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Ed Sheeran Beats Copyright Appeal over ‘Thinking Out Loud’ Song

Singer Ed Sheeran performs on NBC's "Today" show at Rockefeller Center in New York, US, June 6, 2023. (Reuters)
Singer Ed Sheeran performs on NBC's "Today" show at Rockefeller Center in New York, US, June 6, 2023. (Reuters)
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Ed Sheeran Beats Copyright Appeal over ‘Thinking Out Loud’ Song

Singer Ed Sheeran performs on NBC's "Today" show at Rockefeller Center in New York, US, June 6, 2023. (Reuters)
Singer Ed Sheeran performs on NBC's "Today" show at Rockefeller Center in New York, US, June 6, 2023. (Reuters)

Ed Sheeran, his record label Warner Music and music publisher Sony Music Publishing persuaded a US appeals court on Friday to uphold a decision that his 2014 hit "Thinking Out Loud" did not illegally copy Marvin Gaye's 1973 classic "Let's Get It On."

The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan agreed with a lower-court judge's dismissal of a lawsuit from Structured Asset Sales, which owns rights to the Gaye song that previously belonged to co-writer Ed Townsend.

Structured Asset Sales' owner - investment banker David Pullman - said the company was reviewing all of its options after the decision.

A lawyer and spokespeople for Sheeran and the other defendants did not immediately respond to similar requests.

In May 2023, Sheeran defeated a separate copyright lawsuit by Townsend's heirs, who own a separate share of his interest in "Let's Get It On," in a closely watched jury trial.

SAS sued Sheeran in 2018. US District Judge Louis Stanton dismissed its case following the verdict in the heirs' case.

Stanton found that the musical elements Sheeran allegedly copied were too common to merit copyright protection.

The appeals court agreed, saying that protecting the elements could stifle creativity, and that Sheeran's and Gaye's songs were not similar enough for Sheeran's to have infringed on SAS' copyright.

It also rejected the argument that Stanton should have reviewed Gaye's actual recording, which according to Pullman included key elements that Sheeran copied, rather than focus on the song's sheet music deposited with the US Copyright Office.

SAS has filed another lawsuit against Sheeran based on its rights in Gaye's recording. That case is currently on hold.

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‘Venom 3’ Tops Box Office Again, While Tom Hanks Film Struggles

‘Venom 3’ Tops Box Office Again, While Tom Hanks Film Struggles
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‘Venom 3’ Tops Box Office Again, While Tom Hanks Film Struggles

‘Venom 3’ Tops Box Office Again, While Tom Hanks Film Struggles

“Venom: The Last Dance” enjoyed another weekend at the top of the box office. The Sony release starring Tom Hardy added $26.1 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
It was a relatively quiet weekend for North American movie theaters leading up to the presidential election. Charts were dominated by big studio holdovers, like “Venom 3,” “The Wild Robot” and “Smile 2,” while audiences roundly rejected the Tom Hanks, Robin Wright and Robert Zemeckis reunion “Here.” Thirty years after “Forrest Gump,” “Here” opened to only $5 million from 2,647 locations.
“Venom 3” only fell 49% in its second weekend, which is a notably small drop for a superhero film, though it didn’t exactly open like one either. In two weeks, the movie has made over $90 million domestically; The first two opened to over $80 million. Globally, the picture is brighter given that it has already crossed the $300 million threshold.
Meanwhile, Universal and Illumination’s “The Wild Robot” continues to attract moviegoers even six weeks in (and when it’s available by video on demand), placing second with $7.6 million. That's up 11% from last weekend. The animated charmer has made over $121 million in North America and $269 million worldwide, The Associated Press reported.
"'The Wild Robot' has quietly been this absolute juggernaut for the fall season," said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “For that film to see an increase after six weeks is astounding.”
“Smile 2” landed in third place with $6.8 million, helping to push its worldwide total to $109.7 million.
The time-hopping “Here,” a graphic novel that was adapted by “Forrest Gump” screenwriter Eric Roth, was financed by Miramax and distributed by Sony’s TriStar. With a fixed position camera, it takes audiences through the years in one living room. Critics were not on board: In aggregate it has a lousy 36% on Rotten Tomatoes.
“It was a slow weekend anyway, but it didn’t resonate in a way that many thought it might," Dergarabedian said. "There are a lot of films out there for the audience that ‘Here’ was chasing."
Despite playing in almost 1,000 more locations, “Here” came in behind Focus Features' papal thriller “Conclave,” which earned $5.3 million. Playing in 1,796 theaters, “Conclave” dropped only 20% from its debut last weekend and has made $15.2 million so far. Two Indian films also cracked the top 10 in their debuts, “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” and “Singham Again.”
Overall box office continues to lag behind 2023 by almost 12%. But holiday moviegoing will likely give the industry an end-of-year boost with titles like “Gladiator II” and “Wicked” on the way.
“In a couple of weeks, it’ll get a lot more competitive,” Dergarabedian said.
Jesse Eisenberg’s film “A Real Pain,” a comedic drama about cousins on a Holocaust tour in Poland, launched in four theaters this weekend in New York and Los Angeles. It made an estimated $240,000, or $60,000 per screen, which is among the top three highest per theater averages of the year. Searchlight Pictures will be expanding the well-reviewed film nationwide in the coming weeks, going wide on Nov. 15 to over 800 theaters.
Box office charts don’t always paint a full picture of the moviegoing landscape, however. This weekend several relatively high-profile films playing in theaters did not report full grosses for various reasons, including the Clint Eastwood film “Juror #2,” Steve McQueen’s WWII film “Blitz” and the Cannes darling “Emilia Pérez.” Netflix, which is handling “Emilia Pérez,” never reports box office. Apple Original Films is following suit with “Blitz,” a likely awards contender, which is in theaters before hitting Apple TV+ on Nov. 22.
“Juror No. 2” is a Warner Bros. release, and a well-reviewed one at that. The film directed by Eastwood stars Nicholas Hoult as a juror on a murder case who faces a big moral dilemma. Domestic ticket sales were withheld. The studio did say that it earned $5 million from international showings, where it played on 1,348 screens.
Even major studios withhold box office numbers occasionally. Earlier this year, Disney did not report on the Daisy Ridley movie “Young Woman and the Sea.” Results were most notably withheld during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It’s really up to the distributors," Dergarabedian said. “Often times the reason that certain movies may not be reported is that there’s a chance that the quality of the movie will be conflated with the box office number.”