Huayi Brothers
Huayi Brothers Media Corp. is a Chinese entertainment conglomerate founded in 1994 by brothers Dennis Wang Zhongjun and James Wang Zhonglei. It rose to prominence through successful collaborations with directors Feng Xiaogang and Jiang Wen early in their careers, particularly through Feng's Chinese New Year films. Huayi Brothers played a key role in the marketization of China's film industry in the 1990s and emerged as a leading entertainment company in the 2000s, with businesses spanning film and television production, talent management, music, and fashion. The company was listed on the ChiNext board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2009. Since the 2010s, it has experienced a gradual decline.
History
Huayi Brothers operates through a number of wholly owned and affiliated subsidiaries, including Huayi Brothers Talent Agency Co., Ltd., Huayi Brothers Film Investment Co., Ltd., Huayi Brothers Television Program Co., Ltd., Huayi Brothers Music Co., Ltd., Huayi Brothers Advertising Co., Ltd., Huayi Brothers International Distribution Co., Ltd., Huayi Vision Media Advertising Co., Ltd., Huayi Brothers Cinema Investment Co., Ltd., and Huayi Brothers Fashion & Culture Media Co., Ltd., among others. In mainland China, its principal competitors are Bona Film Group, China Film Group Corporation, Hairun Pictures, and Orange Sky Golden Harvest.In 2008, Huayi Brothers acquired the talent agency Zhongqian Longde and the film and television production company Jinze Taihe.
In May 2011, Tencent invested RMB 450 million in Huayi Brothers, acquiring approximately 4.6 percent of the company's shares. The following month, Huayi Brothers announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Huayi International had formed a joint venture with Legendary Entertainment and other partners to establish Legendary East, a company focused on the production of English-language films. In March 2012, Huayi Brothers partnered with Now TV, Edko Films, and Peter Chan's We Pictures to launch Channel 133 in Hong Kong.
In July 2013, Huayi Brothers acquired a 50.88 percent stake in Yinhan Technology, a Chinese mobile game developer and operator, through a combination of equity and cash, valuing the company at RMB 671.61 million. From 6 to 8 June 2014, Huayi Brothers held a large-scale anniversary event in Haikou to commemorate the company's twentieth anniversary.
In 2015, Huayi Brothers announced plans to spin off its new media business and establish it as a separate internet entertainment company for independent listing. That same year, the company made several high-profile acquisitions of celebrity-affiliated companies. In November 2015, Huayi Brothers acquired a 70 percent stake in Dongyang Meila, a company founded by director Feng Xiaogang, for RMB 1.05 billion, despite the company having been established only two months earlier with minimal assets. In October 2015, Huayi Brothers also announced the acquisition of a 70 percent stake in Zhejiang Dongyang Haohan Film & Television Entertainment Co., Ltd., a company established one day earlier, valuing it at over RMB 1 billion.
Huayi Brothers Movie World, a theme park inspired by the company's film productions, opened in Suzhou on 22 July 2018. The same year, following the fallout from Fan Bingbing's tax evasion case, which triggered industry-wide tax audits, capital withdrawals, and regulatory tightening, Huayi Brothers was among the companies most affected. It reported a net loss of approximately RMB 1.2 billion in 2018, marking its first annual loss since its 2009 listing. The company has continued to record losses in subsequent years, accompanied by significant year-on-year revenue declines.
In June 2022, the Zhejiang branch of the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued warning letters to Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei after determining that they had failed to suspend trading and timely disclose changes in their shareholdings as required, only filing the relevant equity change reports in December 2021.