China’s Joy Pictures Turn Towards Sale and Production of Animation

China’s Joy Pictures — previously a buyer, marketer and distributor best known for bringing “La La Land” to China — is now turning towards the production and sale of animation, and is at Afm for the first time this year as a seller.So far a hot title has been one of Joy’s few live-action films: “Libai: Fire in the Sky.” A fantasy martial arts pic jointly produced by Joy, Tencent Penguin Pictures and Ckf, it streamed exclusively on Tencent earlier this year.

All rights have been sold to Korea, and discussions are under way for India and Europe.Highlights from the rest of its almost exclusively animation slate include two titles co-financed by Joy: “The Legend of Hei,” which grossed $44.8 million in China in September and screened at Afm Saturday, and “Gg Bond,” an older IP targeting the 4-to-12-year-old demographic, produced by Winsing Animation.Joy is also producing

Read full article