For those who remember All My Children with fondness, the news that BoxCar Studios, or the Atwater Village campus, is going up for sale will likely be a nostalgic one. The site also once served as a vault for Capitol Records. Entertainment lawyer at Blake & Wang P.A., Brandon Blake, takes a look at what the sale could mean for the industry. 

Brandon Blake

Scripted TV and Soundstages 

For LA, scripted TV has been the core of most soundstage occupancy, especially during the so-called “Streaming Wars” era, when production saw a significant uptick. However, since the pullback in 2023, many stages have lost permanent tenants, exacerbated by the shrinkage in series length for those scripted shows still in production.

FilmLA now puts soundstage occupancy at 62%, vs. the 93% occupancy rate of 2019. This has, in turn, led to many soundstages reinventing themselves as “creator campuses” for influencer and marketing shoots, and even exploring the vertical microdrama industry, given its recent boom. For others, a sale has been the solution, and that’s what lies ahead for 3030 Andrita Street in Atwater Village. 

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34,500 Square Feet of Stage Space

The complex offers 34,500 square feet of space across 3 existing stages, and has recently undergone a $18.6M renovation and upgrade. While All My Children was probably its most famous output, the facility has also been used for several Netflix productions. It was acquired in 2018 by private equity company Gaw Capital. 

With the complex zoned for a variety of M1 industrial purposes, and available for both sale and lease, there’s no guarantee that it will remain as a soundstage facility once it finds a buyer. However, with LA having recently improved its tax incentive program, we can always hope it, too, will see the benefits of the hoped-for rebound in LA’s filming rates. For now, there are no recorded interested parties, but this will be one to watch.

After acquiring the historic Alamo Drafthouse theater chain, Sony has now taken a $100M stake in the Immersive Dome Theaters, Cosm. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a studio hungry for direct theatrical stakes, and the expansion into new special formats is an interesting one, too. Entertainment attorney at Blake & Wang P.A., Brandon Blake, shares the full story.

Brandon Blake 

A New Deal

The deal was announced last Wednesday, and will see Sony take home an minority owners share in what we could tentatively call experiential event cinema. The giant dome theaters are designed to trick the viewer into seeing the exhibition blend with the physical space around them, hence the “immersive” part. Sony intends to use its stake to help shape the relatively new Cosm brand’s direction, and will no doubt be putting the tech to work to boost their own franchises along the way.

It’s certainly a new and rather exciting way to expand on the “event cinema” phenomenon, simulating the feeling of being at the event or in the film personally. Extending the show into the audience, as it were. A fitting acquisition for Sony, which has flirted with both technology and entertainment over its history.

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New Venues to Match

While Cosm currently operates across three locations, it is planning to open 2 more within the next year, and has other locations (both domestic and international) in mind as well. In a way, the concept behind the chain is similar to that of the Las Vegas Sphere, although not quite the same, and now Sony has an in for both its film franchises and music output. 

Will this be the start of a new era for Sony properties, and, for that matter, the entertainment industry? We’ve seen audiences buy into large-scale “event cinema” in a big way over the last few years, and this could certainly be a fascinating way to expand the idea of immersive experiences for the industry. 

Roku has a new owner, and its Fox. In what was a surprise deal for many, it seems that Fox itself may be looking to upscale its streaming presence. Or, at least, it’s streaming ad revenue. Our entertainment lawyer in the know, Blake & Wang P.A.’s Brandon Blake, takes a look at the story.

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$22B Acquisition

There is a notable thread that connects the two, of course. Fox, since it sold off its film studio to Disney, has been more about showcasing others’ IP than creating its own. Roku, which has been one of the most unnoticed success stories in recent entertainment history, also has a limited slate of originals, but mostly makes its cash by making it easier for viewers to watch other studios’ content. What is odd, however, is that Fox has been skeptical of streaming for a while now. However, it’s likely the lure of the advertising bucks it can generate that’s driven this deal, especially as Fox has recently become the first company to close out its Upfronts inventory.

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Together, but Independent

With both companies’ stats combined, they will now account for about 10% of monthly TV viewing in the US, which could be enough to edge them ahead of Netflix and Paramount. Roku is, of course, one of the most dominant companies in the connected TV market at present, and its free TV services will make a nice complement to those on offer through Tubi, Fox’s existing FAST streamer. 

While the deal isn’t expected to close until early next year, it is believed that Fox will probably continue to operate Roku as an independent subsidiary, letting it take advantage of expanded streaming ad inventory and controlling its distribution strategy without having to change Fox’s underlying current strategy. All in all, it will be an interesting new turn for the books to see where this deal ends up.

Move over, Fahrenheit 9/11, there’s a new successor in town. Obsession, which came to Focus Films out of the Toronto Film Festival, is now the highest-grossing acquisition of all time, as entertainment attorney at Blake & Wang P.A, Brandon Blake is here to share.

Brandon Blake

Breaking Box Office Records

With a very respectable gross of $225.5M globally, Obsession has a slew of records under its belt, and now it can add another. That’s pretty impressive for a title that cost about $15M for them to acquire, beating out Neon and A24 in a 24-hour deal-making bout. While the film had a strong festival response at the time, few could have foreseen it grabbing the box office traction that it has. It’s also performed stronger and stronger each week, something we see only rarely, with only a 7% decline in the fourth week.

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A Hidden Festival Gem

Incidentally, the film has also toppled the 2019 release of Downton Abbey to take the title of Focus Films’ top-grossing movie to date. It’s certainly a worthy successor to Fahrenheit 9/11, which first premiered at Cannes in 2004 and took home the Palme d’Or that year. Although the title was initially destined for Miramax, Disney did not want to release the film due to some controversies around its subject matter, and the Weinstein brothers eventually purchased the movie for release in partnership with Lionsgate and IFC. It stood as Lionsgate’s top movie until The Hunger Games toppled it.

It’s always great to see festival titles break out into true mainstream success, rather than remaining awards darlings with little traction or awareness from the general public. With more to come still from Obsession’s box office run, let’s hope to see even more success for Focus Films in the months to come.

Taking a leaf out of Netflix’s book, Prime Video will now be offering a view into its own most popular titles, rather than leaving it purely up to outside data aggregators to track. Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment lawyer, Brandon Blake, shares this latest development.

Brandon Blake

New Weekly Top 10s

While we mostly have to rely on data from reports like Nielsen’s Gauge to track what’s hot on streaming services, Netflix shifted to releasing its own weekly Top 10 list across its services in November 2021. As with the much more familiar Gauge report, this tracks the total viewing hours each week. 

Now, Prime Video will be doing the same.

First List Released

We already have the first weekly list in hand, which shows that Jack Ryan: Ghost War and Off Campus are the winning movie and series, respectively, for the tracked period. However, they will be doing it a little differently from Netflix, as they will not be showing actual viewing data alongside the rankings, neither as Netflix’s raw viewing time nor as the now widely accepted “streaming views,” or the total minutes watched divided by run time. 

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The first list covers May 25-31. Interestingly, they will be offering both an overall Top 10 for both movies and series, regardless of language, and the top 10 for non-English language titles as a mixed list. 

Prime viewers have already had access to an in-app list of top titles for their home country, but this covers a shorter period than the new list system. If you’ve ever been curious as to how Prime Video titles stack up against the competition, or against the broader rankings offered by tools like the Nielsen Gauge report, you’ll now have access to all the information you need, straight from the streamer’s mouth. 

Comscore Movies, which used to be known as Rentrak, will be back on the movie scoring scene, now with new ownership, as entertainment attorney at Blake & Wang P.A., Brandon Blake, is here to share. 

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New PE Owners

The firm will return to its original name, Rentrak, now under the ownership of private investment firm Adbaya Capital. The firm collects and tracks box office grosses across all North American cinemas and roughly 95% of international theaters. The name changed to Comscore Movies when Comscore took control of the firm in 2016. 

Reportedly, Comscore’s sell-off of its box office business came with a $70M price tag. It’s also a good moment for it, as the theatrical business is enjoying a particularly successful year. It may even be the best post-pandemic box office so far, but let’s not count our eggs before they hatch.

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Critical Data

Rentrak data is important to the industry, as it offers key guidance for not just studios, but also distributors and exhibitors that is needed for downstream licensing decisions and talent compensation. Comscore Movies has been the standard-setter for box office data for half a century now, and was one of the first neutral data collection companies on the market. It’s estimated they cover over 34,000 theaters and 200,000 screens. 

Advaya now plans to expand the dataset into new markets, as well as introduce AI for deeper data collection and analytics, possibly also expanding to track the theatrical/streaming symbiosis we’ve seen developing since the pandemic.  

It’s always good to see entertainment institutions thrive, even as the entertainment environment has shifted entirely, and it will be interesting to see how Advaya manages this expansion in the coming years. But for now, it’s time to say goodbye to Comscore Movies and hello again to the Rentrack brand. 

We’ve seen South Korea have its day in the sun, with tight, story-driven films and even TV series making it big on the global stage. It looks like Japan may be the next, at least if Netflix’s recent flurry of buying is anything to go by. Entertainment lawyer with Blake & Wang P.A., Brandon Blake, looks deeper. 

Brandon Blake

New Deal with NHK

Under a new deal with Japan’s national broadcaster, NHK, Netflix will now be the proud owner of a spate of dramas and a new variety show. Netflix has been keen on the location for a while now, and will be launching 6 new series as of June. By 2027, that will hit 19. 

It’s not the first Japanese partnership Netflix has, but adding NHK to the mix is certainly a major expansion. 

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Unscripted Novelty

This will also be the first time they’ve taken the plunge on unscripted titles in this market. They will be bringing to the screen their first Japanese variety show, having now bought Nippon TV’s Monday Late Show. It’s got a 15-year track record, so it’s a pretty safe hit to back, and focuses mostly on trendy topics and local stories. 

While it’s unlikely to gain much interest with audiences outside Japan, there’s been a growing interest in both Japanese drama and comedy across the world in recent years, and it’s been boosted by the success of so many South Korean titles before it. There’s also been a more general rise in interest in non-English language titles across the board recently. 

The only question left now is how well this rather large investment will do for Netflix itself. Perhaps the next breakout title, like Squid Game before it, is lurking in that 19-show lineup, ready to find new audiences across the world. 

We’ve wrapped on another Upfronts week, and all that entails. And YouTube came out swinging about its almost-accidentally created streaming dominance, declaring it is now TV for the modern generation. Our entertainment lawyer from Blake & Wang P.A., Brandon Blake, has the full story. 

Brandon Blake

The YouTube Era

Lofty claims aside, however, there was something unusual about YouTube’s Upfront’s pitch, at least for the modern era of selling entertainment advertising space. Namely, they skipped the general brand pitch and went all-in on an old-school presentation of a slate of new shows from its most notable creators. 

This actually highlights something that is unique to YouTube at the moment: direct access to the creators of the media that advertisers will be working with. 

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Tech Upgrades to Match

But, despite the old-school cool approach to their advertising pitch, there was some talk of the tech upgrades that will support this effort as well. Including “buy with Google Play”, which will simplify purchasing from YouTube adverts into a 2-click system, and new multi-modal video creation tools. There is also an affiliate boost program in the works.

However, it’s most definitely the confidence and optimism that came with the pitch that stood out the most. The Upfronts of recent years have been characterized by streaming platforms and tech companies muscling in on what was once a legacy media showcase, with the digital twins confined to the NewFronts instead. 

Yet, this Upfronts pitch also subtly highlighted the game of catch-up most of those legacy companies have had, at least in the ad tech department. With Google behind it, YouTube has always had an advantage in this area, and it’s clear they’re willing to make the most of it, even as competition for everything ad revenue can bring heats up considerably. 

There’s another Oscar shakeup ahead, as they announce a slew of rule changes across many of their categories. Entertainment attorney at Blake & Wang P.A., Brandon Blake, shares what you need to know.

Brandon Blake

Best International Picture Changes

The next Oscar ceremony will be the 99th edition, and with almost a century under its belt, some of the announced changes are most definitely needed. The changes in the Best International category, however, are the most notable so far, as it takes away the requirement for the country itself to submit the film. Countries will still be able to nominate, but non-English language titles can now also make their way by winning a (qualified) award at an international film festival. Currently, the list includes categories at Berlin, the Busan International Film Festival, Toronto’s TIFF, Venice, Sundance, and, of course, Cannes. 

For many, this is a very welcome change, as frustration has been strong in recent years, as high-performing titles have remained ineligible due to the country restriction despite amazing runs. The film will now be credited as the nominee, with the winning director accepting the award. They will also be listed on the plaque. 

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Tackling AI

Unsurprisingly, AI also triggered some changes. Acting categories will now be open only to, well, real people. For writing, screenplays must also be human-authored to count. The Academy also now has the right to ask about the use of GenAI within entrants.

Actors may also now be nominated more than once in the same category in the same year.  There’s also clarity of post-credit songs eying a Best Original Song entry, Best Casting gets more statuettes, and the Best Cinematography shortlist has been expanded. 

This was far from all of the changes, which span from how many moderators must be on panels, right through to how those looking to drum up support for their films can approach Academy members, so there’s plenty more to explore.  

Cinemark, for all it is still a giant among movie theater chains, has been struggling to make up for its heavy losses during the pandemic-related closures. However, we have finally seen a very promising turnaround for the chain. With the full story, we have entertainment attorney at Blake & Wang P.A., Brandon Blake.

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Quarterly Results

Let’s lead with the good news: this quarter saw their revenue losses lower considerably. Revenue saw a 19% improvement, hitting $643.1M. Admissions revenue for the quarter accounted for $311.4M of that, with concessions adding a further $255.2M to the kitty, both improvements on the prior year’s benchmarks. 

They saw 24M patrons come through their doors in the US, a 17% increase. Overall, while they still had a net loss of $6.4M, that’s an incredible drop. Especially when compared with last year’s $38.9M.

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Strongest Q1 Post-Pandemic

This is Cinemark’s best results since 2020. Interestingly, 17% of Cinemark’s global box office for the period came from so-called “alternative content,” while 13% of worldwide admissions favored premium large formats like IMAX.

This aligns strongly with the current swing towards “event cinema,” which all but demands premium screens to justify higher revenue streams. This is a notable development post-pandemic, where theatrical exhibition needs to offer something more than the experience viewers can have from their couches via streaming. 

CEO Seth Gamble also touched on the expansion of theatrical windows, which are now solidly favoring a 45-day window over the 31 (or even 17) day runs we saw immediately post-pandemic, and called for staggered tentpole releases as a better model for studios and exhibitors alike. 

It’s good to see this kind of accelerated recovery for one of the largest theater chains still in existence, and it’s a trend we hope to see continue right back into fully black balance sheets in the near future.