Hollywood
Imax & Omnijoi expand revenue share partnership in China with 15-theatre deal
MUMBAI: Imax Corporation and Omnijoi Cinema Development Co., Ltd, (erstwhile Jiangsu Eudemonia Blue Ocean Cinema Development Co., Ltd.) have expanded their revenue sharing arrangement with the addition of 15 new Imax theatre systems in China.
This agreement brings Omnijoi Cinemas’ total Imax commitment to 31 theatres and positions the exhibitor as the third-largest Imax exhibitor partner in China and fifth-largest globally.
“Today’s agreement will see Omnijoi Cinemas nearly double its Imax footprint – a significant commitment that underscores the success of the Imax business model and the continued demand for The Imax Experience among Chinese moviegoers. Omnijoi is a valued partner that shares our passion for innovation and quality and together we look forward to continuing to change the way audiences in China experience today’s biggest blockbusters,” said Imax CEO Richard L. Gelfond.
“This partnership is a direct result of the success of our existing Imax theatres that have delighted our guests with the best Chinese and Hollywood films in the world’s most immersive cinematic format. As we continue to expand our network of cinemas, Imax will be a flagship attraction at our upcoming complexes – one we are confident will continue to support our business,” said Omnijoi Media Group vice president Yang Shu.
Omnijoi Cinema Development was founded especially to develop and operate cinemas. It has over 15 locations of five star Cineplex as of 31 May, 2015. The company is planning to invest billions RMB to build 150 Cineplex with 1200 screens and become a leading exhibitor in China.
Hollywood
Utopai Studios partners Huace to deploy PAI for long form content
Deal includes revenue sharing as Huace adopts AI engine across global ops
MUMBAI: Lights, camera… algorithm, the script just got a silicon co-writer. In a move that signals how storytelling itself is being re-engineered, U.S.-based Utopai Studios has partnered China’s Huace Film & TV Co. Ltd. to bring artificial general intelligence into the heart of long-form content creation.
At the centre of the deal is PAI, Utopai’s cinematic storytelling system, which Huace will deploy as a core engine across its production pipeline from development and creative iteration to global localisation. The partnership includes a large-scale annual usage commitment from Huace, alongside a usage-based revenue-sharing model, underscoring both ambition and commercial confidence on both sides.
For Huace, one of China’s largest film and television companies, the bet is not on automation alone but on scale with control. With distribution spanning over 200 countries and a presence across more than 20 international platforms, including Netflix and YouTube, the company brings a vast content ecosystem where even marginal efficiency gains can translate into significant output shifts. Its extensive TV IP library further positions it as fertile ground for AI-assisted storytelling workflows.
The choice of PAI follows what Huace described as a rigorous evaluation of existing AI tools, many of which remain limited to fragmented use cases such as video generation or editing. What tipped the scales, according to the company, was PAI’s ability to handle long-form narrative complexity maintaining continuity, structure, and creative coherence across entire story arcs rather than isolated clips.
Utopai, for its part, is using the partnership to anchor its international expansion strategy, pitching PAI as an enterprise-ready system built for customisation, privacy, and regulatory adaptability across markets. That positioning becomes particularly relevant as global media companies increasingly scrutinise how AI integrates into proprietary workflows.
The timing is notable. Earlier this month, Utopai upgraded PAI to support three-minute 4K video generation and advanced multi-shot sequencing features designed to tackle one of AI storytelling’s biggest hurdles: consistency across scenes.
What emerges is not just another tech collaboration, but a glimpse into how the grammar of filmmaking could evolve. Because if stories were once crafted frame by frame, the next chapter might just be coded scene by scene.
