Movie Hotel, a Chinese hotel brand that wants to build hotel rooms that double up as private cinemas, has secured RMB 175 million (USD 25.3 million) in a financing round backed by AlphaX Partners and crow-funding platform Duocaitou. The round includes RMB 75 million (USD 10.8 million) in equity investment and RMB 100 million (USD 14.5 million) in a credit line, according to Chao Jia, founder of Movie Hotel.
Movie Hotel had raised millions of yuan in Series A2 funding round led by Star Century and Buhuo Ventures. In its Series A round, Movie Hotel raised RMB 100 million (USD 14.5 million) from IDG and Buhuo Ventures.
Movie Hotel features large-screen movie screening in its guest rooms to create the hybrid experience integrating movie derivatives, movie-themed social spaces and movie shooting. The concept of having a private cinema in an accommodation space satisfies consumers’ desire for diversified film entertainment and unique cultural consumption experiences through delivering theme rooms, film immersion services, film salons, meetup with celebrities and more.
Movie Hotel is also exploring movie resources so as to diversify its profit sources. Currently, there are more than 3,000 display screens in the operational hotels, which are used for the promotion of popular films and TV dramas and news releases of celebrities. At the same time, Movie Hotel is the exclusive distributor of the film derivatives of China Film Group, Beijing Film Academy and Mtime.
At present, more than 300 projects have been signed and nearly 50 hotels have opened. Mr Jia said that the proceeds from the latest fundraising round would be used to further improve the operation of opened hotels.
Movie Hotel expects to land in major cities across China by 2021. The company will also make it a priority to continuously enhance customer experience and products, creating unique offline experience for younger generations in a similar way as Disney theme parks.
