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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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The Pitt and Stranger Things Dominated Streaming in the First Half of 2026

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  With a new edition of Nielsen’s Gauge report recently released, one thing is crystal clear: domestic audiences are still in love with both Stranger Things and The Pitt. Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer at Blake & Wang P.A, breaks down the current state of streaming for us.                                                                           Brandon Blake A 2025 Premier (Technically) Regarding Stranger Things , it’s technically a 2025 release. But given it aired on the last day of the year, that’s splitting hairs. It was Nielsen’s most-streamed title so far for the year, beating out not just fellow TV titles, but also movies.  It managed 23.26B viewing minutes across the period, also setting a single-week record of 8.65B minutes for its first week. While it fell off the top 10 cha...
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Peacock and YouTube Team Up

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  Building on the deal inked last year, Peacock and YouTube will now be expanding, adding Peacock bundling to YouTube Premium as well as some livestreams for sports events on YouTube channels. Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer with Blake & Wang P.A., shares the news.                                                                           Brandon Blake YouTube and Bundling May Be the Next Hit It certainly seems like YouTube Premium is keen to make itself the next major entertainment bundler. Peacock will now be included with the $15.99 YouTube Premium service, beginning next year. With NBCUniversal itself preparing for a split from its parent company, Comcast, this could be a lucrative source of new subscribers for the streaming platform, which has only just managed to break even in the ...
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LA Sees Another Dull Production Quarter as It Waits for Tax Incentive Impacts

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  We’ve seen another glum quarter for shoot days in LA, but with the bulk of the projects that benefited from the expanded and refreshed tax credit program only set to show in the next quarter, there’s still a lot to hope for. Brandon Blake, entertainment attorney at Blake & Wang P.A., walks us through it all.                                                                          Brandon Blake Shoot Days Down for Q2 Compared with the same quarter in 2025, shoot days were down 12.7%. However, let’s not lose sight of the fact that the expansion to California’s tax credit incentive program will only really show in the next quarter, before anyone gets too gloomy. Of the 170 projects that have been granted credits under the new plan, most will only show their impact from Q3. 41 new feature films ha...
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The Audience as Asset, Not Just as Viewers

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  We’ve seen a lot of shifts in the entertainment industry over the last decade. As everything has moved towards digital access and monetization, the role of the audience is now more important than ever. No longer are they just viewers, but an active asset that young filmmakers are using to sell their pitches, as we saw recently with Backrooms . Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer at Blake & Wang P.A., looks a little deeper.                                                                          Brandon Blake Part of the Pitch Film financing has always been a complicated thing. However, in an era where every variable is expected to be measurable, that moves the eyes on the screen into an asset of their own. Being able to arrive with a built-in audience may well be the leverage between a success...
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Peacock Launches Ad-Free Offerings on YouTube Primetime

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  If you were hoping to access Peacock’s Ad-Free tier through YouTube, you’re in luck, as YouTube honors part of its 2025 distribution deal with NBCUniversal with a new launch. Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer with Blake & Wang P.A., has the full story.                                                                       Brandon Blake Peacock Premium Plus Now Available on YouTube The deal will now see Peacock Premium Plus available as part of YouTube’s Primetime Channels, the culmination of last October's deal between the two companies. It came on the heels of a rather contentious renegotiation battle that could have ended in a potential blackout.  This was one of several clashes YouTube faced last year, with Disney’s 15-day impasse possibly the most notable. Perhaps we can write them off as...
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Netflix Makes Major Inroads in the French Market

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  One year after Netflix announced a major new carriage deal with TF1, the French broadcaster, to fill out its live and on-demand libraries, we’re finally seeing it all go live. Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer at Blake & Wang P.A., is here to fill us in.                                                                        Brandon Blake   More to Watch, All in One Place At least, that’s what the campaign slogan for the launch wants to reassure us. Netflix is in the middle of an aggregation strategy at present (one that looks, honestly, a little like traditional pay TV), as its own way to broaden both the content on offer and its presence in its overseas territories. The idea being that viewers can watch TF1+ programs and live channels integrated directly into the standard Netflix environmen...
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