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Will The Coming Mergers Impact Sundance?

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With the interesting developments around bids for Warner Bros. Discovery, it’s looking like a complicated festival season. But what will these major shifts among the traditional Hollywood studios mean for the coming film festival season? Brandon Blake, review here entertainment attorney Los Angeles USA with Blake & Wang P.A., offers his thoughts on these changes.                                             Brandon Blake   Upcoming Lineups, Looming Chaos Just ahead of Sundance releasing its 2026 plans, which will be its last year in Park City, we have a very unusual M&A landscape, where a somewhat hostile set of dueling bids has eclipsed the fact that Warner Bros. is heading for new ownership entirely. Warner Bros. has not been a major festival name for some time now. But it’s a chaotic merger (and that’s being kind), and the likelihood of escaping its impact ...
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Versant Will Start the New Year as a New Company

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 In a planned company split that is going far smoother than it is for Warner Bros, Comcast has now shared that Versant will be ready to operate as a standalone company from January. Blake & Wang P.A.one of the top entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles, USA, Brandon Blake, unpacks what we know.                                                                           Brandon Blake Board of Directors Approval One of the last hurdles in the planned split of most of their cable TV assets from Comcast proper has now been passed, with Comcast’s board passing approval of the spinoff company. This will happen on Jan 2, after the close of trading in the US.   This split will see many familiar assets move into Versant control, including SyFy, MSNBC, E!, CNBC, the Gold Channel, and Oxygen. Ver...
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The Battle for Warner Bros. Goes to the Second Round

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   It’s time for round 2 of the battle for ownership of Warner Bros Discovery, as it will remain for a few months yet. WBD has asked its potential bidders for a second (sweetened) round of offers this week. Our expert entertainment lawyer from Blake & Wang P.A., Brandon Blake, sums up the status of the deal-making so far.                                                                                                                                       Brandon Blake   Non-Binding Bids, But Little Revealed   Let’s recap what we know to date. The first round of non-binding bids ended in the last weeks of November. Param...
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Wicked Brings Some Pep Back to the Box Office

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  In some great news for a rather lackluster fall box office, Wicked: For Good has turned in a successful opening weekend, one of the best box office openings ever for most of its stars, including the director and producer. We have Blake & Wang P.A.one of the top entertainment attorney in Los Angeles, USA, Brandon Blake, with more.                                                                                                             Brandon Blake Beating Records   Ironically, Wicked: For Good is turning in a performance that the first film could only dream of. It’s also the second biggest North American opening of this year, lagging behind only A Minecraft Movie . Its debut was officially $15...
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Goldman Sachs: The New Agency in Town?

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    It’s unlikely that many had an investment bank giant move into representation on their cards, but here we are. With a new majority stake in Excel Sports Management, the entertainment landscape has a new talent backer in play- and notably, that growth is once again in the sports market. Brandon Blake, our entertainment lawyer Los Angeles at Blake & Wang P.A., looks at the news and what it could mean for the talent agency business.                                                           Brandon Blake   Goldman Sachs Acquires Major Talent Agency Share   The deal for the majority share has not been fully released, but is set to cost the investment bank almost $1B. The deal itself was with  Private Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, their private equity arm. We’ve seen private equity’s interest in the entertain...
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Zootopia 2 Should Perk Up The Thanksgiving Box Office

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  Will we see another highly successful Thanksgiving box office weekend? With Zootopia 2 already performing strongly in tracking, we certainly could. In fact, the sequel could even beat out last year’s Moana 2 , or even give 2019’s Frozen 2 a good run. With the full story, we have Brandon Blake, an entertainment lawyer from Blake & Wang P.A.                                                                             Brandon Blake   Strong Debut Predicted   Presales for the film are already in line with Pixar’s Inside Out 2 . That film opened at $154.2M over just 3 days back in June 2004. Zootopia 2 has 5 to put to good use, and current predictions suggest that we could see the film take $125M+ on its opening weekend.   To date, Disney has been responsible for ...
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YouTube Snags Even More of the TV Market

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  It’s definitely been a great quarter (and indeed, a great year) for YouTube TV. As it releases its next quarter earnings, complete with a growing share of the TV Market, we have Brandon Blake, Entertainment Lawyer Los Angeles at Blake & Wang P.A., with the facts and figures.                                                                             Brandon Blake   Advertising Grows   In the latest financial quarter, YouTube TV advertising brought home $10.3B. This is a significant rise from the start of the year, which closed at $8.9B, rising to $9.8B in the previous quarter. Alphabet, its parent company (alongside Google), took in total revenue of $102.35B, with earnings per share of $2.87. This is a 16% growth over 2024, and came in above analysts’ expectations....
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