Pearl Studio is a Chinese/American film production company, founded in 2012 by DreamWorks Animation and Chinese investment companies as Oriental DreamWorks (Traditional Chinese: 東方夢工廠, Simplified Chinese: 东方梦工厂). The company will mainly produce Chinese-themed animated and live action films and their derivatives for distribution within China and worldwide.
History
On February 17, 2012, DreamWorks Animation announced a joint venture with China Media Capital, Shanghai Media Group and Shanghai Alliance Investment to build a Shanghai based family entertainment company named Shanghai Oriental DreamWorks Film & Television Co., Ltd. or Oriental DreamWorks for short. The new venture is expected to develop and produce original Chinese animated and live action content for distribution within China and worldwide. The company will also produce live entertainment content, theme parks, games and consumer products. Oriental DreamWorks, owned 45% by DWA and 55% by the Chinese partners, launched on August 6, 2012, with the cash and intellectual capital worth $350 million. To produce animated films, 37 Entertainment, a Chinese animation studio with 175 employees, which had already worked on some of DWA's television productions, has been acquired.
Besides producing its own content, Oriental DreamWorks also acts as a distributor for DWA's productions. Releasing The Croods in 2013, ODW became the first company in 20-30 years that got a license to import Western films.
The studio's first animated film, Kung Fu Panda 3, is scheduled to be released in 2016, and will be made in co-production with DWA, with 1/3 of the film being produced in China.
On February 1, 2018, CMC Capital Partners announced that they have taken the full ownership of Oriental DreamWorks and renamed it as "Pearl Studio", with Frank Zhu appointed as CEO.[1] DreamWorks continues to work with Pearl with Abominable.
Productions
Feature Films
- Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016) (co-production with DreamWorks Animation)
- Abominable (2019) (co-production with DreamWorks Animation)
Dream Center
Part of the deal with the Chinese partners is also an entertainment and culture complex called Dream Center. Built in Shanghai with an investment exceeding $2.7 billion, it will feature series of theaters, cinemas, shopping areas, galleries, hotels, restaurants and the world's largest IMAX screen, and is expected to open in 2016.
