BEIJING (Reuters) - China's property-to-entertainment conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group said on Tuesday that it has agreed to buy a controlling stake in Hollywood movie studio Legendary Entertainment in a deal worth about $3.5 billion.
Wanda's chairman Wang Jianlin, China's richest man, said at a news conference in Beijing that the Chinese firm was acquiring Legendary Entertainment for both intellectual property reasons and the studio's movies. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier this month a deal had been agreed.
Wanda is already the world's biggest movie theater operator, controlling AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc, North America's second-largest cinema chain, and Australian movie theater company Hoyt's Group. Wanda Cinema Line Corp, the group's domestically listed firm, is the biggest theater operator in China.