Category: Worldwide

One of the highest-grossing movies ever came out this year. No, not Paddington 3, unfortunately.

The record-breaking blockbuster is Ne Zha 2, a Chinese animated fantasy-adventure film that was released on January 29 and is already the world’s highest-grossing movie of all-time in a single market, with over $1.6 billion in ticket sales in China alone. The sequel to 2019’s Ne Zha made an additional $7.2 million during its debut weekend at the North American box office.

All told, Ne Zha 2 will soon surpass 2019’s The Lion King to become the 10th top-grossing movie ever. By this time next week, it should leapfrog Jurassic World, Inside Out 2, and maybe even Spider-Man: No Way Home, as well.

“But where can I see it?” you might be wondering.

How To Watch Ne Zha 2

The easiest way is to go to your local cinema: Ne Zha 2 is playing in over 600 theaters across the U.S. and Canada (you can see the full list here). If it’s not screening anywhere near you, however, you’ll have to wait until it’s on streaming. There’s unfortunately no streaming information available yet.

Here’s the plot synopsis for Ne Zha 2:

After the heavenly lightning, although Ne Zha and Ao Bing survived by becoming Spirits, they would soon dissipate completely. Taiyi plans to rebuild Ne Zha and Ao Bing’s mortal bodies with the Seven-colored Precious Lotus. However, during the process of reconstruction, numerous obstacles arise. What will become of the fate of Ne Zha and Ao Bing?

Check out the trailer below.

Poor Drake. He just can’t seem to get away from the fallout of his recent skirmish with Kendrick Lamar. Despite being on tour in Australia, it seemed some cheeky Aussie thought it’d be a good idea to troll the Canadian rapper with a gift from his homeland: A camouflage Toronto Raptors jersey. However, upon unfurling the jersey and seeing the name on the back, the performer threw it back into the crowd in apparent disgust. It looks like Drake still hasn’t forgiven DeMar DeRozan for supposedly siding with Kendrick during the two rappers’ beef.

I’m sure in Drake’s mind, he has good reason for feeling betrayed that DeRozan opted to appear in the video for fellow Comptonite Kendrick Lamar’s Drake-thrashing single, “Not Like Us” (and onstage during the rapper’s Kendrick & Friends Pop Out concert in LA). After all, when DeRozan was in Toronto playing for the Raptors, Drake was a fixture at the games, and the two entertainers developed what appeared to be an amiable relationship. Of course, that was before the Raptors unceremoniously traded him to the San Antonio Spurs after nine years of service for Kawhi Leonard (a move that worked out for the Raptors, leading to the franchise’s first-ever NBA Championship).

I asked DeMar how he felt about the trade a couple of days after, and while I won’t print what he said here, suffice it to say, he wasn’t exactly thrilled. While he insisted his appearance in the “Not Like Us” video was more of a favor for his fellow citizen than a shot at Drake, Drake clearly took it personally. If his reaction here is anything to judge by, it doesn’t look like he’ll be getting over it anytime soon.

You can check out a video of the mid-concert moment here.

Blackpink member Rosé has a relatively young solo career, but she had a breakout single last year by teaming with Bruno Mars on “APT.,” which was a top-three song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. She also released her album Rosie, was was also top-three on the Billboard 200.

After all that, she’s not slowing down.

In a new interview with The Cut, Rosé declared, “I’ve made new music. I was in the studio last week. What better to do with my life than be in the studio?”

She also discussed how she got connected with Mars and what she learned from him, saying:

I told my label I was a big fan. And then, me with my celebrity privilege, they said, ‘Would you like to get in a meeting with Bruno Mars?’ I was like, ‘Wow, I should say ‘no’ to this because I feel a little embarrassed.’ But I could not say ‘no.’ When I met him, I felt like he read through me, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I feel scared.’ […] Because of his intuition. He’s so awake. Of course, if you’re going to be him, you’ve got to be.

Let me think about how I should say this … Creative ideas only come to you at the right time and in the right moment, but sometimes with music, there are timelines. I’d always feel like, ‘It’s my fault; I should have an idea by this time,’ or ‘Maybe I’m just not good enough.’ Bruno showed me that, as a creative, you have to listen to your intuition and your timing, and you’re allowed to trust in it. I’ve become more confident in what feels right to me and in doing whatever it takes to have that come to life.

Stephen King’s constant readers are rarely lacking in adaptations coming on the horizon, but at least two-thirds of this year’s drop (aside from Life Of Chuck starring Tom Hiddleston) should be particularly terrifying. Oswald Perkins will soon deliver The Monkey, which will cement James Wan as the executive producer who cannot give up demonic toys, and Welcome To Derry will bring back Bill Skarsgård as the demonic entity most commonly known as Pennywise the Clown. So many demons, so little… you get the picture.

It might feel as though the latter project has been on the way for too many years, but that feeling could partially be because Derry has been such a haunted fixture in King’s work for decades. Also, It published in 1986, and unturned portions of the novel formed the basis of the upcoming series from Andy and Barbara Muschietti along with Jason Fuchs. So, it’s been a long wait even though the series was only announced a few years ago, and if you are feeling impatient then you are not alone.

When Will It” Welcome To Derry Come Out On HBO?

HBO’s latest press release on the series only specifies “2025,” but whenever the show does debut, it will simultaneously stream on on Max.

Additionally, HBO shared several stills from the series, although they are still sneakily withholding a renewed look as Bill as Pennywise.

As noted above, the Muschiettis are filling in the blanks on Pennywise’s earliest visits to Derry as chronicled by the It novel’s Mike Hanlon-focused interludes and other interludes that relate more about the demon’s lore. The show will also take place mainly in the 1960s but will take some trips into the past.

The cast includes Skarsgård as well as Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider, Rudy Mancuso, and Madeleine Stowe. It: Welcome To Derry will arrive in a season with nine weekly episodes, and HBO hasn’t revealed yet whether this is a limited series or if possible future seasons are in the cards.

Welcome to the Crumbl Cookie report! This is the second week in a row that Crumbl has reduced its lineup from eight cookies to seven. As staunch advocates of a smaller lineup (please Crumbl, go back to the six-cookie-a-week lineup) we’re pretty psyched about this — in theory. We say “in theory” because while we appreciate this week’s truncated lineup, what we are getting is a little boring.

This is one of the few weeks when we suggest you double up on a few flavors if you’re building out a six-pack box. Our suggestion would be to double up on each of our top three or triple up on the top two. For weekly Crumbl eaters, this might be the week you finally cash in on those Crumbl Rewards and pick up a few favorites for free.

Without further ado, here are all the cookies dropping at Crumbl this week, ranked from least to most essential.

7. Key Lime Pie Cookie

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

I’m not sure the form factor here is working for this flavor. The Key Lime Pie Cookie features a super soft graham cracker base topped with tart lime filling, a dollop of whipped cream, and a dusting of graham cracker crumbs. The cookie is chilled, which I also think works against it.

The only thing I liked about this cookie is that its sweet and tart flavor is a bit refreshing. But is refreshing something you really want in a dessert? Because of that, I’m going to say the Key Lime Pie Cookie is this week’s most skippable dessert.

The Bottom Line:

It’s an interesting curiosity, but it would’ve worked better as a pie or cake.

6. Wafer ft. Kit Kat

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Crumbl hasn’t yet cracked how to make Kit Kat’s work in a dessert. This cookie features a buttery cookie base topped with a thin layer of milk chocolate and crushed Kit Kat’s on top. It’s good, but the Kit Kat’s don’t really add much to the flavor, all they do is provide the occasional burst of crispy texture.

They feel like an afterthought and aren’t properly integrated into the flavor of the cookie. Kit Kat’s need a softer textured treat — we suggest either a tres leches cake with Kit Kats or some kind of Kit Kat pie.

The Bottom Line:

I rather just have a Kit Kat.

5. Iced Oatmeal

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

I know this cookie is incredibly tempting for oatmeal fans, but consider skipping this one as it’s a little boring compared to the rest of this week’s lineup.

The Iced Oatmeal features a cinnamon-rich chewy oatmeal base with a thin layer of cream cheese glaze across the surface. It offers a well-balanced mix of sweet vanilla and spicy cinnamon flavors but leans heavily on the sweeter end of the flavor spectrum.

The Bottom Line:

A decent oatmeal cookie, but far from Crumbl’s best. If oatmeal is your favorite cookie, consider it, but if you’re lukewarm on the flavor, this won’t change your feelings.

4. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunk

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

A toasted butter and brown sugar base loaded up with rich, semi-sweet chocolate chips and the lightest dusting of sea salt. This cookie is dessert perfection, and I’d rank it higher if it wasn’t available every other week.

So I’ll say what I always say about this cookie: if you’ve never been to Crumbl, this is a must-order. If you’re a regular, consider using your Crumbl Rewards on this one to pick it up for free.

The Bottom Line:

One of the best chocolate chip cookies you’ll ever have.

3. Tres Leches Cake

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Crumbl has several Tres Leches Cakes, one of which includes Lotus Biscoff cookies, this tres leches cake is not that, but it’s pretty similar. All that’s missing is the Lotus Biscoff crumbles and cookie butter topping. This simplified version features a fluffy, sweet, and delicate floral vanilla cake moistened with tres leches and topped with sweet whipped cream and a gentle dusting of cinnamon.

It’s a pretty standard Tres Leches, but the cinnamon topping is a bit of a tease. We wish the actual cake had more cinnamon. It’s a small complaint though, this cake is moist, sweet, and delicious.

The Bottom Line:

Not quite as good as Crumbl’s Tres Leches ft. Lotus Biscoff, but still a must-order dessert.

2. Chocolate Cake Batter

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

The Chocolate Cake Batter cookie might just be Crumbl’s richest cookie. The base is a sweet and soft chocolate cake batter topped with a layer of sweet fudge frosting and a layer of chocolate cake batter crumbles and rainbow sprinkles.

This cookie is incredibly soft and moist, almost cake-like, and will hit your taste buds with an overload of different complex chocolatey tones. I’m getting bitter cocoa, sweet milk chocolate, rich fudge, and decadent devil’s food. Unfortunately, this cookie is a bit one-note (chocolate obviously) so if you like shifting and complex flavors, look elsewhere.

The Bottom Line:

Rich, chocolatey, indulgent, and decadent. Excessive sweetness at its finest.

1. Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

One forkful of this Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie is a flavor bomb of toasty, rich, and creamy peanut-butter-forward flavors. The pie features a sweet and delicate cookies and cream pie crust topped with a layer of soft peanut butter filling, whipped cream, crushed peanut butter cups, and cookies and cream crumbles.

Those crumbles are purely decorative, but the crushed peanut butter cups add a lot of chocolatey flavor to the mix and a considerable amount of texture, as the majority of the pie is soft and airy. If you feel lukewarm about peanut butter, this dessert is not for you. The peanut butter flavor is intense, in the best way.

The Bottom Line:

A true treat for fans of Peanut Butter. Toasty, creamy, nutty, and rich!

Find your nearest Crumbl here.

Kiki Rice and the UCLA Bruins are the top-ranked team in the country thanks to a 25-1 record this season, as they have been a dominant force in the Big Ten. The point guard has played a big role in the Bruins’ success, averaging 12.9 points and 4.5 assists per game for UCLA in 22 games played this season.

Earlier this month, Rice stopped by the UPROXX Studios for our new Shot Clock challenge presented by McDonald’s, where she answered as many rapid fire questions as possible in 24 seconds to move closer to the hoop for a buzzer-beater. We got to learn Rice’s favorite player to study, her favorite basketball movie, the shooter whose form she loves the most, her pick between Jordan/LeBron and A’ja/Stewie, the WNBA player she’d most want to play with, her favorite album of all-time, and much more about the Bruins star guard.

Rice gives shoutouts to Napheesa Collier as the player she’d most like to play with, Kyrie Irving as the player she studies the most, Klay Thompson as the shot form she’d like to steal, A’ja Wilson for her great sneakers, Don Toliver for making her favorite album, and more as she worked her way closer to the hoop and drilled the shot.

Be sure to check back for more Shot Clock videos on Dime socials and UPROXX’s YouTube channel.

It was reported last week that Kendrick Lamar had passed Drake to claim the all-time record for the most monthly listeners in Spotify history among rappers. However, that ignored Post Malone and Bad Bunny (both of whom had higher all-time peaks than Lamar) and their contributions to hip-hop.

Now, though, Lamar has hit a more clear-cut superlative: He currently has 100 million monthly listeners (100,052,025, to be precise), which makes him the first rapper to reach that milestone in Spotify history.

The list of other artists to ever hit 100 million is a short one (per data from Kworb): Bruno Mars (151 million), The Weeknd (125), Ariana Grande (123), Lady Gaga (123), Taylor Swift (116), Billie Eilish (108), Justin Bieber (104), and Mariah Carey (100). That makes Lamar just the ninth artist to ever reach 100 million.

The next closest rappers behind Lamar are Post Malone (98), Bad Bunny (95), Drake (86), Eminem (86), Kanye West (78), Doja Cat (76), and Travis Scott (75).

Lamar has plenty to celebrate aside from this. This weekend, he achieved another hip-hop first by becoming the first rapper to have three simultaneous top-10 albums on the Billboard 200: GNX returns to No. 1, Damn rises to No. 9, and Good Kid, M.A.A.D City rounds out the list at No. 10. With SZA’s SOS hitting No. 2 this week, she and Lamar’s achievements mark the first time two Super Bowl Halftime Show performers take the top two spots on the chart following the game.

Saturday Night Live celebrated its 50th anniversary on Sunday night. An institution in the world of American culture, SNL has made it a point to touch on everything over the years, and the world of sports has been a big part of that. For years, athletes have hosted or made cameo appearances on the show, and while they’ve not always been big hits, some of the most memorable moments in the show’s history have come as a result of athletes getting involved. Usually, they poke fun at themselves when that happens.

To celebrate the show’s anniversary, we looked back at some of our favorite cameos from athletes in SNL history. This isn’t a comprehensive list, because there have been plenty of other times when athletes have made their mark at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, but these are certainly some of the best moments.

Charles Barkley as Shaq on “Inside the NBA”

There is zero doubt about this getting a spot on the list. Charles Barkley making fun of Shaq is always good television, and for it to happen on SNL is even better, particularly because this sketch hits on a lot of the notes that make Inside so much fun. Kenan Thompson’s Chuck impression is terrific, and you just know that Barkley loved looking at him and saying “people love you, Charles Barkley.”

Michael Jordan gets a Daily Affirmation

The Stuart Smalley x Michael Jordan collaboration that no one knew we needed ended up being a real joy. Unfortunately, Jordan was able to keep himself from busting out laughing, but he sure did come close. I like to think that, even after this segment came to an end, Jordan continued to do this exact thing as a daily affirmation every day for the remainder of his professional career.

Peyton Manning for the United Way

I mean, yeah. This is just flat out one of the funniest things SNL has ever done, and that would’ve been the case if this was someone just doing a Manning impression. Instead, you have Manning being the absolute worst influence in the world, and the result is pure magic.

Point/Counterpoint, with Derek Jeter and Red Sox fan Seth Meyers

The balance between Jeter acting like this is a real point/counterpoint and Meyers (I presume) just repeating stuff that he’s said while he was three beers deep at Fenway really is terrific. My only complaint as a Yankee fan is that Jeter leaned in a bit more to the fact that he won four rings in six years at the time of this sketch, but that’s fine.

LeBron’s Read to Achieve ad

Jason Sudeikis does a fantastic job playing every guy who has ever talked about their high school basketball accomplishments like they’re on the same level as anything LeBron James has done. The line about Dwyane Wade having a ring three years before James joined the Heat is fun to watch in retrospect, and James looked incredibly proud of himself after he caught Sudeikis with an elbow before dunking and reading his line.

John Cena in The Karate Teen

This is here because of John Cena’s weird accent, which is very funny, and the final battle between Cena and Mikey Day, which goes exactly how this exact thing should go.

Wayne Gretzky goes fishing with the Anal Retentive Chef

Admittedly, this is mostly on here because it’s a reason to watch Phil Hartman, but Gretzky does a good job as the person who is trying to do something urgently while Hartman is, well, not doing that. Plus the visual of Gretzky trying to beat the hell out of a giant fish with a net is terrific, too.

Eli Manning embarrasses himself to get found not guilty

I absolutely hate watching this sketch, which I am pretty sure is the point. It’s hilarious in a deeply uncomfortable way, as Manning has to act out a bunch of emojis and read out his texts and search history on his computer. It’s awful, and it’s so funny.

Travis Kelce teaches self-defense

Just in general, Travis Kelce playing a self-defense instructor named Curt Lightning whose hair looks like that is extremely good. The sketch itself is incredibly chaotic, as well, between Kelce throwing some monster right hands, a game of Russian roulette that is initiated by a grandma, and a whole lot else.

Reacher will soon return with a third season that is putting a new twist on “bigger and better” by lining up Alan Ritchson’s Big Guy against an even Bigger Guy (portrayed by Oliver Ritchers), and man, the craft services binges must have been a sight to see between the two of them. Get ready for more toe-to-toe fights and Reacher also going head-to-head with another villain, who he supposedly killed but who has miraculously resurrected himself. It happens.

The third season will be based on Lee Child’s Persuader novel, which will take the show’s wandering protagonist up into Maine (maybe he can go punch Pennywise) and down into Boston, and our dude is going undercover, so that leads to a question of how Prime Video/Amazon is rolling this season out.

Will Reacher Season 3 Premiere All At Once?

Negative, but three episodes will debut on Thursday, February 20. From there, five more weekly drops will happen on Thursdays until March 27.

It’s almost time for junk food and muscles, but let’s do the synopsis thing first:

Based on Lee Child’s novel Persuader, Reacher hurtles into the dark heart of a vast criminal enterprise when trying to rescue an undercover DEA informant whose time is running out. There, he finds a world of secrecy and violence and confronts some unfinished business from his own past.

In addition to Ritchson vs. Ritchers, Reacher‘s third season brings back Maria Sten’s Frances Neagley. Additional co-stars include Brian Tee, David Daniel Stewart, Anthony Michael Hall, and Sonya Cassidy as a love interest who is not Roscoe, but we guess that’s alright (actually, she is pretty awesome).

To get something out of the way before we dive in: The NBA might have something cooking with its new All-Star Game format. Is it perfect? Absolutely not, but the general idea of how a mini-tournament format would work ended up doing what the league clearly set out to achieve. The games were a little more competitive than the last few years of All-Star, although they weren’t Game 7 of the NBA Finals levels of intense or anything — there were still plenty of uncontested threes and matador defense that led to dunks. The shorter games meant guys didn’t stop caring by halftime. Adam Silver wasn’t visibly furious handing out trophies after the game.

And yet, no one seems to care. This is based on totally anecdotal evidence, but in conversations with people who watched, the NBA’s attempt at reinvigorating the All-Star Game was a total flop. Even beyond conversations with friends or just scrolling X, The Everything App and seeing people wonder what the point of all this was, Draymond Green couldn’t hide his disdain on TNT, while players straight up said there were too many stoppages.

Those stoppages were the biggest problem on Sunday night. More broadly, the problem was that the NBA’s solution to its All-Star Game problem — which is, it must be stressed, not a real thing — was to do other things than just playing basketball.

TNT’s coverage of the All-Star Game began at 6 p.m. ET, with the main broadcast beginning at 8:15 p.m. Things went off the air around 11 p.m. That’s right around five hours of coverage. After finding a replay and using the stopwatch on my phone to track just how much basketball there was (i.e., I stopped it for commercial breaks and the Inside the NBA tribute that we will get to), here’s what I found:

Game 1: 13 minutes, 13 seconds
Game 2: 16 minutes, 24 seconds
Game 3: 13 minutes, 49 seconds

I will say that this probably isn’t perfect, just because there were a few times when the desire to have Kevin Hart yell about big men getting into the post outweighed the desire to put the cameras on the game, so I missed a few seconds here and there. Regardless, whether you want to say it was five hours of coverage or 2.5ish hours of the actual event (aside: my goodness, they did not respect the announced start time!), cutting down the amount of basketball to about 43 and a half minutes is completely ridiculous.

The amount of time between games, once again, was a complaint, so I wondered just how much time was spent from the final basket of one game to the opening tip of the next. The time between Game 1 and Game 2 was largely spent watching Mr. Beast yell into a microphone about giving away money, while a chunk of time between Game 2 and Game 3 was spent with a halftime show that was the exact opposite of the Mr. Beast thing, in that it was good and entertaining, a statement that comes with the obvious caveat that I am not the target audience for a Mr. Beast segment. Here are those numbers:

Game 1 to Game 2: 26 minutes, 24 seconds
Game 2 to Game 3: 27 minutes, 25 seconds

There was also the tribute that broke up the championship game. A timeout was taken by Charles Barkley’s team, which found itself down 11-1 at that point, and then, it took 17 minutes and 56 seconds to inbound the ball again. The tribute itself was nice (albeit a little strange due to the fact that Inside the NBA will be on ESPN next year and Turner will continue to broadcast important basketball games for a few more months), but also, this took more time than any of the games! As did the breaks in between them!

Again, compared to the last few All-Star Games, the basketball in this one was pretty good. Victor Wembanyama’s inability to chill added something to his two games (his semifinal more than the final, which we’ll get to in a sec), while the second game — between the Rising Stars winner and the Steph Curry-led team put together by Shaquille O’Neal — was the best of the bunch, because you could tell a collection of All-Stars legitimately did not want to lose to a bunch of young guys who were competing. The third game fell flat, but I think you can argue that’s because Barkley’s team went an hour and 19 minutes from the end of Game 1 to the start of Game 3, and then there was a huge break in the middle of it.

The problem was that basketball — this wonderful game that brought people to the Bay Area in the first place this weekend — never felt like it was the centerpiece. In trying to get fans to believe that the All-Star Game is back, the game of basketball was made to feel less important than ever. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the gripe for years has been that players don’t take the All-Star Game seriously enough if this is what the NBA thinks it has to do to get them to care. Hell, I think you can make the argument that it’s not surprising that players don’t take All-Star seriously when they’re constantly being made out to be the bad guys for this, sometimes directly by the league.

It’s unfortunate, all of this. I’m not someone who believes the lack of effort in the All-Star Game is an existential crisis — it’s a game that does not count for anything other than the NBA’s ability to have something to sell to media partners and an opportunity for brands to put their logos on things — but I do think that the NBA’s insistence that it is a problem and its never-ending quest to Streisand Effect this into a bigger and bigger deal is a huge issue. Like the never-ending ratings discourse that goes on unabated in spite of the regular season being compelling on a nightly basis and a $76 billion media rights deal, the league’s insistence on responding to every bit of criticism with the hopes that another change will be the thing that makes everyone happy just makes things worse.

The result of this on Sunday was an All-Star Game that wasn’t, a low point for the NBA on an evening where it got exactly what it wanted: Players, on the floor for this event, trying harder than they have over the past few years. You’d be forgiven if that wasn’t your primary takeaway amid everything else that took the spotlight off of the actual playing of basketball at the NBA’s All-Star Game.