Entertainment Lawyers

  Despite being a two-and-a-half-decade-old franchise, it seems that Gladiator , the massive Roman epic by Ridley Scott, still has pulling power with modern audiences. After a spectacular international debut, the film will head to domestic screens this weekend. Brandon Blake, our entertainment lawyer Los Angeles and insider from Blake & Wang P.A., shares this success with us.                                                                            Brandon Blake Best Start for Ridley Scott Gladiator 2 opened in 63 international markets last weekend, with the US debut this coming weekend. It has accumulated almost $90M in its first weekend, aligning well with pre-release projections. Incidentally, this also makes it Ridley Scott's best overseas start as director.   Nor do Pa...

  The American Film Market is facing a pivotal moment as seven leading sales agencies demand its return to Los Angeles, threatening to create their own marketplace if the event remains in Las Vegas for 2025. Brandon Blake, entertainment attorney at Blake & Wang P.A., unpacks this development for us.                                                                             Brandon Blake   The Las Vegas No-No   Despite an increased attendance of 5,500 at the Palms Casino venue, major industry players (including AGC Studios, Black Bear, FilmNation, and Lionsgate) expressed strong dissatisfaction with the new Las Vegas location. Complaints ranged from inadequate facilities to logistical challenges, with sources citing expensive equipment rentals and elevator delays disrupt...

  Paramount+ is back on the offensive. While things have been quiet as the Paramount Global group recovers from the lengthy, drawn-out M&A process it entered earlier this year, we are finally seeing a resurgence of interest in further developing its streaming presence. They have recently announced two new tiers for the UK and Irish market to expand its current offerings. Brandon Blake, entertainment attorney at Blake & Wang P.A., gives us more information.                                                                                   Brandon Blake   Two New Tiers   Unsurprisingly, Paramount+ will add a Basic tier, their name for the ad-supported offering. It will be priced at $6.45 (£4.99) for the UK and €5.99 in Ireland, which translates to the sam...

There’s a lot of money changing hands in the content market at present, but the data on how many firms are behind that spending may surprise you. With new data in-hand from Ampere Analysis, it’s clear that 6 key companies are driving most of the global content spend. Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer at Blake & Wang P.A., walks us through these revelations.                                                                       Brandon Blake 6 Companies Dominate In 2024 alone, we saw $126B in content spending originating from only six companies: Comcast, Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Google, Paramount, and Netflix. This represents about 51% of the overall spend in this market, and about a third of it is invested in streaming. Disney alone accounts for 14% of the total global market. Surprisingly, Netflix only...

  While the blockbuster slate for September and October has not really performed as we’d hoped, we’ve seen some fantastic performances (in their class) from specialty and indie releases of late. As we get stuck into the demographics for these films, one thing is surprisingly clear- they lean toward older demographics, the same people that have been reluctant to return to theaters in the wake of the pandemic closures. Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment attorney , Brandon Blake, takes a look at this fascinating revelation- and what it could mean for theaters domestically.                                                                              Brandon Blake   A Thriving Specialty Market   Despite the slightly lackluster performance of Venom: The Last Dance this wee...

 Last week, Amazon announced its intention to bring the opt-out Prime video ad-supported ‘upgrade’ to 5 new major markets in 2025. This will build on the once controversial but remarkably lucrative introduction of ads to Prime Video in key anchor markets that began this year. Our Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment lawyer , Brandon Blake, has all the details.                                                                                 Brandon Blake 5 New Markets Brazil, India, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Japan will be added to the ad-supported version of Prime Video sometime next year. This tier already operates domestically and in Australia, France, Germany, Austria, Canada, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and the UK. As with these earlier rollouts, users who want to keep their a...

 According to the latest data from FilmLA, only a fifth of scripted projects released in 2023 were filmed in the greater Los Angeles area. However, more than a quarter of industry workers still call LA home. Brandon Blake, our entertainment lawyer Los Angeles and industry insider from Blake & Wang P.A., looks at this thorny issue in greater depth.                                                                           Brandon Blake A Talent and Incentive Mismatch As of 2023, 18% of scripted productions released were filmed in LA. This is a notable drop from 2022 (22%) and 2021 (23%). However, 27% of industry workers still operate from LA. Of course, some of that can be attributed to the strikes, but low tax incentives/rebates and high location costs are also key issues. Plus, the strikes weren...