with Golden Harvest’s rich experience and platform in the Asian film market we will raise our group’s film business to a higher level,” Chengtian founder Wu Kebo said.

“Chengtian and Golden Harvest are planning to produce not less than 20 films a year in the future.”

For the year to June 2007, company announced net profits of $96.5 million ($12.5 million), compared with only $673,000 in 2006. But total included a $15 million boost from the sale of its stake in the Golden Village cinema circuit in Malaysia .

Golden Harvest's remaining substantial shareholders include billionaire Li Ka-shing with 17%, EMI and Norman Cheng Tung-hon with 12% and Jackie Chan with 5%.

[doug maverick]

it might be a good thing cause golden harvest stop putting out things once jackie formed his own company. now lets see what type of films they come out with

[yutyeesam]

it might be a good thing cause golden harvest stop putting out things once jackie formed his own company. now lets see what type of films they come out with

I'm guessing it's not going to be anything with any sort of originality. Hong Kong action cinema feels pretty dried up.

[doug maverick]

actually i think its coming back. firlms like invisible target flashpoint spl dog bite dog and a few other is showing that kung fu action in hong kong is back and better.

[Jimbo]

Now I think the HK action film is coming back, of course it won't ever be like it was in the past ('70s and '80s). The old era is gone forever, but like everything, it has to evolve.

Will the old style of kung fu movies ever come back, with countless performers/stars/stuntmen from traditional kung fu schools, TKD/karate schools, and Peking/Beijing Opera stars in endless variety/streams of kung fu movies? IMO, no. Times and audiences have changed. And what seemed unique and special 30 years ago, people are very blase about now.

[GeneChing]

...I'd say it's still interesting, but not as maverick as before (pun for doug? perhaps). I think Flashpoint (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46000), SPL (http://www.martialartsmart.net/dvd64538.html) and Invisible Target are both entertaining films, but I'm getting pretty tired of the deep-cover-gangsta cliche. It's so Infernal Affairs/Departed (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43542). Can we get some original plot devices again?

[doug maverick]

yeah the cop thing is kinda cliche'd now. but there is not many places you can fit ma in a serious modern movie structure. we shall see after veiwing dog bite dog i've come to the conclusion that mr. szeto kam yuen is the writer to find that original plot

[GeneChing]

Nice pic of Raymond if you follow the link.


Hong Kong film tycoon to retire (http://www.china.org.cn/english/entertainment/231053.htm)

Raymond Chow, former chairman of Golden Harvest Entertainment Co. Ltd., the well-known blockbuster film maker in Hong Kong, declared that he will retire in three months after he completes his tenure as consultant in the restructured company, the Beijing Times reported on November 6.

Mr. Chow has said that his children will not succeed him as managers of Golden Harvest. A few days ago Mr. Chow sold 24.78 percent of the shares of his company to Chengtian Entertainment International Holdings Ltd., a two-year mainland entertainment provider. The shares went for HK$200 million.

The Hong Kong film tycoon said that he was too old to manage the business so he sold his holdings to Chengtian because they have similar business concepts. Chengtian announced that it plans to produce no less than 20 pictures annually in upcoming years in conjunction with a Hong Kong partner after acquiring Mr. Chow's firm.

The two companies will cooperate in film production, distribution, and cinema operations.

Established in 1970, Golden Harvest is well known for its popular kung-fu films, such as The Big Boss, starring Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan's The Accidental Spy. Chengtian Entertainment has become one of the fastest growing entertainment enterprises on the Chinese mainland. The company has been involved in large-scale productions, including Peter Chan's Warlord and John Woo's Red Cliff.

Major shareholders in Golden Harvest include the founder Raymond Chow, and Leonard Ho and Leung Fung. Additionally Li Ka-shing has a 17 percent shareholding while Norman Cheng Tung-hon, Chairman and Director of EMI, holds 12 percent of the shares. Jackie Chan has a five percent stake.

[GeneChing]

Orange Sky Golden Harvest Celebrates 45th Anniversary With Expansion Plans (http://variety.com/2015/film/spotlight/orange-sky-golden-harvest-celebrates-anniversary-with-expansion-plans-1201454747/)

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/enter-the-dragon1.jpg?w=670&h=377&crop=1
March 20, 2015 | 10:40AM PT
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

Golden Harvest once presided over the most powerful film production and distribution operations in Asia. The Hong Kong-based company’s stars included Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

SEE MORE: From the March 17, 2015 issue of Variety

But as times have changed the firm wound down its production activities and reinvented itself as a diversified movie theater operator. An initial focus on Southeast Asia has given way to a growing emphasis on mainland China.

In restructuring, Golden Harvest has attempted to ride one of the great bull market runs in world cinema.

From a standing start at the turn of the millennium, the Chinese film exhibition scene has gone from its first multiplex to some 25,000 screens by the end of 2015, and from a gross box office the same size as tiny Hong Kong or Singapore to a $5 billion theatrical market in 2014. (Official government data shows 1,015 cinema complexes were opened across China in 2014, delivering 5,397 new screens — an average of 15 new screens per day — and bringing the year-end total to 23,600 screens.) On its present 30% annual growth track the Chinese theatrical market is expected to overtake the North American box office by 2017.

Even before the company’s linkup with China’s Orange Sky and Chengtian in 2007, it had its sights set on the mainland. In 2006 Golden Harvest sold off TGV, one of its two Malaysian cinema chains, with the intention of redirecting the freed-up capital into China.

Golden Harvest opened its first multiplex in China in 2005, in Shenzhen, the metropolis just across the border from Hong Kong. The seven-screen complex quickly grabbed some 45% of the Shenzhen box office and ranked in the top three China-wide. Management notes at the time record the need to build a cinema-going habit in the Chinese public.

The obstacle was that after decades of non-commercial Chinese films and a crumbling exhibition infrastructure, mainland audiences had largely deserted cinemas, preferring to watch movies — local and foreign —in disc format, many pirated.

Good locations, flexible pricing and theater marketing were key to converting China’s potential audiences back into ticket-buying spectators.

The decision by Golden Harvest founder Raymond Chow to sell his remaining 20% stake in the company in 2007 was seen by some in Hong Kong as the end of an era. The buyer, Orange Sky Entertainment, was a vehicle headed by businessman Wu Kebo. In the following two years Wu, helped by Hong Kong investment banker Kelvin Wu (no relation), consolidated their control of the group through a share offer and the injection of Wu’s Chengtian Zhihong production and talent management company. Orange Sky Golden Harvest was born.

The strategy since has been to add theater capacity in China as fast as possible, while keeping the other businesses in the more mature Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan markets growing.

In ultra-cramped and competitive Hong Kong the company has done an impressive job of refurbishing cinema interiors and hardware in the past two years. And it says it would like to build more if the opportunities arise.

The pressure is on in Singapore, where it owns 50% of the Golden Village joint venture with Australia’s Village Roadshow: The company aims to hold on to its role as multiplex market leader through refurbishments and opportunistic expansion. Unlike its two main competitors that own some of their sites, Golden Village operates entirely out of leased premises. Property and labor costs are high and Singapore’s theatrical market, dominated by Hollywood titles, is treading water.

In Taiwan, OSGH owns 36% of the market-leading Vie Show chain, and expects to open two complexes this year.

Mainland China holds the key to the group’s future strategy. It opened 10 multiplexes in 2014 and says it is aiming for a further 11 this year. That would give it 70 complexes and a total of more than 500 screens in China.

Expansion for OSGH, like all mainland distributors these days, is no longer confined to the very biggest cities. It is reaching deep into the smaller cities, which are still large by European standards, with over a million inhabitants.

As the cinema industry reaches into these less cosmopolitan destinations, market demographics and dynamics change — with average age and purchasing power decreasing. OSGH has now split its China management into four regional divisions in order to stay local, but it says that it will continue to aim for mid-market ticket pricing, rather than chasing market share through deep discounts.

“We are more focused on building our loyalty club. Marketing strategy will be two-fold: on one hand our HQ in Beijing will initiate regional marketing campaigns, while individual cinemas will take the lead on location marketing,” a spokesman says.

Similarly, OSGH has not pushed too far into the high end of the market and has only opened two Imax screens to date, though it says it is also looking at using the rival China Giant Screen technology.

With Hong Kong-based Panasia, the group owns one of Asia’s oldest distribution companies and OSGH continues to function as a distributor across all four of its territories. For China, it will handle any movies produced in-house (“Fly Me to Venus” is set for release at the end of this year or early 2016) and import foreign titles for co-distribution with China Film Group as revenue sharing quota releases.

In Hong Kong it acts as a sub-distributor for local films coming from indie producers and handles a limited number of imported acquisitions. Where possible, the company seeks to buy rights across China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.

But the distribution business can be volatile and in 2014 it failed to deliver the hits expected. That slowdown along with currency losses and a lack of profits from property trading caused the company to issue a profits warning at the beginning of the month.

Rich history

For more than two decades, Golden Harvest and its rival studio Shaw Bros. defined Hong Kong cinema in its Golden Era, a period running from the early 1970s to the mid-1990s.

This was a time when China was largely closed to foreign cultural imports and Hong Kong ran an export-led production colossus that dominated Asian cinema and influenced filmmakers from Europe to Hollywood.

Golden Harvest was formed in 1970 by a trio of executives — Raymond Chow, Leonard Ho and T.K. Leung — who broke away from the highly regimented Shaw, which sought to control the process from studio ownership and artist management through to distribution.

Golden Harvest offered flexibility by encouraging independent production, establishing satellite branches and offering profit-sharing. It also tried to be more diverse in terms of genre, and in 30 years produced some 600 titles ranging from action and comedy to arthouse titles.

Golden Harvest owed much to its early success to Bruce Lee, a Hong Kong-born, U.S.-raised martial-arts wizard who only made six films, but became an enduring superstar.

The company established overseas distribution offices in the 1970s, ensuring that new, international audiences got to see Lee’s films and paved the way for other Hong Kong talent — Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Michelle Yeoh and Michael Hui — to gain global recognition.

Lee’s “Enter the Dragon,” which was released after his death in 1973, was the first Hong Kong-U.S. film co-production and preceded international films including “The Cannonball Run” (1981) and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (1990).

Along the way, the company was involved with many executives who have since made careers elsewhere, including producer Andre Morgan (“The Warlords”), Albert Lee (CEO of Emperor Motion Pictures) and Winnie Tsang, who started in a junior position before heading distribution and then established Hong Kong’s leading indie distributor Golden Scene.

Golden Harvest’s activity as a producer slowed in the last 15 years as it concentrated on exhibition, expanding from its Hong Kong base and working with Australia’s Village Roadshow from 1992 in a Singapore joint venture Golden Village.

The company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1994 and over the next decade attracted some high-profile minority shareholders including the U.K.’s EMI and Li Ka-shing, Asia’s richest man. They enabled the company in 2005 to buy a major stake in Warner Village, Taiwan’s largest cinema chain.

Raymond Chow retired as chairman and in November 2007 sold his shareholdings to the mainland’s Chengtian Entertainment, which kept the share listing and changed the group name to Orange Sky Golden Harvest.
The previous post missed the name change.

[Jimbo]

I remember when Golden Harvest used to have a theater chain in both Taipei and HK. I went to the one in Ximending (Taipei's West Gate district) quite often in the '80s. And in '85 in HK, I saw a re-release of Way of the Dragon at a Golden Harvest theater. I went to a day show, and surprisingly, there were a significant number of people in the audience for a 13 year-old (at the time) movie.

Sadly, I never did get to go into one of the Shaw Brothers theaters. AFAIK, by the time I was overseas, the ones in Taiwan at least had closed. And I never ran across one in HK.

[GeneChing]

Not sure what this means in the grand scope of all that's happening with China film, but it is notable.


Orange Sky Slashes Investment Plans, Drops Investors (http://variety.com/2016/biz/asia/orange-sky-slashes-investment-drops-investors-1201852264/)
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

http://i0.wp.com/pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/orange_sky_golden_harvest_by_riolu947-d7kwk02.png?crop=0px%2C2px%2C1618px%2C900px&resize=670%2C377&ssl=1
COURTESY OF ORANGE SKY GOLDEN HARVEST
SEPTEMBER 5, 2016 | 07:01AM PT

Pan-Asian cinema exhibition group Orange Sky Golden Harvest has cut plans for expansion in mainland China and scaled back its plans to bring in $59.7 million (RMB400 million) from outside investors.

The move signals a changed investment climate resulting from the recent slowdown of the Chinese theatrical box office.

The investors being dropped are Beijing Weiying (aka Wepiao,) one of China’s largest online ticketing companies, and media investor Beijing Qing Zhong Tong Chuang Asset Management. It will continue to raise $29.8 million (RMB200 million) from a unit of state-controlled investment group CITIC.

In March, OSGH signaled that it would split out its Chinese multiplexes into a separate company that would first attract outside investors, and later might go for a public share listing. Now it says that it reducing its expansion plans.

“It was anticipated that the proceeds from the subscription by the Investors will be used for building and acquiring of more than 100 cinema screens during the coming three years, and that the expected capital expenditure per screen, which will be built or acquired during the coming three years will amount to approximately RMB2.5 million to RMB3.0 million. Due to changes in economic and market conditions in (mainland China), it is expected by the group that the capital expenditure required will be reduced to around RMB150 million to RMB200 million,” the company said.

OSGH, which operates cinemas in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, was one of the first companies to operate multiplex cinemas in China. But it has struggled to turn that early lead into either market dominance or profits. In the first half of this year, OSGH moved from profit to a loss of $4.25 million (HK$33 million) with the mainland China business dragging down the other segments. It explained that the losses in China were due to growing competition, new screen incubation issues and finance costs.

At the time of the proposed investments OSGH touted business synergies as a side benefit of Wepiao’s involvement in the group, and strengthened financial management resulting from Qing Zhong Tong Chuang’s participation.

OSGH shares were up 5% in trading Monday on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange prior to the after-hours announcement.

[GeneChing]

Dadi Pays $575 Million for Orange Sky Golden Harvest’s China Cinemas (http://variety.com/2017/biz/asia/dadi-pays-575-million-for-orange-sky-golden-harvests-china-theaters-1201970458/)
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

http://i0.wp.com/pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/orange_sky_golden_harvest_by_riolu947-d7kwk02.png?crop=0px%2C2px%2C1618px%2C900px&resize=670%2C377&ssl=1
COURTESY OF ORANGE SKY GOLDEN HARVEST
JANUARY 26, 2017 | 02:54AM PT
Pan-Asian cinema operator Orange Sky Golden Harvest has agreed to sell its theaters in mainland China to Dadi, China’s second-largest exhibition group.

The sale is one of the clearest signs yet of the pain being inflicted on China’s cinema sector by last year’s abrupt box-office slowdown. Theatrical receipts in China grew by less than 4% to $6.62 billion (RMB45.7 billion) in 2016, while admissions grew by 8%.

Hong Kong-listed investment firm Nan Hai, Dadi Digital Cinema’s parent company, is to pay $475 million (RMB3.28 billion) for 93% of OSGH’s China business. The China division has 76 theaters in China with a total of 531 screens. At the end of 2016, Dadi reported operating 350 theaters in 164 towns and cities. They had a combined 1,911 screens.

The sale will leave OSGH as an operator of a small circuit of wholly-owned cinemas in Hong Kong, a majority owner of the Vie Show chain in Taiwan, and a 50% joint-venture partnership in the Golden Village cinema chain in Singapore.

OSGH was one of the first Hong Kong groups to build cinemas in China, using the Closer Economic Partnership Agreement, which allows Hong Kong firms to control majority stakes, unlike foreign companies, which are restricted to minority positions. The Chinese business was by far OSGH’s biggest division in terms of cinema numbers and investment. But, despite several years of strong box office growth in mainland China, OSGH China consistently lost money.

A regulatory filing by Nan Hai showed that although the circuit’s revenue went up from US$105 million (HK$817 million) in 2014 to US$129 million (HK$996 million,) losses escalated almost as fast. After-tax losses were $4.27 million (HK$33.1 million) in 2014, rising to US$21.2 million (HK$164 million) in 2015.

Last September, OSGH cut back on its expansion in China and scaled back plans to bring in $59.7 million (RMB400 million) from outside investors. The investors being dropped are Beijing Weiying (aka Wepiao), one of China’s largest online ticketing companies, and media investor Beijing Qing Zhong Tong Chuang Asset Management. At the time it blamed the cutback on changed circumstances and the unit’s losses in China as due to competition, incubation and finance costs.

Dadi itself has recently sought the financial support of outside investors. Last year it sold $154 million of convertible bonds to Alibaba Pictures Group. And this month Huayi Brothers Media confirmed that it had paid $11.5 million for a 4.6% stake in Dadi.

Cinema owners are shuffling...

[GeneChing]

Great news! :D


Berlinale: Hong Kong Icon Golden Harvest Plans Return to Production (http://variety.com/2017/film/asia/hong-kong-golden-harvest-plans-return-to-production-1201985509/)
Patrick Frater
Asia Bureau Chief

http://i0.wp.com/pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/orange_sky_golden_harvest_by_riolu947-d7kwk02.png?crop=0px%2C2px%2C1618px%2C900px&resize=670%2C377&ssl=1
COURTESY OF ORANGE SKY GOLDEN HARVEST
FEBRUARY 12, 2017 | 10:00PM PT

Soon to be flush with cash, Golden Harvest, one of the most iconic names in Asian cinema, is planning a return to film production and distribution. The move is expected to follow the recently agreed sale of parent company Orange Sky Golden Harvest’s entire exhibition business in China.

OSGH last week announced final terms for the disposal of its loss-making chain of mainland theaters. Nan Hai, parent of Dadi, China’s No. 2 cinema chain, is the buyer. The sale will give OSGH net proceeds of $463 million (HK$3.59 billion.)

OSGH now says that it has earmarked some $168 million (HK$1.3 billion) for expansion of its existing business areas, including production, distribution, and cinema ownership outside mainland China.

It envisages film production in Hong Kong and China spanning remakes of films in the Golden Harvest back catalog, as well as co-investing in third-party pictures plus virtual reality and augmented reality products.

In the early 1990s, Golden Harvest sold off most of the library of its 1970s to mid-1990s titles that spanned Bruce Lee to early Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Michelle Yeoh titles. (Now under the Fortune Star banner, and are controlled by China Media Capital.) In fact, Korean company Studio LYD is currently making a 20-episode TV drama based on Peter Chan-directed “Comrades: Almost a Love Story,” which was made as a feature film in 1996. LYD acquired remake rights from Warner Bros., which bought part of the library in 1998 from Golden Harvest founder Raymond Chow.

However, from the remaining 135 library titles, the company says that it has identified some 20 films capable of being revisited. And it has unproduced screenplays for a further eight movies.

In recent years OSGH’s production and distribution activities have been minimal. It made small minority investments in “Red Cliff,” and “The Founding of a Party,” while its distribution arm had partial rights to “Rob-B-Hood” and “Protégé.” Now, OSGH is also proposing to ramp up its distribution business in Hong Kong and mainland China. It says that it will acquire distribution rights to four to five films per year.

The company, which has known several previous large changes of direction, was forced to sell its Chinese cinemas after failing to make them profitable. Despite having a head start on many other exhibition operators, OSGH blamed its Chinese multiplex losses on a lack of scale.

After selling the Chinese cinemas, OSGH will remain involved in operating 23 screens in 6 cinemas in Hong Kong; holding a 50% interest in 91 screens at 11 Golden Village cinemas in Singapore; and a minority interest in 13 Vie Show multiplexes with 127 screens in Taiwan.

From the lump sum, OSGH is also proposing to pay out $129 million (HK$1 billion) as a special dividend to existing shareholders and to pay off a further $88 million (HK$680 million) of debts.