A few days ahead of the grand opening of Shanghai Disney Resort, the Chief Executive Officer of Disney Robert Iger has announced that the company will team up with China to create movies, as the country springs up to become the world's largest film market.
"We have a lot of development activity right now to make Disney-branded films in China," he told Bloomberg Television during an interview at the Shanghai Disney Resort.
Iger revealed that Disney has teamed up with state-owned Shanghai Media Group Pictures to make Chinese films bearing the company's brand in the coming years. Furthermore, a deal was allegedly signed by both companies in 2014 to jointly develop movies for China as well as other markets.
"We are very far along on this process, including developing ideas, concepts for films and identifying talents to make those films," Iger said.
He noted that Disney will have "at least one" movie in production in the country within the year.
In an interview with CNN, Disney's chief executive admitted that China is indeed a challenging market to operate in because of its "increasingly hostile" business environment." The company is also facing a rough situation after Dalian Wanda Group, which is owned by Asia's richest man Wang Jianlin, used Disney characters such as Captain America and Star Wars Stormtrooper in an "anti-Disney" theme park opened recently.
Iger believes that venturing into movie production would help maximize Disney's profit and heat up the battle at China box office.
Disney films have performed well in China. Disney movies make up four of the five highest-grossing films in China this year such as Zootopia and Jungle Book.
According to China Film Insider analyst Jonathan Papish, the entertainment company is on track to make $1 billion mark in a single year in China's box office.
