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Asia's Richest Man Wang Jianlin Thrives Anew From China's Box Office Boom

This article is more than 8 years old.

It’s not easy to become one of the world’s richest men without a thriving business or two.

Wang Jianlin, whose $34.1 billion fortune is the largest in Asia,  made his early money in the real estate industry. Yet his wealth is also getting a boost this year from China's entertainment industry. Wang’s Wanda Cinema Line, one of the country’s largest movie-theatre chains, said Friday its net profit in the first six months of 2015 soared by 50% from a year earlier to the equivalent of $101 million. Revenues rose by 41% to $562 million.

Business benefited from a boom in China’s box office, whose receipts climbed by nearly half in the first six months of the year to $3.3 billion, helped by the Hollywood likes of “Furious 7.” PwC in a report last month predicted that China’s box office spending would surpass $5 billion in 2015 and rise at a compound annual rate of 15% from $4.3 billion last year to $8.9 billion in 2019.

Wanda Cinema Line went public at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in January. Wang also is the majority owner of AMC, the U.S. movie theater chain listed in New York. The Beijing-dwelling businessman is looking to expand its overseas movie theatre empire again, too. Last month, Wanda Cinema Line announced plans to buy 100% of Australia’s Hoyts for $365.7 million.

--with Maggie Chen

--Follow me on Twitter @rflannerychina