More to Wanda's Hollywood foray than meets the eye?

There must be more to Dalian Wanda Group's $3.5 billion deal for control of Hollywood film studio Legendary Entertainment than meets the eye.

The price appears reasonable as last year alone, as many as seven Hollywood flicks, including Legendary's Jurassic World, grossed more than $1 billion each at cinemas worldwide. Of the seven, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which has already raked in $1.73 billion, is not yet done at the box office.

These are just box office receipts. Movie revenues also stream from DVDs, Blu-rays, television broadcast rights, pay-per-views, merchandising, so on. The 2009 sci-fi epic Avatar holds the all-time revenue record (nearly $3 billion). Clearly, successful Hollywood movies make a lot of money. But money is not what cash-flush Wanda appears to be chasing through Legendary.