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Cinemas Need the SCREEN Act: Does Congress Care?

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  With this year’s stellar box office performance only highlighting the enduring interest in the cinema experience, there’s a lot for the cinema industry to celebrate. However, that doesn’t mean the woes that have followed the industry since the pandemic are fully put to bed. Industry insiders argue that passing the SCREEN Act could do a lot to support those remaining struggles. Entertainment lawyer Brandon Blake, at Blake & Wang P.A., looks at what’s at stake.                                                                     Brandon Blake   Ongoing Struggles Fundamentally, one strong year does not a full recovery make. At least not when it comes to the capital the post-pandemic years have slowly eroded. That’s partly what the bipartisan Supporting Cinema Renewal, Enhancement, and Enriching Neighborhood...
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Another Strong Box Office Week

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  With the general optimism around this year’s box office, it’s always great to see a strong week, even if it's free of the splashy record-breakers this year has delivered. Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer at Blake & Wang P.A., dives into this past week’s releases.                                                                          Brandon Blake Resident Winners The rebooted Resident Evil franchise, now under Zach Creggar, has turned in a surprisingly strong start, at $108.3M worldwide. It’s the best start for the franchise, and for Creggar as a filmmaker. Notably, it replaces Resident Evil: Retribution , and that film only took a total of $240M worldwide, something this iteration may well surpass and should at least repeat. It also managed to bring in an extended audience, instead of o...
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Disney Gets New Streaming Lead as D2C Division Shake-Up Continues

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There have been some significant recent changes in Disney’s senior leadership, especially in its direct-to-consumer division. Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer with Blake & Wang P.A., has the full story.                                                                               Brandon Blake New Streaming Head Joe Earley, the exiting president for Disney’s D2C interests, will now move to a new role as President of the Disney Entertainment TV Franchise and Content Strategy. Adam Smith will step into his shoes as chairman. This will leave him overseeing pretty much everything that falls under Disney’s D2C banner, including their products and engineering, ad technology, programming, partnerships, viewer experience, and the ever-more-important data and analytics. That’s across both Di...
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Is Superhero Fatigue Over? Momentum Builds for Next Marvel Release

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  As Avengers: Doomsday sees strong ticket sales three months ahead of its actual release date, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day continues to see box office success, are we headed for another superhero wave? Brandon Blake, entertainment attorney at Blake & Wang P.A., takes a look.                                                                          Brandon Blake $50M With Three Months to Go Domestic pre-sales have now passed the $50M threshold for Avengers: Doomsday . The film only releases in three months. It’s certainly an excellent start for the next Marvel installment, which will be competing for screen space with the third installment in the Dune franchise when it opens in December this year. Especially given that Dune is set to dominate IMAX screens, at least for its first weekend in ...
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Have We Reached a Price Hike Too Far for Streaming?

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  Despite a flurry of price hikes earlier this year, new data from Ampere Analysis suggests that we’re reaching the bounds of what customers are willing to spend on an individual platform. Brandon Blake, entertainment attorney at Blake & Wang P.A., has all the details.                                                                   Brandon Blake     Reaching the Limit We’ve already seen the big three of streaming, Disney, Netflix, and Prime Video, scale down the ambition in their price hikes. In the 2024/2024 period, pricing increases averaged 24% per subscription type, which has slid to 14% in 2025/2026. We’ve also seen significant uptake for ad-supported tiers to reduce the cost burden on households, although average increases at this tier have been $1.61, versus $1.21 for more premium tiers.  No...
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The Odyssey Claims the Title of Best-Performing R-Rated Movie

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  Knocking Deadpool & Wolverine off its number 1 spot, The Odyssey is now officially the best-earning R-rated movie on record, as Brandon Blake, entertainment attorney at Blake & Wang P.A., is here to share.                                                                   Brandon Blake Beating Deadpool & Wolverine It’s certainly been a year for setting and re-setting box office records, that’s for sure. As of Thursday last week, Universal Pictures confirmed that the Nolan-directed retelling of Greek legend had brought in $1.352B globally, stealing the title from its previous holder, Deadpool & Wolverine, which totaled $1.338B across its 2024 run. The Odyssey has had something of a historic run at the box office, and now claims a domestic cume of $516.3M, making it Nolan’s highest-grossing movie...
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It’s a Surprisingly Strong Hollywood Slate at the Chinese Box Office

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  With Spider-Man already performing fantastically for Chinese audiences, it seems The Odyssey is keen to make its mark on the Chinese box office as well, especially with a splashy IMAX release to back it. Brandon Blake, Entertainment lawyer with Blake & Wang P.A., has the full story.                                                                       Brandon Blake   Fantastic Previews With almost $7M in the kitty before the film was released, The Odyssey looks set for a strong Chinese run. The film was, of course, shot specifically for IMAX, but seeing such a strong surge of interest before the film’s official opening was probably one of the biggest surprises ahead of its first weekend.  Overall, the film accounted for roughly 7% of this past weekend’s business, an impressive feat in...
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