Movie goers swoon over Alibaba Pictures’ epic love story, driving content unit to its first profit

Thanks to a movie where popular Chinese actress Liu Yifei plays a goddess embroiled in a complicated love story spanning hundreds of years, Alibaba Pictures has for the first time posted a profit for its content production segment after consecutive years of heavy losses.

Once Upon a Time, based on bestselling fantasy novel Three Lifetimes, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, made 534 million yuan (US$84.5 million) at the Chinese box office, helping Alibaba Pictures’ content production segment earn a profit of 4.1 million yuan in 2017, up from losses of 243.5 million yuan the previous year.

However, the company as a whole recorded a net loss of 950 million yuan, primarily due to high marketing expenses incurred in promoting its Tao Piao Piao online ticketing platform, the company said in its earnings statement.

Alibaba Pictures also co-invested in films such as Paradox, starring Hong Kong actor Louis Koo, and is currently developing a TV series and film called Swords of Legends 2, based on a popular role-playing game in China.

Chinese technology companies like Alibaba Group, Baidu and Tencent have been investing heavily in digital content and entertainment, producing their own TV series and films as well as operating subscription-based video platforms, and even online ticketing platforms, as they race to carve out market share in China’s rapidly growing consumer digital entertainment market.

“Full-cycle content production involves significant upfront capital and time investment. For the content production business in the future, [Alibaba Pictures] will also place emphasis on developing creative, positive, family oriented content,” the company said in a statement.