Note 18: Commitments and Contingencies

The Company has various contractual obligations, which are recorded as liabilities in our consolidated financial statements. Other items, such as certain purchase commitments and other executory contracts are not recognized as liabilities in our consolidated financial statements but are required to be disclosed in the footnotes to the financial statements. For example, the Company enters into various agreements associated with its individual properties. Some of these agreements call for the potential future payment of royalties or “profit” participations. In addition, the Company has contractual commitments for employment agreements of certain employees.

Effective February 6, 2018, the Company entered into an operating lease for 6,969 square feet of general office space at 131 South Rodeo Drive, Suite 250, Beverly Hills, CA 90212 pursuant to a 91-month lease that commenced on May 25, 2018. We pay rent of $364,130 annually, subject to annual escalations of 3.5%.

Effective December 28, 2018, the Company entered into a lease for 5,765 square feet of general office space at 8383 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 412, Beverly Hills, CA 90211 pursuant to a 6-month lease that commenced January 28, 2019. We paid rent of $24,501 monthly through August 31, 2019.

Effective January 21, 2019, the Company entered into a sublease for the 6,969 square feet of general office space located at 131 South Rodeo Drive, Suite 250, Beverly Hills, CA 90212 pursuant to an 83-month sublease that commenced on February 4, 2019. The subtenant paid us rent of $422,321 annually, subject to annual escalations of 3.5%.

On September 11, 2020, the Company entered into a Surrender Agreement with the landlord which terminated the 131 South Rodeo Dr lease agreement. As a result, the Company recorded decreases in the Right Of Use asset, accumulated amortization, and the lease liability of $2,142,863, $465,124 and $1,760,302 respectively. The termination of the lease resulted in a loss of $338,586. Simultaneously, as part of the Surrender Agreement the Sublease was terminated.

Effective January 30, 2019, the Company entered into an operating lease for 5,838 square feet of general office space at 190 N. Canon Drive, 4th FL, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 pursuant to a 96-month lease that commenced on September 1, 2019. We pay rent of $392,316 annually, subject to annual escalations of 3.5%.

In addition, the Company has contractual commitments for employment agreements of certain employees.

Rental expenses incurred for operating leases during the twelve months ended December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019 were $665,188 and $740,135, respectively. During the twelve months ended December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, the Company received sub-lease income of $316,762 and $432,285, respectively.

The following is a schedule of future minimum contractual obligations as of December 31, 2020, under the Company’s operative leases and employment agreements:

In addition to employment agreements and operating leases, in the normal course of its business, the Company enters into various agreements associated with its individual properties. Some of these agreements call for the potential future payment of royalties or “profit” participations for either (i) the use of third party intellectual property, such as the case with Stan Lee and the Mighty 7, Llama Llama and Rainbow Rangers among others, in which the Company is obligated to share net profits with the underlying rights holders on a certain basis as defined in the respective agreements or (ii) services rendered by animation studios, post-production studios, writers, directors, musicians or other creative talent for which the Company is obligated to share with these service providers a portion of the net profits of the properties on which they have rendered services, as defined in each respective agreement.

Additionally, other agreements contain options to acquire rights to intellectual property and would require payment to the rights holders contingent upon the Company securing minimum production, broadcast, or other financing commitments from third parties.

Lastly, for its Cartoon Channel!, the Company licenses content for exhibition for which the Company is obligated to pay between 35% and 100% of revenues from the channel allocated to the aforementioned content after the deduction of certain direct operating expenses.