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'Black Panther' becomes one of 3 movies to ever hit $700 million at the US box office

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Black Panther

It took six months, but Marvel's blockbuster "Black Panther" has hit another box-office milestone.

The movie is estimated to have crossed $700 million in North America over the weekend, according to Box Office Mojo, joining only two other movies to ever do so. Though it has been available on home-release platforms like Blu-ray and DVD since May, "Black Panther" is still playing in a few theaters.

According to Forbes, the movie grossed $12,000 on Thursday from 15 screens and $16,000 on Friday from 25 screens, helping it creep within a few thousand dollars of the $700 million club before Saturday. The Hollywood Reporter said Disney altered the movie's theater count in recent weeks to avoid an official rerelease.

When it came to theaters in February, "Black Panther" opened to $242 million over the four-day Presidents Day weekend, and it went on to gross over $1 billion worldwide.

Below are the three movies to ever hit $700 million domestically (not adjusting for inflation), ranked by how much they made at the domestic box office based on data from Box Office Mojo:

SEE ALSO: 'Guardians of the Galaxy' star Dave Bautista says it's 'nauseating' to work for Disney after it fired director James Gunn

3. "Black Panther" (2018)

Domestic total: $700,004,026

Worldwide total: $1,346,678,277



2. "Avatar" (2009)

Domestic total: $760,507,625

Worldwide total: $2,787,965,087



1. "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" (2015)

Domestic total: $936,662,225

Worldwide total: $2,068,223,624



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Netflix released the trailer for 'Maniac' starring Jonah Hill and Emma Stone, and it looks wild

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Maniac

  • Netflix released a full-length trailer for its limited series, "Maniac," starring Emma Stone, Jonah Hill, Justin Theroux, and Sally Field.
  • It looks pretty wild.
  • "Maniac" drops on Netflix September 21. 

Netflix is all about giving its creators freedom, and sometimes it has quite wild results.

On Monday, the streaming service released the first full-length trailer for "Maniac," a new limited series starring Jonah Hill, Emma Stone, Sally Field, and Justin Theroux. And it certainly proves that Netflix let visionary director and producer Cary Joji Fukunaga go all in. Fukunaga directed all episodes of "True Detective" season one. 

The show, a sci-fi dark comedy, tells the story of two strangers (Hill and Stone) who are drawn to each other in the late stages of a mysterious pharmaceutical trial. It's loosely based on a Norwegian series of the same name. 

The trailer shows glimpses of the show's eccentricities, including a fantasy world similar to "Lord of the Rings," Old Hollywood glam, and a purple Koala puppet. 

"Maniac" comes to Netflix September 21. Watch the trailer below:

SEE ALSO: MoviePass will only let subscribers see 3 movies a month, but it's rolling back a set of recent changes many hated

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3 great TV shows you can watch on Netflix this week

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Amazing Interiors Season 1Peak TV equals too much TV. But we're here to make it easier to pick a new show to watch. 

We know what it's like to spend too much time choosing what to binge-watch on Netflix, so every week we put together a list of three great shows for you.

We pick shows you can finish in a day, and some you can get started on. We mix shows that have recently come onto the service with some old favorites you might have missed.

From "Dear White People" to "Amazing Interiors," here are three great TV shows you can binge-watch on Netflix this week:

SEE ALSO: Netflix released the trailer for 'Maniac' starring Jonah Hill and Emma Stone, and it looks wild

"Dear White People"

Seasons: 2

Episodes: 20

"Dear White People" is funny, emotional, and educational, as it explores race relations on a college campus in the United States. And it gets richer and better in its brilliant second season as it gets deeper into darker topics. It's an important, necessary show that everyone should be watching and discussing. 



"Amazing Interiors"

Seasons: 1

Episodes: 12

Netflix knows how addictive HGTV is, and its new original "Amazing Interiors" satisfies that thirst. The interiors really are amazing: some resemble the Batcave while some are tacky or downright creepy. But it's a great show to have on while you're doing things around the house, and a nice escape after a long day at work. 



"The Vampire Diaries"

Seasons: 7

Episodes: 171

The season and episode count for this CW teen drama looks overwhelming, but there's good news: you really only need to see up to season three or four. The first season of "The Vampire Diaries" starts off a bit cliche, but it builds into something great, especially in its excellent second season. The show uses horror elements that will actually make you jump, and because its characters are so grounded and well-written, you'll get invested in all the lame love triangles.



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After winning nearly $90,000 playing 'Fortnite,' a streamer got an emotional call from his father that was captured on video

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Twitch streamer Reverse2K

  • On Sunday, "Fortnite" streamer Malachi "Reverse2K" Greiner won nearly $90,000 in one game.
  • As he celebrated his win, his father called to congratulate him, and things got emotional.
  • The entire exchange is a delight, and was thankfully captured on video.


"86 f---ing thousand dollars?! You're gonna need a f---ing tax guy!" the father of "Fortnite" streamer Malachi "Reverse2K" Greiner exclaimed to his son on Sunday night.

"Reverse2K" had just won exactly that, $86,000, in a single game of "Fortnite" during the Summer Skirmish series, a series of competitions centered around the game that takes place over eight weeks. And he won the $86,000 without even placing first.

"You won $26,000 more than first place!" his father Heath Greiner says during a video of the exchange, captured by the streamer himself post-game. We first saw the video over at Kotaku.

Malachi held onto the title of most kills — "Holding the Throne" in the parlance of "Fortnite" — which got him $50,000 alone. Additionally, his placement overall in Sunday's Summer Skirmish game got him another $36,000. That put his total at an incredible $86,000.

"I guess I would have to say it was in God's hands," Greiner told me in an email on Monday morning. "I was super fortunate to have this opportunity, and to be in this position at 17 [years old]."

It's no surprise that tears were rolling down his face as he spoke to his father.

"I would too, brother!" his father says in an especially heartwarming moment.

Don't miss the full clip right here:

SEE ALSO: Parents are paying as much as $35 an hour for 'Fortnite' coaches for their kids

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'Avengers: Infinity War' directors confirmed Spider-Man actor Tom Holland is terrible at keeping secrets and avoiding spoilers

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spiderman

  • Joe and Anthony Russo, the "Avengers: Infinity War" directors, addressed Tom Holland and spoilers in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
  • Joe said that it's "hard to be punitive" against Holland, but Doctor Strange actor Benedict Cumberbatch was a great partner for him on the press tour to monitor Holland.
  • Holland is infamous for not being able to keep a secret, and may have even confirmed a fan theory for "Avengers 4" in an old interview.

 

Spider-Man actor Tom Holland can't keep a secret. He infamously revealed the title of the next "Spider-Man" movie before it was officially announced, and he may have even confirmed a popular fan theory about "Avengers 4."

It's hard to believe that Holland is so bad at keeping things hidden, but "Avengers: Infinity War" directors Joe and Anthony Russo recently addressed the subject and confirmed that, yes, Holland is just terrible at keeping his mouth shut.

Entertainment Tonight asked the Russo Brothers how they felt about Holland spending the entire press tour for the movie accidentally spoiling things. 

"What are you going to do?" Joe said. "He's the nicest guy in the world so it's hard to be punitive against Tom Holland."

ET said that people had made "super cut" videos of all the times Holland has spoiled something, and Joe said, "was it like 15 minutes long?"

They also praised Holland's co-star and Doctor Strange actor Benedict Cumberbatch for keeping Holland in line during the press tour.

"Benedict is a great partner for him on the press tour because Benedict is actually very good at dancing around spoilers and monitoring Tom Holland," Joe said. 

"It's hard work," Anthony added.

You can watch the entire ET interview below. The exchange about Tom Holland begins toward the end of the video, at the 11:37 mark.

 

SEE ALSO: 'Guardians of the Galaxy' star Dave Bautista says it's 'nauseating' to work for Disney after it fired director James Gunn

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YouTube follows Apple's lead and removes the Alex Jones and Infowars channels from its platform (GOOGL, GOOG)

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  • YouTube is the latest site to remove content produced by Alex Jones, the political commentator and conspiracy theorist.
  • Jones has seen his videos, web pages, and podcasts removed from Facebook, Spotify, and iTunes in addition to the Google-owned video site.
  • Jones is facing a lawsuit over his claims that the parents of the children killed during the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre were actors and that the murders were a hoax.

On Monday, YouTube became the latest platform to boot content of the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from its site, hours after Apple first took steps to remove most of Jones' podcasts from its services, citing the company's hate-speech guidelines.

Now, those who try to visit The Alex Jones Channel on YouTube will be greeted by a note saying the account "has been terminated for violating YouTube's Community Guidelines."

The Infowars channel, which Jones operates, has also been taken offline, and it now brings up a page citing the same violation of YouTube's policy.

Infowars youtube takedown notice

Jones was not immediately available for comment. The move by YouTube, the second-most-visited site on the web, followed a wide crackdown on Jones by some of the other most popular web platforms including Facebook, Spotify, and Apple.

None of those companies cited misinformation as being behind their reasoning for removing Jones' podcasts. Jones, a far-right conspiracy theorist, has been scrutinized over the past few weeks for spreading false information. Some parents of children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting blame Jones for encouraging people to harass them and filed a lawsuit against him earlier this year. Jones has dismissed the shooting as a possible hoax and suggested the parents were actors.

Apple removed many of Infowars' podcasts, and Facebook removed some of Jones' pages.

"Apple does not tolerate hate speech, and we have clear guidelines that creators and developers must follow to ensure we provide a safe environment for all of our users," Apple said in a statement on Monday.

Jones is trying to find workarounds to the bans. He has implored his followers to download the Infowars app, which is still available on Google Play and the Apple App Store.

Jones had received a strike on his YouTube channel on July 24 after he posted four videos that violated the site's policies against child endangerment and hate speech, according to the story by The Verge. One strike on the service leads to a suspension on livestreaming privileges.

According to sources with knowledge of the situation, YouTube notified Jones of the strike on his account and that his livestreaming privileges were suspended for 90 days. Despite the suspension, Jones' channel tried to circumvent YouTube's enforcement by promoting livestreaming on other channels.

The sources said Jones ignored the warning and continued as before.

See Also:

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Margot Robbie shared a first photo of her as Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino's new movie, 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'

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margot robbie

  • Actress Margot Robbie posted to Instagram on Monday a photo of herself as Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino's new movie, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood."
  • It's the first look we've gotten of Robbie in the role.
  • Tate's murder by the Manson Family in 1969 plays a significant part in the film.

 

Margot Robbie is going back in time for Quentin Tarantino's new movie. 

Robbie posted a photo to Instagram Monday of herself as Sharon Tate, the actress and wife of director Roman Polanski, who was murdered in 1969 by the Manson Family. 

First look. #OnceUponATimeInHollywood @onceinhollywood

A post shared by @ margotrobbie on Aug 6, 2018 at 7:22am PDT on

Tarantino's movie, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," takes place in 1969 Los Angeles. Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt lead the film as actor Rick Dalton and his stunt double, Cliff Booth, respectively, as they struggle to succeed in Hollywood. Tate's murder plays a significant role in the film.

Robbie told Indiewire in April, when she was confirmed for the role, that Tarantino is one of her "bucket-list directors."

"As long as I can remember, I've been a huge Tarantino fan," she said.

"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" comes to theaters July 26, 2019.

SEE ALSO: All the details of Quentin Tarantino's new movie, which stars Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Margot Robbie

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MoviePass' CEO says he will focus on the 'occasional moviegoer' and has a new strategy for working with theaters (HMNY)

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MoviePass

  • MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe told Business Insider the mission of the company now is to focus on the "occasional moviegoer."
  • He said 40% of cost of goods sold were from the 15% of subscribers who used MoviePass four or more times a month.
  • On Monday MoviePass announced it was keeping its monthly subscription price at $9.95 — but limiting the number of movies you can see to three a month.
  • Lowe said the company would also attempt to make deals with movie theaters and studios to get a more favorable marketing fee to promote movies.
  • MoviePass has been trying to get discounted bulk-ticketing prices but has not been successful.

MoviePass has a new mission: "Reenergize the occasional moviegoer."

That's how the company's CEO Mitch Lowe described it to Business Insider on Monday after announcing that his company was keeping the price at $9.95 a month (and nixing surge pricing and ticket verification), but capping subscribers at three movies a month, beginning August 15.

The app gained millions of new subscribers beginning in August 2017 when it changed its monthly subscription price to $10 a month (to see one movie per day). But what MoviePass didn't realize was a small core group of its users would really take their viewing to the upper limits of the service, Lowe said.

15% of MoviePass subscribers see a lot of movies

A major reason MoviePass has been burning through an estimated $45 million a month is that it has to pay movie theaters the full ticket price for most of the millions of tickets its subscribers order.

"A small amount of our subscribers, that 15% that would go to four or more [per month], go to a lot of movies. A lot!" Lowe said. "It's almost half of our cost of goods, like 40% of our cost of goods are used by that 15%."

These subscribers went to everything from the biggest movies of the year like "Black Panther" and "Avengers: Infinity War" to hit indies like "Hereditary" and the documentary "Three Identical Strangers." Lowe said, initially the thought was that putting a surge price on the popular films would slow things down, however people were paying it.

avengers infinity war

Then MoviePass got more dramatic and announced the monthly plan would go up to $14.95 and the big Hollywood releases would no longer be available on the app. But that didn't work either.

"The e-ticketing theaters, which haven't been affected in this whole thing, have gone up almost 75% over the last couple of weeks," Lowe said. These e-ticketing theaters give MoviePass a discount in exchange for promotion in the app.

So to attract just the casual MoviePass users — who spend $40 to $50 a year at the movies — which Lowe said represent 85% of its subscribers, the monthly plan will stay at the attractive $9.95 monthly offer. (If you want to go to the movies more than three times a month, MoviePass will offer discounts of $2 to $5 a ticket if you book through the MoviePass app.)

Lowe said he was confident that would decrease the burn substantially and get Wall Street back on board.

"I have had billion-dollar VCs tell me, 'If you would only put a cap on your costs we would invest and be right behind you,'" Lowe said. "I never did it because my investors kept telling me, 'We're behind you, we know it's going to take a lot of time,' and then suddenly they stopped saying that."

The stock of MoviePass' parent company, Helios and Matheson (HMNY), plunged to 7 cents last Friday, an all-time low. This came after the company did a 1-for-250 reverse stock split to pull it out of danger of getting delisted from the Nasdaq starting mid-December. It didn't work. (The stock was trading around 8 cents on Monday).

Building new inroads with movie theaters and studios

With the pivot to focus on the occasional moviegoer, Lowe admitted it would be more of a challenge to get to his goal of 5 million subscribers by the end of the year. But it may be more important to build better relationships within the industry than focus on subscription numbers.

For some time, MoviePass has tried to make bulk price movie-ticket deals with theaters so it didn't have to pay full ticket price on the millions its subscribers order on the app. Lowe said the progress has been happening "really slowly" to get exhibitors on board. So Lowe said MoviePass now has a new plan.

"We've learned that going to the exhibitors and looking for a discount is not the right approach, because that discount comes out of the studio share and then we expect the studios to pay us to promote the film and it's like double dipping, so we have changed our model," Lowe said. "We are just about to roll out to exhibitors that we'll continue to pay full price, but we want to negotiate with them a fair marketing fee."

moviepass CEO mitch lowe

So MoviePass wants to get a better marketing fee from exhibitors and studios on their movies it highlights on its app, social media, and other platforms. MoviePass boasts that it's responsible for 6% of the 2018 box office (which is up 8% from last year) and believes with the inroads it has made on the marketing side with movie theaters and studios, that it can land a good deal, versus discounted tickets. (According to Helios and Matheson's most recent quarterly report, marketing and promotion made up $1.4 million of MoviePass' revenue in the first three months of 2018).

"I went in with a pay-for-performance approach to both the exhibitors and the studios, and I found it didn't work within the system and it caused all kinds of challenges," Lowe said. "So we think we now have a way to do this that fits in with how business is done."

Despite all the challenges MoviePass has faced, Lowe said he was optimistic, adding that new services like bring-a-friend, which allows MoviePass subscribers to pay for a non-subscriber ticket, and an option to order a ticket to a non-2D movie (like IMAX or Real 3D), would be available in the next month.

"We've got a couple of tricks up our sleeve," Lowe said.

SEE ALSO: MoviePass will let subscribers see only 3 movies a month, but it's rolling back a set of recent changes many hated

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The YouTube app for Apple TV is so lackluster because it completely ignores all of Apple's best tools (GOOGL, GOOG, AAPL)

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YouTube completely redesigned its app for the Apple TV earlier this year.

YouTube's Apple TV app was updated to be more in line with Google's design language — called "Material Design" —  which has been in place since 2014. Most Android apps, including all of Google's key apps like Docs, Drive, and Sheets, have Material Design applied, and in February of this year, it finally hit the YouTube app on Apple TV.

Unfortunately, the resulting experience is a muddled mess.

Here are my main gripes with the YouTube app on Apple TV:

SEE ALSO: I keep all 204 of my iPhone apps on just one home screen — here's the system I use to stay organized

The YouTube app completely ignores the Apple TV's navigational tools.

For better or for worse, Apple's remote control for the Apple TV — the Siri remote — was designed with inertia in mind. It has a small touchpad that works like an iPhone touchscreen; the harder or faster your swipe it, the faster you'll navigate on on the screen.

Unfortunately, the YouTube app chooses to ignore this whole concept of inertia, instead treating the remote control's touchpad like a normal directional pad, like one you'd find on a video game controller. As a result, swiping feels inconsistent at best, and at worst unresponsive. You'll swipe left or right to rewind or fast-forward, but all too often you'll skip over your intended target over and over and over again.

 



The YouTube app also doesn't support voice control, which is one of the Apple TV's most useful features, so you're forced to rely on the remote's touchpad.

Not everyone likes the touchpad on the Apple TV remote; I personally find it too slick and inconsistent. That's why I prefer to use the Siri button on the remote to control the Apple TV with my voice. I can say "fast forward five minutes" or "rewind 30 seconds," or even "what did (s)he just say?" The last one will rewind your content and activate closed captions for about 15 seconds. It all works like a charm.

Unfortunately, the YouTube app for Apple TV doesn't support voice control. That means you're forced to use the touchpad to do just about anything, including rewinding or fast-forwarding.

 



By ignoring Apple's video player API for the Apple TV, controlling the YouTube app is more painful and tedious than it needs to be.

Apple's video player API for the Apple TV, which Netflix uses for its own Apple TV app, is great for controlling playback.

Just tap the Apple TV remote's touchpad to see the video timeline, swipe left or right to rewind or fast-forward — it has inertial scrolling, like an iPhone, so your movements are pretty precise — and click to play. Alternatively, you can also use your voice to control playback. Both options work well.

But the YouTube app ignores these functions, which means you have to rely on the remote control's touchpad to rewind and fast-forward — but since YouTube's app doesn't support inertial scrolling, you'll have to swipe repeatedly to move across the timeline. Here's the complete five-step process for the YouTube app:

  1. Touch the remote to activate playback controls
  2. Swipe up to access the timeline
  3. Swipe left to rewind, or right to fast-forward (and skip over your content repeatedly)
  4. Swipe back down to the play button once you've landed on the sweet spot
  5. Press play

YouTube's UI might work fine on other devices like the PlayStation 4, where the DualShock 4's directional pad can better navigate the interface, but it's not a good system on the Apple TV, and inferior to Apple's built-in player, which only takes 1-3 steps to do just about anything.



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CBS must fire CEO Les Moonves

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Sara Moonves, President and CEO of CBS Corp. Leslie Moonves and television personality Julie Chen

  • CBS CEO Les Moonves has been accused by multiple women of sexual harassment followed by retaliation.
  • CBS needs to fire him, if only because he allegedly misused his position and the resources of CBS.
  • But for a low-profile, high-powered CEO like Moonves, there isn't much incentive for CBS to do the right thing: Advertisers aren't pulling money from the network, and earnings have been great.

Since mid-2017, more than 400 celebrities, politicians, and executives have been the subject of #MeToo scandals.

Of all those incidents, the claims against CBS CEO Les Moonves are among the worst.

It's been more than a week since he was publicly accused by multiple women of sexual harassment and intimidation.

Perhaps the most disturbing part of the accusations — one that has gotten somewhat lost in the discussion — is that six women who said they shot down Moonves' advances described some form of retaliation.

Essentially, they claimed Moonves misused his position and the resources of CBS and their careers were negatively impacted.

This alleged gross misuse of power while representing the company should leave CBS no choice but to fire him. At the very least he should be suspended while investigations are ongoing.

"What happened to me was a sexual assault, and then I was fired for not participating,” actress Illeana Douglas told The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow.

She claimed she was dumped by her agent and replaced on the CBS show for which she was initially cast shortly after Moonves pinned her down on a couch.

Here’s part of her account to The New Yorker:

"'In a millisecond, he’s got one arm over me, pinning me,' she said. Moonves was 'violently kissing' her, holding her down on the couch with her arms above her head.

"'What it feels like to have someone hold you down — you can’t breathe, you can’t move,' she said. 'The physicality of it was horrendous.'

"She recalled lying limp and unresponsive beneath him. 'You sort of black out,' she told me...She said it was only when Moonves, aroused, pulled up her skirt and began to thrust against her that her fear overcame her paralysis.

"She told herself that she had to do something to stop him. 'At that point, you’re a trapped animal,' she told me. 'Your life is flashing before your eyes.'"

Writer Janet Jones relayed a separate story to Farrow, in which she alleged she sat down for a meeting on Moonves' couch and was stunned when Moonves "threw himself on top" of her moments later.

Jones claimed she later received a career-threatening call from Moonves that left her more distraught than the incident itself.

"The revenge behavior, the 'I’ll get you for not kissing me, I’ll get you for not doing what the hell I want you to do' — it never quite leaves you," she said.

And yet the CBS CEO is still strolling into the office every day, taking home a 70 million paycheck.

On Thursday, Moonves cheerily reported corporate earnings on a call during which CBS forbade any analyst from asking about the allegations. None of the analysts dared to cross CBS by asking anyway.

For its part, CBS issued a statement saying it was taking the matter seriously. It has hired two outside law firms to investigate the claims. And Moonves gave a statement to The New Yorker denying any claims of misusing his power. He also said he abides by the principle that "'no' means 'no,'" while admitting he "may have made some women uncomfortable by making advances."

Until the investigation is complete, CBS seems content to do nothing further.

CBS is not financially incentivized to care

cbs stock

While it's mind-boggling that a CEO accused of such reprehensible acts would keep his job even temporarily, it's not surprising.

Of the 400 high-profile people who have been accused of sexual misconduct, Bloomberg found that fewer than half were fired or resigned. For almost 70 of them, there were no apparent repercussions.

If you want to be generous, you could say CBS is just trying to be fair to Moonves and let the investigation run its course.

Or maybe it just isn't incentivized to care.

CBS's stock dipped the day Farrow's story surfaced, but it is recovering with the Thursday earnings beat. Advertisers have not seemed to pull money from the network. As Business Insider’s Mike Shields reported, it’s a lot easier to move money from one controversial show to another than to remove it from an entire network.

There’s no public outcry holding CBS accountable either — most people probably don't know who Moonves is — unlike Matt Lauer or Charlie Rose, who were fired by their networks within about 24 hours of sexual-misconduct allegations surfacing.

Even advocacy group Sleeping Giants, which puts pressure on advertisers to pull support from content it deems offensive, has yet to take aim at CBS.

And if the pressure won’t come from outside CBS, it has to come from within.

But don't hold your breath. Money, not morality, seems to be the top priority.

As CBS president Kelly Kahl said when she was pounded by Moonves questions during the company's TCA presentation on Sunday: "Even with all that is going on around us, we are still running our business."

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Dave Bautista threatens to quit 'Guardians of the Galaxy 3' if fired director James Gunn's script isn't used

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drax the destroyer guardians of the galaxy

  • Dave Bautista told Short List that he would ask to be released from his contract if James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy 3" script wasn't used. 
  • "I’d be doing James a disservice if I didn’t," he said.
  • Gunn had finished the script and was going to start filming later this year before being fired.
  • The movie is scheduled for release in 2020.

 

Dave Bautista is taking his displeasure with James Gunn's firing to a new level. 

The "Guardians of the Galaxy" actor told Short List that he would ask Marvel to release him from his contract on the third movie if it didn't use Gunn's script. Disney fired Gunn last month from "Guardians 3" over offensive tweets from years ago that conservative personalities resurfaced.

"Where I’m at right now is that if [Marvel] don’t use that script, then I’m going to ask them to release me from my contract, cut me out or recast me," Bautista said. "I’d be doing James a disservice if I didn’t."

He added that he spoke to costar Chris Pratt after Gunn was fired, but Pratt "wanted time to pray and figure it out."

"But I was more like: f--- this," Bautista said. "This is bulls---. James is one of the kindest, most decent people I’ve met."

Gunn had recently finished the script for the movie and was set to begin filming later this year before being fired.

Bautista has been the most outspoken out of the entire "Guardians" cast about Gunn's firing, and tweeted over the weekend that it was "nauseating" to work for Disney now.

Bautista, Pratt, and the rest of the "Guardians" cast released a letter last week in support of Gunn, but, according to Variety, Disney does not have any plans to re-hire him.

"Guardians of the Galaxy 3" is scheduled to come to theaters in 2020.

SEE ALSO: 'Guardians of the Galaxy' star Dave Bautista says it's 'nauseating' to work for Disney after it fired director James Gunn

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Here's how YouTube wants to secure its campus and better protect employees in the wake of April's shooting attack (GOOG, GOOGL)

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YouTube HQ, expansion, San Bruno, David Woltering

  • YouTube has told officials in San Bruno, California, that they intend to bulk up security at the company's headquarters, the city's community development director told Business Insider.
  • Some of the upgrades come as YouTube seeks to expand its San Bruno campus. 
  • The talks follow the April shooting attack on YouTube by a  38-year-old disgruntled  video creator.    

YouTube managers have spoken to San Bruno city officials about beefing up office security at headquarters, David Woltering, the city's community development director, told Business Insider on Monday. 

Woltering and his staff have had discussions with YouTube representatives "about various measures to better secure points of access to their facilities here in San Bruno," he said in a statement. "These measures include fencing, increased surveillance, and improved access controls." 

Woltering was responding to questions posed to him last week when the city unveiled development plans for the area surrounding YouTube's headquarters. YouTube seeks to expand its office space, add thousands of workers, as well as build more parking facilities. The company hopes to break ground sometime next year, Woltering said. It's not yet clear if YouTube will make some of the sought-after security upgrades part of this expansion. 

YouTube HQ, expansion, San Bruno, David Woltering

YouTube was not immediately available for comment. 

Woltering said that YouTube began bolstering security at the San Bruno campus in the form of adding larger numbers of "on-site security personnel," four months ago, immediately after Nasim Aghdam arrived there on April 3 armed with a 9 mm and opened fire on employees, wounding three. She later killed herself.

Aghdam's attack is believed to be the first shooting at YouTube but employees have received numerous death threats going back more than a decade, Business Insider reported after the shooting.  

As YouTube's popularity has grown and as some video creators have become more dependent on the ad revenue their clips generate, the service is often accused of harboring a wide range of biases against one group or another. Police have said that Aghdam was a disgruntled YouTube video creator who believed the video service was discriminating against her because of her strong views on animal rights.

On Monday, fans of political commentator and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones took to online message boards to claim YouTube was part of a left-wing plot to silence conservative voices.  YouTube had followed Facebook, Spotify and Apple in removing Jones content from its site for violating their terms of service. 

"Alex Jones and Infowars are a national treasure!," wrote one Twitter user.  "YouTube, Google, and Fakebook are cowardly leftist criminals."

See Also:

SEE ALSO: YouTube wants to double its office space and add 10,000 new jobs with a new global headquarters — here’s the video site’s plan to super size

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A top Amazon TV boss left after less than a year amid reports she made 'inappropriate comments' in a meeting

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Heather Schuster

  • Heather Schuster, head of unscripted TV at Amazon Studios, is leaving following an internal investigation into alleged comments she made in a meeting, according to Deadline.
  • Variety reported that Schuster "engaged in verbally abusive behavior."
  • As Amazon's head of unscripted TV, Schuster was responsible for Jeremy Clarkson's motoring show "The Grand Tour."


A top Amazon television executive has left the company amid reports she was the subject of an internal investigation into alleged inappropriate comments she made during a meeting.

Deadline broke the news that Heather Schuster, head of unscripted TV at Amazon Studios, has stepped down. Variety and The Los Angeles Times followed up with similar reports confirming the original story.

The company declined to comment on the circumstances of Schuster's departure, but confirmed to Variety that she was leaving. Business Insider has contacted Schuster for comment.

Variety went further than Deadline and reported that Amazon was investigating allegations Schuster "engaged in verbally abusive behavior." Deadline also said the probe looked at "possible misuse of power."

As Amazon's head of unscripted TV, Schuster was responsible for Jeremy Clarkson's motoring show "The Grand Tour." She took up the role in October 2017 having previously worked at companies including Ryan Seacrest Productions.

Schuster is the latest high-profile US television executive to depart abruptly over comments made internally. Amy Powell, the head of Paramount Television since 2013, was fired last month for "racially charged" comments made in a conference call. Netflix's Chief Communications Officer Jonathan Friedland stepped down in June after admitting he had spoken in an "insensitive" manner.

SEE ALSO: Paramount TV president reportedly fired over 'racially charged' comments made in a conference call

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'National Treasure' franchise director wants to make a third movie, but fears it would only appear on Disney's new streaming service

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national treasure

  • "National Treasure" director Jon Turteltaub said there are no definite plans for a third movie in the franchise, but he believes if it ever happens the movie would likely be on Disney's upcoming streaming service and not be a theatrical release.
  • He explained to Business Insider why that is his biggest fear.

 

Before Disney got obsessed with superhero movies and "Star Wars," the studio had a strong interest in making family-friendly action movies. 

One of its surprise moneymakers in the aughts was the Nicolas Cage-starring action franchise "National Treasure." 

Both the 2004 original and 2007 "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" earned over $300 million worldwide (over $450 million for the sequel) and were the second highest grossing movies domestically in both years for Disney. 

But a third movie featuring the antics of Cage's part-historian, part-Indiana-Jones character Benjamin Franklin Gates have been pushed aside for years. The team has been unable to nail down a script everyone agreed on, and in the meantime, the studio has found a goldmine in Marvel Studios.

However, with the upcoming Disney streaming service, is it now time to get excited about "National Treasure 3" being a reality? The director of the franchise, Jon Turteltaub, said that's his biggest worry.

Jon Turteltaub Getty final

"My prediction and my fear is you will see 'National Treasure 3' on their streaming platform," Turteltaub told Business Insider while promoting his upcoming new movie, "The Meg" (opening in theaters on Friday).

"I feel it deserves the big movie treatment, and I'll make a s--t ton more money if it's a movie, so f--k streaming," Turteltaub said.

As far as Turteltaub knows Nicolas Cage and costars Diane Kruger and Jon Voight are all up for doing another movie and that's mainly why they would go forward with a third if Disney only wants to do a streaming release and not a theatrical.

"We'll probably all say 'yes' because we love it and each other so much," he said. "But you got to hit everybody on the right week."

According to the director, there are no firm plans for "National Treasure 3," and he can understand that because of the studio's success with its other franchises. However, he believes "National Treasure" is more popular today than it ever was.

"How do you not make another movie when the movies leading up to it are all internet memes?" he asked. "It's out there. And it's got a bigger audience than the first one had when no one knew what the hell we were doing."  

SEE ALSO: The surprising reason Tom Cruise almost had to fake the HALO jump in 'Mission: Impossible - Fallout'

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Millennials are snapping up Disney ahead of earnings (DIS)

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Disney’s proposed $71.3 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox is sure to be the focus of Tuesday's earnings report from the entertainment giant — and millennial investors seem to be optimistic.

Ahead of the company’s third-quarter earnings numbers after the closing bell, investors on the stock-trading app Robinhood who owned Disney totaled 65,744. That’s up more than 2.5% since July 2, when 64,137 held the stock, and well outside its usual weekly moving average of 600 since Business Insider first began tracking the data in late-June.

Disney first bid for 21st Century Fox’s production assets in December 2017, offering $52.4 billion in stock for the conglomerate's production assets and some channels excluding Fox News, Business, and Sports channels, which will be spun off as "New Fox." Comcast then set off a bidding war by offering $65 billion cash in June, and dropped out after Disney's $71.3 billion offer a week later.

Both companies' shareholders have approved the merger, but the deal’s completion is still at the hands of regulators in the US and internationally.

For the quarter ended June 30, analysts expect Disney to post earnings of $1.94 per share on revenues of $15.63 billion. And even once completed, the Fox buyout will mean more work is ahead for Disney.

"Even after spending $80-90 billion, we believe Disney will need to further invest many incremental billions per year for many years on content (in the form of foregone licensing, as well as new original content), plus marketing and tech/ops, to launch its direct-to-consumer products and give them the best chance for success," Todd Juenger, a media analyst for Bernstein, said in a note this month. 

"It will also be at least another year before the entertainment DTC product(s) is scheduled to be launched (and it will probably be staged globally, so another year or two or more before Disney as a fully global service(s)), and plenty of integration and execution risks remain."

Shares of Disney are up 4.4% since the beginning of the year.

Now read:

Disney stock price earnings millennials robinhood

SEE ALSO: 21st Century Fox deal approved by Disney shareholders

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'Better Call Saul' is inching closer to 'Breaking Bad' in its fourth season, and is one of the best shows on TV

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better call saul

  • "Better Call Saul" is inching closer the "Breaking Bad" timeline in season 4, and it just keeps getting better.
  • Jimmy McGill's slow transformation into Saul Goodman is becoming more clear, but the show is still one of the best on TV on its own terms.
  • Rhea Seehorn steals the show as Kim Wexler.
  • Even if you aren't familiar with "Breaking Bad," "Better Call Saul" is worth checking out. But fans of "Breaking Bad" are in for a treat.

 

Warning: This post contains mild spoilers for the season 4 premiere of "Better Call Saul."

"Better Call Saul" is a product of a different time in television.

It fits nicely into the current "peak TV" era as a prestige drama, but even the shows that kick-started that small-screen trend — "Breaking Bad," "Mad Men," etc. — would feel like relics if they aired today. It wasn't that long ago that those shows ended, but a lot has changed since. TV has largely given up on the male anti-hero protagonist that was so common throughout the early years of peak TV, from Walter White to Don Draper to even Frank Underwood.

As a prequel to "Breaking Bad," the show has managed to carve out a place for itself in the modern TV pantheon. That's no easy feat, considering not only how the landscape has changed since "Breaking Bad," but the bar that show set.

At a time when audiences are attracted to blockbuster shows with big ideas like "The Handmaid's Tale" and "Game of Thrones," "Better Call Saul" doesn't exactly match up with that kind of scope. But that's okay. "Saul" is still one of the best shows on TV. It's anchored by the promise of "Breaking Bad," and season 4, which premiered on Monday with an episode titled "Smoke," will please fans of that show as "Saul" inches closer to the "Bad" timeline. But it's also just a stellar drama in its own right.

In the three episodes I've seen, it's clear that Jimmy McGill is well on his way to transforming into the sleazy lawyer known as Saul Goodman. His brother Chuck is dead and he's out of a job. It's nerve-wracking to witness Jimmy's slow spiral. For three seasons, there was still a sliver of hope for Jimmy, even for those familiar with the "Breaking Bad" character who knew that his descent was inevitable. But in its fourth season, it's clear that this is the beginning of the end.

better call saul

Bob Odenkirk, who plays Jimmy, captures that shift with ease. Saul always had a certain charm to match his arrogance on "Breaking Bad," and Odenkirk's performance has added another layer to that in "Better Call Saul." Jimmy is likable and sympathetic, even when he's doing things that range from questionable to terrible. But Jimmy is now in a weird in-between period where he's still the likable Jimmy McGill but stepping closer to Saul Goodman, and Odenkirk captures that. 

In the season premiere, Howard (Patrick Fabian) admits to Jimmy that he feels responsible for Chuck's death, and that he believes Chuck committed suicide. Jimmy knows that he was a horrible brother to Chuck, and his lies ruined Chuck's career, but he still tells Howard, "That's your cross to bear." It's one prime example of where we can see Jimmy's transformation coming into focus. 

"Better Call Saul" isn't just great because of Jimmy McGill, though, and that's why it has managed to step out of "Breaking Bad's" shadow. Rhea Seehorn, who plays Kim Wexler, already deserves an Emmy for season 4, even if the show isn't eligible again until next year (it didn't premiere in time to be eligible for this year's Emmys). Kim has always been one of the best parts of "Better Call Saul." She's often the voice of reason, and Seehorn gives a powerhouse performance this season. Since Kim isn't in "Breaking Bad," one of the biggest mysteries surrounding "Saul" is what happens to her and her relationship with Jimmy. I pray she gets a worthy send-off, whenever that may be.

But even if the show is good on its own terms, it's still a prequel, and the "Breaking Bad" elements are a big reason why many watch the show. Jimmy's relationship with Chuck was the focal point of season 3, and was even more interesting than the faster-paced "Breaking Bad"-esque drug storyline that centers on Mike (Jonathan Banks), Gus (Giancarlo Esposito), and Nacho (Michael Mando). With Chuck gone, and "Saul" getting closer to "Breaking Bad's" timeline, the "Breaking Bad"-inspired parts of the show are becoming a greater focus. Fans of "Bad" are in for a treat in that regard.

The show has a knack for making even the most mundane tasks seem thrilling, and it almost always involves Mike. In the season 3 premiere, we saw Mike meticulously tear apart his car to look for a tracking device. In the season 4 premiere, we follow along with him as he inspects a company's security. Banks is a joy to watch.

"Better Call Saul" may have already been renewed for a fifth season, but it's still barreling toward the end — and it just keeps getting better. When it's all over, "Better Call Saul" will be one of the best television shows of the decade. Whether you're a "Breaking Bad" fan or not, it's worth checking out.

"Better Call Saul" airs Mondays on AMC at 9 p.m. ET.

SEE ALSO: Hulu's 'Castle Rock' is a 'Stranger Things' for the Stephen King horror universe, and could be your next TV obsession

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One of the best-selling games of 2018 is nearly five years old — and the makers say 'there's plenty more content to come'

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Grand Theft Auto 5 (cash)

Last month, like nearly every month before it, "Grand Theft Auto 5" was on the top 20 list of best-selling video games in the United States. 

It appeared in third place, below "Mario Tennis Aces" and "God of War," and above "The Crew 2" — a trio of games that came out in 2018. "Grand Theft Auto 5" didn't come out in 2018, though: It came out in September 2013.

Next month, "GTA 5" turns five. For most games, that amount of time would make it a distant memory. 

Instead, in a twist befitting a game centered on heists, "Grand Theft Auto 5" is on the verge of crossing 100 million units sold. "Grand Theft Auto 5" has made somewhere in the neighborhood of $6 billion according to one report

"What can I say? We're extraordinarily grateful to our colleagues at Rockstar Games for this incredible creative achievement, and to the entire team responsible for physical/digital distribution, and marketing of course," Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick told me in a phone interview on Monday.

grand theft auto v

Zelnick runs the publisher that owns Rockstar Games, the legendary game development studio behind blockbuster franchises like "GTA" and "Red Dead Redemption."

"We would never have expected to sell something like 100 million units and still be in the market and still be active," Zelnick said.

He's right to be shocked: It's more or less unprecedented, even for mega-hit franchises like "GTA." Zelnick pointed out that the entire "GTA" franchise has sold "something like 285 million units" — "Grand Theft Auto 5" makes up nearly 100 million of that alone.

It's bumping up against the likes of "Minecraft" and "Tetris" for title of all-time best-selling video game. That's due to its extraordinarily long legs — the game keeps selling over time.

Tetris

The NPD Group, which tracks video game sales in the United States, offered another incredible statistic: Since "GTA 5" went on sale in September 2013, it has appeared in the top 20 best-selling games list 57 out of 58 times.

"The only time it didn't was October 2014 when it hit at #21," NPD Group's Mat Piscatella told me in an email. "No other title comes anywhere near close. Its performance is just other worldly." 

There are a few reasons for that:

  • "GTA 5" is an excellent game with an incredibly recognizable name — if you're buying a game console and are looking for a first game, it's a strong choice.
  • It's available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. If you bought a game console or a gaming PC in the last five years, chances are you also got "GTA 5."
  • Rockstar Games has carefully updated the game over the past five years, first bringing it to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in 2014, then to PC in 2015. A "Premium Edition" launched earlier this year as well, which offers additional content.
  • It's got a massive online component, known as "GTA Online," that people love.
  • It's an extremely shareable game — GIFs and videos of "GTA 5" are still regularly shared online.

"GTA 5" has been quietly dominating for years at this point.

"Our own approach here is — probably to a fault — we don't engage in self-congratulatory behavior," Zelnick said.

Outside of financial calls and filings, where Take-Two makes disclosures to investors and the government, information on Rockstar Games and its products tends to remain private. 

Such is the case with "GTA Online," for instance, the multiplayer component of "GTA 5." It's clear that the service is popular, but it's not clear how many of those 100 million copies sold are people playing online. 

GTA Online (After Hours expansion)

When pressed on details regarding "GTA Online" player numbers, Zelnick deflected. "We don't really give out that kind of information," he said. The closest he would get is saying it has "a huge audience." Rockstar Games said in January that "GTA Online" had more players in December 2017 than any previous time; when asked on Monday, Rockstar representatives declined to offer an update.

One thing is clear: The number of players is significant enough for Rockstar to continue producing massive new expansions for "GTA Online."

The latest update, "After Hours," is far from the last, Zelnick said. "There's plenty more content to come." From the sound of it, 100 million units sold is just the lastest milestone for "Grand Theft Auto 5."

SEE ALSO: The makers of 'Grand Theft Auto' have a new game coming later this year, and it’s drop-dead gorgeous

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All the TV shows that have been canceled in 2018

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Shadowhunters Clary and Jace

As the year flies by, the list of canceled TV shows piles up.

While there's been somewhat of a quiet period since May, some networks are still cutting shows throughout the summer, including USA, which recently canceled sci-fi series "Colony" after three seasons. In June, Freeform canceled the supernatural teen drama, "Shadowhunters."

ABC also canceled the previously renewed "Roseanne" revival in late May, after Roseanne Barr posted a racist tweet about former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. However, ABC announced a spin-off called "The Conners" without Barr coming this fall.

Amazon kicked off the year with a slew of cancellations, announcing the end of three quirky comedies, including the Golden Globe nominee "I Love Dick" and the comedian Tig Notaro's semi-autobiographical show, "One Mississippi." It canceled Golden Globe nominee "Mozart in the Jungle" in April, after four seasons, and recently canceled "Transparent," which will end after the upcoming fifth season.

The long-running "The Jerry Springer Show" is ending after 27 seasons and 4,000 episodes. NBC's "Timeless," was also canceled for the second year in a row. NBC reversed its first decision to cancel the show last year after fan outcry. However, fans may have a movie to look forward to that gives the series a proper finale, though no official decision has been made.

We'll update this list as more are announced.

Here are all the shows that have been canceled this year, including those from networks and Netflix:

SEE ALSO: The worst TV show of every year since 2000, according to critics

Amazon



"Jean-Claude Van Johnson" — Amazon, one season



"I Love Dick" — Amazon, one season



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People are paying close to $100,000 for rare 'Magic: The Gathering' cards that they compare to early bitcoin investments and predict will one day be worth millions

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Magic the gathering cards

  • "Magic: The Gathering" is a wizardry-inspired card game from the early '90s that has a cult following even today.
  • Several rare, early-print editions of the cards are worth thousands of dollars, with one particularly hard-to-find card selling for close to $100,000.
  • But one investor thinks this is just the beginning of the cards' value. Get in early, he says, and you could make millions. 

"If the Black Lotus gets $70,000 tonight, it'll be worth millions in about 20 years," Bryan Goldberg told me last week over the phone.

Goldberg — a tech entrepreneur and self-described geek who owns a stable of media sites including Bustle, Elite Daily, and now Gawker.com — is predicting the outcome of an eBay auction underway for the Black Lotus, the most powerful card from the trading-card game "Magic: The Gathering."

At the time of our conversation, bids for the coveted Black Lotus hover around $60,000. Goldberg is betting that the price will balloon by $10,000 in just a few short hours. If his call is right, Goldberg estimates that the Black Lotus' value will compound many times over in the coming years. By 2038, he predicts, it will be worth a minimum of $1 million.

"Magic: The Gathering" isn't a new trend or an emerging fad like CryptoKitties. The wizardry-inspired card game came out in the early '90s and precedes Pokémon by about three years. The people who play it are "nerds, geeks, and people who grew up as nerds and geeks," Goldberg said. Today, many of those same "nerds and geeks" are tech-savvy millennials who spend thousands of dollars on select cards from their beloved game.

"In my childhood, I was completely absorbed by it," Goldberg said. "The game today is the best it's ever been. It's a wonderful game. It's not just fun to play — there's so much nostalgia for it."

Goldberg says he invests in the cards for the same reason he's bought up companies or bitcoin: He thinks it's going to make him a lot of money.

Just how much money?

"I think it will double or triple my money many times over," Goldberg said. The payoff, he says, will be similar to investments in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin or ether, with the potential to make early investors extremely wealthy.

"In 2018, it's hard to think of any investment opportunity that's even remotely in the same ballpark as bitcoin," Goldberg said. "With these cards, I feel like I found an asset class that could really be huge. If this does what I think it can do, it could be a fantastic investment."

Magic: The Gathering

Goldberg estimates that since the '90s, billions of "Magic: The Gathering" cards have been printed, with more and more decks released all the time. Today, you can buy a 60-card "battle deck" for about $10.

The cards' collectability emerges from a select group of early-print editions and a few cards that have been retired from print altogether.

Some of these cards are so powerful in the context of the game that the player who holds them would almost always win by default, Goldberg explained. Because this ruined the fun for the rest of the players, the card makers agreed early on to stop printing them, making the likelihood of owning them today extremely rare.

Many of the existing editions have been lost or badly damaged, with very few surviving in mint or perfect condition. Goldberg says he believes that only 40 mint-condition Black Lotuses remain in circulation today. While he declined to disclose the exact number he owns, Goldberg said he had bought up a meaningful percentage of the remaining first-edition, mint-condition Black Lotuses.

Magic The Gathering Black Lotus

This group of rare Black Lotuses might be compared to early-edition baseball cards, some of which sold for millions of dollars decades after their release.

But the earning potential for "Magic: The Gathering" cards is even greater than for those faded sports collectibles, Goldberg said, mostly because the game is still incredibly popular.

"It's exploding," Goldberg said. "The people who were kids when it came out are grown-ups now who have made money and can afford to buy them."

Of course, there's the very real possibility that Goldberg could be wrong. After all, Beanie Babies were also once a highly sought-after collectible that fizzled out in popularity years later.

But Goldberg is correct that "Magic: The Gathering" is still incredibly popular.

If you've never heard of the game before, it might be because the community is, as Goldberg put it, "small and private." Online, however, enthusiasm for "Magic: The Gathering" is widespread.

Magic the gathering

On YouTube, for instance, a single video of someone buying a collection of cards for $21,000 has more than 850,000 views and hundreds of comments trailing below. It's not uncommon for videos of people opening decks of cards, brokering trading deals, or examining vintage decks to accrue hundreds of thousands of viewers.

One video on YouTube embodies the "Magic: The Gathering" zeitgeist particularly well.

In it, an unseen collector meticulously slices through a vintage deck with a scalpel. For 10 minutes, he painstakingly flips through the deck, card by card, his hands sheathed in blue plastic gloves so as not to damage them. Right around the eight-minute mark, the collector strikes gold: Embedded at the bottom of the pack is a mint-condition Alpha Black Lotus.

"Holy ... blrsh!" he shouts. "That's a freaking Black Lotus! Oh my God! That's an Alpha-freakin'-Lotus!"

With shaking hands, he starts to cry, or laugh, or maybe both.

The video has over 6 million views. Some commenters say they've watched the 10-minute video multiple times, over and over again.

And YouTube is only the beginning of the "Magic: The Gathering" community's pervasive online presence. Reddit, Twitter, blogging sites, and Facebook all suggest a deeply engaged community. There are in-person gatherings as well — like tournaments with thousands in attendance, Meetup groups, and themed weddings, to name just a few. (There's also a well-populated Pinterest page documenting various ideas for "MTG"-themed celebrations.)

For Goldberg, the money is just one part of the game's appeal — a pleasant bonus he didn't quite expect.

So, was Goldberg's prediction of the Black Lotus' value at the auction accurate?

No. As it turns out, he was way off, by more than $15,000.

Around 1 a.m. the night of the auction, Goldberg shot me an email.

"Holy shit," he wrote. "~$88,000 for the Black Lotus ... that is way more than I would have ever guessed even when we were on the phone. Tonight was insane."

Bryan Goldberg emailCameron Kunzelman, a reporter for the gaming site Kotaku, later described the $87,672 purchase as "a lot of money for a little bit of cardboard."

"Should rarity and cultural prestige account for an $87,000 price tag?" Kunzelman wrote. "That's maybe a little bit high for me."

Goldberg's bullish prediction that the card will one day be worth $1 million or more could end up being wrong — but the recent auction shows there's also a very real chance he's right. In 20 years, that same piece of cardboard could be worth more than a house.

At the very least, it's a good reminder that value is relative. Maybe there's not much of a difference between precious minerals, computer-generated lines of code, and laminated cardboard after all.

There's another Black Lotus, in mint condition, up on eBay.

The asking price? $100,000.

SEE ALSO: Top investors gambled $12 million on the blockchain equivalent of Beanie Babies. Now, sales are plummeting.

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Musicians only got 12% of the $43 billion the music industry generated in 2017, and it mostly came from touring

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Kanye West

  • Recording artists received just 12% of the $43 billion that the music industry generated in 2017, according to a Citigroup report.
  • Consumer spending on music generated an all-time high of more than $20 billion last year, but music businesses, including labels and publishers, took almost $10 billion, while artists received just $5.1 billion, the "bulk" of which came from touring.

Recording artists received just 12% of the $43 billion that the music industry generated in 2017, according to a Citigroup report published on Monday, and led by analyst Jason B. Bazinet.

$43 billion matches a 12-year peak that the industry hasn't hit since 2006, the report said. 

The proportion of the total music industry revenue artists are capturing has actually risen since 2000, when artists took home only a 7% share of the revenue.

But this increase is due in large part to the growth of concerts and touring as a revenue stream that is largely distinct from the intermediary of their music labels. Artists are still taking home a meager share of the increasing revenues in streaming for their music, where music labels and music streaming services act as intermediaries. 

The report shows that "consumer outlays," which includes streaming, concert sales, and purchased music, generated an all-time high of more than $20 billion last year. But music businesses, including labels and publishers, took almost $10 billion, while artists received just $5.1 billion, the "bulk" of which came from touring.

citigroup music

The report anticipates (and is likely to spur calls for more) "organic forms of vertical integration" in the industry, where existing music providers like Spotify and Apple Music could "organically morph into music labels," allowing artists to capture more of their music's value by releasing their work directly with the services. 

The group concluded the report by highlighting an alternative voice in the industry, with a commentary from Bjorn Niclas, cofounder of Choon, a cryptocurrency-based music streaming service. 

"Currently artists are at the end of the line," Niclas said in the report. "They get the smallest piece of the pie even though they are the ones creating the content. In any other industry you typically see much better returns and margins." 

Read the report here

SEE ALSO: The worst hit song of every year since 2000, from Macklemore to Train (twice)

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