Alibaba Pictures-backed Green Book triumphs at Oscars
Green Book landed three Oscars at the Academy Awards on Sunday: best picture, best original screenplay and best actor in a supporting role.
Take a bow Alibaba Pictures, an offshoot of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group which produced Green Book along with Participant Media and Dreamworks Pictures. “Even though we are a relatively new entrant into Hollywood, we have a track record of choosing quality projects that not only have high entertainment value, but also have positive messages we believe in,” says Wei Zhang, President at Alibaba Pictures. “We are honoured to co-finance this Oscar-winning film and introduce it to Chinese audiences.”
The company also played a major role in promoting Paramount Pictures’ Mission Impossible: Fallout last August, tapping partners from across its ecosystem, such as the online marketplace Taobao, video-streaming hub Youku and digital wallet Alipay. Over the Chinese New Year holiday, it also released Peppa Celebrates Chinese New Year, the first full-length feature film based on the UK cartoon character, co-produced with Entertainment One.
More recently, Alibaba Pictures’s film-ticketing platform Taopiaopiao promoted James Cameron’s sci-fi thriller, Alita: Battle Angel, in China. To transport viewers to its post-apocalyptic world, Taopiaopiao designed a featured page based on the movie’s setting, Iron City. Those who visit the page and play games for tickets and vouchers are dubbed Bounty Hunters, a play on a theme in the movie.
