Brandon Blake– Managing Partner at Blake & Wang P.A.
BLAKE & WANG P.A entertainment lawyer Los Angeles has been reporting with interest on the many negotiations between the theatrical industry and content creators over the past few months. After all, there’s little point in green lighting screens to reopen if there’s no enticing offerings to bring in the viewers past reopening weekend. What will content deals for the international exhibition industry look like? Let’s look at what we know.
Cineworld has recently reached an arrangement with 3 major studios for both the US and UK markets. Discussions with Sony and Paramount are still underway, and it’s our understanding that other major exhibition groups also have talks underway with this ‘Big 5’ of the content production industry.
There’s still some lingering questions if this will truly be the end of the 15-month interruption to business as normal, or if there are still chances of this being another false start. Already we know that France has decided on a cap of 400 cases per 100,000 inhabitants before local authorities are compelled to roll back or slow economic reopening. Yet France has also seen 20 M people receive at least 1 dose of a vaccine. We’ve also had encouraging news this week that many of the major vaccine manufacturers have seen results against evolving strains of the virus, suggesting the chances of a full lock down returning are far less than ever before.
For now, cinemas can open with a slate of much-anticipated movies, including some Oscar winners and nominees. France estimates numbers as high as 400 among films that were postponed in 2020, and was able to put 14 new-to-market releases on the table. We’ve already seen a surprising willingness to return to exclusive theatrical windows from US studios, albeit at a curtailed 45-day window, before options to push to streaming, so we’ll likely see similar arrangements cut for the international market. In the meantime, BLAKE & WANG P.A wishes the reopening cinemas the best.
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Film and Television 