The Business Cheng Wu

Tencent’s film chief on his Hollywood strategy, China’s box-office slowdown and why more U.S. deals make sense: ‘We need each other’

- Scott Roxborough

Growing up in Beijing, Cheng Wu had a nick-name: Little Tiger. “It was my mother’s name for me,” says Cheng. “I was born in 1974, the Year of the Tiger. Think of it what you will.” Believers in Chinese astrology say tigers are “brave, competitive, stubborn and unpredictable,” he adds. That’s a fair description of the man picked in September 2015 by Chinese technology giant Tencent — an online gaming platform that had become China’s leading Internet portal, social media site and instant messaging service before expanding into online publishing, TV and film production — to run its nascent film and TV division, Tencent Pictures. Since taking over, Cheng’s predatory instincts have led the 29,000-employee Tencent Holdings to invest in Legendary Pictures’ fantasy epic Warcraft (and its upcoming King Kong origin story Kong: Skull Island) and to a development deal with The Dark Knight producer David S. Goyer. Parent company Tencent Holdings, which in September passed Alibaba to become the most valuable company in Asia (market cap: $250 billion), has been equally aggressive in Hollywood, taking equity stakes in mini-studio STX Entertainment (Bad Moms) and Stuart Ford’s foreign sales and finance outfit IM Global (Hacksaw Ridge) and setting up a joint venture in China with sports and entertainment power WME-IMG.