Chris Fenton, a longtime Hollywood executive who witnessed and assisted in the birth of the mega-rich marriage between Hollywood and China, is set to release a tell-all book about the process.
Fenton will publish the memoir “Feeding the Dragon: Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, and American Business,” at Simon & Schuster imprint Post Hill Press. It’s expected on shelves this July.
Fenton served as the president of DMG Entertainment and general manager of DMG North America, a multi-billion-dollar global media company headquartered in Beijing. He has produced or supervised twenty-one films, grossing $2 billion in worldwide box-office.
Currently the CEO of an outfit called Media Capital Technologies, Fenton’s experience goes beyond infrastructure and operations. He has hosted U.S. Congressional member delegations on diplomatic missions to China focused on trade, media, and investment. He is a trustee of the U.S.-Asia Institute and serves on several company boards.
The book, dedicated to his advisor and late Hollywood producer JC Spink, will survey the complicated reliance shared by American media and the booming Chinese market. The book rings especially timely as the spread of coronavirus will result in the loss of billions at the Chinese box office, in the face of a turbulent trade relationship between the mainland and the Trump administration.
“Fenton’s down-to-earth recounting of a headline-making journey. Ultimately, the intrepid exec builds a compelling case for the power of ‘cultural diplomacy’: mutually-beneficial, soft power-sharing exchanges as a better way forward than the hardliner battle lines being drawn across Beijing, Washington, and Los Angeles,” blurbs Fast Company contributor Jamie Bryan.
Fenton resides with his wife and two children in Manhattan Beach, Calif.
