China’s Huayi Bros. Marks Third Year of Losses, Despite Delivering the Highest Grossing Film of 20201 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteHuayi Brothers, China’s longest-standing privately-owned film studio, has notched its third consecutive year of losses despite producing the world’s highest grossing film in 2020, its annual report showed.
The company’s revenues for 2020 fell by 33% year-on-year to $232 million (RMB1.5 billion) while net losses hit $162 million (RMB1.05 billion). The figures continue a losing streak: In 2018, Huayi Brothers as a parent company incurred net losses of $181 million (RMB1.17 billion), and in 2019, of $615 million (RMB3.98 billion).
The firm’s 2020 troubles come despite its success with the war epic The Eight Hundred, which became the biggest film of the pandemic-stricken year thanks to a $450 million box office haul. Overall, Huayi Bros. content brought in revenues of $150 million (RMB970 million) last year, about 64% of the company’s total revenue. This was a significant rise over 2019, when its projects brought in just $48.6 million (RMB314 million), or 14% of total revenue. The 2019 figure was much smaller in large part because censorship concerns delayed the planned summer release of The Eight Hundred by a full 14 months.
Image credit: Huayi Brothers
