Lions Gate’s Chinese Partner TIK Films: To Think Globally, Work Locally

Jun 16, 2025 CFM Co-production, Daily, Festival, Production 0

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SHANGHAI June 16, 2025 - A growing number of Chinese film companies intend to collaborate with Hollywood studios but cultural differences often make it a tricky business. The best way to overcome it is to hire local people to negotiate with them, said Eric Rong, president of TIK Films, a subsidiary of Hunan TV & Broadcast Intermediary Co.

Earlier this year, Hunan TV & Broadcast Intermediary sealed a film-financing deal worth up to $375 million with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, the studio behind THE HUNGER GAMES franchise.

Rong and three other pivotal people in making that transaction including CEO of Leomus Pictures International Qiu Jie, partner of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP Schuyler Moore and partner of O’Melveny & Myer-s LLP Stephen Scharf shared their experience at a panel discussion co-organized by Winston Baker and SIFF.

Overcome cultural barriers

Scharf and Moore listed a couple of problems that cultural differences could bring. “Chinese companies and the US companies don’t have the same level of past experience and past trust. Many of the American companies deal with each other on a daily basis. They have their fights and then they make up. But they pretty much know what they are dealing with. However, when dealing with international clients, especially with Chinese clients, American companies find there could be a lot of misunderstandings between the two parties, such as translation issues,” said Scharf.

Moore added that as long as the documents are there, Americans tend to go very fast and want things to happen. “But in my experience, Chinese are much slower and are willing to be patient. They are more than willing to let it hold and just to be discussed later on. And that can sometimes drive the US counterpart crazy,” he said.

Rong said in order to overcome the cultural barriers, Hunan group hired Moore as their lawyer and Deloitte as their accounting team. “It seems that hiring local teams could take a large amount of money, but it is definitely worth it. The money they help you save will be much more than their payment. Besides, you can always negotiate with them to lower the cost,” Rong explained.

 

 

To learn from Lions Gate

Under the deal, the two companies will produce or co-produce films aimed at Chinese film market. “This is actually the most important part as we are keen to learn from Hollywood’s well-developed pipeline and its advanced skills and techniques,” Rong said.

“Co-production is one thing, cooperation is another. Both are important and can complement each other. Co-production is a great approach but it still has its limitations and problems. On one hand, the investment itself could be a tough issue as there are exchange controls imposed on yuan; on the other hand, China hardly has any film insurance company at the moment. But cooperation could avoid these problems,” Rong explained.

Rong revealed that they would start shooting 不期而遇 (Meaning: an unexpected encounter) in the U.S. this August. Lions Gate will help them produce the film by working with US-based teams.

 

 

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