Entertainment Lawyers

 There’s been an interesting swing in topics notable among entries for the Berlin Film Festival this year. Combined with a return to live to screen, something that’s very much against the current trend, it makes for an interesting and poignant mix. Brandon Blake, our local entertainment attorney , takes a look.                                                              Brandon Blake Make Love, not Politics? The Berlin Film Festival has something of a reputation for hard-hitting, often political, dramas. Yet this year we see a theme that’s far from it, describable only as ‘love’ and all the happy times it promises. We’ve even seen artistic director, Carlo Chatrian, acknowledge it as he read out nominees "Never before have we seen and welcomed so many love stories as this year: crazy, improbable, unexpected and intoxicating love." The intent, it seems, is to help foster better social bonds, after a tough two years of lockdown. Slimmed Down Field The 2022 event will be returni

 With Scream releasing right at a time where we’re seeing a resurgence from the Omicron variant, is a strong domestic box office too much to hope for? Apparently not, at least if the film’s booming opening weekend successes are anything to go by. Entertainment attorney Brandon Blake looks at what we can expect.                                                           Brandon Blake The Spiderman Boost Q4 takings for the domestic box office have a lot to thank Spiderman: No Way Home for. Rocketing to the top position in a meteoric rise, there the spider has sat, dominating the entire industry, ever since. With the right momentum, Scream was well placed to topple its triumphant domination- and, in fact, has, taking an unexpectedly strong $35M over its opening weekend, nudging Spiderman out of first place for the first time since its release.  Given that its predecessor, Scream 4, was something of a box office flop, that’s rather impressive. It’s been a decade since we’ve seen movement i

 Unlike many streamers, it seems HBO and HBO Max left 2021 with a subscriber target that was not only met but surpassed. Blake & Wang P.A entertainment lawyer Brandon Blake has the data for us.                                                        Brandon Blake 74 Million Subscribers With a subscriber total nearly brushing 74 million, there were 4.4 million added in the final quarter alone. This beats internal predictions, making HBO one of the few streamers to actually meet, let alone topple, their subscriber goals for 2021.  Was WarnerMedia’s controversial day-and-date release strategy part of the lure? They will, of course, want us to believe that. For a streamer that launched in April 2020, with a very poorly handled launch crippled by the many mothballed programs it was relying on, it’s an impressive growth number whatever the reason. It will also give WarnerMedia the boost it needed in the wake of its restructuring around a streaming focus.  Consistent Growth It is also wor

 With Spiderman: No Way Home gaining such traction at the box office, it’s likely Matrix Resurrections hoped for a little of the same magic. However the theatrical day-and-date release has failed to impress so far, and the only record it has toppled is one it would likely rather have skipped. Blake & Wang P.A entertainment attorney , Brandon Blake, breaks it down for us.                                                       Brandon Blake Ok, but Unexceptional The 5-day opening for Matrix Resurrections sits at $22.5M, with 2.8M Smart TV households tuning in over the same period. This stacks up as 1.76M tickets bought, vs the 12.6M sold for Spiderman. Even Sing 2 managed 4.1M. So it’s pretty clear that the HBO Max release killed its own theatrical attendance. The simultaneous streaming release has also launched Matrix to the number 1 slot…of pirated features for this week. It’s taken a 32.6% share in the top ten torrents, twice as high as the PVOD-available ‘clean copy’ Resident Evil