Warner arm in China.(Warner Brothers' home video distribution and marketing arm)(Brief Article)

Video Business, February, 2005 by Groves, Don

Warner last week became the first U.S. studio to launch a home video distribution and marketing arm in China, as it continues to lay the groundwork for an entertainment empire there that will bolster the territory's film industry and, it hopes, encourage Beijing to stamp out piracy. It's also planning a world preem of Casablanca--The Dance, a staged interpretation of the classic pic, in Beijing in April.

It will be the first show conceived in the West to world preem in China. Warner's objective is clear: To provide greater access for its vast range of products in a market of 1.3 billion people where rampant piracy has stymied the film and video industries.