Thoolie

Guarantee vs. Ceiling: What Taylor Sheridan’s “Billion-Dollar Deal” Actually Means

August 17, 2026 by The Thoolie Team

You’ve probably seen the headline: Taylor Sheridan signed a billion-dollar deal. Not exactly. He signed a deal reportedly worth up to a billion dollars. And those two phrases mean completely different things. That gap, between what a deal is “worth” and what it actually guarantees, is one of the most useful things any creator can … Read more

The Billion-Dollar Sequel That Might Not Happen: What Barbie Teaches About Rights, Options, and Leverage

August 14, 2026 by The Thoolie Team

The highest-grossing film in Warner Bros. history might not get a sequel. Not because audiences don’t want one. Because of contracts. Barbie made roughly $1.4 billion. And according to recent reporting, Barbie 2 is stalled, possibly dead, tangled in rights deadlines and deals that haven’t closed. However it resolves, the situation is one of the … Read more

Streaming vs. Theatrical: What Olivia Wilde’s “Bribe” Comment Really Means for Your Film

August 13, 2026 by The Thoolie Team

At a film festival recently, Olivia Wilde said something that most audiences skipped past and every filmmaker should sit with. Talking about why she fought to get her film The Invite into theaters instead of taking a streaming deal, she called the streaming money a “bribe.” Her word. She said the financiers would make more … Read more

Theatrical Isn’t Dead. It’s Having Its Best Year in Seven. Here’s What That Means for Your Film.

August 10, 2026 by The Thoolie Team

For years, the advice to independent filmmakers was almost a reflex: nobody goes to theaters anymore, make it for streaming, theatrical is dead. It became conventional wisdom so quickly that most people stopped questioning it. The 2026 numbers don’t support it anymore. The data that changed the story This year, the domestic box office is … Read more

The AI Warranty: The Contract Clause Quietly Reshaping Creative Deals

August 4, 2026 by The Thoolie Team

A debut novelist’s reported seven-figure book deal collapsed recently over a single question: was the manuscript written by a human, or by AI? The author denied using it. The deal fell apart anyway. And the clause at the center of that story is now showing up in contracts across publishing, film, and content creation. It’s … Read more

The $309 Million Machine: How Brand Partnerships in Film Really Work

July 31, 2026 by The Thoolie Team

Spider-Man: Brand New Day just did something no film has done before. It pulled in a reported $309 million in promotional partner value, an all-time Hollywood record, from 165 different brands. McDonald’s, BMW, Samsung, Little Caesars, Liquid I.V., and more than a hundred others ran Spider-Man promotions. Here’s the part that surprises most people: a … Read more

Why The Odyssey Has to Gross $625 Million to “Break Even” on a $250 Million Budget

July 28, 2026July 21, 2026 by Reena Sehgal, Esq.

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey reportedly cost about $250 million to make. So why do the headlines say it needs to earn around $625 million just to break even? People assume someone is inflating the number. They aren’t. The gap between those two figures is one of the most useful things a filmmaker can understand about … Read more

What the Call of Duty Movie Deal Teaches Independent Filmmakers About Option Agreements

July 19, 2026 by Reena Sehgal, Esq.

Call of Duty has sold more than five hundred million copies. It has generated over thirty billion dollars in revenue. It is, by any measure, one of the most valuable pieces of entertainment intellectual property in existence. Activision first announced plans for a Call of Duty cinematic universe in 2015. It took nearly a decade … Read more

Who Owns an AI-Generated Film? What Thaler v. Perlmutter Means for Filmmakers

July 12, 2026 by The Thoolie Team

On March 2, 2026, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear Thaler v. Perlmutter.

With that decision, or more precisely, with that refusal to decide, the legal question at the center of the AI and copyright debate was left exactly where the lower courts had placed it.

AI cannot be an author under United States copyright law.

Which means AI-generated content without sufficient human creative authorship is not copyrightable.

Which means it belongs to no one.

For filmmakers, producers, and anyone building a platform or business around AI-generated content, this is not an abstract legal principle. It has direct, practical consequences for every project that uses AI as a creative tool and even more direct consequences for anyone betting their distribution strategy on content nobody owns.

AI Films, Copyright, and Chain of Title: What Distributors Will Ask That Nobody Is Talking About

July 1, 2026 by The Thoolie Team

Two AI films just premiered at major festivals. One may have a copyright problem that changes everything about how it gets distributed.

Two AI films just premiered at major international film festivals. One at Cannes. One at Tribeca. Both are looking for distribution. And one of them may have a legal problem that filmmakers have never had to think about before.

The question isn’t whether AI films can be distributed. They can. The question is: how do you prove chain of title when parts of your film may not be protected by copyright at all?

That question is not hypothetical. It is the question every distributor’s legal team will ask when either of these films arrives on their desk. And the answer is not straightforward.

Ryan Coogler Didn’t Just Make Sinners. He Owned It. Here’s How.

June 23, 2026 by The Thoolie Team

Three contract provisions every filmmaker should understand before they sign anything. Ryan Coogler has directed five films. Combined, they have grossed $2.4 billion at the box office. Every dollar from the first four went to a studio. Then he made Sinners — a film about twin brothers in 1930s Mississippi fighting to own something in … Read more

What Christopher Nolan’s Location Problem Teaches Indie Filmmakers About Location Agreements

June 25, 2026June 20, 2026 by The Thoolie Team

Christopher Nolan filmed part of The Odyssey in an occupied territory.

And there’s a production legal problem here that nobody’s talking about.

In the summer of 2025, Nolan’s production spent four days filming near Dakhla — a coastal city in Western Sahara that has been under Moroccan occupation for fifty years and is designated by the United Nations as a non-self-governing territory since 1963.

The Western Sahara International Film Festival condemned the production. Amnesty International has documented human rights abuses in the region. The story made international news.

But I’m an entertainment attorney. So here’s what I’m actually looking at.

Not the politics. Not the headlines.

The location agreement.

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