Shanghai: Chinese Theater Giant Dadi Takes Stake in Tom Cruise's 'American Made' (Exclusive)

The Universal film stars Cruise as real-life American pilot and hustler Barry Seal, who ran drugs for Pablo Escobar and was recruited by the CIA for one of the biggest covert operations in history.

Tom Cruise's next major theatrical outing is getting more support in China.

Chinese exhibition giant Dadi Media Group has taken a stake in American Made, the upcoming crime thriller from Universal Pictures.

Directed by Doug Liman, the film stars Cruise as real-life American pilot and hustler Barry Seal, who ran drugs in the 1980s for cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar before getting recruited by the CIA for one of the biggest covert operations in history.

With over 400 cinemas and 2,500 screens across the country, Dadi is China's second-largest exhibitor, behind only real estate conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group. Leveraging its expansive theatrical footprint, Dadi will serve as a marketing and promotional partner for American Made in China.

Dadi will also serve as a co-distributor of the movie in the Middle Kingdom with Jetsen Group, the Beijing-based electronics and digital media company that revealed a stake in the Universal title during the Cannes Film Festival last month.

Marketing and promotion arrangements of this kind are becoming increasingly common for U.S. studio titles in the Chinese market. On Monday, Wanda revealed at the Shanghai International Film Festival that it had boarded and would promote Paramount's Transformers: The Last Knight.

Previously titled Mena, American Made was formerly set for release in January, but Universal pushed back its North American opening to Sept. 22, a better position for prestige dramas.

Domhnall Gleeson, Jesse Plemons, Sarah Wright, Jayma Mays, Lola Kirke and Caleb Landry Jones also star in the film. It is produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Doug Davison, Brian Oliver and Tyler Thompson.