China's gaming giant Perfect World backs Oscar Gold

LOS ANGELES - Perfect World's world just got a little more perfect.

This past weekend, three movies the Chinese gaming powerhouse cofinanced waltzed home with three Oscars - Hollywood's highest honors - after nabbing a staggering total of 14 Academy Award nominations.

That's a remarkable achievement for a foreign company that only got their foot in Hollywood's door via a studio cofinancing deal in 2016.

"Of course, we couldn't be happier to have so many nominations and wins this year, in only our second year of collaboration with Universal/Focus Features."

Perfect World Vice President, Chen Rong, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview Tuesday.

Perfect World, a hugely successful Chinese gaming firm founded in 2004, is ranked the third largest gaming company in China and the 21st largest worldwide. It also launched its TV and film business in 2008, and Perfect World Pictures has since became one of the power houses of premium TV productions in China, consistently ranked top five in the country by revenue.

Perfect World Games and Perfect World Pictures merged in 2016 and earned $1.25 billion in annual revenues in 2017. The company has a market cap of $7 billion now.

Looking to further grow its feature film business and expand worldwide, Perfect World Pictures snap up a coveted partnership with one of the Big Six Hollywood Studios: Universal Pictures.

"The China film industry and Hollywood are increasingly interconnected. Hollywood pays a lot of attention to what is happening in China and the China film industry also watches closely what is happening in Hollywood," said Chen.

So, Perfect World entered into a $500 million, 50 picture, five-year cofinancing deal with Universal Pictures Studios and their specialty division, Focus Features.

Little did they know how successful they would be right out of the gate.

One of the first films produced under their partnership with Universal was the Darkest Hour, starring Gary Oldman as British Wartime leader, Winston Churchill.

It went on to pile up Hollywood's and the international film industries highest accolades, including six Oscar nominations, nine British Academy Award nominations, two Aussie Academy Awards International nominations and one Screen Actor's Guild Award nomination.

Those resulted in two Oscar wins - Best Actor for Gary Oldman and Best Make Up Oscar for Kazuhiro Tsuji and crew, two BAFTA wins, one AACTAI win and one SAG Award win.

Costing only an estimated $30 million, it grossed $139 million worldwide, to date.

Another one of the Universal/PW films, Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson's poignant ode to couture fashion, starring Daniel Day Lewis giving his farewell performance, has garnered six Oscar nominations, a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination for Daniel Day Lewis, an AACTAI Best Actor nomination, and three BAFTA nominations.

It sewed up an Oscar and a BAFTA win for Best Costumes.

Their third picture, Victoria & Abdul, was also well received, pulling in two Oscar nominations, a Best Actress Golden Globe nomination for Judi Dench; ditto from SAG, and a BAFTA nomination for Best Hair and Make Up.

By way of contrast, while Universal/Focus Features hauled in a total of 18 Oscar nominations, MGM and Paramount netted zero and Lionsgate, only two.

When asked how they picked their films, Perfect World told Xinhua that because their in-house analysis had shown investing across a slate of studio projects, which allows them to reap cross-collateralized profits across the board, would result in higher returns than cherry-picking individual projects to invest in, they opted to back Universal's slate.

"(Universal/Focus Features is) a great partner and we look forward to many more successes ahead with them," said Chen.

When asked why they partnered with a Hollywood Studio which makes English-language studio movies in the first place, Chen explained: "Over the years, Hollywood has proven itself to be the most far-reaching source of entertainment content in the world ... From a business perspective, having access to the largest market is always important; and from a creative perspective, having reach to the most audiences in the world is important."

Perfect World's overnight Oscar success will definitely lead to greater influence and brand-recognition in Hollywood and around the world, said successful producer, Jeff Most, "These kind of wins are what makes producers like me sit up and pay attention."

"Perfect World has always strived to be a global brand, and these Oscar wins and quality films could potentially enable Perfect World to make its mark in the global market place and tell its stories to the worldwide audience," Chen added.

Having not just one but two Oscar-winning and three Oscar-nominated films on their roster this early on will definitely enhance PW's profile and entertainment credentials at home in China as well, as it did for broadcaster Hunan TV and their subsidiary TIK Films after La La Land, a film they invested in, snapped up six Oscars and went on to gross $446 million worldwide.

"(Academy Awards are) recognized worldwide, and therefore, being associated with an Oscar and the making of quality films could potentially make Perfect World more recognized in the Chinese mainland market," said Chen.

"The recent restructuring of Perfect World Games and Perfect World Pictures, makes it convenient for IP adaptations and cross-industry cooperation."

"When asked if they intend to do more US-China coproductions, Chen told Xinhua, "Yes, but only if the story itself is a good story and it calls for a US-China coproduction naturally, meaning, we would not ...'force' a project into coproduction just to get the higher revenue share."

He concluded: "We will as always strive to make more quality films and will be happy to see Chinese films nominated for Oscars in the future too."