Entertainment Lawyers

There have been suggestions of a looming IATSE strike for several weeks, and it finally looks like the matter will go to a general vote as of October 1st. Should it be authorized, the strike will lead to a national shutdown across the film and TV industries. We turned to entertainment attorney and industry expert, Brandon Blake, for all the details to know for now.                                          Brandon Blake - Managing Partner at Blake & Wang P.A There’s no secret that conversations around worker’s rights (as well as wealth inequality) have been holding the headlines of late. Below-the-line workers’ issues have been highlighted, especially through a key anonymous social media account, over the last year and a bit, exacerbated by the pandemic.  IATSE’s concerns center on a contract-negotiation impasse between them and studios, compelling the union to move ahead with the vote-to-strike. Key issues include wages, long working hours, overnight turnaround times, worker’s ri

                                                                                            Brandon Blake Amazon has canceled HBO Max subscriptions as of last week, as WarnerMedia leaves its bouquet of channels. Anticipating significant subscriber loss with the move, HBO Max has announced a dramatic price cut to head off the potential hemorrhaging. With such a major entertainment business move afoot, we asked entertainment lawyer Los Angeles and industry expert, Brandon Blake, to weigh in on the implications.  Amazon Prime Video subscribers accounted for just north of 5 million HBO subscribers, so this is no small shift. Will the lure of 50% off for the first 6 months be enough to entice these lost subscribers back, or at least to bring in replacements? Amazon has also fired back, offering $0.99c promotional subs for Paramount+ and other remaining streaming services for two months, creating an intriguing pricing battle all of its own.  At first glance, the move seems sudden, but, in

Marketing in the digital era can be a double-edged sword. While smart social media tie-ins are a relatively cheap way to gain a lot of traction, it’s also easy to get lost in the crowd. It’s almost inevitable that film marketing will have to evolve for the new century if their IPs want to stay relevant and draw crowds who have a ton of entertainment options competing for their attention. This week we’ve seen some innovative and daring marketing for the fourth installment of the Matrix franchise hit the screen-  Brandon Blake, an entertainment lawyer with decades of experience in the industry, explores one of the most interesting trailer launches we’ve seen in years. Brand Blake - Managing Partner at Blake & Wang P.A. With The Matrix ’s strong takes on tech, social engineering, and society as a whole, perhaps it’s not all that surprising to see something novel emerge from its marketing stable. Fans are being offered a sneak peek at film footage through the site WhatIsTheMatrix.com

  If there’s a pandemic success story to celebrate, it has been the rise and rise of F9 . This week we see Shang-Chi: Legend of the Ten Rings surge to a surprising $70M opening, giving it an opening night that surpasses F9s . Will it be able to sustain the success? We asked Brandon Blake, L.A-based entertainment attorney , to weigh in on this strong opening. Brandon Blake It’s been a little over two years since we’ve had a full MCU movie release, and now within short months, we’ve seen 2 of the planned phase 4 films hit the circuit. While Black Widow had a same-day streaming release, Shang-Chi will be a theater exclusively for the next 45 days. It’s a strategy that wasn’t without debate, and Disney has been open in calling this- the first theatrical-only release since the beginning of the pandemic- an experiment. It’s a stance that has earned them some understandable kickback from the stars involved, but the movie does seem to have t