It was an expensive summer for Beyoncé and Jay-Z.

Less than two months after the billion-dollar power couple purchased a 2-acre hillside estate in Los Angeles for $88 million, they've scooped up a $26 million Hamptons property, reports Trulia.

The 12,000 square-foot mansion is located in East Hampton, New York, and sits adjacent to Georgica Pond.

The Carters currently hold Forbes' title of the highest-paid celebrity couple in the world, with a combined fortune of $1.16 billion.

The entertainment moguls have famously been serial renters, only recently settling down as homeowners after the birth of their twins in June.

Below, take a peek inside Beyoncé and Jay-Z's new Hamptons abode.

SEE ALSO: Beyoncé and Jay-Z bought an $88 million house — here's why their $52 million mortgage might be a smart business decision

DON'T MISS: Take a rare look at the enormous mansions hidden behind the Hamptons' famously high hedges

Designed by architect Stanford White and built a century ago, the home has been renovated and expanded over the years to incorporate new, modern amenities.

The property includes a detached, 1,800-square-foot guest cottage. There's also a 45-foot-long infinity pool and accompanying spa.

Elevated on a two-acre site with over 200 feet of waterfront on Georgica Pond, it's private and secluded. The previous owner reportedly rotated the original house 90-degrees to frame the views of the waterfront from the living room.

I'm one of those rare millennials who's had it with streaming everything I watch.

After five years of living cord-free, getting most of my TV from a combination of Netflix, iTunes downloads, and an antenna that tunes in over-the-air broadcasts, I'm back on cable. I didn't realize how much I'd been missing.

I'm no longer a cord cutter. Now I'm a cord flopper. I love it! And even a new digital set-top box from Apple hasn't changed my mind. 

My journey back to the dark side started earlier this year when I moved to a new apartment. I didn't plan to get a cable subscription again, but I caved after some nudging from my TV-obsessed fiancée.

To tell the truth, I didn't need much convincing. Among other benefits, traditional pay TV offers things that can be hard to get via online video services, including live sports, live news, and a reliable DVR.

Cord cutting, by contrast, is a headache. Technology is supposed to make everything cheaper and easier, but internet-delivered video can be just as expensive and more confusing than simply signing up for cable.

You have to juggle multiple subscriptions to services like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Now. You have to wait while your shows buffer. There's often a two-minute or longer delay when you stream presidential debates and other live events.

And when streaming services don't have the shows you want to watch, you have to hunt for them in digital video stores such as Apple's iTunes, Amazon and Vudu. If you can find them, you'll have to spend a few bucks an episode or upwards of $50 for an entire season. Even then, some shows aren't available until the next day, and others aren't available until a year after they're originally broadcast.

We were promised better, but no one has delivered. But it's Apple that's been the most disappointing of all. 

For years, Apple has been teasing us that it's going revolutionize our relationship with television in the same way that it upturned the music market and the way we interact with our phones. For example, before he died in 2011, Apple founder Steve Jobs described to his biographer, Walter Isaacson, his vision for TV.

"I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use," Jobs said. "It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine."

What's more, he said, "I finally cracked it."

If he did, we still haven't seen the results. 

As a case in point, take the company's Apple TV set-top box. The company touted the gadget in the past as the "future of TV." But it's still nothing of the kind. 

Apple just released a new version called the Apple TV 4K that will stream videos that are sharper looking and more colorful than before — at least on televisions that support the  technologies needed to display those better looking videos. But like its predecessors, the new device fails to solve any of television's bigger shortcomings or improve the cord-cutting experience.

Apple TV's interface is fine, but you still have to contend with numerous apps and deal wth logging in separately to multiple services, such as Netflix and Hulu. To use the apps associated with the various broadcast and pay TV channels, you typically have to go through different log-on routine, this one through your pay TV provider. Taken together, the Apple TV experience is nowhere close to the vision Jobs had six years ago.

Apple reportedly tried to do something different. According to multiple reports, the company worked on creating a live TV streaming service that would be easy to use and cheaper than traditional cable offerings. But Apple couldn't seal the deal with Hollywood, and this is what we're stuck with — a mishmash of apps and streaming services that even taken together don't match up well with plain old cable. 

The fact that cord-cutting is still so painful isn't entirely Apple's fault, of course. None of the other tech companies have solved the underlying problems either. Apple TV's rivals, such as Google's Chromecast and Roku's assortment of boxes, largely just serve as conduits for the various streaming services users watch. They don't do much to try to organize those services or make them simpler to use. None of the devices or services offers an easy way to get all the stuff you may want to watch in one place at a reasonable price with only one log in. 

Cable and other traditional pay TV services have their own problems, including set-top boxes with clunky interfaces and service packages that force you to pay for loads of channels you'll probably never watch. But at least you can watch what you want, when you want it, without delay or compromise.

I'm sure internet TV will get better, but the disruption is happening far slower than it did with phones, computers, and music. Apple TV and other streaming devices do a good job of offering services that complement traditional pay TV. But they can't yet replace it.

SEE ALSO: The iPhone 8 review

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The Beatles took the U.S. by storm in the early 1960s, and by the end of the decade, the "British invasion" quartet left a historic — and likely untouchable — mark on the charts.

In the RIAA's tally of the best-selling artists by U.S. album sales and streaming figures, The Beatles lead the second-place artist, country singer Garth Brooks, by over 30 million album units. 

From Michael Jackson to Bruce Springsteen to Whitney Houston, this chart of the RIAA's most successful artists contains the expected legendary names and a few surprising appearances. 

Check out the chart below, and find the rest of the top 50 here:

SEE ALSO: The 50 best-selling music artists of all time

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NOW WATCH: 6 details you might have missed on the season 7 finale of 'Game of Thrones'

I never thought I'd see a shirtless Mario running along the beach, nipples and all, but here we are.

This is emblematic of the supreme silliness of "Super Mario Odyssey," the next big game coming to Nintendo's Switch. If you remember "Super Mario 64," "Super Mario Odyssey" is basically that, but bigger, better looking — and way weirder.

I got a chance to play the game recently, and during that session I found a bunch of things that are at least as strange as the image above.

Here, for example, is another real image from the game, which I captured while playing it:

"Super Mario Odyssey" is quite a game. Let's dive in!

SEE ALSO: I spent over an hour playing the insane and delightful 'Super Mario Odyssey,' Nintendo's huge next game

In "Super Mario Odyssey," you explore vast open worlds.

The point is to find moons to power your ship, the Odyssey, from place to place.

In this scene, Mario is exploring one such place — Bubblaine — while wearing some polka dot swim trunks.

That by itself isn't all that strange. What is crazy is what's going on with Mario's hat.

The ability to explore worlds is pretty similar to "Super Mario 64."

What's new is how Mario's hat is being haunted by a ghost. He can use it to take over other characters or items in the game by tossing it onto them

With the hat, you can take over a person.

Jill Soloway's acclaimed Emmy-nominated series "Transparent" has returned for its fourth season, which follows the Pfeffermans as they travel to Israel, and embark on journeys of self discovery.

Kind of.

The first episode of the season opens in the midst of a love and sex addicts meeting, with Lila (Alia Shawkat) discussing how lonely it can be trying to find her "person." She continues to say that when you meet someone everything feels a little "clearer," and you feel like you're "on the inside of the world again." 

The touching speech really sets the tone for the season, and reflects each character's search for something, or someone, to make things clearer for them. 

Maura (Jeffrey Tambor) travels to Israel for a seminar, but as a result of unexpectedly meeting a (thought to be) lost relative, she ends up inviting the rest of the Pfefferman clan to join her in the Holy Land. Once the Pfeffermans find themselves away from home they begin to explore themselves. 

Ali (Gabby Hoffman) searches for herself, and for a connection to her body — questioning why it is that she feels her body is "screaming" at her. Sarah (Amy Landecker) tests the boundaries of her relationship with her milquetoast ex-husband Len (Rob Huebel), and wonders what kind of relationship she can hope to have with him. Josh (Jay Duplass) continues to wrestle with his past relationship with Rita — confronting the lasting traumas of the relationship. And Maura tries to find some meaning in her relationship with her newly discovered relative. 

In true Pfefferman fashion, looking inward doesn't always provide insights into one's self. The characters, for the most part, remain exactly how they were before they arrived in Israel. Their efforts to understand themselves start to feel more like narcissism than self-discovery as the season progresses — and it's a bit tiring.

The most compelling journey this season doesn't belong to the Pfeffermans at all, but to Maura's friend Davina (Alexandra Billings). We get to see what Davina's life was like prior to her transition in the episode "Born Again." Davina's story is one of survival and perseverance, and it offers a new and compelling look at transitioning that is markedly different from Maura's. 

Anyone who has enjoyed the Pfeffermans' exploits in the past will enjoy seeing what the family is like in a new environment. But you may find yourself somewhat bored by the Pfeffermans' inability to change. 

All ten episodes of "Transparent's" fourth season are now available to stream on Amazon Prime. 

SEE ALSO: Jeffrey Tambor just urged Hollywood to "give transgender talent a chance"

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There's a lot of TV. This fall, however, there hasn't been a lot of good TV so far. In fact, it's one of the worst seasons for new shows in years.

But that doesn't mean there's nothing to watch. 

There are a few entertaining freshman shows like ABC's "The Mayor" and Netflix's "American Vandal," but a lot more returning shows are must-see TV, like NBC's "The Good Place" and HBO's "Vice Principals."

We put together a list of the new and returning TV shows that you should be wasting your precious free time on, from new shows to returning ones. We also included where to watch them. 

Here's what you should be watching on TV this fall:

SEE ALSO: The 50 worst TV shows in modern history, according to critics

"The Deuce" — new

"The Wire" creator David Simon looks back to 1970s New York and the early days of the porn industry. James Franco plays twins! The all-star cast also includes Maggie Gyllenhaal and Zoe Kazan. It was already renewed for season two, so it's worth your time since now we know the story will continue. 

Where to watch: Sunday nights on HBO, HBONow, HBOGo. 

"You're the Worst" — returning

This sometimes-a-dramedy is in its fourth season. The show, about quirky and very flawed thirty-somethings in LA, covers issues including PTSD and depression, and is the most inventive, thoughtfully written show on TV right now. It's also very funny. Check out our interview with the creator and showrunner Stephen Falk. 

Where to watch: Wednesday nights on FXX, and new episodes available the next day on the FX app. Seasons one, two, and three are available on Hulu.

"Better Things" — returning

Season two of the Emmy-nominated series continues Sam's (Pamela Adlon) life as an actress and single mother of three daughters in LA. Adlon co-created the series with Louis C.K., and it shows: the subject matter and spirit is very similar to "Louie."

Where to watch: Wednesday nights on FX, and new episodes available the next day on the FX app. 

There aren’t many directors in Hollywood with a filmography like David Gordon Green.

In a business where if you’re lucky enough to find a niche you milk it for all its worth, Green jumped from being one of the top rising directors in the independent film world in the 1990s, to now making a diverse array of mainstream movies, from “Pineapple Express” to his latest, “Stronger” (opening in theaters on Friday).

“I always need to change it up,” Green told Business Insider while attending this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. “It’s really satisfying to be able to switch gears.”

Green certainly switches things up with “Stronger,” a look at the life of Boston Marathon bomber survivor Jeff Bauman. Played by Jake Gyllenhaal, we follow Bauman as his life completely changes after he loses both his legs in the bombing, and becomes an unlikely hero in the aftermath.

Green had never made a biopic before, but diving into a new genre has never stopped him. He had never directed a comedy before the Seth Rogen/James Franco stoner comedy “Pineapple Express,” or done TV before directing episodes of HBO's cult hit "Eastbound & Down." So when he was approached to come on and help develop screenwriter John Pollono’s adaptation of Bauman’s book, he jumped at the chance.

“I’ve always been curious about what happens when people are involved in a headline news event, what their lives are like afterwards; after the headlines fade,” Green said.

In “Stronger,” he shows the good, bad, and ugly of Bauman’s life after becoming the face of “Boston Strong,” the motto that became prevalent across the nation after the bombing. Now the movie, which currently has a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score, is gaining Oscar buzz.

That’s not to say Green hasn’t struck out while attempting things that people might think are out of his lane. The Jonah Hill comedy “The Sitter” (2011) and dramedy based on the popular 2005 documentary “Our Brand Is Crisis” (2015), were both critical and financial flops, but the truth is you probably didn’t know he was the director on those movies.

And that’s what allows Green to continue being diverse in his choices. While the auteur label is loosely thrown around these days for any director who shows a bit of flair, the disadvantage of that is suddenly your work is raised to a level where you have to deliver a specific style to appease the audience, as well as the studio that you’re working for. In the case of those directors, if you don’t deliver at the box office, your days of making your kind of movies are done.

Green has evolved by doing things the complete opposite way.

Though he certainly has skill, he isn’t a show-off with it. Instead, most of the work he does is centered on the storytelling. And telling good stories will always get you work. In the case of “Stronger,” Green leaves the talents of Gyllenhaal and costar Tatiana Maslany, who plays his girlfriend in the movie, Erin, to carry the movie.

That’s also the case with the work he’s done on television. HBO comedies “Eastbound & Down” and “Vice Principals” (currently airing its second, and final, season) highlight the genius comedy of Danny McBride, but it’s often Green who is directing the episode and giving it the structure needed to tell the stories (as zany as they are).

And Green isn’t done changing things up. Through his production company Rough House Pictures, which Green started with McBride and “Eastbound & Down” co-creator Jody Hill, he’s about to start filming his first horror movie.

Since wrapping on “Stronger,” Green and McBride have been writing a script for the reboot of “Halloween.” Executive produced by the franchise creator John Carpenter, and produced by Blumhouse Productions (“Get Out,” "Split"), Green will also direct the movie, which is slated for release in October 2018, and will include franchise star Jamie Lee Curtis in the cast.

“It’s amazing,” Green said of working on the project. “Sitting down with John Carpenter a couple of weeks ago at his house and getting script notes, it’s crazy. And I think he’s going to do the music for it.”

Carpenter created the score for the original movie, which has since become one of the most iconic pieces of music ever put on screen.

Looking at his career, Green doesn’t knock his early work in the independent film world, like "George Washington," "All the Real Girls," and "Undertow." But he says the goal was always to get where he’s at now.

“Once ‘Pineapple Express’ happened and was successful I was able to confidently say, ‘I’d like to do a lot of different things, please,’” Green said. “Big ideas, little ideas, I like it. It's just messy and it’s fun. I’m just trying to challenge myself.”

SEE ALSO: How the smartest movie-theater owner in the country has severely jeopardized his company's brand

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For all of the improvements Bungie made between the first "Destiny" game from 2014 and "Destiny 2," which just launched earlier this month, one of the biggest changes to the game is also one of the most disappointing.

In "Destiny 2," Bungie took shaders — one of the most fun, crowd-pleasing aspects of the first game — and made them into a punishing experience.

It's perhaps one of the only aspects of the game where the sequel took a significant step backward. Here's what I mean.

SEE ALSO: This year's most anticipated game, 'Destiny 2,' is both brilliant and terrible

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In the first "Destiny" game, shaders let you change the overall color theme for your character's outfit. You could collect shaders from completing certain activities, or sometimes as a random reward at the end of an activity.

Here's what my character looked like by the end of the first "Destiny" game — without a shader.

But here's what that same character looked like with a shader on. This one is called "Midas":

Fervor for the latest take on Stephen King's "It" has pushed the new film near the top of the highest-grossing horror films in history.

To find out where "It" sits on the worldwide list, we turned to Box Office Mojo for its international box office data on the highest-grossing horror movies.

While "It" recently became the top-earning horror film of all time at the U.S. box office, it still has a few classics to pass up before it can be crowned the world's top-performing scary movie (including foreign markets).

Here are the 20 highest-grossing horror films of all time: 

Note: We have not adjusted the grosses for inflation.

SEE ALSO: The 20 actors who have made the most money at the U.S. box office

20. The Ring (2002) — $249.3 million

19. "Get Out" (2017) — $252.4 million

18. "The Village" (2004) — $256.6 million

For years, Netflix would let you rate movies and TV shows anywhere from one to five stars. That changed in April, when Netflix removed the star system in favor of a new system that simply asked users: “Thumbs up, or thumbs down?”

Netflix’s explanation at the time was that the previous star-rating system was confusing to customers.

In that old system, if a movie on Netflix had four stars, people assumed that was the average rating among all users. After all, that’s what stars usually mean on online services that feature reviews, like Yelp. In reality, though, a movie with four stars meant Netflix was predicting you would rate that movie four stars based on your habits (and the habits of similar users).

With so much confusion around how the star-rating system worked, Netflix argued people were less motivated to rate titles since they thought their vote would be a drop in the bucket among the millions of other votes. People didn’t understand that using star ratings would only improve Netflix’s ability to understand your tastes. So Netflix introduced a new, more straightforward binary system earlier this year: Just give any title a thumbs up or thumbs down and Netflix would learn from your ratings.

Netflix made one other change, too: You would no longer see how many "stars" a movie had. Now, you only see a percentage — a number that represents the likelihood you'll enjoy what Netflix is suggesting.

This system might sound good on paper, but the flaws start appearing upon closer inspection.

Forget the smaller issues, like how titles that get a thumbs-down continue popping up in your various suggested lists (seriously, Netflix, I don't want to watch "Disjointed"). The bigger issue here is that the percent-match system is no better than the star system before it; if anything, it's just as confusing as before, and it still turns up results I don't agree with.

For example: On my account, Chelsea Handler’s Netflix talk show "Chelsea" is a 90% match. A Netflix show called “White Gold” is a 97% match. “Fuller House” is a 92% match. I tried all three of these shows, and I couldn't get past the first 5-10 minutes; I'm simply not interested in these shows.

Meanwhile, movies I’ve seen and really enjoyed are given comparatively lower percentages. I loved “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” but Netflix says we’re only a 79% match. “Guardians of the Galaxy” is easily my favorite Marvel movie, but Netflix says we're only an 84% match.

Netflix would be better off with a more straightforward system, where a percentage or stars don't represent the likelihood you'd enjoy a film or a show, but represent how all other users rated that content. That's how most online ratings systems work — Amazon, Yelp, you name it — and it would make sense for Netflix.

The problem is, Netflix won't abandon this new system. The company is very particular about the information it wants to show users (since it won't show much), and Netflix likely has some statistics that support how well the current percent-match system works. For instance, Netflix has repeatedly said in the past that there's a difference between what you rate highly and what you actually like watching; the percent-match system probably supports this fact.

That said, there's a bigger underlying issue here: The mechanic that powers the new percent-match system is a binary thumbs-up or thumbs-down decision, which is inherently flawed. 

This boils down to a philosophical issue: "Good" is not the same word as "great," just like "bad" is not the same word as "horrendous." Simply saying a movie or show was "good" or "bad" simply doesn't accommodate the myriad shades of grey. As one Reddit user put it, "there is now absolutely no difference between 'I guess I didn’t hate this movie' and 'This is the greatest movie I’ve ever seen in my life, and I want to see more like it.'"

This is also conventional wisdom for the film industry at large: Almost every single movie or TV show review you'll find is rated on some kind of gradient or scale, a number between zero and 10. Even Roger Ebert, the inventor of giving movies "thumbs up" or "thumbs down," eventually rated movies from zero to four stars when he launched his own website. And before that, when "Siskel & Ebert" was on the air, both critics always backed up their binary choices with a ton of explanation and nuance that Netflix's system simply doesn't capture.

It's fine if Netflix wanted to change stars to percentages — they still mean the same thing: the likelihood Netflix thinks you'll like what it's suggesting — but people should still be able to rate movies from zero to five stars instead of a simple thumbs up or down. It feels almost antithetical to deprive people of choice in an age where people crave more nuance and information, where even Facebook's "Like" button is now supplemented by other emotions. I understand Netflix invested a significant amount of time and money into this current setup, but at the very least, I think it's time to get rid of the thumbs.

SEE ALSO: I've owned an Amazon Echo for over a year now — here are my 19 favorite features

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The domestic box office is feeling a little hungover from the last two week's monster take from Warner Bros./New Line Cinema's horror "It."

This week, audiences had a diverse selection of titles in wide release to choose from: "Kingsman: The Golden Circle," "The Lego Ninjango Movie," and the horror "Friend Request." Though the "Kingsman" sequel took the win, all three titles underperformed compared to industry projections.

"The Golden Circle," continuing the James Bond-like antics of franchise star Taron Egerton along with new additions Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, Julianne Moore, and Jeff Bridges, took in an estimated $39 million on 4,000 screens, according to Exhibitor Relations.

That's just below its $40 million projection. However, thanks to the added star power, the movie was able to earn more in its opening weekend than the 2015 original, "Kingsman: The Secret Service," which opened with $36.2 million. It pulled that off with just a 51% Rotten Tomatoes score, compared to the 74% score that "The Secret Service" got.

"It" came in second with a strong $30 million third week. The adaptation of the Stephen King novel is now the highest-grossing R-rated horror movie of all time (not counting inflation) with a domestic total of $266 million.

"The Lego Ninjango Movie" placed in third with $21 million. That's below the $30 million projection for the latest title from the successful animated franchise of the Lego brand. This is the first disappointing opening for the titles, which include 2014's "The Lego Movie," with a $69 million opening and a lifetime worldwide box office of $469.1 million.

2017's "The Lego Batman Movie" opened to $53 million ($311.9 million worldwide lifetime gross). With "Lego Ninjango" costing around $70 million (not counting marketing), it looks like Warner Bros. animation will take a hit with this one. And with each title dropping in earnings, it would be helpful if the next one could be an overachiever.

The horror "Friend Request" had the task of trying to attract fans of the genre following the hit that "It" is. The low-budget title didn't succeed. Taking in only $2.4 million over the weekend (it was made for $9.9 million), it proves that horror audiences won't just run to anything that has scares.

SEE ALSO: How the director of Jake Gyllenhaal's new movie went from "Pineapple Express" to tackling the Boston Marathon bombing

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• Alamo Drafthouse is one of the most successful independent theater chains in the US with its mixture of fun programming and tasty food and drinks.
• CEO Tim League is navigating the company's first major controversy following the rehiring of a movie blogger who was accused of sexual assault last year.
• League now sets forth with the biggest challenge of the company's 20-year existence: proving Alamo Drafthouse is not just a "boys' club" and rebuilding trust.

Tim League casually sipped a beer on the outdoor patio of a bar in Toronto, as the hustle of this year's Toronto International Film Festival rushed past him. Before joining the fray, the owner of one of the most successful independent movie chains in the US, Alamo Drafthouse, was happy to have a moment to reflect.

"I feel really blessed that this is my job," League told Business Insider. "I'm here working at the Toronto International Film Festival, and I saw three really good movies yesterday."

Forty-eight hours later, League's festival only got better when the distribution company he cofounded, Neon, beat out Netflix to nab the biggest title at TIFF, "I, Tonya," for $5 million. The darkly comedic look at the rise and fall of the US figure skater Tonya Harding (played by Margot Robbie) is expected to be Neon's first Oscar contender when it opens in theaters later this year.

But things drastically changed for League the following day, when the site Pajiba ran a story revealing that the Drafthouse CEO had rehired a blogger named Devin Faraci, the former editor-in-chief of the Drafthouse-owned Birth.Movies.Death movie site who resigned after being accused of sexual assault last year. Faraci came back as a copy editor, and he wrote film blurbs for this year's guide to the company's annual genre film festival, Fantastic Fest (which kicks off Thursday in Austin, Texas).

Social media and the film world instantly went into an uproar, particularly because news that Faraci rejoined the company came just 11 months after he stepped down. The result led a Fantastic Fest programmer to resign, Faraci to resign for a second time, and League to make numerous public apologies.

For a company that has built a reputation on being young, hip, and fun — three things all of the major multiplexes in the world wish they were — the controversies Drafthouse is most familiar with usually come from a unique idea devised by League or by the creative directors at one of the 29 Alamo Drafthouse theaters across the country.

A recent example was over the summer, when Alamo Drafthouse held all-women screenings of "Wonder Woman." The negative reaction by some men on social media blindsided League, who recalled carrying out an all-women screening for the first "Sex and the City" movie in 2008 in Austin with zero objections. The "Wonder Woman" version resulted in three lawsuits (two are still ongoing). And when League got word that a man showed up to one of the screenings at the Drafthouse in Brooklyn, New York, he almost cleared out another screen in the theater and had the gentleman sit and watch "Wonder Woman" there all by himself. But the idea never came to fruition.

"That's where sometimes I have to check myself," League said.

But that's all fun and games to League, and it plays well with Drafthouse customers. The Faraci controversy, however, put League and his company in the unfamiliar place of being on the wrong side of an issue for its audience.

Building the fandom

Alamo Drafthouse started out in Austin 20 years ago, when League and his wife, Karrie, renovated an old building into a second-run theater. It stood out for the weird and unusual movies that played there, but what made it addictive was that the theater provided its customers with the option to eat and drink alcohol at their seats while watching the movies. As the company evolved and become a chain, so did the specialties of the menu and drinks (which often are themed to movies playing at that particular time at the Alamo). And with the evolution of online ticketing, and no need for ticket windows, Alamo Drafthouse lobbies are now bars. All of this has made the feeling of visiting an Alamo Drafthouse more than just seeing a movie. It's an all-night experience. And most multiplexes and independent theaters have been playing catch-up for the past two decades, trying to capture some of Alamo Drafthouse's cool factor.

League said all he's doing was returning to the model of the 1940s and 1950s, before the multiplex was created, when individual theaters had to focus on marketing to their cities or towns to get patrons in the door.

"A lot of what we do is not that innovative," he said. "It really goes back to older traditions of establishing that bond with your core audience."

I have seen that love for all things Drafthouse firsthand, and it's quite impressive.

My first taste was in Austin in 2013. Alamo Drafthouse likes to do road shows across the US in the summer. Past events have included an outdoor screening of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" in Wyoming by the movie's epic Devils Tower location and a screening of "Jaws" on a floating screen in a body of water, with viewers watching on inner tubes.

The road show I attended was for "Snowpiercer," Bong Joon-ho's postapocalyptic thriller set on a train. For the event, we all loaded onto a train and traveled to an open field about an hour away to screen the movie. League was there, as was Bong, and even the director Nicolas Winding Refn hopped on the train at the last minute. But there were also 100 or so dedicated Alamo Drafthouse patrons who attended the event. After the movie, we all got back on the train and partied all the way back to the station, each car themed like the dystopian movie.

A year later, I saw the Drafthouse fandom at its most insane when I attended Fantastic Fest (the 10th anniversary of the festival, no less). The event was located at Alamo Drafthouse's crown jewel in Austin, its South Lamar theater, which houses nine screens, two bars, an arcade, and seven karaoke rooms. But the attendance at the festival was even more incredible. Every night the crowds waiting to see movies were so big they would spill from the lobby to outside the venue. It was a mix of locals and fanboys. Some of them had even traveled from other countries to be a part of it.

The loyal Alamo Drafthouse fandom is an impressive sight in an era when interest in the moviegoing experience has diminished greatly. And League, who is a modern-day P.T. Barnum for all things Alamo, is certainly aware of it. With the internet and social-media reaction king, the CEO believes being a tastemaker and understanding patron needs are vital to his business.

"Yelp, Facebook, the customer experience is job number one," League said. "You can't ignore data streams or any trends."

But despite League's efforts, Alamo Drafthouse is swirling in a bad trend.

The 'boys' club' stigma

Last September, Faraci tweeted about Donald Trump's now-infamous leaked comments from an "Access Hollywood" taping. In those comments, Trump had bragged that his celebrity allowed him to grope women. A woman replied to Faraci on Twitter, however, and accused him of having grabbed her genitals at a bar in the past. The public accusations, which Faraci did not deny, ultimately led to his resignation last year.

After Pajiba broke the news last Tuesday of Faraci’s rehiring, League took to Facebook that evening. He confirmed that he brought Faraci back into the company as a copywriter and to write film blurbs — and he said he hoped people would understand the decision to give Faraci a second chance.

"I understand there's some discomfort with the idea that Devin is once again employed by the Alamo Drafthouse," League wrote in the post. "However, I am very much an advocate for granting people second chances, and I believe that Devin deserves one. He continues to confront his issues and to better himself with the help of his friends and family. I am proud to consider myself a part of this process."

Here's the entire statement:

League's explanation didn't go over well. The post was flooded with hundreds of comments, many disappointed in the CEO's doubling down on the rehiring. On Wednesday, The Hollywood Reporter published a story indicating that another woman had emailed League shortly after Faraci's 2016 resignation to accuse Faraci of sexually harassing her. An email exchange with the woman didn't put League in a good light. In an email back to the woman, League asked her to keep their conversation between them.

Also on Wednesday, Todd Brown resigned as Fantastic Fest's international programmer. He posted his own thoughts on Facebook, in which he said he was "embarrassed and ashamed" to have worked at Drafthouse.

"Rehabilitation is a noble and worthwhile pursuit, to be sure, but it is also one that requires the involvement of a community," Brown wrote. "Forgiveness is fantastic but forgiveness is the sole purview of the person who has been wronged. Tim, bluntly, does not get to forgive Devin for Devin's alleged — and undisputed — sexual assault. Only the victim gets to do that. And where was she in this? Where was the concern for any victim of sexual violence and the message this would send to them? While I do not believe there was any malice in the decision to bring Faraci back there was, however, a clear, undeniable and arguably even callous disregard for the impact of this decision on anyone not named Devin Faraci."

Here's Brown's full statement:

Brown touched on an element that had many in an uproar, that League chose to rehire Faraci without consulting his employees or Faraci's accusers. At TIFF, he had just told Business Insider that one his major learnings in the 20 years of Alamo Drafthouse had been how important employee feedback was in improving the company.

"In the early years we would think, 'We're a good company — our employees like working here because it’s a cool company,' but we never measured anything," League said. "Now we realize, 'Oh my god, why don't we just increase our communication with our staff to say how can this be a good place to work?' That's certainly changed for us."

On Wednesday evening, League sent an industry-wide memo to his company announcing that he had accepted Faraci's resignation. League also posted another statement on Facebook.

"Over the past few days, I've realized that decisions I have made over these past months have been problematic," League wrote. "I am concerned about what these choices may say about me and the values of this company to employees, customers and the community at large. I'm humbled and deeply sorry.”

But that didn't stop Fox Searchlight from pulling Oscar-favorite "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" from this year's Fantastic Fest.

Searching for redemption

The controversy comes at a time when the independent theater community is already suffering a black eye from sexual-harassment claims. In August, two top employees of the Los Angeles art-house staple Cinefamily stepped down after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced. The theater has since suspended all activity.

It's very unlikely that Alamo Drafthouse will be closing up shop over its controversy, but the two instances are similar in that they shine a light on the male-controlled theater-chain industry. For Drafthouse, however, it goes a step further. Steeped in the male-heavy genre world, what drives the fandom of Drafthouse, its festival, website, and merchandise company Mondo are the voices (and social-media reach) of the predominantly male bloggers and fans who attend events and frequent the theaters. Take Fantastic Fest. It's incredible to see how male-heavy it is. I've never been to an event where the line to the men's room is twice as long as the women's.

"Anyone who has ever suggested that Fantastic Fest and the Drafthouse is just the geek friendly equivalent of the classic Old Boys Club, you have just been proven correct," Brown wrote at the end of his Facebook post. "We have just seen that Club in action. There it is, the Club utterly ignoring the victim while it creates a protective ring around the perpetrator. Telling every woman who has ever been harassed or assaulted that the predatory males around them will be protected if they are a part of the Club. Telling every woman that the Sad Man whose life is a shambles because of his own actions deserves help and support in putting himself back together while she deserves … nothing."

League now sets forth with perhaps the biggest challenge of his 20 years in the business: proving that Alamo Drafthouse can go beyond the beer-drinking, hard-partying, good-ol'-time-for-bros persona that has made it a powerhouse in the industry.

League, who declined numerous requests for a follow-up interview with Business Insider following the controversy, wrote in his statement regarding Faraci's permanent resignation from Alamo Drafthouse that he had begun setting up meetings with employees at all his theaters to hear their thoughts on his controversial decision.

"Transparency, consistency, and credibility are crucial at this point to restore his reputation and that of Alamo Drafthouse," Dr. Nir Kossovsky, the CEO of the risk-management company Steel City Re, told Business Insider.

Though League always seems to place Alamo Drafthouse in a progressive position — unintentionally with the "Wonder Woman" screenings and intentionally with providing gender-neutral restrooms at his theaters last year — he's also known in the industry for being extremely loyal, and that seems to be what backfired here.

Sources tell Business Insider that League was simply looking out for a friend but had since regretted that decision and was driven to make amends. In the past week, League has reached out to Faraci's accusers to apologize and is starting the long road back to gaining the trust of not just the Alamo Drafthouse patrons but his staff.

At TIFF, when talking about the evolution of the company over the past 20 years, and the responsibility that comes with building a brand, League on numerous times mentioned the importance of making sure not just that customers are having a great time but that the people working for him are as well. This controversy is surely a sobering reminder to League that he still needs to work on the latter.

"We are a real company now," League said. "Still a little rough around the edges."

SEE ALSO: Diane Kruger's new movie was so emotionally devastating she couldn't work for 6 months, and was filming during the "darkest time" in her life

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Since Friday, President Trump has made a series of controversial comments regarding the NFL players who have knelt during the national anthem before games. 

"Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a b---- off the field right now. Out. He's fired. He's fired!'" Trump said at an Alabama rally on Friday, referencing the kneeling movement that former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started as a protest of police brutality and injustice against African Americans.

Following a chorus of NFL owners, athletes, and celebrities condemning Trump's comments over the weekend, "Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver made Trump's NFL clash a main focus of his show on Sunday.

"The President of the United States took time out — while, it is worth noting, over three million American citizens in Puerto Rico are without power — to call Colin Kaepernick a son of a b----," Oliver said. 

Trump has continued his attacks on the NFL players into Monday morning, after more than 200 players kneeled in games on Sunday. Numerous other players locked arms in solidarity against Trump, though Trump claimed in a tweet that the arm locking was done in "great solidarity for our National Anthem and for our Country" 

"Even NFL commissioner Roger Goodell denounced the president's comments,” Oliver said on his show. "And when you have lost the moral f---ing high ground to Roger Goodell, something is horribly wrong."

Watch the episode on HBO Go. 

SEE ALSO: John Oliver says Trump uses one phrase when he has 'nothing' planned: 'People will be happy'

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Megyn Kelly had one fan letter taped to the bulletin board of her office at Fox News.

"Thank you so much," the note said to the former host of "The Kelly File." "Sharing news that does not create more resentment takes great style."

In her new role hosting "Megyn Kelly TODAY" on NBC, which debuted Monday, it was apparent that the litigator-turned TV anchor would be taking a softer tone, devoid of the division that plagued her during the 2016 presidential election.

"I'm done with politics for now," Kelly told the studio audience during her first show.

In her memoir, "Settle for More," Kelly wrote that she realizes part of the nature of TV journalism is a degree of "public shaming," to out corruption or scandal when it's newsworthy.

"But the glee that the media — and the public —seem to experience in consuming each other's personal embarrassments is disheartening to me," she wrote. "I do my best to avoid these celebrations of destruction where I can."

Kelly cited Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's drug addiction and NBC anchor Brian Williams' fabricated story as stories she and her team decided they didn't need to "hammer every night," like others in the business did.

She criticized TV hosts (without naming names) who have "two attack-dog guests" on to tear down the public figure caught in a scandal without offering the accused person's side of the story. Kelly offered to have Williams on her show when his story broke, and said at the time that he was "by all accounts, a good person — and as it turns out, a flawed one."

"I'm not saying it wasn't a story; I'm saying I hate how we forget about our subject's humanity in reporting these stories," Kelly wrote in her book. "Some hosts don't care — they want scorched earth and take-no-prisoners TV. I did that as a lawyer, and that's not how I want to live anymore."

"Settle for More" was on the New York Times Best Sellers list for weeks after it debuted November 15, 2016. Kelly's show airs weekdays on NBC at 9 a.m. ET.

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• Leon Logothetis quit two jobs and traveled around the world seeking kindness for his Netflix series "The Kindness Diaries."

• He said he's met numerous people who claim to hate their jobs in his capacity as a speaker.

• Logothetis said breaking the cycle of job-related misery relies on "small steps."

Leon Logothetis seemed to have it all, working at a family brokerage in London and leading an ostensibly happy life.

But he was miserable.

"I was wearing a mask and everything seemed to be okay," he told Business Insider. "But it was not."

Eventually, he said the depression became too much. After watching "The Motorcycle Diaries" — the romanticized and fictionalized retelling of Che Guevara's early travels — he decided to make a big move.

"I quit. I said, 'That's it. It's over,'" he said. "They looked at me like I was insane, which maybe I was at that moment." Logothetis then headed off in search of adventure, for a time. He traveled in England, Europe, and the US, then headed to Los Angeles to work as a television producer for about seven years.

But things still weren't right.

"I want people to know that because I don't want people to think, 'Oh, he watched a movie, he quit his job, and everything became happy,'" the television producer and author said. "That's not what happened. That's the short version of the story. The longer version is that it wasn't all hunky dory. There were moments where things were really bad."

Eventually, he got fed up. Logothetis embarked on a journey around the world on a vintage motorbike. During his trip, he relied on the generosity of strangers, who provided him with lodgings, meals, and gas. Logothetis would respond by completing an act of kindness for the Good Samaritans, in turn. He documented his experience for the Netflix series "The Kindness Diaries."

Today, Logothetis said he meets countless individuals looking to quit their jobs and pursue more meaningful work in his capacity as a speaker. He added he also receives tons of messages from people thanking him for inspiring them to pursue their dreams.

"Maybe it's family pressures, maybe it's societal pressures, maybe it's financial pressures, maybe it's pressures that we put on ourselves, whereby we feel like we need to live up to this standard that society set for us," he said. "We hold on so tightly and we forget that there's a whole world out there that isn't necessarily in that little box that we created or that someone else created for us."

According to Logothetis, the first step in breaking free of the cycle of work-related misery is listening to yourself. "Pain was the greatest motivator," he said. "There comes a tipping point, when the pain pushes you to act."

You can respond by deciding to "jump off a cliff" and quit on the spot, he said. But that's not possible for everyone.

Logothetis gave the example of someone who wants to become a baker, but is hindered from leaving their job by financial concerns and family responsibilities.

"What you do is you commit to taking little, small baby steps," he said. "The first thing you do is you go to the library and you take out 'Baking for Dummies.' And you commit to reading that book. You have to commit. If you don't commit then it's not going to work."

Then, the second step is committing to attending a one-week baking course in the evening. Afterwards, perhaps you could host a dessert party for friends and family, to show off your skills. Sharing your "big dream" with your support circle can also help establish accountability and foster encouragement.

"What happens is many of us, we don't have the commitment," Logothetis said. "For many years I would sit behind that desk and I would be like, 'I want to leave, I want to leave.' But I couldn't commit to leaving. I wasn't doing anything. I was just complaining."

SEE ALSO: The star of a Netflix show on kindness shares his foolproof way to become a better person

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Television has changed a lot since the last time a Star Trek show was on the air. 

"Star Trek: Enterprise" aired its last episode in May 2005, and "Star Trek: Discovery," which premiered Sunday night on CBS (the rest of the season will be on CBS All Access), has proven that the franchise can handle a 2017 upgrade. 

Most critics already agree that "Discovery" is a solid return with an excellent cast, an intriguing storyline, and excellent effects that can successfully recruit a new generation of Trekkies, while keeping the spirit that audiences fell in love with over the past few decades.

But, as always, not everyone agrees. Some critics, and users, found the show dull. On Rotten Tomatoes, the show has an 86% critic score, and a 53% audience score. 

Here's our round-up of "Star Trek: Discovery" reviews:

SEE ALSO: This is one of the worst fall TV seasons in years — but here are the 18 shows worth watching

It maintains the spirit of the beloved, decades-old franchise.

"While Discovery is fundamentally quite different from much of the Trek that's come before, its engagement with the franchise, and willingness to both celebrate and examine its core values, keep it true to that spirit." -IndieWire

"Despite the concessions to modern TV storytelling and effects, Discovery feels like a Star Trek show -- at times one with the potential to be quite good." -Uproxx

Sonequa Martin-Green, the first black woman to lead a Trek installment, carries the show well and fits into the world.

"The series has a strong backbone in Martin-Green, and so far, promises to be an enjoyable way to pass the time as pop culture returns to the final frontier." -TV Guide

"While Sonequa Martin-Green does much of the heavy lifting, she is not alone. The supporting cast is incredibly charming and immediately places the viewer in the comfortably familiar milieu of Star Trek." -Nerdist

"This feels like a show struggling to find its heart. But at least Martin-Green gives it a pulse." -Entertainment Weekly 

The supporting cast also fits into world and makes it more engaging. Jason Isaacs, who you might recognize as Lucius Malfoy from the "Harry Potter" films, is incredible and a very welcome presence.

"The actor playing this mysterious Gabriel Lorca -- Jason Isaacs -- also happens to be a major talent who instantly lifts [Sonequa] Martin-Green's game. These two appear to be a winning, multidimensional combo."

"With its level of talent and commitment, Star Trek: Discovery has a decent chance of getting on course to complete its mission." -USA Today

"Though Discovery has a number of patches of leaden exposition, the mentoring relationship between the two women is nicely sketched out by Yeoh and Martin-Green." -Variety

As President Trump made a series of controversial comments against the hundreds of NFL players who knelt during the national anthem in games over the weekend, NBC's broadcast of "Sunday Night Football" saw a significant drop in ratings compared to its week three game in 2016.

The "Sunday Night Football" match-up between the Oakland Raiders and Washington Redskins was down around 12.9% compared to last year's game in the same week, according to Reuters. 

For contrast, CBS' Sunday games, as a whole, saw a slight uptick in viewership compared to last year, while Fox's afternoon game was down 16%. 

The "Sunday Night Football" ratings drop comes in the wake of Trump's comments, starting at an Alabama rally on Friday, where he sparked controversy by saying that players who knelt in protest of the national anthem should be "fired." 

Numerous NFL team owners spoke out against Trump's comments over the weekend. Meanwhile, more than 200 players knelt in protest during week three games, following in the path of a movement started by the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who protested police brutality and racial injustice against African Americans.

In turn, Trump tweeted about the NFL's ratings woes amid his clash with the league, writing, "Standing with locked arms is good, kneeling is not acceptable. Bad ratings!"  

The NFL has been suffering from repeated year-over-year declines in TV ratings. In the first week of this season, the league saw a 12% drop in ratings, which was followed by a 15% one in week two, according to Nielsen.

NFL ratings were down an average of 8% over the course of last season.

Last season, the most prominent explanation the league gave for the drop was "unprecedented interest in the presidential election." While ratings did improve slightly after the election, this explanation is only one in a series of excuses that experts have given for the league's bad ratings, which have continued since.

Last week, a Jefferies analyst speculated that a 10% drop in ratings over the course of the 2o17 season would go on to cut $200 million in earnings from the networks broadcasting NFL games this year. 

SEE ALSO: If the NFL's ratings troubles continue, it could cost TV networks $200 million or more

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Viewers won't need to look further than the set of "The Opposition," Comedy Central's new political comedy show, to see how the new generation of right-leaning media has changed American political discourse.

While Stephen Colbert's set during the late 2000s was adorned with a gratuitous number of flags and American iconography, and Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" set featured an over-the-top rotating globe, incoming host Jordan Klepper's is different.

One of the most prominent features of the set of "The Opposition" is a permanently installed Murder Board, a tackboard reminiscent of "A Beautiful Mind" with nonsense scribbled next to a 2016 electoral map, and images and arrows linking Beyoncé, former Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Taylor Swift, and, of course, Hillary Clinton.

For Klepper, the figures and scrawling on the board represent the obsession and paranoid thinking of the emerging right-wing-media landscape during the era of President Donald Trump, in which he said the "bar for what now we can put out there to make our case was lowered immensely."

"You just need a shred. A shred of something that you can weave into something larger," Klepper told Business Insider in an interview in his office a week before the show's debut. "Donald Trump was the best at 'I heard a thing, I'm in a position of power by repeating it, I now legitimize it to millions, to my 30-plus million followers, and I'm in a position where people just trust those things that I say.'"

'The starting point is the normalization of bulls---'

Debuting Monday evening on Comedy Central, "The Opposition" satirizes the emergence of a media ecosystem built on weaponizing those small facts and incidents that inflame cultural divides or buoy conspiracy theorists.

Trump's ascendance split conservative media, pitting the traditional conservative intelligentsia at outlets like The National Review and The Weekly Standard against pro-Trump anti-"globalist" bloggers at sites like Breitbart News. No longer were the opinion programs on Fox News dominated by pundits towing the Republican Party line — pro-Trump Republicans clashed often on air with "Never Trump"-ers.

Long dismissed or relegated to the fringes, the antiestablishment online right found new power in an administration recently staffed by right-wing-media figures such as Sebastian Gorka and Steve Bannon. Enthusiastic collaborators on Fox News, included host Sean Hannity, also gave rise to right-wing ideas.

Right-wing media has also succeeded in baiting the former New York Times public editor into reprimanding a reporter for a harmless joke, broken major stories about the administration, and continued to harass Clinton on her book tour.

"The Opposition" is the major first comedy show with a baked-in acknowledgement of the shift in the conservative-media landscape away from the dogmatic, small-government Reagan Republican. The show will focus on the heightened influence of the online right-wing figures to subtly and overtly influence the political discourse.

Klepper pitched the idea for his show when Comedy Central gave him the option to shoot a pilot for a nightly or weekly show. He said he wanted to capture the "tenor of the moment" and was curious to watch how strange conspiracies, counterfactuals, and outrages flowed upstream from chat rooms and subreddits to prime time on Fox News and the president's Twitter feed.

Stu Miller, one of the show's executive producers along with "Daily Show" host Trevor Noah, said the creators of the show "feel like this world has real influence."

"The starting point is the normalization of bulls---," Miller said. "For us, it's that sort of connection between ideas that were fringe years ago — out of the mainstream — are suddenly mainstream, and seeing the path is not hard to follow."

Klepper said he noticed while covering Trump rallies that the information, language, and arguments that people were making had less in common with Fox News and more in common with Breitbart News and even the conspiracy-peddling Infowars.

"America's always had this paranoia, but we've amplified it through the internet," Klepper said. "Like, 'Oh, you can create your own world? That's awesome, that's kind of good for us — our own paranoia can bounce off of our own ideas.'"

Airing at 11:30 ET four nights a week, the show has drawn natural comparisons to one of the time slot's former occupants.

The New York Times dubbed it the "Colbert for the Breitbart era," while USA Today asked Klepper if he'd discussed the show with the CBS host (he hadn't).

Indeed, "The Opposition" shares some of the hallmarks of the show.

Like "Colbert" and "The Daily Show," it has a traditional three-block structure, with a block for current events, a block for field pieces, and a block for a celebrity, scholarly, or political guest.

And Klepper's proudly ignorant character style comes across as a slightly more genial, Midwestern Colbert, who will also participate in the adversarial in-character interview style that helped get Republican and Democratic politicians alike to avoid "The Colbert Report."

But the show hopes to layer on elements that acknowledge and play with the new right-wing-media landscape, where ideas percolate on social media and then bubble up to the mainstream.

In the universe of "The Opposition," viewers are watching the television portion, though the world is much more expansive. The show will feature radio segments (talk radio remains a dominant medium in conservative political media) and bits from fake past shows, and will have larger tentacles into the real world — Klepper said the team plans to make content for the internet.

"We're going to create internet content that way — we want to play with the fact that a lot of these sites are just content machines," Klepper said. "In the world of this show, you're catching a sliver of it."

The show's producers also point to the comedic value of the new right-wing ecosystem's stars: Conspiratorial YouTube vloggers, rambling men's-rights activists, and disgraced former mainstream media employees turned white rappers.

The show cast six supporting "citizen journalists" who reflect the broad swath of personalities on the right, with a gun-rights activist in the vein of bombastic NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch, provocateurs in the vein of Milo Yiannopoulos, what Miller described as a "pseudo-intellectual with no real credentials," and a stay-at-home livestreamer rambling without much of a point.

"It isn't a monolithic structure where, like, everyone looks like Alex Jones," Klepper said. "There are so many weird characters out there."

'Even if you don’t understand alternative-media sources, you understand the feel'

The program faces obvious challenges.

While "The Daily Show" skewered nightly television news and "The Colbert Report" directly parodied the "O'Reilly Factor" in the same medium and format as the show, the universe of the media on the far right online isn't as coherent or visible, and the mediums for activism are ever-changing.

And though the show is anchored in a television medium parodying Alex Jones' daily Infowars studio broadcasts, memes from r/The Donald subreddit, livestreamed stunts, Twitter-trolling campaigns, and viral YouTube screeds often garner far more engagement and generally have a larger effect than an average broadcast on Infowars.

There's the bigger question of whether the far-right media is truly as relevant and impactful as the show's creators argue, and whether the presumably left-leaning audience will know enough about the far right to fully get the joke.

Klepper argued that audiences don't need to be familiar exactly with the personalities on the far right to understand the mood or who is driving the conversation.

"I think they see it on the largest stage in the world as Donald Trump starts to listen to Steve Bannon and react to these talking points," Klepper said. "Even if you don’t understand alternative media sources, you understand the feel."

Further, while the show's creators are quick to point out that late-night talk shows take time to develop, Comedy Central has high hopes that "The Opposition" can help return the network to its glory years as a political comedy powerhouse.

Though "Daily Show" host Trevor Noah's ratings ticked up in the first quarter of the year and "The President Show" resonated with audiences, if not with somecritics, network representatives still remember fondly Stewart's and Colbert's domination of the 11-t0-midnight time slot among key demographics pined over by advertisers.

Klepper seems to understand the pressure of living up to the hype.

Asked by an audience member at a test screening if he was nervous, he told an anecdote about how the show's wardrobe supervisor noticed his measurements had changed in just a few weeks.

"I'm losing weight in my neck," Klepper joked.

'These are scary times'

The show is also still figuring out how it plans to interact with the world of right-wing media, whose stars are often hypersensitive and enjoy being the center of attention.

After Alex Jones used his platform to rant about the Comedy Central host, Klepper weaved his comments about "The Opposition" into a bit at a test screening in New York.

But the show's staff have been wary about the sort of content it risks elevating. Klepper wanted to acknowledge the influence the far right had on shaping the conservative-media discourse without giving a megaphone to toxic ideas.

"We're cautious that this is not for us to immediately start interacting with and giving too much oxygen to that side," Klepper said. "You need to be careful of giving air to certain people and certain ideas, and I think the media can create a bigger story and bigger attention for something who doesn't need that."

For the moment, the show's potential for influence is unclear, even to its subjects. Far-right provocateur Mike Cernovich said in a message that he'd never heard of the show.

When told by Business Insider that the show may satirize him, Infowars editor and polemical culture wars vlogger Paul Joseph Watson said "the fact that they have to resort to satirizing me in a comedy show proves that they're struggling to combat me with actual logical arguments.

"That they're so obsessed with someone I assume they will portray as a basement-dwelling freak shows that I am getting under their skin, and I love it," Watson said. "I look forward to seeing the show and will no doubt be able to mine it for a ton of great content."

Jack Posobiec, known for perpetuating conspiracy theories like Pizzagate and storming onstage at the politically charged staging of "Julius Caesar" in Central Park, also initially said he'd never heard of it, though he said that "imitation is the best form of flattery."

After Business Insider showed him the show's Twitter feed, he added: "I liked this show better when it was called 'The Colbert Report.'"

SEE ALSO: 'There's no one for right-wingers to pick a fight with': The far right is struggling to sustain interest in its social media platforms

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The fall movie season has started strong as Warner Bros.’s adaptation of the Stephen King novel “It” has followed its record-breaking $123.4 million opening weekend by becoming the highest-grossing R-rated horror of all time two weeks later. 

But there are numerous titles that have not found the same success.

For every 2017 hit like “It,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and “Wonder Woman,” there are movies that didn't find audiences like “CHiPs,” “The House,” and “mother!”

Here are the 10 worst box office earners so far this year (compare them to our list from the halfway point of the year). 

Note: This selection is limited to only those titles released by the six major studios that have played in more than 2,000 screens for at least two weekends. Grosses below are all US earnings from Box Office Mojo.

SEE ALSO: RANKED: The 11 best movies of the year so far

10. "Ghost in the Shell" — $40.5 million

Reported budget: $110 million

(Note: Production budgets are estimates and do not include expenses for marketing and release.)

9. "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" — $39.1 million

Reported budget: $175 million

8. "Monster Trucks" — 33.3 million

Reported budget: $125 million

It's 2017, and yet here I am rounding up pendants in "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past" after midnight.

That's because I spent the weekend in the early to mid-'90s, wires strewn across my living room, playing Super Nintendo games on this beauty:

The adorably diminutive Super NES Classic Edition is nearly here — the console costs $80 and is scheduled for a Friday launch. It comes with 21 games, the vast majority of which are foundational classics of gaming (think: "Super Mario World," "Mario Kart," and the aforementioned "Zelda" game).

Nintendo sent Business Insider a Super NES Classic Edition late last week. Before we dig into what it's like to play the console, here's a tour of everything you get for your $80:

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Here it is! As promised, the Super NES Classic Edition literally fits in the palm of your hand. It's also outrageously light, which makes sense given that it's essentially a plastic box with little inside taking up space.

For a size comparison, I've lined up some familiar Amiibo behind the Super NES Classic Edition. That the Amiibo loom over the box should tell you something about how tiny this console is.

Not everything about the Super NES Classic Edition is tiny — the game pad is a near perfect re-creation of the original. The game pad is a normal size, even though it looks like a giant in comparison with the console.