Entertainment Lawyers

  A Dull December Slate? Not Thanks to Specialty Programming! While we may not have seen box office-breaking numbers from the first few weeks of December, we’ve certainly seen a pumping and robust slate that has managed to keep audience interest piqued and ticket sales ticking over steadily. And that was about the last thing anyone predicted for this traditionally dull time in the box office calendar. Whether or not we eventually hit the coveted $9B mark for the 2023 box office, there’s a valuable lesson on offer from this month. Specialty and indie theatrical releases should not be the afterthought they have been in previous years- in fact, they may be exactly what the theatrical audience is looking for! Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment attorney Los Angeles, Brandon Blake, analyzes this unexpected, but exciting, new trend.                                              Brandon Blake A Lesson of Scale If you were asked to predict the top films for any box office in December, would a

  The Boy and the Heron Takes a Record Domestic Opening It’s been a great year for underrated and unexpected titles at the box office. While a 12.8M opening may seem small in comparison to the franchise blockbusters of previous years, it represents massive support for an animation piece opening in cinemas in the US- and the momentum is only growing. Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyers with Blake & Wang P.A., shares the great news.                                              Brandon Blake Biggest North American Opening Hailing from Studio Ghibli and the greatly esteemed mind of animation filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, The Boy and the Heron took a total of 12.8M from theaters in its opening weekend, including a very strong $4M debut Saturday- the dynamic duo’s best results in the North American market yet.   This was despite an overall rather soft second weekend in December that saw total takings of around $72.8M for all titles. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that t

  Barbie and Oppenheimer. The stellar duo, accidentally paired in the public consciousness as they became, will be one of the most iconic film memories of 2023. While Barbie was the ultimate box office victor, it seems Oppenheimer is set to win the premier weekend VOD battle. Brandon Blake, entertainment attorney at Blake & Wang P.A., unpacks the startling reversal. Brandon Blake A Great VOD Opening It’s hardly like Barbie was a slacker in the fight, pulling in 363,000 households in viewership from opted-in Smart TVs tracked by Samba TV. But Oppenheimer managed to pip that with a seriously impressive 388,000. Samba TV’s viewership data uses a proprietary content recognition technology allowing ‘opt-in’ partnerships with cable TV providers.   Some of this may come down to pricing. Oppenheimer launched at an already reasonably steep $19.99, whereas Barbie opted for $24.99 for rentals or a purchase price of $29.99. Oddly, the demographic crown went to the millennial m

  A Brief Peek at the Thanksgiving Box Office With the Thanksgiving weekend now fading behind us, the next big milestone for holiday releases, what is the state of the domestic box office? Blake & Wang P.A.’s Brandon Blake, our local entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles in the USA, sums up the state of affairs.                               Brandon Blake The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Takes Black Friday The top spot for the weekend goes to Lionsgate’s new Hunger Games prequel, with a 3-day of $28.8M and a 5-day of $42M. It is projected that the film should be traveling on about $100M by the time you read this, likely closing at $150M domestically.   Usually, we’d see a Disney release in this spot, but their run of Box Office misses continues with the release of the animated Wish . Instead, it barely managed to cling to a number 3 spot, at just $19.5M in total as its 3-day. Apple’s Sony-distributed Napoleon pipped it to the number two spot, wit