Paramount Pictures’ $1bn three-year film financing deal with Huahua Media has been scrapped following China’s moves to curb capital flight, the Viacom-owned Hollywood studio said on Tuesday. Paramount said it would cover the gap in financing, which was meant to fund 25% of its film slate between 2017 and 2019, through individual agreements with companies including Hasbro, Skydance Media and Sega. The studio said the decision to end the agreement with Huahua was mutual and followed “recent changes to Chinese foreign investment policies.” China has imposed regulations to limit capital flight that have scuppered some outbound deals this year. According to the Financial Times, concerns about the Huahua deal emerged in August when Viacom executives told investors on a conference call that it had not received an expected June payment from Huahua.
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