Month: December 2020

Wonder Woman 1984 may not have completely wowed critics in its much-delayed Christmas Day debut, but it did do enough to get people out of their homes and into movie theaters during the holiday weekend to garner a third film in the series. It also saw a huge number of HBO Max subscribers take advantage of access to the film from the comfort of their homes.

The Hollywood Reporter wrote on Sunday that the second Gal Gadot-led Wonder Woman set a pandemic box office record, taking in $16.7 million according to Warner Bros. That news came with word that Gadot and director Patty Jenkins will return for a widely-expected third film.

Any sign of moviegoing is welcome news for Hollywood even if WW94 scored the lowest number in decades for a yuletide winner. The film unfurled in 2,150 cinemas domestically on Dec. 25.

Globally, the DC superhero sequel has now earned $85 million at the box office.

“As fans around the world continue to embrace Diana Prince, driving the strong opening weekend performance of Wonder Woman 1984, we are excited to be able continue her story with our real life Wonder Women – Gal and Patty – who will return to conclude the long-planned theatrical trilogy,” said Emmerich.

As THR noted, only about 40 percent of movie theaters in the United States are even open right now due either to coronavirus pandemic business restrictions or large chains keeping locations shuttered as a result of restrictions put in place earlier in 2020. Which is no surprise that a lot of people watched the movie on HBO Max. In fact, the story noted Warners reporting nearly half of its “retail subscribers” watching the film on Christmas Day.

Nearly half of the platform’s retail subscribers viewed the film on the day of its arrival, along with millions of wholesale subscribers who have access to HBO Max via a cable, wireless, or other partner services. HBO Max also saw the total viewing hours on Friday more than triple in comparison to a typical day in the previous month, the company said Sunday.

“Wonder Woman 1984 broke records and exceeded our expectations across all of our key viewing and subscriber metrics in its first 24 hours on the service, and the interest and momentum we’re seeing indicates this will likely continue well beyond the weekend,” said WarnerMedia direct-to-consumer chief Andy Forssell.

The wording makes it sound like it may not be half of the total HBO Max subscriber base, as several other TV and media deals provide hypothetical access to the streaming service as well. But it’s still a huge number of people taking advantage of HBO Max for what has become a big boon for the network starting on December 25 and extending into 2021: getting Warner Bros. films on the platform the same day they arrive in theaters.

It’s also important to note that the movie hit the platform at noon that day, not at midnight. Which means they got a LOT of streams of Wonder Woman 1984 in the first 12 hours. That sort of viewing rate may not hold up for every Warners movie that hits HBO Max in the next year, but as a proof of concept for the company it certainly seems like people are taking advantage of the added benefit. And the box office numbers, though obviously depressed due to the pandemic, were still notable despite the multiple viewing options available.

The Jaguars are not a good football team this year. Currently projected to have the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft, they have lost 13 games in a row after, somehow, winning their first game of the season, and could very well make it 14 if they lose to the Bears on Sunday. This may seem like a year where fans would have nothing to cheer for, but Jaguars fans are choosing to look on the brighter side of things. With that projected top pick comes a chance at taking Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, a fantastic consolation prize to a horrible season.

Jaguars fans are so excited for the prospects of drafting Lawrence that in fact that many of them are actively cheering for the Bears to beat them. Don’t believe it? Check out this video of Mitchell Trubisky’s first quarter touchdown throw.

You can hear a loud cheer for the score. Of course, it would be safe to assume that these are just Bears fans attending the game. That is until you get a different angle from inside the stands themselves.

These are honest to goodness Jaguars fans actively cheering for Mitchell Trubisky and the Bears to beat the Jags. They know what’s at stake here. A loss puts them one game closer to Lawrence and, for a franchise that hasn’t had a truly great QB since maybe Mark Brunell in the ’90s, it’s worth the suffering.

Lil Tjay was back to work fresh off the Christmas holiday as the Brooklyn rapper hit the streets with his crew to shoot a music video. It was here that the video shoot was interrupted by New York Police Department officers who stopped Tjay and his friend to conduct a search of them and their vehicle.

Video of the incident was captured on the rapper’s phone. Tjay and a friend were sitting in the vehicle when officers surrounded it and began to search the rapper’s friend. The State Of Emergency rapper is next asked to step out of the car and he replies “For what?” before following their instructions.

“We shooting a video, boss. You have no right,” Tjay said as the officer patted him down. “This some illegal sh*t they doing right now.”

After the search of Tjay and his friend was finished, the officer proceeded to search their vehicle, an action that frustrated the rapper and the people who watched the incident unfold.

“I’m on Live, y’all wildin. I don’t have sh*t in my car,” Tjay said. “They on that sh*t, not me.” The video came to an end at that point and the result of the officer’s search is unknown at the moment. However, Tjay posted a picture on Instagram that appeared to be a response to the run-in with the NYPD police officers. “All good everybody … stay safe y’all goodnight,” the photo’s caption read.

You can watch the video police officers searching Tjay captured here.

It has been a dismal season already for the Golden State Warriors, a team that had hoped to vault right back into contender status this year after having the worst record in the league last season. However, Klay Thompson’s return to play from a torn ACL ended before it could even begin as he suffered a torn Achilles just before the NBA Draft.

Their injury woes have continued from there, with Draymond Green still yet to make his debut due to a lingering foot injury after missing some of camp due to COVID-19 protocols, and those who have played have struggled mightily through two games with the East’s best in the Bucks and Nets. On Sunday, the Warriors got even more bad news as they got set to play their third game of the season with the Bulls in Chicago, as Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that Marquese Chriss’ season was done after suffering a broken fibula in his right leg.

Chriss played 12 minutes and 14 minutes in the first two games of the season respectively off the bench and for a team with limited frontcourt depth, losing a rotation piece for the entire season is a significant blow. When Thompson went down, the Warriors made a swing by trading for Kelly Oubre Jr., but one has to wonder what they can do to bolster their frontcourt rotation at this point. For now, they’ll rely further on rookie James Wiseman, as well as Damian Lee and Kevon Looney until Green’s return, but a rough start to the season for the Warriors only gets rougher.

Ask any Scrubs fan what their favorite episode is, and at least 6 out of 10 will tell you that it’s “My Screw-Up,” the 14th episode of the third season. It’s more popularly known as the Brendan Fraser episode, the one where Dr. Cox spends the episode preparing for his son’s first birthday party with his best friend, Ben, until the Sixth Sense twist in the end reveals that Ben is dead and, instead of a birthday party, they’re attending Ben’s funeral. For many of us, it may be the first episode of a sitcom that elicited actual tears, and the memory of it lingers, sixteen years later.

Part of what made that episode so successful was the song, “Winter” by Joshua Radin, that played over the funeral reveal. The song registered so immediately with so many people that NBC’s website crashed after the episode aired because so many viewers were trying to find out who performed the song and where they could find more of his material. What they soon have discovered, however, was that there was no more material. “Winter” was Joshua Radin’s first song. Ever. He had no album. He had no collection of songs. He had no manager or record contract. All he had was a best friend who happened to be the star of Scrubs,” and that relationship would not only spark a music career but propel it.

Joshua Radin recently appeared on the Scrubs rewatch podcast, “Fake Doctors, Real Friends,” to talk about the origins of that song, his career, and that brilliant episode of television. As Radin tells it, he was pushing 30 years old and struggling as a screenwriter, writing formulaic rom-coms that nobody would buy.

“I had never played music in my whole life,” Radin said on the podcast. “I had never grown up playing an instrument or taking lessons or anything like that.” He began to rethink his career, recognizing that he was writing screenplays to get them sold rather than writing them from the heart, or writing what he knows or was passionate about. “So I started playing guitar. I learned a few chords. I learned a few covers. And then I knew enough chords on the guitar after learning a couple of [Bob] Dylan songs” that he decided to write his own song.

“Winter” was the first song he wrote. And then Radin’s best friend, Zach Braff, came over to his apartment, saw a guitar in the corner, and — not realizing that Radin could play — asked him to play a song. Radin was reluctant to do so, and he was so nervous about it that he made Braff turn around while he played. “I remember,” Braff said on the podcast. “You said, ‘Don’t look at me! Don’t you look at me!’”

“I remember vividly,” Radin said. “I played this song, ‘Winter,’ and [Braff] turned around and [his] eyes were watery. It affected [him], and I was like, ‘Wow, that’s the first thing I’ve written where I’d ever seen that kind of response from anyone other than my Mom or Dad. Coming from a dear friend, it was really cool.”

Braff, in fact, encouraged Radin to make a demo and send it to Bill [Lawrence] and Christa [Miller], who made a lot of the song choices for Scrubs. It was an interesting time for music, as well. It was before the streaming era. The rights to recognizable songs were often exorbitant, so the best songs were those that were unknown, or from artists that hadn’t been discovered yet. “It was the gold rush for people like me,” Radin said.

Radin made a demo with a friend by playing it live and then laying a harmony track over it. He sent the track to Braff, who forwarded it to Lawrence, and within two or three weeks, he’d already received a call. “Hey, that song works perfectly in this episode,” Lawrence told him. “Do you mind if we use it?”

“It was the first song he’d ever written,” Braff said, “that was recorded with a guitar and a mic with Pro Tools.”

The recording that’s heard in the show was recorded in the bedroom of Radin’s friend. “It was as basic as it can get.”

The song was so big, on what would ultimately become the most popular episode of “Scrubs,” that Radin decided to move to Los Angeles and become a musician. It was a lucrative career change. In addition to recording seven albums, so far, Radin has had his songs appear in 7 other episodes of “Scrubs,” in many episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy,” and dozens of other television shows. He’s even become a favorite musical guest on “The Ellen Degeneres Show.” And it was all because Zach Braff convinced him to play a song for him one day in his apartment.

Source: Fake Doctors, Real Friends

Royce Da 5’9″ is about to close out a fairly impressive year for himself. It began with his eighth album, The Allegory, a project that he largely produced himself, making it the first self-produced release of his career. The Allegory was later nominated for Best Rap Album at the upcoming 2021 Grammy Awards, the first solo Grammy nomination of his career. With that being said, the Detroit rapper could spend some time relishing in his own success, but in a recent interview, Royce took a second to shine a light on Drake and Lil Wayne’s respective careers while showing love to the “greatness” they’ve displayed over the years.

In a sit-down with HotNewHipHop, Royce praised Lil Wayne’s latest project, No Ceilings 3, and more specifically, he and Drake’s “BB King Freestyle.” Next, the conversation turned to the success both rappers have seen in their careers.

“Yeah, I mean, he does numbers because he’s one of our greats,” Royce acknowledged when he asked about Lil Wayne. “But because of his journey, it’s easy to forget that. It’s easy to lose sight of that. And it’s never been put in perspective properly. It’s never been broken down and placed in front of you the proper way what he has contributed. Like nobody really repeats that enough.”

The conversation then turned to Drake and Royce made sure to show some love to the “Laugh Now, Cry Later” rapper.

“It’s not enough people going, Oh, well, you know, he gave us a Drake and Nicki. Nobody says that, they just go ‘Drake, look at Drake, he’s so handsome. Drake, Drake, Drake, Drake, Drake,’” he said. Royce added, “You know because Drake has you in awe of his greatness. But Wayne is a different level of greatness.”

(via HotNewHipHop)

Neighbor debates in California are far from uncommon, but those involving Gilligan’s Island are certainly noteworthy. Which is why it’s necessary to close the loop on a court case involving a large glass sculpture, the pristine California landscape million-dollar homes can afford and the theme song to one of the most recognizable television shows in history. A judge has ruled that, yes, playing the Gilligan’s Island theme song at high levels on loop for hours does constitute harassment.

Earlier this year news became public that two parties in Laguna Beach were at odds over a blown-glass lawn sculpture made by artist Dale Chihuly. It’s all a bit complicated, and the Los Angeles Times has sorted it all out nicely in an article that recaps the weeks-long court case, which was paused when the two music-players, Bill Gross and his partner, Amy Schwartz, were potentially exposed to coronavirus.

“People have an expectation, rightfully so, that their home is their oasis and safe place,” said Knill, who cited multiple instances of music being played so loudly it could be heard inside neighbor Mark Towfiq’s home despite concrete construction and half-inch-thick, dual-pane windows.

The gist is this: the sculpture, and a large net apparently installed to avoid damage from falling tree limbs and other debris, put Gross and Schwartz at odds with their other extremely wealthy neighbor, Towfiq. The latter complained the netting, which apparently didn’t come down much, as well as the statue itself obscured his view of the scenery. Things escalated, with complaints and infighting and texts on both sides. But things got very weird when outdoor speakers directed at Towfiq’s property blared the Gilligan’s Island theme song on repeat for hours on end.

The Los Angeles Times recap of the trial and its conclusion included an extensive section about the Gilligan’s Island theme song. Laguna Beach police testified they heard loud music and responded to noise complaints, and that Towfiq described it “almost like PTSD” to hear the show’s theme played over and over during the dispute.

In support of the accusations, Towfiq’s attorney called to the stand Laguna Beach police officers, who testified that they heard loud music coming from the property while responding to noise complaints. One of the officers and a city code enforcement official also testified that Gross and Schwartz said they would lower the music if Towfiq dropped his complaint about the sculpture.

Towfiq’s lawyers highlighted a text from Gross responding to their client’s request to turn down the music: “Peace on all fronts or well just have nightly concerts big boy.” Gross testified that the text referred to Towfiq’s picture-taking, behavior that the bond investor described as “peeping.” Knill ruled the explanation was not “plausible.”

The judge in the case ruled last week that Gross and Schwartz are not allowed to play music on speakers outside when they’re not out there, which essentially enforces the noise rules and at least in theory gives Towfiq some peace. It’s unclear if this will settle things between the neighbors, but at least it might finally leave the Skipper out of it.

[via Los Angeles Times]

Kanye West’s endeavors reach into many different corners of the business world. From the music world to the clothing and shoe design, the rapper has certainly branched out in recent years. But apparently he had interest in teaming up with Nintendo for a video game that never quite happened.

During a recent appearance on the Talking Games With Reggie & Harold podcast, former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime revealed the rapper reached out to the gaming company to collaborate on a video game. Fils-Aime said the meeting occurred between Kanye and his wife Kim Kardashian-West after the GOOD Music founder spoke to Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto at the company’s E3 booth.

Unfortunately for Kanye, the gaming company was dealing with too many projects at the time to take on the collab with him. “Part of it was talking about what he was up to. He was experimenting with a piece of video game content; he wanted reactions to it. He comes out and says, ‘I want to work with Nintendo,’” Fils-Aime said.

We had so many different projects at Nintendo going on, the possibility of doing something with Kanye just wasn’t there, and so I had to find a way to politely decline this opportunity to work with him. I told him, “Kanye, you don’t want to work with us because we’re tough, we’re hard. All we do is push for the very best content. We would not be the type of partner you would want to work with.” And he looks at me and says, “Reggie, you’re exactly the type of partner I want because of that reason!” It’s like, “Oh my gosh.”

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The news about Kanye comes after he shared his Emmanuel EP with his Sunday Service choir. You can listen to the full podcast episode here. Emmanuel is out now. Get it here.

Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune may be all the rage stateside, but other countries have their own game shows. Which, thankfully, means that they have their own set of gloriously wrong answers to laugh at. The latest is a holiday gift from the UK from a show called University Challenge.

The Boxing Day edition of UC featured

The show has been running for decades, and there are actually a lot of full episodes online if you’d like to see what a normal episode looks like. But the Boxing Day episode had lots of people talking online, mostly because of a question about Godzilla that went terribly wrong for a contestant from UCLan, or the University of Central Lancashire.

“King Ghidora, Megalon and Mothra are among creatures who have fought which enduring film character in films made between 1964 and 1992?” the show’s host, Jeremy Paxman, asked. There’s a long pause before someone from UClan rang in, and just like in a darts match when a player gets a pair of triple 20s, the camera zoomed in for the big finish. It didn’t disappoint.

“Lassie,” the contestant said, with neither conviction nor curiosity, which somehow made it even funnier. The camera work all around really made this one shine, and it seems like a normal thing for University Challenge but certainly is unusual for American game shows. It really made this clip, and the clearly incorrect answer implying a normal-sized dog fought a building-sized moth, that much funnier.

As another video shows, the team from Loughborough did get the right answer before time ran out, though the video was much funnier with it cut off right at the incorrect answer.

Still, she didn’t seem too sure of herself when guessing, either. The answer did get a LOT of people talking online. Mostly making memes about how Lassie would fare against Mothra.

It’s never great to fail on an international stage, but it is very funny to think about a tiny dog tagging in for Godzilla against some very tough opponents. At least we might get a movie deal out of this whole mess.

In addition to explaining how Mike Schur passed over a post-Super Bowl debut for Parks and Recreation to ensure they could get Amy Poehler as the lead in the series, Mike Schur also chatted last week with Rob Lowe on his podcast about his time at Saturday Night Live and later as producer on “Weekend Update.” In fact, Schur had a very inauspicious beginning on SNL, having been initially rejected for a writer spot but being called back when Norm MacDonald and some of his “Weekend Update” writers were fired for making too many O.J. Simpson jokes. Schur’s first show as a writer was also the first after the passing of Chris Farley. In fact, because of all the noise surrounding Norm MacDonald’s firing and Farley’s passing, Schur was able to basically work unnoticed for about six months while he gained his confidence as a writer.

Eventually, he was promoted to producer of “Weekend Update,” and he had an inauspicious beginning in that capacity, as well, because his first show as producer was the one after the 9/11 attacks. “I took this job thinking this will be fun,” Schur told Rob Lowe. “Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon are my friends and it will be fun to write some dumb jokes about the news, and then, you know, kablooey.”

Schur was unsure initially how to approach “Update” on that first show back. He wondered if he should acknowledge the attacks, but Lorne Michaels told him that they would do that at the top of the show, and it was his job to “just do jokes. That’s the point. That’s why people tune in, the ‘Weekend Update’ theme plays, and then they see 12 jokes and a couple of features, and then they go to a commercial. Just do that. That’s what we need.”

Schur, however, still had to come up with those 12 jokes and set the tone for the rest of “Update” with the very first joke. “What is the first joke you make after 9/11? How do you do that?”

Eventually, they settled on a joke about the Mariah Carey movie, Glitter, which had just come out two weeks earlier and had bombed. “Someone wrote a joke. I don’t remember who it was. It was like, ‘The CIA believes that Osama Bin Laden may be hiding in a very dark place with very few people. They’ve started searching in movie theaters showing the movie Glitter.’”

“It was such a dumb joke in the best possible way,” Schur continued. “And the show, it has a really emotional opening, and Giuliani was there. And the Chief of Police and it was very somber, and Paul Simon sang “The Boxer,” and they did the show, and then they get to ‘Weekend Update.’”

“My heart was pounding,” Schur said. “You can imagine a world where you do a joke about 9/11 and you are literally fired.”

Schur was not fired, of course. They read the joke, and “it gets a laugh. They laughed at it like it was any other joke. It wasn’t an amazing joke, but people laugh just the appropriate amount, and then they moved on.”

And this, Schur explains, is how Lorne Michaels has continued to approach the show even during our current pandemic. “The act of doing things like ‘Weekend Update’ or ‘SNL’ or making movies or any of that stuff. The point of it is the doing of it. So one way or another … the truth is, for normalcy to return, everything has to return, and one of those things is movie and TV. You just got to keep making them, even if they stink.”

That, ultimately, is what Lorne Michaels has done, and what much of the entertainment industry has continued to do in the midst of this pandemic. It continues to do what it does, because in order to get back to normal, the industry must continue to conduct itself as normally as possible. That is exactly what Schur is doing now, producing and co-writing Rutherford Falls for Peacock with Ed Helms and Sierra Teller Ornelas, even if he does hate operating a writers’ room on Zoom.

Source: Literally! with Rob Lowe