ARTS / FILM
Lost in Russia
Photo: Promotional material for Lost in Russia Photo: Lost in Russia's official Sina Weibo account
Chinese film Lost in Russia made history in becoming the first movie debuting during Spring Festival on streaming platforms for free of charge to the audiences.
TikTok's owner Bytedance, a growing internet technology tycoon, reached an agreement with Huanxi Meida Group Limited on Friday to exclusively broadcast the latter's production Lost in Russia on its several platforms, including Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok), Jinri Toutiao and Xigua Video.
Lost in Russia was one of the seven Chinese films originally planned to debut in Chinese mainland cinemas during the Spring Festival holidays this year but joined the premiere cancellation announcement due to the concerns of novel Coronavirus on Thursday.
The news that Lost in Russia will be aired on streaming sites for free during the Spring Festival trends on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo with a lot of netizens praising the innovative and bold decision of both the streaming platforms and the film's producers.
Huanxi Media Group Limited announced its intention to establish an all-around and strategic cooperation with Bytedance. Aside from paying for the broadcast rights of the films and dramas owned by Huanxi Media Group Limited, Bytedance will also produce high-quality contents and explore to open a brand new streaming channel with Huanxi.
According to media reports, Bytedance made a payment of 630 million yuan ($90.83m) to broadcast Huanxi's contents on its platforms. Huanxi canceled its 2.4 billion yuan box-office income guarantee agreement with the investors of Lost In Russia due to the film not being able to debut in mainland cinemas. The agreement said that Huanxi could get its around 600 million yuan production fees only when the film earns over 2.4 billion yuan.
The shares of Huanxi Media Group Limited rose 43.07 percent to HK$ 1.96 as of Friday noon after the cooperation was revealed early in the morning.
