SEOUL – South Korean studio Mediaplex announced on Wednesday that it has sold its third-ranked exhibition chain Megabox to a group of foreign investors.
The newly formed Korea Multiplex Investment Corporation, led by Australian banking group Macquarie, puchased the entire holding of Mediaplex's 2.93 million shares for $156.5 million.
Together with the sale, the two sides signed a two year agreement under which Mediaplex will continue to operate the theater chain in return for $10.8 million plus a package of incentives.
The news has raised a certain degree of alarm in a country where large-scale foreign acquisitions are often greeted with suspicion. Megabox, which operates 19 venues and 155 screens including the world's busiest multiplex at the COEX Mall in Seoul, now becomes the first exhibition chain to be wholly-owned by foreign interests.
Meanwhile, speculation is also rife over the future of Mediaplex and its powerful movie distribution/investment arm Showbox.
The company issued a press release on Wednesday detailing its intention to increase the activities of its newly-launched production division Motion 101, with 4-5 in-house productions planned per year. The company also intends to assemble additional pools of film financing, to be used for a variety of projects including big-budget ($10 million+) projects.
Nonetheless, Showbox has been seen to be losing ground to rival distributor CJ Entertainment in securing high-profile projects. In an unusual move in late June, Showbox pulled out of director Kim Jee-woon's high-profile western "The Good, the Bad, the Weird" in mid-production, with CJ taking over as pic's local investor and distributor.
Showbox is currently preparing for the launch of the massive English-language project "D-War", which is rumored by some to have severely compromised the company's finances.
Budgeted at $70 million, pic bows on August 1 in Korea and will get go out stateside in mid-September via Freestyle Releasing.
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