Merger of two U.S. theater chains heats up anti-Chinese concerns

AMC is poised to become the largest theater chain in the world with the pending purchase of Carmine Cinemas.

AMC Entertainment Holdings has taken a giant step to becoming the world's largest exhibitor heating up anti-Chinese sentiment by protectionist interests.

AMC, the second-largest U.S. theater chain, today (Dec. 20) secured shareholder approval from Carmike Cinemas for a $1.2 billion merger and some AMC stock. "We are pleased with the outcome of today's vote," David Passman, Carmike president and CEO, said a statement following the shareholder meeting in Atlanta.

If the Department of Justice approves the buyout, by the end of the year AMC is set to leap ahead of the Regal Entertainment Group, which has 564 theaters, to become the biggest theater circuit in the U.S. and around the world. AMC's 387 theaters would be bolstered by Carmike's 276 outlets. 

AMC was bought in 2012 by China's richest man, Wang Jianlin, chairman of the Dalian Wanda conglomerate. That acquisition, along with other Chinese investments in Hollywood entertainment industry, raised concerns about their influence on what goes on the silver screen.

RELATED: How China is changing Hollywood

“There is no political point of view,” Wang Jianlin, the chairman of Dalian Wanda, who is also China’s richest man, told a crowd in Los Angeles in October. “I am a businessman.”

Others in the film industry, such as Hollywood producer Janet Yang, attribute the backlash against Chinese media control to xenophobia and discomfort with China’s rising global power.

“If you grew up on John Wayne or Clint Eastwood or superhero movies, or these very powerful iconic pieces of content, that does affect what you think the world order looks like,” she says. “That’s a paradigm shift; some people can’t handle it.”

Much of the opposition is being led by Washington lobbying firm Berman and Company, which uses a network of front organizations to carry out campaigns on behalf of anonymous clients, is led by Rick Berman, a veteran lobbyist who 60 Minutes once called “Dr Evil”, for defense of issues such as second-hand smoke, trans-fats, tanning beds and payday loans and attacking the Humane Society, labor unions and Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

One of the front organizations called “China Owns Us” put up anti-Chinese billboards in L.A., wrote opeds and met with members of Congresss to warn them of the potential danger of China buying up American businesses.

"What I’m trying to do is stop somebody else from managing the culture here,” Berman says. 

Berman claims credit for the letter from 16 congress members that asked the government to look into the role of a federal committee known as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), in determining whether deals such the AMC and Carmike merger weakens national security. 

Berman won't reveal who is paying him for his anti-Chinese campaign, only that his clients  are wealthy and concerned about national security.

"AMC is completely run by its American management in Leawood, Kansas, as American as an American place in the heartland you can find,” says AMC’s chief executive, Adam Aron. “We’re in the business of selling movie tickets and popcorn, and we don’t involve ourselves in what goes on in China.”

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TGIF FEATURE: Premiering Sunday, 'Into The Badlands' starring an Asian/American badass

Stephen Fung and Daniel Wu provides insight into their action-packed show' Into the Badlands.'

FINALLY, Into The Badlands, is here, premiering Sunday (Nov. 15) starring California-raised Daniel Wu, who may become the next big Asian/American action hero.

No yellow-face here. No eyes taped into a squint. No accents or speaking broken English. No mysterious sayings open to all kinds of misinterpretation. 

Anticipation for this AMC production has been building for a year and reached a crescendo with the previews at ComicCon in San Diego. Wu, who after years of starring in over 60 movies in Hong Kong, has come back home to see if a the tastes of the American television audience is ready for a heroic Asian badass.

Well ... OK, he's skilled in the martial arts. Some stereotypes are tough to kill. But he's a good guy. Or, at least he wants to be a good guy. A bad guy wanting to be a good guy. Something like that.

Be thankful for what he's not. Wu's Sunny is not: a sex-starved buffoon, a second banana (no pun intended), a nerd, a white guy's best friend or the anonymous Asian guy lurking in the background.

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Wu looked up to some of martial arts’ biggest stars. “As a Chinese-American kid growing up here, there was not many role models I could look up to on the big screen,” he said. “The ones that appeared were Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Those were the guys that inspired me to want to learn martial arts.”

Wu, along with fellow executive producer Stephen Fung, serves as fight director for the series.

Although best known for his action films - and Badlands does nothing to dispel that - it may be a recently released romantic comedy that will bring him the to the attention of Hollywood producers and writers. Go Away Mr. Tumour, is a gigantic box-office hit in China, and it is also China's entry in the foreign-language Oscar category.

"It's not at all my objective to become an Asian-American star," says Wu. He says it only occurred to him recently that he's now become that rare animal on American television: an Asian lead. "This will only be significant in proving that American tastes are evolving if (Into the Badlands) succeeds," he says.

The six-episode martial-arts series is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the last traces of civilization reside in territories controlled by power-mad feudal barons. Working for one of these is cold-blooded assassin Sunny (Wu), who embarks on a spiritual journey with a teenager, M.K. (Aramis Knight), in tow. (Although the role of M.K. was not intentionally written for an Asian actor, it turns out that Aramis is half-Pakistani.)

We will have to wait and see if Sunny gets the girl. Any white hero eventually ends up with the girl, right? Asian characters don't follow that path in U.S. productions. The danger of martial arts-based characters - especially those played by Asian actors - is that they are one-dimensional fighters and nothing else; essentially emotionally and physically neutered.

Let's hope that Wu, who is the show's executive producer, has enough moxie and pull with the AMC to allow Sunny evolve into a more complex, multifaceted character. That would help the push the show beyond the kung fu genre.

“It can’t be just a martial arts show,” says Wu. “That’s a very narrow niche. 

"Just like what ‘The Walking Dead’ did for the zombie genre, you have to elevate it to another level so an audience can get into it. It’s not zombies chomping on people. We’ve seen that since the ‘60s. It’s the same thing with us. We’re trying to create a really compelling story, around the martial arts.”

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