More than 60 Chinese and international movie stars, including Leonardo DiCaprio, attend the opening ceremony of Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis on Sunday. Xu Chongde / for China Daily

Qingdao launches Oriental Movie Metropolis

Dalian Wanda Group Co Ltd announced on Sunday plans to establish a huge movie industry project in Qingdao, Shandong province, with an investment of more than 50 billion yuan ($8.2 billion).

The 3.76-million-square meter Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis will have a film and television industrial park, a film and TV convention and exhibition center, resort hotels and a yacht club.

"We spent about four years considering the project," said Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group, one of China's leading property conglomerates.

Wang said the company originally had intended to build just a movie studio, but given the unstable cash flow and high risk of the film and TV industry, it decided to extend the project to include tourism and commercial property.

"We value highly the importance of the ratio of cash flow over liability, and the cash flow of the tourism industry and commercial property is stable and predictable compared with the film and TV sector," Wang said.