by Emily Nagle
With May just around the corner, Disney has lots in store for their rapidly-growing streaming platform Disney+ that’s bound to appeal to a wide variety of audiences, including Star Wars fans, animation enthusiasts, or young children. As announced by the mass media conglomerate last year, these next few years will be their most ambitious yet, with the biggest content slate in the company’s nearly 100-year history.
In honor of May the Fourth Be With You, “Star Wars: The Bad Batch” will debut on May 4, with new episodes premiering every Friday of the month after that. Also releasing new episodes every Friday will be sports comedy series “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers”, based on Disney’s 1992 film, mockumentary musical “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series”, and new sports drama series “Big Shot” starring John Stamos.
For Disney+’s youngest viewers, seasons 1 and 2 of “Special Agent Oso” and the second season of “Bluey Shorts” will be arriving.
Disney’s newest film “Cruella” will also be released in May. The live-action origin story of Cruella De Vil from “One Hundred and One Dalmatians” starring Emma Stone will be available through Premier Access on May 28.
By Kurt Balingit
Robin Thede, the comedian behind HBO’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” is currently developing a zombie action-comedy at Amazon titled “Killin’ It.” Thede will be responsible for writing and producing. The story will follow a group of underachieving friends in Atlanta, which becomes overrun by zombies while the friends are taking part in Spelman College’s homecoming event, despite dropping out 10 years earlier from the HBCU. The film is being described as “Shaun of the Dead” meets “Girls Trip.”
The Amazon feature deal comes as Thede’s is making a name for herself and reaching milestones for Black female creators. She’s the creator of the HBO series “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” which also stars Issa Rae. The TV series that earned three Emmy nominations last year. The second season of the sketch comedy comes out April 23.
As an actor Thede was recently on screen in the 2020 horror comedy “Bad Hair” from “Dear White People” writer-director Justin Simien. Thede had previously host and executively produced BET’s series “The Rundown with Robin Thede,” and served as head writer and a correspondent for Comedy Central’s “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore.”
by Emily Nagle
This weekend was the most profitable box office weekend for the entire month, with theaters across the United States making a total of $53.9 million due to it being the opening weekend for two films: “Mortal Kombat” and anime “Demon Slayer: Mugen Train.” The new releases ranked #1 and #2 respectively for this weekend’s top 5 highest grossing films.
The top 5 highest grossing films for this past weekend were:
1. Mortal Kombat
2. Demon Slayer: Mugen Train
3. Godzilla vs. Kong
4. Nobody
5. Raya and the Last Dragon
“Mortal Kombat” serves as a reboot to the film series based on the popular martial arts game franchise. After the previous installment in the series, “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation”, flopped at the box office, a reboot laid in development hell for more than two decades. The new film already is off to a better start, receiving average-to-positive reviews from critics. It follows Following its release on Friday, “Mortal Kombat” has made $22.5 million in its opening weekend.
“Mugen Train” is based on the popular manga “Demon Slayer”, and serves as a sequel to the first season of the anime. It follows a teenage boy named Tanjiro who sets out on a mission to kill demons after his sister turns into one and his family is violently murdered. When he embarks on a train The film grossed $19.5 million across the United States in its opening weekend. This number is likely to increase as time passes, considering the dark fantasy anime film has already broken multiple records internationally, becoming the highest-grossing anime film and the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time, grossing $407.7 million worldwide. “Mugen Train” grossed $19.5 million across the United States in its debut weekend.
Also smashing box office records around the globe is monster crossover “Godzilla vs. Kong”. Featuring stars like Millie Bobby Brown (“Stranger Things”) and Alexander Skarsgård (“The Legend of Tarzan”), two worlds collide when Kong is transported into the Hollow Earth to find an energy source powerful enough to halt Godzilla’s wrath. Now in its fourth week of release, it grossed $4.2 million over the weekend.
“Nobody” made $1.7 million over the weekend, and has now made a total of $21.5 million since its March 26 release.
Disney’s animated fantasy “Raya and the Last Dragon” has been available in theaters and on Disney+ since March, and made $1.6 million over the weekend. In total, it has grossed $39.8 million.
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.”
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