While Oscar nominations were announced Thursday—“The Revenant,” based on the work of a former Mayer Brown partner, led the charge—a pair of billion-dollar entertainment industry deals awarded work to a handful of Am Law 200 firms and some big names in Canada.

On Tuesday, Chinese property and entertainment conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group Co. Ltd. announced that it had agreed to acquire Burbank, California-based film production and media company Legendary Entertainment for $3.5 billion in cash. The deal follows Dalian Wanda's $2.6 billion buy in 2012 of U.S. movie theater operator AMC Entertainment.

While Dalian Wanda turned to Davis Polk & Wardwell for its AMC acquisition, this time around the company, based in the northern Chinese coastal city of Dalian, turned to a decidedly less global firm, albeit one with strong Hollywood ties. The Recorder, a sibling publication, reported this week on Irell & Manella's role representing Dalian Wanda in its effort to land Legendary, a studio behind blockbuster films such as the Batman trilogy, “Jurassic World” and “The Hangover.”