Entertainment Lawyers

After Ne Zha 2 ’s extraordinary rise last year, it was inevitable that this Chinese New Year’s cinema takings would look a little drab. However, this is also one of the most influential periods for Chinese cinema. Brandon Blake, the entertainment lawyer with Blake & Wang P.A., offers a look under the hood of this year’s cinematic performance.                                                                         Brandon Blake A Successful Box Office? It’s tempting indeed to note the decline in this year’s takings and leave it at that. However, the Chinese New Year brought home RMB 5.75B, or about $842.3M over the festivities. Admissions were 120 million people.  That’s 18% down on last year’s takings, which hit RMB 7M, or $965M. Was this year likely to match Ne Zha 2 ? No. That was a remarka...

  Despite the many frustrations of the flux US filmmaking currently finds itself in, the independent production circuit is holding up strong, with foreign partners now becoming the go-to way to get media made. Brandon Blake, check the entertainment lawyer Los Angeles with Blake & Wang P.A., looks at how co-productions are now helping to scale and expand productions’ reach globally, with Canada leading the way. Brandon Blake Canadian Filmmaking Expansion Under official local co-production rules, Canadian filmmakers cannot spend more than 25% of their total budgets abroad, meaning that they often need to find foreign partners for additional financing boosts. However, this model can introduce its own complexities along the way, not least of which is the coordination needed to make it work. Co-productions allow a little more flexibility, especially to look for cheaper areas to shoot without skirting the rules (too much). It can also offer the “scaffolding” needed to open up new te...

  While they haven’t formally upped their current all-cash bid for Warner Bros., Paramount has sweetened the deal a little with a ticking fee. To fill us in on this latest development, we have Blake & Wang P.A. check entertainment lawyer Los Angeles USA, Brandon Blake.                                                                     Brandon Blake Ticking Fee Offer   While the underlying $30 all-cash bid per share will stay in place, they have added a new $0.25 per share ticking fee payable to the shareholders for every quarter the deal Paramount wants with Warner Bros. Discovery has not closed, with the timeline starting on the last day of this year.   This should come out to around $650M in value per quarter and, at a deeper level, is also something of a flex from Paramount that it...

  Although the Sony Group overall reported strong gains in its latest earnings report, Sony Pictures Entertainment didn’t fare quite so successfully. Brandon Blake, see entertainment lawyer Los Angeles with Blake & Wang P.A., fills out the details.                                                                        Brandon Blake Revenue Dip Despite $2.3B in revenue overall and $197M for the third quarter, Sony Pictures Entertainment was down 12% on last year, and 11% for the quarter. In quite stark contrast, the Sony Group as a whole saw a 22% growth. They also reported a drop in marketing costs for their theatrical fare, although a decrease in sales still pulled down overall operating income.   However, with some perspective, that looks a little less like a failure. The same quarter la...

 Connect Ventures, the venture capital arm of the CAA, has built out its leadership team further. Brandon Blake, our entertainment attorney from Blake & Wang P.A, tells us more about the change. Brandon Blake Post-Expansion Leadership Connect Ventures was the CAA’s first expansion into venture capital, founded in 2020 as a joint venture with New Enterprise Associates. It works as an investment vehicle, helping to start up and grow early-stage consumer businesses not just for media and entertainment, but also sports, gaming, health and wellness, and e-commerce.   Their team is now joined by both Nicole Quinn and Michael Blank as managing partners, while Adam Friedmann from the CAA joins as a venture partner. He will be their daily lead for both Hollywood talent management and sports representation. NEA Remains New Enterprise Associates remains as a partner, although together with the CAA, this is something of a relaunch of the firm to be a proper new entrant in...

  The box office and its recovery have been a major worry for most entertainment players since the COVID closures contributed to an industry-wide shakeup. Despite some ups and downs, however, the trend has been up, and it should be a good year for theatrical, as Brandon Blake, USA-based entertainment lawyer Los Angeles at Blake & Wang P.A.                                                                     Brandon Blake Strong Stable Slate   Notably, this will be the very first year after the closures where we have the thing most essential to box office success: a reliable and stable slate with real weight behind it. The early 2020s, obviously, had COVID-linked disruptions to filming, and the box office moved right on to the dual strikes of 2023, further impacting the flow of films. With a full sl...