by Emily Nagle
Xtreme Fighting Championships announced Friday that their Main Card event will be taking place on May 28.
Airing live on XFCTV.com, FOX Deportes, and FOX Sports 2, the Main Event of XFC 44 will be happening in Des Moines, IA. Kicking off the event will be American Top Team fighter Andre “The Asian Sensation” Soukhamthath battling against veteran Jose “El Teco” Quinonez. Following their match will be heavyweights Chris “Beast Boy” Barnett vs. Brett “Big Dog” Martin.
Next up will be the lightweight semifinals, starting with Kurt Holobaugh vs. “Handsome” Scott Hudson and then going to Tom “Big Nasty” O’Connor, who hails from Canada, against Damonte Robinson, representing Ohio.
Finally, the event will end with the welterweight semifinals, kicking off with LaRue “The Cannibal” Burley, who won in XFC 43 against Alejandro Sanchez through submission, vs. Carson “The Perfect Storm” Hardman, representing Utah. Ending the night will be Ryan Dickson, also from Canada, vs. Bobby “Nashty” Nash, who got his start as a wrestler for Michigan State.
by Emily Nagle
Spider-Man – amongst other well-known titles – will be swinging onto Disney+ following a massive film deal between Sony and Disney.
Beginning with Sony’s 2022 releases and running all the way through to 2026, the deal will bring Sony’s films to not only Disney+, but also the many other streaming platforms the Mouse House owns, from FX and Freeform to ABC and Hulu.
The massive movie deal, finalized by Chuck Saftler, head of business operations for ABC, Freeform, FX Networks and Acquisitions for Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, and Keith LeGoy, president of worldwide distribution and networks for Sony Pictures Entertainment, is just one example of how the pandemic has changed the media viewing experience. In other words, television isn’t dying, contrary to popular belief – rather, the way people watch it is changing.
“This groundbreaking agreement reconfirms the unique and enduring value of our movies to film lovers and the platforms and networks that serve them,” Le Goy announced. “We are thrilled to team up with Disney on delivering our titles to their viewers and subscribers. This agreement cements a key piece of our film distribution strategy, which is to maximize the value of each of our films, by making them available to consumers across all windows with a wide range of key partners.”
While Disney+ spans 59 countries, the new deal will only cover the United States market, making an estimated $3 billion during its approximately five-year span. Once finalized, Sony’s “Spider-Man” films will be available on Disney’s platforms, as well as their other franchises including “Hotel Transylvania“, “Jumanji“, and “Stuart Little“.
by Emily Nagle
As coronavirus vaccines roll out across the globe and filming slowly resumes, Netflix has revealed that it will spend $17 billion on content in 2021.
The plan was disclosed in the streaming company’s first-quarter financial report. Netflix reported a drop in new subscribers in the first few months of 2021 due to 20% less original content than in previous years. Fortunately, the company has announced plans for later this year that will bring subscriber rates back up.
“While the roll out of vaccines is very uneven across the world, we are back up and producing safely in every major market, with the exception of Brazil and India,” the company announced in their shareholder letter. “Assuming this continues, we’ll spend over $17B in cash on content this year and we’ll continue to deliver an amazing range of titles for our members with more originals this year than last.”
The amount Netflix spends on their content is forecasted by analysts to increase over the next several years, who predict the company could spend $26 billion in 2026. With some of the world’s biggest media companies like WarnerMedia, ViacomCBS, and Disney creating streaming services in recent years, the long-time king of the streaming industry has competition that’s catching up fairly quick.
Most of the content slated for release on Netflix is scheduled to arrive later in the year, when filming is likely to be less restricted. The company has confirmed that the tail end of 2021 will see “the return of new seasons of some of our biggest hits and an exciting film lineup” in addition to “a large number of returning franchises.” Notable mentions include the return of hit shows like “Sex Education,” “The Witcher,” and “You,” and new movies including the final installment of “The Kissing Booth”, “Red Notice”, and “Don’t Look Up.”
“Godzilla vs. Kong” continues to dominate the box office for its third straight week, showing that movies available for streaming can still put fans in movie theater seats.
The film raked in $7.85 million this weekend in North America according to Box Office Mojo. . suggesting people are becoming comfortable with attending theaters more than a year into a global pandemic. With Godzilla raking in $80,655,427 in gross sales in North America and $390,955,427 worldwide, it is the highest grossing Hollywood film this year far surpassing the 2nd place film Raya and the Last Dragon which grossed $109,595,349 worldwide.
Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for Weekend of April 16-18
- Godzilla vs. Kong – $7,845,000 ($80,655,427 Gross)
- Nobody – $2,500,170 ($19,031,215 Gross)
- The Unholy – $2,051,073 ($9,553,806 Gross)
- Raya and the Last Dragon – $1,921,979 ($37,696,589 Gross)
- Tom and Jerry – $1,100,00 ($42,587,341 Gross)
The best performing title that premiered this week was the horror film “In the Earth” from Neon and directed by Ben Wheatley. This weekend “In the Earth” made $505,723 and obtain mixed reviews from theater goers.
With Godzilla vs. Kong surpassing the $300 million mark in worldwide sales, this is a great sign that the box office for future titles will continue to increase as it suggests people are becoming more and more comfortable with attending theaters. We’re beginning to see the light at the end of this dark pandemic tunnel.
by Emily Nagle
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Paramount+ is preparing to expand its appeal beyond the United States.
The recently rebranded version of CBS All Access is making plans to become bigger than the latter ever was. Shortly after their competitors WarnerMedia, Disney, and Discovery have unveiled larger content slates than ever before, ViacomCBS’s market for Paramount+ has been expanding since last month, rolling out to Latin America and Canada, with Australia, Europe, and New Zealand soon to come.
An estimated 350 million customers are expected to sign up for subscription-based streaming in the United States by 2024, but what about the rest of the planet? Kelly Day, president of streaming and COO of ViacomCBS Networks International, sees this as potential for the company. “We just look at it like this: There are seven and a half billion people outside the U.S.,” Day explained in an interview with Deadline. “By going into these markets, we have all this incredible opportunity to reach so many more viewers in so many different places.”
Paramount+ overseas will have a different catalogue than in the United States, featuring original shows (such as Kamp Koral, a spin-off of SpongeBob SquarePants) as well as programming from Showtime and CBS. The platform will also host regionally exclusive content, including Ib the Dog for the Nordics, while customers in Latin America can enjoy Acapulco Shore, Are You the One Brazil, and new, original programs Cecilia and The Envoys.
While Disney+, HBO Max, and Paramount+ are flourishing, they still have a long way to go before they’re at the top. Netflix has been at the top of the streaming hierarchy for years, reaching over 200 million subscribers last year. They, too, have content unique to the more than 130 countries it services, spending a whopping $20 billion on content yearly. With this to consider, Netflix’s status as the king of streaming services is one that’s tough to overthrow.
by Emily Nagle
[usr 5]
This week, I’ll be reviewing the Japanese stop-motion series “Pui Pui Molcar.” It’s a series of shorts, each one a little over 2 minutes, revolving around sentient guinea pig cars as they get into wacky adventures and help each other out of problems.
The show arrived on Netflix at the end of March, but originally aired on Japan’s TV Tokyo channel in the mornings beginning in January of this year. I watched the show on Bandai Namco’s official YouTube channel, where each episode was uploaded the day it premiered on TV, and remained available for a week. I’ve also seen other people re-upload the episodes after Bandai Namco took theirs down. After finishing its first season recently, the show has 12 episodes, so it’s an easy binge; you can watch the whole series in less than half an hour.
I did a little research on how this show was created, and discovered that it took a year and a half to produce the first season! It was created by director/animator Tomoki Misato when he was thinking about the annoyances that come with driving, and wondered what it’d be like if instead of cars, people drove around in guinea pigs. This is what sparked Pui Pui Molcar, which shows the misadventures of guinea pig cars including getting stuck in traffic jams, helping a friend overcome their fear of the car wash, and competing in a race.
Each Molcar has their own unique personality. The fuzzy cast includes tan-and-white Potato, who’s always willing to help out his friends, the tomboyish Teddy, who isn’t afraid of anything (not even a zombie apocalypse!), and white Shiromo, who’s always landing himself in sticky situations. There’s also a bunch of special characters that show up, like emergency services, a DJ, and even a time machine a la Back to the Future.
“Pui Pui Molcar” has a unique look to it, because the Molcars themselves are needle-felted. That’s something I haven’t seen a lot of in stop-motion shows, and I am 100% here for it. It’s cute and fun, and whenever I watch the show I just wanna reach out and touch the fuzzy guinea pig cars. The backgrounds for their crazy adventures are colorful and fun-looking, and it adds a lighthearted and playful feel.
As for the non-cavy characters in the show, like the drivers, they’re represented by tiny plastic figures when they’re not the main focus of the scene. When the camera zooms into the Molcars to show what the drivers are thinking or doing, they’re represented by real people (one of which is Misato’s sister), but they’re filmed in stop-motion to blend in with the rest of the show, which I absolutely love. It’s different, and it works perfectly.
There’s no dialogue, with the show consisting almost entirely of guinea pig squeaks and chortles (which are from a real guinea pig, not an actor) as opposed to talking. Although their eyes are black beads, the Molcars are super expressive. They show on their faces how they’re feeling, and will even cry and sweat to show emotion. This helps add to the easy-to-follow stories, and makes them even more engaging.
“Pui Pui Molcar” is visually appealing, and a short, fun watch. Not to mention it’s super creative; combining cars and guinea pigs sounds strange, but this show makes it work really well. There are so many fun adventures and stories to see. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes cute things, or has a guinea pig – I’ve heard stories of people’s guinea pigs squeaking at the TV when this show is on. I hope there’s a season 2!
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