Entertainment Lawyers

Over the Lunar New Year public holiday, running February 11th-17th this year, we’ve seen the Chinese Box Office boom. Despite theaters still running with capacity restrictions, we see a bigger Box Office than 2019, greater ticket sales, and even more theatre screens in play than during the comparable 2019 season. With a slate of 7 solid pictures, including 2 big drawcards, and even a global top-performing movie, it’s a huge step forward for both the Chinese and global markets. BLAKE & WANG P.A best entertainment lawyers in Los Angeles dive into what this could mean for the U.S Box Office going forward. China was, of course, the first country to be hit by the novel COVID-19 virus strain. Unlike many Western nations, super-strict lockdowns were implemented, including 6 months of total cinema closures. Despite that shutdown, from July 2020 we saw them slowly reintroduce their public to cinemas with some imported new releases and library movies. They picked up speed with the wildly ...

We’ve finally seen what Disney+ had up its sleeves for European Originals. A dazzling slate of 10 shows, including those aimed for their general entertainment brand, Disney Star, has been released this week. It’s anticipated this will jump to 50 international titles by 2024. BLAKE & WANG P.A Entertainment Attorney Los Angeles dive in deeper. This planned rollout will see local content pitched to Disney’s 95 million subscribers, across their 58 territories. The first 10 slated shows will roll out in Italian, German, French, and Dutch. Supposedly, a UK slate of programming is also on the cards. This EU-focused bundle features comedy, drama and docu-series. While Disney+ will continue to carry the bulk of their family-friendly creations, Star will cater to an older audience, something like Hulu. Disney Star officially launches on 23rd February 2021 and will remain a title within the Disney+ bouquet. Eight of the ten slated foreign titles will stay on the Star network, hoping to act a...

  This week we see WGA West President David A. Goodman go on record as ‘very pleased’ that the 34-month agency campaign from the WGA has drawn to a close. David Goodman further states that they have ‘achieved their goal’, with the talent agencies representing their writers now sharing aligned goals with the WGA itself. It’s pretty clear they are glad to see issues such as packaging fees and agency-owned production entities put to rest, deeming them ‘problematic business practices’ from the start. As Goodman himself puts it, ‘a writer’s agent should make more only when his client does.’ While the core idea of packaging- bringing together the separate creative elements of a show in one bundled whole- is perhaps not all that worthy of worry, the WGA has long maintained that they create a conflict of interest for the agent. As a knock-on effect, the agent has an incentive to low-ball their writer-client in favor of agency-owned production interests. In fact, the WGA has claimed this to...

There’s no secret that it’s been a bad year for filmmakers and a strange one for the industry. With a veritable flurry of exciting nominations and wins coming from a host of other award shows, it’s tempting to start sorting through the lists for hints and clues as to who will take the ultimate prize when Oscar nominations roll along. BLAKE & WANG P.A Entertainment Lawyer San Francisco sifts through what we know so far, so you don’t have to. It’s certainly a difficult season to be an Academy member. With well over 215 films slated as potentials and no social interaction to bounce ideas and buzz off of other members, it’s been difficult to know where to focus their attention. And it shows, in the lack of current ‘sure favorites’. Searchlight’s Nomadland and Netflix’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 have definitely been tabled as must-views, but past that there seems to be little agreement or consistency. From what we’ve heard from members, some have merely opted to watch what got uploa...