Entertainment Lawyers

  If there’s been one thing that’s become rare in the movie industry since the shockwaves of the pandemic, it’s been Chinese release dates. Once a powerhouse of the international Hollywood release scene, a combination of their rising domestic film industry, a political swing away from the West, and disputes over content types have rendered Chinese releases for Hollywood films a modern rarity. Avatar: The Way of Water , it seems, will be bucking that trend. Entertainment attorney Brandon Blake, with Blake & Wang P.A, has more. Brandon Blake A Previous Big Grosser The original Avatar movie did exceptionally well on the Chinese market, earning well over $260M across its release and re-releases. To put that in perspective, it’s also 9% of the film's lifetime cume and contributing to its status as the highest-grossing movie of all time. The original movie also managed to ‘score’ a modern Chinese release date, re-releasing to a selection of screens in March 2021 in order to dri...

  This week we see the UK government open a consultation period with leaders of industry on a plan to reform their tax relief measures for varying entertainment productions. In particular, they are looking to merge the tax credit system for TV and film, including children’s content and animation, into a simpler tax credit system. Blake & Wang P.A entertainment lawyer , Brandon Blake, examines the proposed changes.  Brandon Blake Spring 2024 Implementation While the reforms in question will launch in their final form in Spring 2024, interested parties only have until February 2023 to make their voices heard. The proposed changes aim to both modernize and simplify what is, indeed, a rather complex claims system. In fact, there’s few proposed changes to the qualifying criteria for access to the relief programs, simply how they are managed in the wider sense. However, high-end TV could see an increase in the minimum expenditure needed to qualify. Currently, this category t...

  Live sports streaming is accelerating fast, with more and more sports programs turning to streaming services, instead of traditional broadcast, to reach the widest audience possible. Roku has made itself a small, but solid, corner in the world of streaming giants through its adaptability- and it seems they’re back at it again with this new development, too. Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer with Blake & Wang P.A, has the news. Brandon Blake Sports Dedicated Corner Roku will now add a dedicated area in their streaming interface for live sports fans to track the action. This will act as a centralized hub for their wider sports streaming offerings, sparing watchers the need to toggle between various apps to find the coverage they’re looking for.    With sports now booming across a range of streaming services- from Amazon’s NFL Thursday Night Football to Apple’s Major League Baseball and the wealth of sports now on offer through Disney’s ESPN+. Word is that N...

  Of the FAST TV services out there, Pluto has managed a very interesting growth pattern for a company that has no juicy exclusive original series or films to bring to the table. Now averaging 72M active users, and eyeing a target of 120M by 2025, it’s an interestingly different approach to the streaming wars. Blake & Wang P.A entertainment lawyer , Brandon Blake, takes a closer look. Brandon Blake A Nielsen First As of September 2022, Pluto managed an interesting record as it became the first FAST platform to feature in Nielsen’s Gauge, taking 1% of the total TV viewership it measures. Powered mostly by CBS’ legacy content library, it was quite a coup for them. It also suggests they have real potential to become a cornerstone of the FAST market. In 2021 they managed about $1B in revenue, only slightly less than Paramount’s paid streaming option, with 4.8B viewing hours logged.  An Early Start Founded in 2013, Pluto is one of the first true FAST services on the mar...

  It may be the year for reawakened old franchises to shine, or so it seems. With Top Gun: Maverick managing to rejuvenate a franchise dead for nearly 3 decades, we’ve also seen Hocus Pocus 2 , the sequel to the 1993 original, turn in a solid performance. And now it has set a Nielsen record for itself. Entertainment lawyer with Black & Wang P.A, Brandon Blake, shares the news. Brandon Blake Top Movie Streaming Minutes Netting itself a truly impressive 2.7B streaming minutes on Nielsen’s weekly chart for September 26 to October 2, the film topples Encanto’s 2.2B minutes of viewing, achieved in the last week of 2021. Of course, Encanto also had only its first weekend qualify for that period, so it may not be a true apples-with-apples comparison, but it is certainly good to see the increase in viewership either way.    Interestingly, it also managed to perform surprisingly well across age demographics, with 25% of total viewership each going to 2-11 year olds, ...