Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty
In September 2013, a cadre of Western A-listers followed the money to Qingdao, China, where billionaire Wang Jianlin was breaking ground on a mini-rival to Hollywood that would feature a theme park, a yacht club, and 20 film studios. Leonardo DiCaprio zoomed down the red carpet signing autographs; John Travolta blew the crowd a two-handed kiss; Catherine Zeta-Jones gushed about the arrival of “this dream and this vision;” Nicole Kidman shyly lamented, “I only know how to say ni hao.”
Wang’s firm had paid the celebrities and several others roughly $50 million to attend, according to a Wall Street Journal report published that month. For Wang, that was a rounding error. Just a month prior, he had been crowned China’s richest man, with a net worth of $14.2 billion. By 2015, that fortune would more than triple.
What a difference a decade makes. Since June 2015, Wang’s estimated net worth has plummeted nearly $40 billion, thanks in part to a mountain of debt saddling his empire of malls, theaters, and real estate. The pandemic dealt him another crippling blow, as the Chinese government imposed severe restrictions on public gatherings.