The story behind Wanda Cinema's rebranding

Beijing News Shell Finance reporter Yan Xia; editor Yang Juanjuan; proofreader Liu Jun

A-Shares will have no “Wanda Film” anymore.

On March 28, Wanda Film (002739) released an announcement to change its company name and its stock abbreviation to “Yu Yi Film.” For a moment, the capital markets felt not just a simple change of identifiers, but the quiet exit of a whole era’s symbol.

From “Wanda Film” to “Yu Yi Film” (the final new name is subject to approval by the market supervision and administration department), what is changing is not only the stock abbreviation, but also an era of business storytelling. Wang Jianlin once tried to reshape the cinema circuit channel with a “scenario–traffic–monetization” logic from commercial real estate, building scale barriers through coordinated effects between shopping malls and cinemas; however, high-leverage expansion and cross-border M&A drained Wanda Group’s liquidity, and Wang Jianlin ultimately lost control of Wanda Film.

Now that control has changed, Wanda Film, with its “super entertainment space” strategy at the core, focuses on building a coordinated ecosystem across the film industry chain and operating high-quality IPs, while continuously enhancing competitive advantages in its main business. Through innovative business models such as diversified operations, scenario integration, and cross-industry linkage, as well as strategic investments in multiple new consumer brands, it is reshaping offline entertainment experiences and actively pushing the company’s business to transition from a single box-office income model to a diversified consumer ecosystem.

Judging by its performance record: losses in 2024 and a planned profit in 2025. The road ahead is long; how long and how far the “super entertainment space” strategy can run remains to be proven by time.

A real estate giant’s film dream collapses: the capital reshuffle behind Wanda Film’s renaming

Why does Wanda Film need to change its name? According to the information disclosed in the announcement, simply put: “the actual controller has changed, and the symbol should change accordingly.”

Specifically, as early as April 15, 2024, the上市公司的 control changed. The actual controller changed from Wang Jianlin to Ke Liming, and Shanghai Yu Yi Investment Management Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Yu Yi Film & Television Production Co., Ltd. collectively held 100% of the equity of the上市 company’s controlling shareholder, Beijing Yu Yi Investment Co., Ltd.

As a result, “in order to better align with the company’s strategic development direction,” the上市 company plans to change its name to “Yu Yi Film Entertainment Co., Ltd.,” and change its stock abbreviation to “Yu Yi Film.”

The上市 company also emphasized that “after this renaming, Wanda Cinemas, as one of the company’s important cinema brands, will continue to provide users with high-quality movie-watching and offline entertainment services.”

When talking about Wanda Film, the starting point of the story goes back to 2004, when the first Wanda Cinemas was established. At that time, Wanda Group’s founder Wang Jianlin entered the cinema circuit business as a real estate giant, a decision that was viewed at the time as “not doing one’s proper business.” However, Wang Jianlin was keen enough to catch the pulse of China’s consumption upgrade— as shopping malls spread across the country, the aggregation effect of cinemas as a driver of foot traffic became increasingly prominent.

On January 22, 2015, Wanda Cinemas Line (Wanda Cinema Line Co., Ltd.) listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Data from Oriental Fortune shows that on the first day of trading after listing, Wanda Cinemas Line closed up 43.98%; afterward, it even posted daily closing limit-ups for 11 consecutive trading days. Its total market value easily exceeded RMB 49.1 billion, becoming the real “No. 1 China cinema line stock.” By the end of 2015, the closing total market value of Wanda Cinemas Line had exceeded RMB 149.7 billion.

▲ Wanda Film’s performance over the years. Beijing News Shell Finance reporter Yan Xia; charting by illustration

On May 19, 2017, “Wanda Cinema Line Co., Ltd.” changed its name to “Wanda Film Co., Ltd.,” and the上市 company’s stock abbreviation also changed from “Wanda Cinema Line” to “Wanda Film.” At that time, the renaming was a declaration of business expansion—the company said it had formed diversified business segments including film projection, film advertising media, film integrated marketing, film derivative sales, and online live-streaming platforms, among others. The proportion of non-box-office revenue had already exceeded one-third of operating revenue, and the “film-life ecosystem” the company was building had basically taken shape.

This renaming came with an adjustment to the organizational setup: Wanda Film planned to build five major business platforms—cinema line terminal platform, media marketing platform, film and television IP platform, online business platform, and film-and-game interaction platform—to strengthen the company’s core competitive advantages in the film industry.

From “cinema line” to “film,” the difference of just two characters signaled the realization of an ambition across the entire industry chain and a leap in identity from a channel provider to an ecosystem leader. However, this narrative could not last. In 2019 and 2020, Wanda Film suffered massive losses for two consecutive years. Goodwill impairment and the shock from the pandemic followed one after another, and the “ecosystem” vision quickly faded. Looking back at the ambition at the time of renaming, it now seems more like a typical footnote to a real estate capital cross-border entry into the cultural industry—scale can be built up, but the underlying genes are hard to change.

In 2021, Wanda Film managed to turn losses into profits with difficulty. In that year, the cumulative market share of its cinemas (including light-asset cinemas) was 15.3%, up 1.2 percentage points from 2019. Apart from February and October affected by the spillover effect from release schedules, its market share in other months was no lower than 15.5% for the full year.

By 2022, the company suffered another round of severe losses. Even worse, entering 2023, Wanda Group’s liquidity crisis intensified. According to media reports, in April 2023, Wang Jianlin admitted in a meeting with executives: “The IPO of Wanda’s commercial management in Zhuhai has encountered difficulties, and the group’s funds are extremely tight.” Various signs indicate that the cash collected to meet Wanda Group’s needs could no longer satisfy it through repeated scattered reductions of Wanda Film’s equity.

On December 12, 2023, Wanda Film’s indirect controlling shareholder, Beijing Wanda Culture Industry Group Co., Ltd. (abbreviated as “Wanda Culture Group”), and its wholly owned subsidiary, Beijing Hengrun Enterprise Management and Development Co., Ltd. (abbreviated as “Beijing Hengrun”); together with the company’s actual controller, Wang Jianlin, and Shanghai Yu Yi Investment Management Co., Ltd. (abbreviated as “Yu Yi Investment”), signed an “Equity Transfer Agreement regarding Beijing Wanda Investment Co., Ltd.” They planned to transfer a total of 51% equity of Beijing Wanda Investment Co., Ltd. (abbreviated as “Wanda Investment”), which they collectively held, to Yu Yi Investment, for a total transfer price of RMB 2.155 billion.

In April 2024, the equity transfer was completed, and Wanda Film changed hands.

Two “answer sheets” after Wanda Film changed hands: losses in 2024 and expected profit in 2025

After Ke Liming took over, Wanda Film officially entered the “Yu Yi era.”

On January 29, 2024, Chen Xi became chairman of Wanda Film. The resume shows that Chen Xi graduated from the Central Academy of Drama, holding a bachelor’s degree in performance; she also completed the Financial EMBA at Tsinghua University’s PBC School of Finance. In 2012, she founded Yingyi Tong Media; from 2015 to January 2024, she served as general manager of Shanghai Yu Yi Film & Television Production Co., Ltd., and executive director of China Yu Yi Holding Co., Ltd.

▲ Wanda Film’s annual operating plan. Beijing News Shell Finance reporter Yan Xia; charting by illustration

From the operating plans disclosed in annual reports, differences between the “Wanda era” and the “Yu Yi era” can also be seen. After Wanda Film changed hands, the business focus gradually began to explore extensions toward “channel + content coordination.” Among them, the term “IP” was repeatedly mentioned in the operating plans for 2024 and 2025; and in the 2025 operating plan, it even directly said it would “increase investment in high-quality content.”

The financial reports show that Wanda Film’s 2024 performance was not satisfactory, with a loss in net profit attributable to shareholders exceeding RMB 900 million. At that time, the company said that in 2025 it would focus on content as the core and actively innovate new models for film consumption. On the cinema line side, on the one hand, the company would continue to develop high-quality directly operated cinemas to further improve market share; on the other hand, it would actively expand IP derivative cooperation, deeply mine the value of cinema lobbies, build a super entertainment space, and continuously improve cinema profitability. On the content side, the company would continue to focus on content creation, launching more high-quality film and television works. The company’s investments and productions—multiple films including “You Have Dots Like You,” “Savage Forbidden Land,” “Turning Thoughts Bloom,” “Cold War 1994,” “Strange Tales: Lanyao Temple,” “Don’t Open That Door,” “Lang Lang Life,” and “Chance Encounter,” among others—are expected to be released within the year. The company would also continue to integrate resources across the entire industry chain to strengthen film promotion and distribution business, continuously improving investment returns on films.

The reporter noted that in the 2024 annual report, the “super entertainment space” strategy was proposed for the first time. Wanda Film stated that in 2025, it would implement the “super entertainment space” strategy, focusing on its film main business and the layout across the entire industry chain; it would increase cinema expansion efforts, deepen the commercial value of IPs, increase strategic investment commitments, focus on high-quality content, strengthen coordination among all business segments, and continuously enhance core competitiveness and operating performance.

The latest announcement shows that Wanda Film’s expected net profit attributable to shareholders of the上市 company in 2025 is RMB 480 million to RMB 550 million. In that year, multiple films produced and invested by the company—such as “Detective Chinatown 1900,” “Nanjing Photo Studio,” “Boonie Bears: Reboot Future,” “The Lychee of Chang’an,” “Lang Lang Life,” and “Strange Tales: Lanyao Temple,” among others—were released and achieved favorable word-of-mouth and box-office results.

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