“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!
by Emily Nagle
Amazon Prime’s superhero series “The Boys” is launching a podcast about the show’s creation and development.
With the release of season 2 last fall, fans of the show are anxiously awaiting season 3, which is confirmed to be in production. Launching this Thursday, The Boys: The Official Podcast will supplement the show, giving viewers something to hold them over until the third season is released. It will feature members of the cast and crew, from executive producers Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Erick Kripke to actors such as Antony Starr and Karl Urban, and even those who are more behind the scenes, like costume designer Laura Jean Shannon.
On the podcast, discussion topics will include favorite moments on set, challenges while working on the show, and how they brought some the show’s most well-known assets to life, such as The Boys’ super suits.
The Boys: The Official Podcast can be streamed on Amazon, Apple Music, and Spotify. Following its two-episode debut on April 15, one episode will premiere each week until May 27, making a total of eight episodes. Seasons 1 and 2 of “The Boys” are available to stream on Amazon Prime.
by Emily Nagle
With the vaccine slowly becoming available to the public, things are finally starting to look closer to “normal” than they did at this time last year. As a result, people are starting to watch films, instead of just streaming them from home.
Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for Weekend of April 9-11
1. Godzilla vs. Kong
2. Nobody
3. The Unholy
4. Raya and the Last Dragon
5. Voyagers
The top grossing film for this weekend was “Godzilla vs. Kong,” which grossed $13.8 million. This action-packed monster movie has raked in a monstrous $70 million (and that’s just in the United States – it’s a hit around the world, too) since its release two weeks ago, which is no small feat. It has fared so well in theaters that experts believe that moviegoing will return this summer.
“Nobody” grossed $2.6 million this weekend, and has made $15.6 million since its release three weeks ago.
Currently in its second week of release, “The Unholy” grossed $2.4 million, and has now made a grand total of $6.7 million.
Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” soared to the number 4 spot for this weekend, grossing $2.2 million. It’s now made $35.3 million since it first arrived in theaters and on Disney Plus on March 5.
The fifth-highest grossing film of this weekend was the new sci-fi film “Voyagers,” which made its debut on Friday. To date, it’s made $1.3 million.
by Emily Nagle
One of Invincible’s newest partnerships, the MMA-focused streaming service, XFCTV – owned by Xtreme Fighting Championships (XFC) – has recently broadcasted its first live event.
The fight, which streamed at 8pm EST on March 27 to over 100 million viewers worldwide, was the first installment of the channel’s YoungGuns Series, which features amateur and professional fighters as young as 19. While this is an opportunity for them to who are gaining worldwide recognition as the stream is accessible throughout North and South America, in addition to parts of Europe.
Taking place at Shawnee, Oklahoma’s FireLake Arena, the tournament kicked off with MMA veteran Braden Smith defeating Franklin Patterson. This was followed by the co-main event as 19-year-old Austin Bashi won in a match against Mason Iacobellis. In the subsequent matches, Enzo Perez won against Tony Clanton through a TKO, and Kris Vereen versus Rico Cato at welterweight. Making their grand entrance to the professional fighting scene, Cody Linne defeated Maika Samson at flyweight, and Quran Walker won against Davi Young at featherweight. In the women’s flyweight division, Kristina Williams defeated Helen Lucero via unanimous decision.
The first amateur fight of the night took place between bantamweights Jared Ray and Datrelle Kozeluh, with Ray defeating Kozeluh via unanimous decision. This was followed by Parker Avendano’s win against Sean Arvelo through anaconda choke before Randy Ray defeated James Robinson. In the featherweight division, Jared Brown beat Jesse Robertson, and Billy Wilson defeated Chad Decker. Lastly, in the light heavyweight division, Kyler Fairchild took down Montaine McFarland.
XFC is the largest independent MMA organization in the world. XFCTV is powered by Invincible’s own Galxy TV, which will bring the combat sports to more television screens around the world through free, ad-supported streaming. A replay of the March 27 tournament is available on the official XFC TV website.
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