With the increasing streaming focus on ad-supported content, the softer US ad environment has been a source of concern for many. Luckily, we’re looking at a recovery leading into the 2024 environment. While the impact of the strikes and other economic issues cannot be removed from the table entirely, it is good news overall- and our entertainment attorney Los Angeles Brandon Blake, from Blake & Wang P.A, is here to share it.

                                                              Brandon Blake

Boosted Forecasts

According to data from Magna, a media investment company, the US advertising market for the end of 2023 and 2024 should see significant improvement. This is off the back of better-than-expected data from the current year, as well as a strengthening economic outlook. Overall, total advertising spending for 2023 has improved significantly, with sales up 4.4% after 2 years of stagnation.

Sadly, this mostly favors digital media vendors (read: streamers), with traditional media companies still seeing a significant downturn (negative 4.1%). Still, good news is good news.

Revised Estimates

According to Magna’s data, total ad spend for the third quarter of this year should see about 7% growth. Significantly better than the 2.9% of quarter one. Full-year estimates of 5.2%, a full percent higher than originally projected, are in place. What does that mean in dollars? Roughly $337B in spending. While shrinkage in the non-cyclical market is still on the table, the rise of AVOD advertising should offset this significantly.

For 2024, they are projecting a 5.6% rise, over the initial 5% benchmark. If we include cyclical political spending, that could rise as high as 8%. This does hinge on the continued production of attractive content and the resolution of the strikes.

While all is not well, exactly, in the advertising market, this is certainly a better position than the recession-like climate many advertisers were bracing for at the start of the year. It’s sure to be a relief for many key players in the entertainment industry, too.

It’s set to be the season of unscripted properties, at least if Fox’s Fall schedule is anything to go by. From the reemergence of Kitchen Nightmares to new seasons of the game show Snake Oil, it’s clear that they’re hoping to offset the tumultuous impacts of the dual strikes through a cautious unscripted lineup. One of the best Entertainment lawyer Brandon Blake, with Blake & Wang P.A., shares all the details.

Brandon Blake

A Reality Boom With A Focus On Quality

According to Fox’s recently appointed President of Unscripted Programming, Allison Wallach, this shouldn’t be taken as a reality boom ‘for the sake of it’. Instead, she was quick to reiterate that content production standards would remain high.

So far, a strong start to the tenth season of The Masked Singer backs that up. The show managed its highest-rated premiere since Season 7, with a 50% gain in younger demographics to boot.

Fox Properties Prioritized

In addition to the unscripted-heavy lineup, we’re seeing a priority placed on IPs from the self-owned Fox Alternative Entertainment studio, including the re-launch of Kitchen Nightmares from Fox-funded Studio Ramsay. Hell’s Kitchen will also be entering its 22nd season.

The new offerings are a mix of these old favorites with newer franchises, including The Floor. Clearly keeping their mid-season lineup well-stocked is a priority at the moment. All the same, there’s still several unscripted shows on which we’ve had no clarity other than a vague reassurance that they will return, sometime.

It seems like a clear case of hedging their bets while there’s no clear resolution to the actors’ strike. Surprisingly, however, greenlights for non-scripted properties have not been as high as was predicted at the announcement of the strike. In fact, most of these renewals or greenlights stem from production/development cycles far older. Will we see an uptick in newer properties later in the year? For now we can only wait and see.

It’s been a summer of impressive box office performances. As the pink-hued and slightly explosive wave of ‘Barbenheimer’ restored hopes for a summer box office turnaround, we continue to see both films soar to new records. Barbie has now officially become the highest-grossing film of the year globally, surpassing The Super Mario Bros Movie for a total box office taking of $1.365B. Additionally, Oppenheimer has now become Christopher Nolan’s third-highest grossing film worldwide, with only The Dark Knight Rises and The Dark Knight ahead of it. One of the best Entertainment attorney Los Angeles Brandon Blake, of Blake & Wang P.A., unpacks the latest achievements.

Brandon Blake

Two of the Top Three?

While Barbie has been the (understandable) focus of much recent press, let’s not forget that Oppenheimer is also proving to be an overachiever of note. With a box office now passing $850M worldwide, it is now set to become 2023’s third-highest-grossing film. Behind, of course, Barbie and The Super Mario Bros Movie. Great news for the overall box office, of course- but we’re willing to bet Universal is feeling a little smug right now, too.

Successful Chinese Release

Oppenheimer has an offshore total to-date of $542M to pad its bottom line. Additionally, it’s had something many films have lacked since the pandemic- a surprisingly successful Chinese opening. Here, it quickly claimed the top spot at the box office, and has received consistently high audience ratings. Once a given for Western releases, but a small miracle in the current climate. It’s thought the Chinese box office alone could account for $64M.

In a year where surprising break-out hits from non-franchise IPs have been the winners through and through, both Barbie and Oppenheimer continue to captivate audiences despite now entering a period where we typically see takings fall off steeply. A redefinition of success in the film industry indeed. The 2023 box office has had a standout summer, and mostly from properties no one ever anticipated achieving such global success. Here’s hoping 2023 ends on the same strong note!

National Cinema Day. A needed institution, or a gimmicky idea that only had value directly after pandemic lockdowns? Like it or loathe it, the $4 ticket day was back for another year, and can claim a modest box office boost for it. Our resident one of the best entertainment attorney, Brandon Blake of Blake & Wang P.A, breaks down this year’s impact.

Brandon Blake

Audiences in Seats

National Cinema Day was launched last year in the hopes of encouraging a wider breadth of audiences back into theater seats. At the time, it was a decent boost to an industry struggling with attendance numbers, COVID worries, and a lack of product to showcase.

The scenario is looking a lot different in 2023. We had a stellar array of tentpoles to choose from, with Barbie still partying hard, Gran Turismo making a splashy entrance into the field, and more to choose from. Some critics on the distribution side were skeptical of the need for a second round of reduced-price cinema tickets at all with the strong recovery in audience numbers we’ve seen this year.

Positive Exhibition Feelings

On the exhibition side of the industry, however, the feelings were mostly positive. While some smaller cinemas could have done with more advance notice, most of the industry still points to National Cinema Day as a showcase of how much audiences love the theatrical experiences and the strength of the industry’s future.

This year, over 3,000 locations (and ten times as many screens) participated. In total, 8.5 million reduced-price admissions and a Sunday box office of $34 million was achieved, over 5% growth on last year’s 8.1 million admissions and $24 million (Saturday) box office. This boils down to about 59% of foot traffic coming from the initiative. Less than last year’s 77%, but that’s the whole point of the exercise.

Overall, with Sunday’s box office  tracking at 11% higher than Saturdays, it seems National Cinema Day still has a role to play in celebrating this critical arm of the entertainment industry. Let’s hope the 2023 box office continues to power forward with the same momentum as we enter the latter half of the year.

When the pandemic forced the closure of a number of iconic LA theaters, few predicted they would ever reopen their doors. Let alone a handful of years after the pandemic itself. With several celebrated venues now actively open or reopening soon, it’s a completely different climate to what we were predicting a scant few years ago. Blake & Wang P.A entertainment attorney Los Angeles, Brandon Blake, has more.

Brandon Blake

An Optimistic Vibe

In just the last few months, we’ve seen the Landmark Sunset, Culver Theater, and Cinépolis Inglewood Imax return to service. The Egyptian and Vista are set to follow, and there’s even murmurings that the ArcLight Hollywood could join them soon. Most of these locations have been reworked and renovated in the process, and some are trialing new ways to attract customers.

It’s fantastic to see the arthouse and independent theater scene rebound so optimistically, especially bare years after doom-and-gloom was the only outlook. In many cases, these locations are being revamped and reinvented into community-focused spaces offering additional sweeteners to their movie roster. From curated menus to lounges and sports bars, there seems to be less reticence to try new ways of appealing to the modern audience- and compete with easy at-home video offerings.

A New Direction

Of course, these are far from the only independent locations which COVID forced to close. And some of those locations are destined to never return to service. Winnetka Pacific Theatres, for example, is earmarked for demolition and the land has been sold on to Tesla for a service center. The Fox Village Theater still has a major question mark hanging over its future. But the fact we’ve seen any upward growth in a market some confidently proclaimed dead and irrelevant is achievement enough in itself. And a key sign that, contrary to those dull predictions, the indie and arthouse industry is coming back swinging. At this point, we can confidently say that the idea that people don’t want to go to the movies and the couch will win is dead in the water. Let’s hope to see this renaissance continue in force.

The Greta Gerwig-directed Barbie movie has taken another record, now passing Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight as Warner Bros Discovery’s top-performing movie in North America. While there’s an argument that using the non-inflation-adjusted figures doesn’t quite place the movies on an equal footing, it’s still a momentous record to see. Brandon Blake, top entertainment law firms los angeles at Blake & Wang P.A, dives deeper into the figures for us.

Record Domestic Takings

Barbie now holds a domestic box office total of $537.4M, having passed the $1.2B mark (and then some) globally despite a poor performance in South Korea. The Dark Knight has $536M off of its 2008 run. This positions Barbie as the new second place release for Warner Bros, passed only by the global gross of $1.34B for the final installment in the Harry Potter franchise. And there’s a decent chance that the famous boy wizard’s record may yet fall, too. Not that the nes is all bad for the Nolan camp, either- Oppenheimer has also continued its steady climb to come in as his 5th best earning title at the global box office to date, currently sitting north of $650M.

Record-Breaking by Barbie

This new record joins one for Greta Gerwig, now the highest-grossing female director of all time at the domestic box office and the live-action worldwide box office. Together, unlikely a pair as they may be, Oppenheimer and Barbie are being widely credited as re-igniting a wider interest in cinematic attendance and contributing to the resurrection of the summer box office’s hopes from the ashes of a dull June.

While one can certainly argue that The Dark Knight has not yet fallen to the pink-tinged Barbie machine, as we can hardly ignore the effects of inflation over a 15 year gap, it’s still another impressive ribbon to add to Mattel’s iconic blonde bombshell’s many accolades to date. Let’s hope we see some more unexpected box office stars to round out the year, too.

Despite some hard hits in the TV sector, Lionsgate has announced a Q1 earnings total that beats Wall Street expectations and delivers a more robust balance sheet than we’ve seen for a while. And finally some more news on the fate of Starz. Industry expert entertainment attorney Brandon Blake, from Blake & Wang P.A., has the news.

Better Performance

Lionsgate saw its revenue climb 2% to beat Wall Street predictions for the quarter. Initial revenue estimates of $885M morphed into an impressive $909M, and the anticipated 23c loss per share instead delivered a small gain of 4c. We also see their library titles generating an impressive $896M for them in the last 12 months.

Not all the news was good. A 12% revenue dip in the studios unit was offset by a 31% gain in profit. Additionally, the motion picture revenue managed a nice 46% jump, mostly off the back of John Wick: Chapter 4 as well as some multi-platform releases. TV production, however, saw a nearly 50% decline ($218.5M from $432.3 in the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, media networks stayed pretty flat, with streaming and international revenue offset by failures in the linear domestic market.

The Starz Question

They also announced that, after this quarter’s results, Starz will now remain focused on the Canadian, US, and UK markets. This means an exit from their Latin American services by year end. This represents an abrupt turn-around in the ambitious global expansion plan we once saw for them. Starz should also be formally split from the studio side of Lionsgate in the next few weeks. This is still waiting on a special shareholder meeting, but should be concluded by the end of September.

All in all, it’s not a bad result for a company that has been facing a rocky path to better earnings over the last few years. 

In a week where we’ve seen the Venice Film Festival manage to assemble a scintillating lineup despite pressures from the strike environment, we’ve also seen the first award ceremony opt to play it safe and postpone their televised production. Entertainment attorney Brandon Blake, from Blake & Wang P.A, unpacks the news.

Moving from September Air Date

This year marks the 75th Emmy Awards, and there’s been some trouble with viewing statistics over the last few years, especially post-pandemic. So it is no real surprise that Fox and the Television Academy were hoping for considerably more traction this year. Originally due to air on Fox on September 18, we now know it won’t happen.

What we don’t know is when it will be rescheduled to- or even if it will be. Ideally, they would want the two strike actions from SAG-AFTRA and the WGA against the AMPTP to resolve fully before going ahead with the ceremony. And, at least as it stands at the moment, that looks like it will be a long time coming. This will be the first postponement for the ceremony since 2001, when it was canceled in respect for the victims of the then-recent terrorist attacks on US soil.

Empty Chairs

The festival circuit for this year still has the buffer of both independent productions (currently not struck by SAG-AFTRA) and international actors and audiences to fill the red carpets. Not so for the Emmys, where going ahead with the initial date ran considerable risk of the ceremony playing out to empty rooms. Consider last year’s awards, where a whopping 16 of the 25 awards were presented to either writers or actors. Additionally, as a hosted show, WGA members would be responsible for the host’s material- and those hosts are typically from SAG-AFTRA’s ranks, too.

However, the phase two voting for the awards will still continue as planned, beginning on August 17. So it seems likely we will, ultimately, see a list of 2023 Emmy Awards handed out. The question remaining is if it will ever make it to TV, however.

Blake & Wang P.A- An entertainment attorney and production house in Los Angeles have a closer look on the legal matters associated with artists, musicians, producers, directors and writers. They have 

Netflix announced a very splashy second quarter, with subscriber numbers and profits both up. After a 2022 packed with mishaps, it’s sure to impress. However, most of this new surge can be laid at the door of their now-notorious password-sharing crackdown rather than any real long-term growth, and it’s important not to get too carried away. Entertainment attorney Brandon Blake, from Blake & Wang P.A., has the full story.

Strong Gains

Their report reveals 5.9M new paying subscribers, alongside $8.2B in revenue and a net income of $1.5B. The bulk of this has been built from their launch of ‘paid sharing’, or the crackdown on the previous free account sharing outside of a single household. Reportedly, cancellations have been low despite the knock to sentiment the crackdown caused.

Netflix’s ad-supported plan continues to do well, too, although it is very much still in its infancy regarding its effect on their bottom line. We can assume the near-global withdrawal of their cheapest non-ad-supported plan in recent months is intended to force budget subscribers to choose the ad-supported plan. This returns Netflix to its rather enviable position in the streaming markets as the only streamer fully in the black, with most others targeting 2024 (at the earliest) for true profitability.

A Note of Caution

Despite an incredibly self-congratulatory accompanying earnings call for the great results, however, it’s worth remembering that some of this sudden resurgence to profitable glory is built off of the back of two circumstances that won’t generate repeat numbers going forward.

Firstly, the lower content costs due to the strike-induced pauses on productions has greatly boosted free cash flow. But without content, there is nothing to drive new subscriptions. Secondly, many of those subscriptions are ‘forced’ from the pool of those who were sharing with others- not a permanently mineable resource, and one that will run dry before the end of the year.

The numbers look great and are worth some celebration. But it’s also worth remembering that this quarter’s results are a little less about smart management and a little more about a confluence of unusual situations that will not sustain growth forever.

With the June box office proving more lackluster than hoped, and the failure of several key films to net the grosses initially hoped for, there’s an immense pressure of July to perform. While the latest Mission:Impossible, Barbie, and Oppenheimer should all do well, it does pay not to count your chickens before they hatch- especially for some who seem to be expecting velociraptors from those chicken eggs, too! Brandon Blake, entertainment attorney with Blake & Wang P.A, takes a realistic look at the most promising of July’s slate.

Mission: Possible, But Be Realistic

The latest Mission: Impossible certainly has the potential to be a top-scorer for the year. It has strong reviews, lingering goodwill for Tom Cruise after Top Gun last year, and tons of action. International markets should be receptive enough to the genre that domestic performance won’t be all. And Paramount are really milking every way to maximize that gross with the film’s extended previews.

With two films unexpectedly pulling in upwards of $400M (Spider-Man) and $550M (Super Mario Bros) this year, and an utterly enormous marketing budget for this film, however (triple the two preceding movies), it’s easy to start setting unrealistic expectations. This summer has been a lesson in how franchise titles can fall short when too much high-end expectation is placed on them. Mission Impossible will also have second-week competition from ‘Barbenheimer’, as the duo are being called, and this has been a year of quick falloffs.

‘Barbenheimer’: Too Much or Not?

Then we have the two major non-franchise titles that have managed to stir up immense interest and surprising pre-release appeal. Especially as the cultural zeitgeist has pinned them together on the basis of…well, nothing much but their joint release date and amusingly antithetical subject matter. As marketing success stories go, it’s been great.

But both have challenges. Each lacks the ‘four quadrants’ (total demographic appeal). Comedy is a tricky sell to balance. Oppenheimer’s long run time and artistic direction could be challenging. Yet both have fantastic directing teams, and offer some novelty in a market getting resistant to regurgitated IPs. Currently, Barbie is expected to double Oppenheimer’s takings- and that would actually be a solid performance from both, especially if we do see the $100M vs $50M opening as expected.

So let’s be real- these are 3 solid films which will undoubtedly perform well. The projected $300M (Mission Impossible) and $200M for the others would be a great box office contribution. Overperformance would be even better, but even if it doesn’t happen, these will not be ‘failures’ for not topping Super Mario Bros’ unprecedented climb up the charts this year. Hope and optimism is great, but let’s also stay centered and realistic. The box office will get a nice boost from a solid slate of films people have actually gotten excited about- and even if that isn’t quite the coveted 2019 summer benchmark, it’s still great news overall for the theatrical recovery.