• Netflix pulled an episode of Hasan Minhaj's "Patriot Act" in Saudi Arabia that was critical of the kingdom and accused it of covering up the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi to protect its crown prince.
• The episode mocked the kingdom's changing account of the journalist's death and accused it of lying to protect its crown prince's international reputation.
• Netflix told the Financial Times that it received a legal complaint from the kingdom, which said the episode violated its cybercrime law.
• Khashoggi's editor at The Washington Post said it was "outrageous" that Netflix pulled the episode.

Netflix removed an episode of a comedy show that was critical of Saudi Arabia and accused the country of covering up the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi to protect its crown prince.

The episode of Hasan Minhaj's "Patriot Act" that was removed from Saudi Arabia criticized Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and cast doubt on Saudi Arabia's efforts to distance itself from the death of Khashoggi, who was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October.

Minhaj mocked Saudi Arabia's changing account of Khashoggi's death in the episode and said the country's evolving account of its leaders' involvement in the killing was designed to protect Crown Prince Mohammed's international reputation as a reformer in the Middle East.

Netflix confirmed to the Financial Times that it had pulled the episode, citing a legal complaint from the kingdom.

Read more: Early data on Hasan Minhaj's 'Patriot Act' suggests it could succeed where other Netflix talk shows have failed

"This is the most unbelievable cover story since Blake Shelton won sexiest man alive. Are you kidding me?" Minhaj, a Muslim-American comedian, said.

"This entire cover-up exists for one reason," Minhaj said, before the show cut to clips of news reporters citing analysts who suggested that the kingdom's changing story was designed to protect the crown prince.

Saudi Arabia initially claimed that Khashoggi safely left the consulate and said allegations he was killed were "baseless." After changing its story several times, it now maintains that the death was the fault of a rogue Saudi government operation.

"The Saudis were struggling to explain his disappearance: They said he left the consulate safely then they used a body double to make it seem like he was alive," Minhaj said.

"At one point they were saying he died in a fistfight, Jackie Chan-style. They went through so many explanations. The only one they didn't say was that Khashoggi died in a free-solo rock-climbing accident."

While the kingdom's account of what happened has changed, it has maintained that the crown prince was unaware of and did not order the killing. The CIA reportedly found that the crown prince personally ordered the killing and a motion passed by the US Senate condemned the crown prince over the incident.

Read more:Here's everything we know about the troubling disappearance and death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

The video can still be seen on the show's official YouTube channel, where it had more than 1.3 million views at the time of writing.

Minhaj also criticized the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen and the power and wealth of the Saudi royal family.

"It blows my mind that it took the killing of a Washington Post journalist for everyone to go, 'Oh, I guess [Crown Prince bin Salman] is not a reformer," he said. "Meanwhile, every Muslim person you know was like, 'Yeah, no shit.'"

Netflix told the Financial Times that it pulled the episode after the country's Communications and Information Technology Commission requested its removal, accusing it of violating the country's cybercrime law.

"We strongly support artistic freedom worldwide and only removed this episode in Saudi Arabia after we had received a valid legal request — and to comply with local law," it said.

Netflix cited Article 6 of Saudi Law to the Financial Times, which states that "production, preparation, transmission, or storage of material impinging on public order, religious values, public morals, and privacy, through the information network or computers" is a crime that can be met with up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $800,000.

Karen Attiah, Khashoggi’s editor at The Washington Post, where he wrote columns often critical of the Saudi government, criticized Netflix's move.

"@hasanminhaj of @patriotact has been a strong, honest and (funny) voice challenging Saudi Arabia + Mohammed bin Salman in the wake of #khashoggi's murder," she tweeted. "He brought awareness about Yemen. Quite outrageous that @netflix has pulled one of his episodes critical of Saudi Arabia.

"When Jamal Khashoggi wrote about the need for free expression in the Arab world (and everywhere), that freedom is not just about journalists. It's about freedom for artists, comedians, cartoonists, musicians, activists and anyone who wants to express their views on society."

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• Every month, TV Time provides Business Insider the most anticipated new shows.
• January includes The CW's "Roswell, New Mexico," Syfy's "Deadly Class," and Fox's "The Passage."

It's a new year, and that means there are plenty of new shows on the way. Fans of the 1999 show "Roswell" can return to that universe in January thanks to The CW's reboot, "Roswell, New Mexico."

Every month, Business Insider runs down the most anticipated new shows thanks to data from television-tracking app TV Time (based on its 13 million global users).

Other shows fans are excited about this month include Syfy's "Deadly Class," based on the Image comic book of the same name, and "The Passage," a post-apocalyptic horror series based on the 2010 novel.

5. "Fam" — CBS, January 10

Description:"FAM stars Nina Dobrev and Tone Bell in a comedy about a woman whose vision of a perfect life with her adoring fiancé and his wonderful family is radically altered when her 16-year-old, out-of-control half-sister unexpectedly comes to live with her. Clem’s upbringing and teen years left a lot to be desired, but she pulled herself up, and built a fantastic life—great job, terrific apartment, and an amazing fiancé, Nick, a college professor from a well-to-do "normal" family. Nick's warm and supportive parents, Rose and Walt, embrace Clem and complete the family she always wanted. But when Clem’s wild-child half-sister, Shannon, appears on their doorstep to escape their train wreck of a dad, Nick agrees that Clem can help her avoid all the mistakes she made, and they invite her to move in. As the family Clem chose and the family she has blend, Clem realizes that this happy fam may be the perfection she's been seeking."

4. "Roswell, New Mexico" —The CW, January 15

Description:"In The CW’s new series ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO, more than maybe anywhere else on Earth, Roswell, New Mexico is ground zero for those who seek proof that aliens exist. Roswell native Liz Ortecho (Jeanine Mason) left it all behind 10 years ago after the death of her beloved older sister Rosa. But after the government cuts funding on her biomedical research, she reluctantly returns to her tourist-trap hometown to move back in with her father. When Liz arrives, she reconnects with Max Evans (Nathan Parsons), her teenage crush, who is now a Roswell police officer. Their chemistry is instantly electric. But Liz soon discovers a shocking truth: Max is an alien who has kept his unearthly abilities hidden his entire life, along with those of his otherworldly sister, Isobel (Lily Cowles), and their friend Michael (Michael Vlamis)."

3. "The Passage" — Fox, January 14

Description: "Executive-produced by Emmy Award winner and Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee Ridley Scott (“The Martian,” “Gladiator”) and writer/director Matt Reeves (“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” “Cloverfield”), THE PASSAGE focuses on Project NOAH, a secret medical facility where scientists are experimenting with a dangerous virus that could lead to the cure for all disease, but also carries the potential to wipe out the human race. When a young girl, AMY BELLAFONTE (Saniyya Sidney, “Fences,” “Hidden Figures”), is chosen to be a test subject, Federal Agent BRAD WOLGAST (Mark-Paul Gosselaar, “Pitch”) is the man who is tasked with bringing her to Project NOAH. Ultimately, however, Wolgast becomes her surrogate father, trying to protect her at any cost."

2. "Deadly Class" — Syfy, January 16

Description: "Deadly Class follows a disillusioned teen recruited into a storied high school for assassins. Maintaining his moral code while navigating a ruthless curriculum, vicious social cliques, and his own adolescent uncertainties may prove fatal. Set against the backdrop of late 80s counter culture, Deadly Class is a coming of age story unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Based on the smash hit comic series of the same name by Rick Remender."

1. "Good Trouble" — Freeform, January 8

Description:"From the hit series The Fosters, the spin-off Good Trouble follows sisters Callie and Mariana as they move to Los Angeles and begin their lives as young adults."

SEE ALSO: 9 Hollywood movies that dominated the Chinese box office in 2018, including some that underperformed in the US

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• "60 Days In" is a documentary series that follows seven undercover inmates at a jail in Pinal County, Arizona.
• The undercover inmates — all law-abiding citizens — were booked under fake charges and false identities.
• They were exposed to brutal violence, racism, drug use, and harassment throughout their 60 days in jail.

Arizona's Pinal County Adult Detention Center has a history of violence.

In 2016, two inmates were caught on camera brutally attacking a jail guard. Six weeks later, two inmates stabbed another guard 21 times with a homemade shank, nearly killing him.

The jail sounds like the last place anyone would want to spend a night — let alone two full months.

But that's exactly what seven law-abiding citizens did on the A&E documentary series "60 Days In."

The show, the fifth season of which premieres January 3, follows the participants' experiences as undercover inmates at an Arizona jail.

Read more:The most shocking moments witnessed by undercover inmates on "60 Days In" 

The volunteers — a diverse group that includes a real estate agent, a chaplain, a police officer, and an Army veteran — were booked on fake charges and assumed false identities during their stays at the Pinal County jail in Florence, Arizona.

The undercover inmates lived among the jail's 600-inmate population without other inmates or corrections officers learning their secret. Only Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb and a small handful of administrators were in on the ruse — the rest of the jail's workforce was told the show was a documentary about jails on the US-Mexico border.

Each of the undercover inmates was tasked with finding out information about a specific aspect of life in jail, including gang life, drug culture, and jail operations. They reported their findings to Lamb at the end of their two-month stint.

Previous seasons of "60 Days In" took place at Atlanta's Fulton County Jail and southern Indiana's Clark County Jail. Lamb said he wanted to bring the program to his Arizona jail in an effort to increase transparency and show people what life behind bars is really like.

"When this opportunity presented itself, we saw an opportunity to really get an inside look at our facility, and show the people of our county as well what kind of facility we run, and be able to try and address issues that we thought we were having in the facility," Lamb told Business Insider.

Throughout the course of the show, the participants are exposed to rampant violence, racism, drug use, and harassment from other inmates. 

"Being in jail is a nightmare. It is just hell," one of the undercover volunteers, a real estate agent named Brooke, told Business Insider. "I think people that are out doing crimes, they don't know what they're signing up for."

In the men's section of the jail, the volunteers were shocked to learn how big a role race played in everyday life. Within moments of arriving in their units, the volunteers were greeted by members of their respective races, who explained to them where members of each race slept, ate, and used the bathroom.

"The politics of jail is you stick with your own kind," a participant named Abner, a chaplain from New York, said on the show. "You have to follow your race, your people, and the rules."

In one early episode, the inmates learned that even haircuts are rife with racial tension. When Abner, who is Latino, tried to use the jail-issued hair clippers, he was brusquely informed that white inmates get their hair cut first.

"I know in my mind this is about power and control," he said.

Drug use is another frequent topic of concern on the show. Several participants reported that inmates at the Pinal County jail would frequently smuggle drugs inside their body cavities, while other inmates resorted to unusual and dangerous homemade drugs.

"One woman, she was in a cell a few doors down, she was literally snorting coffee grounds to try to get a high," Brooke told Business Insider.

Lamb said after filming wrapped up, a number of changes were made based on the information he got from the undercover participants. For example, one of the volunteers clued him in to a scheme some of the inmates were using to pass notes, or "kites," from one section of the jail to the other.

According to Lamb, the inmates would sneak the notes in between trays of food, which would then be delivered to other units by trustees, the group of inmates who distribute food and perform other tasks. Lamb said the inmates knew they could get away with it because they had studied the "methodical" way guards would stack the trays.

"A lot of these people, they're very intelligent, and they have nothing else to do all day but try to figure this out, try to get one over on us," Lamb told Business Insider. "And they're very good at it. Some of them are very good."

The fifth season of "60 Days In" was filmed in early 2018, according to an A&E representative. Its first episode premieres January 3 at 10 p.m. Eastern Time on A&E.

Watch a preview of "60 Days In" below:

SEE ALSO: 7 undercover inmates spent 2 months in jail — here are the most outrageous things they witnessed

DON'T MISS: Regular people who went undercover in jail uncovered 13 'ingenious' life hacks inmates use to survive life behind bars

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NOW WATCH: Why violence in jail is 'something of a necessity,' according to an undercover inmate

• "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" has the biggest roster of any "Smash" game ever, with 74 characters in total.
• Just eight characters are unlocked when you start the game, and unlocking the other 66 can take hours of playtime.
• While players haven't yet figured out all of the methods to unlock the characters, there are a few tricks to help you unlock multiple fighters in a matter of minutes.

Unlocking every character in "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" will be the largest task facing new players picking up the new Nintendo Switch game.

Luckily, dedicated players have already figured out some early tricks that make unlocking the full 74-character cast much less time-consuming.

Unlocking characters the usual way

As in past games, characters can be unlocked in a variety of ways across the game's many modes.

During gameplay, players will occasionally be faced with a "Challenger Approaching" screen carrying the silhouette of the next unlockable character. If the player can beat the challenger in a match, the character is unlocked and added to the roster.

Normally, new challengers approach about every 10 minutes during multiplayer "Smash" or after you complete a specific game mode, like the arcade-style Classic Mode.

When playing the World of Light adventure mode, you regularly encounter new unlockable characters, too.

The timer trick for more new challengers

Players have also found that you can frequently reset the timer for character unlocks by changing the language, going back to versus mode, and playing a single multiplayer "Smash" match.

Changing the language closes the software and resets the game — and, apparently, the "Challenger Approaching" timer, too. Some players who received the game before its launch date reported that resetting the game from the main menu also resets the timer, though the language change seems to be quicker and a bit more consistent after the game's 1.1.0 update on launch.

Repeating this trick will get you a new challenger after just about every "Smash" match, so long as you're changing the language after each game.

The trick does seem to require a bit of extra playtime before it starts working, so I'd recommend playing through Classic Mode once or twice before changing the language to reset the game.

Rematching past challengers

If you happen to lose to a challenger and fail to unlock new characters, they will eventually return for another match. You can rematch challengers via the "Challenger's Approach" option in the Games & More section of the menu. The menu option will disappear if you lose again or have no past challengers to rematch.

With 66 challengers to beat, unlocking the full roster of "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" will always take hours' worth of playtime, even with the language-reset trick. But the trick can help get the process done in one dedicated afternoon, rather than over the course of a few days.

If the language trick stops working, try playing a round or two of Classic Mode, which can also lead to new challengers.

More ways to unlock characters quickly

Dedicated players in the "Smash" community have also contributed to a Google document that lists the order that characters are unlocked in "Smash," in both Classic Mode and World of Light.

If you're looking to unlock your favorite character as quickly as possible, be sure to check this list to find the most direct route.

Past "Smash for Wii U" Evolution champion Tempo Zero uploaded his own video describing the unlocking process in detail and explaining how to reset the game for more new challengers.

Regardless of what method you use, unlocking every character in "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" will be a long journey. It's probably best not to get too caught up in how fast you're unlocking characters and make sure you're having fun while it's happening.

But, it also helps to know a few tricks to get it done faster and start playing your favorite characters against your friends.

SEE ALSO: 'Super Smash Bros. Ultimate' is less than a week away and features more than 70 characters — here they all are

NOW READ: The major improvements to online play in 'Super Smash Bros. Ultimate' might be worth the price of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription

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When Nintendo announced "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" earlier this year, producer Masahiro Sakurai confirmed that every character from the prior four games in the franchise would be returning for the series' first entry on the Nintendo Switch.

As a result, "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" has one of the largest rosters of any fighting game ever made, bringing back more than 60 returning characters, and adding 12 fresh new faces. That's 74 playable characters from across video game history, right out of the box, plus one more coming as a download in early 2019. 

If that's not enough, Nintendo recently confirmed that at least five more fighters will be added to "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" through February 2020.

Those who have played prior "Smash" games may recognize that certain characters have similar movesets — like Pit and his evil counterpart, Dark Pit. Nintendo has started calling the copy characters "echo fighters," but for the sake of this list, they'll be counted as individuals. Similarly, the Pokémon trainer controls three different playable Pokémon, and there are three Mii fighters with different fighting styles, so we'll count them all individually as well.

Here's every single one of the "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" characters, plus the game in which they debuted:

SEE ALSO: The major improvements to online play in 'Super Smash Bros. Ultimate' might be worth the price of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription

1. Mario - "Donkey Kong" (1981)

2. Donkey Kong - "Donkey Kong" (1981)

3. Link - "The Legend of Zelda" (1986)

• Dan Brown's career took off in 2003 when his novel, "The Da Vinci Code," became an international phenomenon.
• He's written seven books and sold 250 million in total, making him one of the world's bestselling authors.
• He said the later success of early books that previously went ignored taught him the importance of both luck and relationships.

In May 2009, Dan Brown posed for red carpet photos alongside Tom Hanks and Ron Howard at the world premiere of "Angels & Demons."

By this point, Brown had already sold tens of millions of books and seen the the film version of his first major success, the 2003 thriller "The Da Vinci Code," become a No. 1 hit. But what was different this time was the fact that "Angels & Demons" was an adaptation of a book he had written nine years earlier, and one that initially was a flop.

"My first three books were, in fact, commercial failures, I guess you would call them," Brown said in an episode of Business Insider's podcast "This Is Success."

"I really didn't sell many copies. It was not until 'The Da Vinci Code' came out that I had really any success at all. Of course, the previous three novels, which had not sold, went on to sell, went on to No. 1 on the best-seller list. I had not changed a word."

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Brown spent the '90s as a struggling musician, and an article he wrote for his own amusement for his high school alumni magazine happened to catch the eye of a literary agent. This agent reached out to him and convinced him to try writing a novel. It turned out that Brown had a knack for cranking out a thriller, and St. Martin's Press published "Digital Fortress" in 1998. It had all the making of a mass audience book — but no audience.

He didn't quit, but his following two thrillers, "Deception Point" and "Angels & Demons," also debuted with little fanfare. Brown then wrote "The Da Vinci Code," a sequel to "Angels & Demons" that weaved historical intrigue into a fantastical tale about the Holy Grail. He said that if that one registered the same way his previous three novels did, he was going to retire from writing and find a new job.

But "The Da Vinci Code" became a massive international bestseller, and launched a career that has established Brown as one of the world's top bestselling authors, with 250 books sold. The book inspired readers to read its prequel, as well as check out the other two novels in Brown's bibliography.

At the time, Brown believed that "The Da Vinci Code" was his best work yet, but it never even would have been published after two flops had he not had an agent who believed in him, and who could ensure that the right people read his work. And as "Angels & Demons" proved, there were millions of people out there who enjoyed the book, but they never even would have known about it if it weren't for all of the nonstop controversy and hype around its similarly themed and written sequel.

"That's an important message to everybody: that some of these products and ideas that you have early in your career that may flop actually may be assets later in your life," Brown said. "They may end up having an audience."

Subscribe to "This Is Success" on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you listen. You can find the full Dan Brown episode below.

SEE ALSO: 'The Da Vinci Code' author Dan Brown explains how he overcame self-doubt and became a bestselling writer who's sold 250 million books

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• Comcast has publicly said it hasn't identified a business model that makes sense for a streaming service.
• There are signs that might soon change, with Comcast overbuilding in regional broadband territories and hints from NBCUniversal President Steve Burke.
• But the timing could prove tricky, as AT&T and Disney plan to launch streaming services this year.

In a world of increasingly available streaming options, Comcast remains an outlier.

AT&T and Disney both pledged to launch streaming services in 2019. Yet armed with an arsenal of NBCUniversal content and the largest cable-TV-subscriber base in the US, Comcast doesn't offer an over-the-top, or OTT, service, and has said publicly it hasn't identified a business model that makes sense for one. That's left media analysts confused.

"Everybody I talk to is puzzled about why they haven't launched a vMVPD," TVREV cofounder and lead analyst Alan Wolk told Business Insider, referring to virtual multichannel-video-programming distributors.

There are signs that might soon change. First, in December 2018, NBCU President Steve Burke sent a note to employees teasing the possibility of a plan for OTT in 2019.

Also, Comcast has been "overbuilding," the industry term for when a cable operator enters a competitor's territory, Tim Hanlon, founder and CEO of The Vertere Group, told Business Insider. To Hanlon, that shows Comcast could be closer to launching a national virtual MVPD.

"There's always been this sort of established gentleman's agreement on cable operators not competing with each other, overbuilding other territories," Hanlon said. "Comcast over the last number of months has begun to do that in smaller, less populated areas of the country."

Comcast applied for and won a number of cable-franchise agreements in New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania in 2018, Multichannel News reported. In each of those cases, Comcast entered a regional incumbent's territory, like Atlantic Broadband, to overbuild on its network.

Atlantic Broadband told Business Insider it has always had competition in its service areas, often from multiple competitors.

While Comcast provides broadband access to more than 26 million subscribers and services 39 states and Washington, DC, a coverage map from the Federal Communications Commission shows most of its service area is located in the Northeast and Southeast.

"If anybody in the classic MVPD space that's not already doing it, like Sling, can launch a virtual MVPD outside of their own regions, I think Comcast has the opportunity and wherewithal to do it," Hanlon said.

Read more: Comcast thinks it has developed the next technology to elevate TV advertising — now it needs the industry's buy-in

It might be too late

The timing of an OTT launch could prove difficult.

Comcast has a rocky history with streaming services. NBC shuttered its comedy streaming service, Seeso, in 2017 and couldn't get the app Watchable off the ground. Meanwhile, AT&T and Disney have already started working toward their streaming launches for later this year. Both companies are also in a position with stronger content now that AT&T closed its deal with Time Warner and Disney won assets from 21st Century Fox.

"It's at a point where it's maybe too late to break into that market now," Wolk said.

The emergence of 5G adds another layer of competition as mobile operators start to offer fixed wireless broadband for home internet with TV service bundled in, Wolk said.

Verizon has already begun to offer TV-service incentives along with 5G. The wireless giant announced it would include YouTube TV service for free for the first three months and Apple TV 4K along with 5G service to customers in each of its four initial markets — Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Sacramento, California — when the service went live in 2018.

YouTube TV typically runs at $40 a month and offers live TV distributed OTT, without a cable subscription. It includes more than 60 channels, with networks including CBS, Fox, and ESPN. Apple TV 4K is a product that allows viewers access to streaming services like Netflix, HBO, and Hulu and retails for around $179.

The decision to offer bundling of residential broadband service and live TV allows customers to cut linear-TV subscriptions to get similar programming.

Hulu remains a lingering question

Then there's the factor of Comcast's 30% stake in Hulu. Disney owns 60% of Hulu.

"My sense is that they're probably going to somehow look to monetize that or divest that, because I don't know that they want to stay on Hulu as a minority shareholder," said Tuna Amobi, a senior equity analyst at CFRA Research.

Wolk sees another option: Comcast and Disney having all their programming on Hulu, a service that already has more than 23 million subscribers.

NBCU has robust programming content with all the original shows from Syfy, Bravo, Oxygen, and USA, Wolk said. With Disney's ABC and ESPN content, that's a powerful combination of programming assets. And the possibility to offer Hulu programming abroad, now that Comcast owns British broadcaster Sky, would be another boon to the cable operator.

SEE ALSO: Media and advertising could be rocked by some big deals in 2019 — including Comcast buying Cheddar and Netflix buying Snap

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• Chinese film "Long Day's Journey Into Night" made $37.9 million on its opening night on Monday in China, the biggest opening ever for a local arthouse movie, according to Variety.
• But it's facing backlash from moviegoers who feel tricked by the movie's marketing, which they claim painted it as a romantic comedy.
• The movie made only $1.5 million in its second night and is already out of the top five at the local box office.

Chinese film "Long Day's Journey Into Night" broke box-office records in its opening night on December 31. But it's fading fast at the box office, and some audience members have complained that the movie's marketing tricked them into thinking it was a romantic comedy when it's actually an arthouse drama that includes one 55-minute take.

The movie, directed by Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan, grossed $37.9 million in its first night in China on Monday, which is the biggest opening ever for a local arthouse film, according to Variety. It even exceeded the night's earnings for "Venom," which has been a huge hit in the country and has grossed $270 million there. 

READ MORE: 9 Hollywood movies that dominated the Chinese box office in 2018, including some that underperformed in the US

"Long Day's Journey Into Night" was tracking for a huge opening night well before it hit theaters, though. It had earned $15 million in pre-sold tickets six days before its release, which was more than even "Avengers: Infinity War," according to Indiewire.

But the success didn't last long. The movie made only $1.5 million on Tuesday and was out of the top five at the box office by Wednesday, according to Variety. The movie is facing backlash from moviegoers who felt tricked by the movie's marketing campaign, which they claim painted it as a romantic comedy.

One promotional message said, "Do you know what kind of sweet talk you’ll use to invite someone to the last film of 2018, ‘The Last Night On Earth?'"

Local user reviews indicated that audience members were walking out or falling asleep during the movie, according to Variety.

Jonathan Papish, a Chinese film industry analyst for China Film Insider, wrote on Twitter that the movie's ratings are "understandably abysmal" and that it has a 3.6 (out of 10) score on Maoyan, a Chinese movie-ticketing service.

Critics have responded more positively to the movie than audiences. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 to critical acclaim, and it has an 89% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Indiewire called it "a fascinating application of filmmaking innovation toward expressionistic ends" and The Hollywood Reporter said it's an "intricately narrated and technically mesmerizing work."

SEE ALSO: The 5 most anticipated new TV shows in January

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• Each year, one blockbuster film edges out its competition to become the world's single highest-grossing movie at year's end.
• From 2000's "Mission: Impossible II" to 2018's "Avengers: Infinity War," here's the most successful movie at the global box office for every year since the turn of the century. 

Ask any moviegoer what the best film of the year is and opinions will vary. But the most successful one? The answer lies plainly in the numbers.

Year after year, one film proves to be the world's most successful blockbuster after beating out its competition at the global box office. We compiled this list of the most successful films of each year since the turn of the century using year-end worldwide box office totals from Box Office Mojo.

The films on this list, which stretches from 2000's "Mission: Impossible II" to 2018's "Avengers: Infinity War," might not hold the highest critic scores on Rotten Tomatoes for their respective years, but they all still managed to find a way into the hearts and pockets of moviegoers across the world.  

From book adaptations to superhero flicks and animated films that will make even the toughest adults cry, here are the most successful movies of every year since 2000:

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2000: "Mission: Impossible II"

Worldwide box office total: $546.4 million

Critic score: 56%

What critics said: "It's fun. It's laughable. It has moments of excitement, moments of sheer idiocy and moments of sheer idiotic excitement." – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

2001: "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"

Worldwide box office total: $974.8 million

Critic score: 81%

What critics said: "During 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,' I was pretty sure I was watching a classic, one that will be around for a long time, and make many generations of fans." – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

2002: "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"

Worldwide box office total: $923.3 million

Critic score: 95%

What critics said: "The battle for Gollum's mind also provides a fitting teaser conclusion to the second act of a story I'm beginning to wish would never end." – Jack Matthew, New York Daily News

• Netflix warned "Bird Box" fans on Wednesday not to hurt themselves while doing a new meme challenge.
• The "Bird Box Challenge" involves people blindfolding and filming themselves walking around outside.
• Netflix said last week that more than 45 million accounts viewed "Bird Box."

"Bird Box" has taken the internet by storm since it debuted on Netflix last month, so much so that Netflix is warning fans not to hurt themselves while performing a new meme challenge based on the movie.

The "Bird Box Challenge" involves people blindfolding and filming themselves walking around outside, in the same way that the characters in the movie must cover their eyes or risk being killed by mysterious creatures.

Netflix tweeted on Wednesday, "Can’t believe I have to say this, but: PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE. We don’t know how this started, and we appreciate the love, but Boy and Girl have just one wish for 2019 and it is that you not end up in the hospital due to memes."

Here's some examples of people doing, or considering, the challenge, which includes parents blindfolding themselves and their kids while walking around the house or outside:

Netflix said last week that "Bird Box" was viewed by more than 45 million accounts, the most viewed Netflix original movie in its first seven days. Netflix confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that a "view" was counted when an account watched more than 70% of the movie's running time, but, as Business Insider reported this week, Netflix's lack of transparency regarding viewing statistics has caused controversy throughout Hollywood.

Still, the movie has become an internet sensation and has inspired countless memes, including the challenge. Netflix's warning may backfire, as some Twitter users responded to the tweet by saying that they would now do the challenge, as seen below:

More of Business Insider's "Bird Box" coverage:

• Stephen King was 'riveted' by Netflix's 'Bird Box,' and slammed critics for suffering from 'Netflix Prejudice'
• People think Netflix is using fake accounts to spread viral memes about 'Bird Box,' but there's no evidence that's true
• Netflix says a record 45 million accounts watched 'Bird Box' in its first week, but we don't know how many finished the movie
• Netflix's record-breaking viewership for 'Bird Box' has sparked debate in Hollywood, and some believe the company's lack of transparency hurts filmmakers

SEE ALSO: The 5 most anticipated new TV shows in January

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• In the mid-90s, Columbia House and the BMG Music Service offered unbelievable deals on CDs. 
• People joined these clubs for a penny and got a bunch of music almost for free as long as they promised to buy a certain amount of music at regular club prices.
• The offer represented more than $1.5 billion of the music industry.
• NYU music business professor, Larry Miller, broke down how these music clubs not only made enough money to sustain business, but also became very profitable. 

Matt Stuart: Ever get a whole bunch of CDs for a penny, or even free?

Commercial: Columbia House, big enough to bring you all the best in entertainment

Matt: Columbia House and the BMG Music Service both offered amazing deals. About eight CDs at almost no cost to you, then just buy one more at full retail price and you get three more for free. Sounds too good to be true, right? How could something like this make money?

Commercial: Remember, it's our secret, so watch your mail for this package from Columbia.

Larry Miller: You could join these things for a penny, get a bunch of music for almost free as long as you promised to buy a certain amount of music over the next year or so at regular club prices.

Matt: That's Larry Miller. He's an NYU professor and music industry vet with a podcast about the industry, Musonomics.

Larry: The regular price of the CDs that you would buy was the suggested retail price, which was 17.98, 18.98, 19.98 plus shipping and handling for those CDs.

Matt: Those prices and the shipping costs were key to the club's success. Columbia House, BMG Music, and other clubs utilized a practice called negative option billing.

Larry: The way that the clubs offered music to consumers was through a catalog roughly every month. Actually it was a little bit more often and in some cases they were shipping 21 different catalogs every month. And that for every catalog, you would need to send back a postcard within ten days of your receipt of that catalog indicating that you didn't want the selection of the month. If you didn't do that in time, or if you just forgot, you would be shipped that record and of course you would be billed for it.

Matt: Forget to send the card back and you'd owe the club about $22 for a CD you may not even want. But you still only paid a few bucks shipping on 11 other albums. This still doesn't seem sustainable, especially when retail shops were selling CDs for $14 and up.

Larry: They would license the actual master tapes and the production files for the physical media from the major music companies. And they would be able to manufacture these records at a cost of about $1.50 or so each. In many cases, inferior pressings on vinyl and CD and you wouldn't get maybe the full lyrics and you wouldn't get the nice inserts and stuff and even the little booklets that were included in the CD were not quite as nice as the ones that you would get in the store very often.

Matt: By pressing their own albums, the clubs were able to make about $5 to $6 on each unit they actually sold. Even accounting for all the free albums they sent out.

Larry: As it turns out, that was plenty of margin to operate these businesses which together were generating about a billion and a half dollars of revenue, or about 15% of US record industry volume at the peak, which was around 1996 or so for the record clubs.

Matt: However, that 1.5 billion wasn't really going to everybody.

Larry: The records that you would get for a penny counted as free goods and that there were no royalties on free goods. It's still unclear today exactly how many of those royalties were paid through to recording artists. They were only paid on the purchased goods, and even so it was at three-quarters of the regular rate that they would have been paid had you bought it in a regular record store.

Matt: Most of the artists and writers didn't get paid anything on any of the free albums.

Larry: However, the sale of the records did count in the calculation of gold and platinum and chart position.

Matt: So no money, but you might wind up with a pretty big trophy. Now the clubs are long gone and services like Spotify and Apple Music have taken their place with access to almost any song you could want for $10 a month. Are those bum deals for the artists, too?

Larry: I believe that as streaming takes hold and as smartphone penetration continues to grow the way that it has and as smart speakers and voice interactivity begins to take hold that music consumption is going to grow to a level that we just haven't experienced before. Even if the amount of money per listen is less than what we were used to getting back in the days of the CD or vinyl record.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published on July 31, 2018.

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• Tyler "Ninja" Blevins is the most popular professional gamer in the world and reportedly earns more than $500,000 from live streams of his gameplay.
• Ninja's success is intertwined with the popularity of "Fortnite: Battle Royale," a free game with more than 200 million players worldwide.
• Ninja's Twitch channel was the first to reach 10 million followers, and he boasts another 20 million YouTube subscribers.
• While Ninja began earning millions in 2018, he has been gaming competitively since 2009, focusing mainly on the "Halo" franchise.

2018 was a wild year for Tyler "Ninja" Blevins.

The 27-year-old became the first professional video game player to be featured on the cover of ESPN the Magazine, helped drop the ball in Times Square on New Year's Eve, and became the first streamer on Twitch to reach 10 million followers.

Those followers watch Ninja's daily "Fortnite" streams religiously; Ninja plays for about 12 hours a day from his basement studio, accepting donations, interacting with his audience, and welcoming new subscribers throughout the session. The long hours help the world's most famous professional gamer earn more than $500,000 a month.

Ninja's meteoric rise to the top of the gaming world is intertwined with the massive popularity of "Fortnite: Battle Royale," his game of choice. "Fortnite" is a free game with more than 200 million players worldwide, and Ninja is regarded by many as the best player on the planet, and certainly the most visible.  

During the past month he's gained an average of 12,457 followers a day on Twitch, and in the past, Ninja has streamed himself playing alongside major celebrities like rappers Drake and Travis Scott, and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster. The extra attention has also stirred some controversy: Ninja vowed to stop swearing during his streams after he was criticized for casually rapping a racial slur during a broadcast.

Ninja's big year showed just how much of an impact video games can have on pop culture, turning a longtime professional gamer into a celebrity in a matter of weeks. And Twitch projections show that Ninja's online popularity is only growing.

Here's everything you need to know about Ninja, the pro gamer who's bringing streaming into the mainstream:

SEE ALSO: Meet Jessica Blevins, the 26-year-old wife and manager of the most popular video-game player in the world right now

Ninja is one of the highest-paid personalities among Twitch streamers, YouTubers, and esports players.

In interviews with CNBC and CNN, Blevins confirmed he earns more than $500,000 a month from his more than 160,000 paid Twitch subscribers, which are separate from his 12 million followers on the same platform.

On Twitch, streamers net $2.50 for every subscription, which costs the viewer $5 a month and gets them exclusive emotes and badges while allowing them to view the stream without ads. Meanwhile, simply following a streamer is free, but doesn't come with any perks. Viewers can leave "tips" and donations for streamers while they broadcast, though, and Ninja says he once received a $40,000 donation.

Ninja also makes money from his 20 million YouTube subscribers, and additional sponsorship deals.

Ninja's subscriptions have ballooned in the days since the interview, so it's safe to say that he makes much more now — even without accounting for the likely rise in tips from Twitch viewers.

Ninja's newfound fame helped him earn sponsorships and big opportunities.

With millions of viewers pouring in daily, Ninja has an audience that is the envy of broadcasters and advertisers alike. Ninja has formed partnerships with a variety of companies including Red Bull, Uber Eats, and NZXT. While some of the deals are straightforward, like his unique discount codes on Uber Eats, others come with added perks.

In October, Red Bull helped Ninja build a state-of-the-art streaming studio in his basement. In addition to installing more than $20,000 in broadcast equipment, the studio was custom made to fit Ninja's growing personal brand.

Ninja's brand has also been boosted by appearances on popular TV shows like "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon," "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," and ESPN's "E:60." He became the first professional gamer to grace the cover of "ESPN the Magazine" in October.

Ninja spends most of his time playing "Fortnite: Battle Royale," the internet's favorite video game right now.

Ninja's success is intertwined with the ongoing popularity of "Fortnite: Battle Royale," a shooter game in which a hundred online players are dropped onto an island where they mine for materials, build structures, find supplies, and kill each other until a single player is left standing, similar to the dystopian arena game described in the "The Hunger Games" books and movies.

It stands as the most-watched game on Twitch by a lot, and "Fortnite" creator Epic Games reports that the game has seen 200 million players worldwide. While packages with the full version of "Fortnite" start at $39.99, the "Battle Royale" game mode is free to play on PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and mobile (both iOS and Android). 

• Disney World raised its prices twice in 2018 and switched to a dynamic pricing model that charges higher prices during peak summer months and winter holidays.
• This is the fourth time in park history that annual pass prices were raised twice in the same year.
• The new model prices out many of its pass holders in the middle class — the old model doesn't work in the modern US economy anymore.
• According to Robert Niles, editor of Theme Park Insider, Disney Parks wants to use pricing and promotions to equalize crowds throughout the year.

Narrator: In 2018, Disney World raised its ticket prices, twice. Take the park's platinum pass for example, it's the standard option that grants access to all four parks with no blackout dates. In February, the price went from $779 to $849, then in October its price jumped from $849 to $894, as Disney unveiled its dynamic pricing model. That's a 15% increase in just one year.

This is the fourth time in park history that annual pass prices were raised twice in the same year. The first time was 1997 in anticipation of Animal Kingdom's 1998 opening. Similarly, the price markups in 2018 are in advance of Disney World and Disneyland's 14 acre Star Wars theme lands, called "Galaxy's Edge." And Disney parks expansion doesn't stop there. Hong Kong Disneyland is spending $1.4 billion on Avengers and Frozen themed attractions. On top of that, it's adding capacity to Tokyo DisneySea, and updating Epcot and Disney Studio park at Disneyland Paris.

Despite all the costly expansions, Disney Parks and Resorts reported a $4.5 billion operating profit for the 2018 fiscal year. That's over 100% increase from 2013. So, if it is steadily profiting, why are Disney Parks becoming so expensive?

From the mid-80s into the early 20 00s, Disney Parks pulled way ahead of its competition. In 2002, Magic Kingdom's attendance alone nearly doubled its closest non-Disney competitor, MGM Studios. But in 2010, that changed when Universal opened the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Robert Niles: It was game on in this business all of a sudden Disney had a competitor again and Disney does not like to lose, not just lose, Disney doesn't even like to compete. Disney wants to dominate its competition.

Narrator: Disney launched a full out retaliation against Universal and other competitors. In 2011, it announced Pandora, its Avatar themed attraction located in Animal Kingdom. Then over the following six years, it opened new attractions in all four major parks. And by 2017 Disney Parks claimed 55% of North American theme park attendance.

Niles: This has been really successful, so everybody wants to come during summer vacation and Christmas when their kids are out of school. And the trouble is that if you spent billions of dollars really to build these attraction facilities. They are open 365 days a year. It's just not efficient to have them filled to the brim for four, five, six weeks out of the year and then not so much the rest of the time. So, they really want to use all of their pricing and promotions to try and equalize the crowds throughout the year.

Narrator: Disney World's second price hike of 2018 included a switch to dynamic pricing. Charging higher prices during those peak summer months and winter holidays and encouraging volume purchases.

Niles: Disney understands the demographic changes that are happening in the United States at this point. They understand what's happening with income and economic inequality. They know that the money is in the upper level, the top 10%, the top 1%. They've created a wide variety of new products to try and, frankly, extract more money out of the people who have money to spare.

Lee: Disney has several new offerings targeted at its wealthiest visitors, including dinners with Disney princesses, two Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutiques that offer a makeover, hairstyling, and costumes. And even private VIP tours of the parks. But the luxury offerings go beyond activities in the parks. In 2014, Orlando's first five-star resort opened on the Disney grounds, a Four Seasons resort with rooms starting at $449 a night. And Bora Bora Bungalows that cost $29 dollars when the park first opened can reach prices of $3,400 today.

Niles: Now the down side with that is if you are one of those remaining middle class people in America, you could get squeezed here.

Narrator: Since 2000, Disney World prices have steadily increased while wage growth has been falling from its 2001 high of 5.4%. And in 2018, Disney Parks reported a 5% increase in per capita spending in the parks and an 8% uptick in per room revenue in hotels.

Niles: Disney's done such a good job at becoming a cultural institution in the United States. It's done such a good job of becoming a lifestyle brand that some of the people who may have been early adopters to this brand are really feeling some pressure right now, because of the way the company is growing. People who were early adopters to this are used to a middle class pricing model that just doesn't really work in the modern economy anymore. And they feel frustrated that they put a lot of loyalty into this brand, into this company and now they feel like they really have to stretch to keep up. And that's tough, but at the same time, if Disney's going to grow, it's got to go where the money is. It's got to go in a direction that allows it to get maximum value from its investments and limiting itself only to its early adopters isn't going to allow the company to do that.

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• NASA's New Horizons probe flew past the giant space rock MU69 on New Year's Day.

• MU69, also called Ultima Thule, is more than 4 billion miles away from Earth, making it the farthest object ever explored.
• Queen guitarist Brian May released a new song, "New Horizons," to celebrate the historic flyby.
• This is May's first solo release in more than two decades. The guitarist has a PhD in astrophysics and also worked with NASA's New Horizons science team.

On New Year's Day, Queen guitarist Brian May's first solo release in more than two decades.

And it celebrates an achievement of NASA's that was also many years in the making. 

The song, "New Horizons," is about NASA's successful flyby of a mysterious, mountain-sized object that's farther from Earth than anything else humanity has visited. The space rock is formally called 2014 MU69, though it's more commonly known as "Ultima Thule" (a controversial nickname — see editor's note below).

MU69 is more than 4 billion miles away from our planet and 1 billion miles beyond Pluto.

NASA's New Horizons probe, which launched toward Pluto in 2006, successfully flew past MU69 on New Year's Day. When New Horizons set off, nobody knew MU69 even existed. The object was only detected when astronauts upgraded a camera in the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009. After New Horizons completed its mission at Pluto, which it first reached in July 2015, scientists decided to send the probe to this new target.

May, who has a PhD in astrophysics, worked with the New Horizons mission's science team and was asked to write a song for the flyby. May said he was initially reluctant about the task.

The New Horizons probe's first low-resolution pictures of MU69 have revealed that the ancient object formed from two separate ones. It has reddish coloring, which scientists compared to the color of Charon, Pluto's moon.

NASA expects to receive the highest-resolution color photos of MU69 in February, though it may take two years for all of the photos and data to reach Earth.

Data acquired by New Horizons could provide new explanations about the evolution of the solar systems and how planets like Earth formed.

"Ultima is the first thing we've been to that is not big enough to have a geological engine like a planet, and also something that's never been warmed greatly by the sun," Alan Stern, who is leading the New Horizons mission, previously told Business Insider. "It's like a time capsule from 4.5 billion years ago. That's what makes it so special."

Dave Mosher contributed reporting to this story.

Editor's note: After a public campaign, the New Horizons team selected Ultima Thule as a nickname for (486958) 2014 MU69. However, we've de-emphasized it here because the Nazi party used the word "Thule" as a tenet of its ideology.

• Read more about NASA's New Horizons probe:
• NASA just pulled off humanity's farthest-ever visit to a space object — the New Horizons probe successfully flew by a mountain-size rock 1 billion miles beyond Pluto
• NASA just released the first close-up photos of the farthest object humanity has ever explored — and it looks like a giant red snowman
• Is it Planet 9 or Planet X? Scientists spar over what to call the solar system's hypothetical missing world

Join the conversation about this story »

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• A comedian said Saudi Arabia encouraged more people to watch his show "Patriot Act" by making Netflix remove an episode.
• Hasan Minhaj criticized Saudi Arabia on his show, accusing it of covering up the murder of Jamal Khashoggi to protect Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
• In response, Saudi authorities threatened Netflix with legal action, and they pulled the episode.
• In a tweet, Minhaj noted that this made the show a viral news story, and attracted a huge viewership to it on YouTube.

The comedian whose show was pulled from Netflix in Saudi Arabia said that the kingdom had played itself by encouraging more people to talk about and watch the show.

In the episode of "Patriot Act" that Netflix removed in Saudi Arabia, Hasan Minhaj accused the country of covering up the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in order to protect its crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

He also criticized the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen and the power and wealth of the Saudi royal family.

Minhaj said that the removal of the episode made it go viral, and that more people saw it as a result.

"Clearly, the best way to stop people from watching something is to ban it, make it trend online, and then leave it up on YouTube," he tweeted sarcastically on Wednesday.

He also encouraged people to donate to victims of the conflict in Yemen, calling it "the world's largest humanitarian crisis."

Netflix confirmed to the Financial Times on Tuesday that it had removed the episode from Saudi Araba, citing a legal complaint from the kingdom.

Read more: Here's everything we know about the troubling disappearance and death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

The episode is available on YouTube, where it had been viewed more than 1.6 million times at the time of writing.

It is now the post-popular video in the "Patriot Act" channel's history, with more than 60% more views than the closest runner-up.

In the episode, Minhaj mocked Saudi Arabia's changing account of Khashoggi's death and said it was designed to protect Crown Prince Mohammed's international reputation as a "reformer."

Saudi Arabia had initially claimed that Khashoggi safely left the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he had later found to have been killed in October. After changing its story multiple times, the kingdom now blames government agents who it said exceeded their authority.

"This is the most unbelievable cover story since Blake Shelton won sexiest man alive. Are you kidding me?" Minhaj, a Muslim-American comedian, said.

"This entire cover-up exists for one reason," Minhaj said, before the show cut to clips of reporters citing analysts who suggested that the changing story was made to protect the crown prince.

Saudi Arabia has consistently maintained that Crown Prince Mohammed was not aware of and did not order the killing. But the CIA reportedly found that the crown prince did personally the killing, and a motion passed by the US Senate placed the blame on him.

Minhaj also said that more attention should have been put on the war in Yemen, where an estimated 85,000 children under the age of five have died since 2015, before Khashoggi's death.

"It blows my mind that it took the killing of a Washington Post journalist for everyone to go, 'Oh, I guess [Crown Prince Mohammed] is not a reformer," he said. "Meanwhile, every Muslim person you know was like, 'Yeah, no sh--.'"

Netflix told the Financial Times that Saudi Arabia's Communications and Information Technology Commission requested the episode's removal, accusing it of violating cybercrime law.

Netflix said it supports "artistic freedom worldwide" but that it had received a "valid legal request."

Read More: 7 heartbreaking images show why US lawmakers want to stop supporting the brutal Saudi-led war in Yemen that's seen indiscriminate attacks and left millions on the brink of famine

Karen Attiah, Khashoggi's editor at The Washington Post, where he wrote columns often critical of the Saudi government, was critical of Netflix on Twitter and said the fact it had removed the episode was "outrageous."

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• Amazon and Google backed their voice-activated devices with big ad budgets across more than 28,400 TV airings last year.
• Facebook spent $131 million on TV during the fourth quarter to promote its video-conferencing device Portal, outspending Amazon and Google.
• The tech companies are using TV's brand-building power to promote their devices to a broad swath of consumers.
• Experts expect the massive ad spending to continue this year, but say Facebook could struggle to maintain its aggressive ad spend.

The race for tech companies to control the living room is increasingly relying on advertising — specifically TV ads.

Amazon's Echo and Google Home continue to be the most popular voice-activated devices for consumers (Amazon reported that its Echo Dot, starting around $40, was its "best-selling" tech gadget of the holiday season), and the companies are pouring millions into TV to keep the momentum going. While Facebook may be the newcomer to connected devices with Portal, its $199 video-conferencing device, it outspent Amazon and Google during the fourth quarter with an aggressive holiday-ad blitz promoting Portal.

According to data from TV analytics vendor iSpot.tv, the three companies spent $427 million on TV ads that promoted voice-activated devices in all of 2018. Amazon led the pack, spending $206 million on TV ads promoting Echo and its Alexa voice assistant, running more than 25,450 airings using 56 spots. Facebook spent $131 million on TV ads, all of it in the fourth quarter, compared to Google's $90 million for all of 2018, according to iSpot.tv, which tracks national linear ad buys as well as placements in video-on-demand programs.

Read more:Facebook says its new Portal device is not a 'data-gathering operation' despite previously acknowledging it might use your call info to target ads

"These devices are broad-based computer devices, and these companies would love to see their device in every home," said eMarketer analyst Victoria Petrock. "There's nobody that they are not targeting with these devices —they want to build awareness and trust, so that's why we're seeing such high TV numbers."

Amazon, Facebook and Google didn't respond to questions about their ad spend.

Tech companies helped TV networks stuff their pockets

Facebook's $130 million ad spend didn't kick in until November when Portal went on sale in time for holiday shopping.

Amazon and Google also ramped up spending during the fourth quarter. Amazon spent $72 million of its $206 million budget on 11 spots across 5,700 airings. Google spent $47 million to promote 25 spots — including its "Home Alone Again" campaign with Macaulay Culkin — in 1,900 airings.

Facebook's aggressive spending may not continue

Facebook outspent Amazon or Google but ran fewer ads during the fourth quarter, suggesting it targeted pricier ad slots in big programs like college football bowl games. Amazon ran 56 spots last year, Google had 62 spots on the air and Facebook used 12 spots to promote voice-activated devices, per iSpot.

"Facebook probably can't sustain this kind of investment — this was for a launch in Q4," said Petrock. "It looks like Facebook might be going for the big, meaningful and expensive moments."

Tech companies are betting big on TV for brand-building

As more viewing moves online to digital platforms, the TV industry is wrestling with how to better target and measure commercials across screens. However, TV advertising remains a $70 billion market that continues to perform well for brand-building campaigns.

Despite having deep tech pipes and expertise in digital advertising, Amazon, Google and Facebook are leaning on TV to reach wide swaths of consumers, particularly older people who may not know how voice-controlled devices work.

"They're targeting a different consumer, and that consumer may not be active on Facebook," said Jorge Aguilar, partner at Prophet, a brand and marketing consultancy. "And with younger generations, they're still skeptical of Facebook's platform."

EMarketer's Petrock added that future integrations between voice assistants like Alexa and healthcare companies could appeal to senior citizens.

"If they can get all the HIPPA privacy stuff figured out, there's a huge market for these devices for healthcare," she said. "It's in Amazon and Google's best interest to advertise in media that traditionally skews a little bit older. They're trying to hit all age groups because over time we're going to see a lot more applications for younger people all the way up to older people."

Plus, people tend to take their time before buying tech gadgets.

"You need to go to a retailer or Amazon to buy it," she said.

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• A group of hackers hijacked as many as 5,000 smart TVs and Chromecast devices worldwide, forcing them to play a video in support of YouTube star Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg.
• The hacking incident is the third since late November to promote PewDiePie, following cyber attacks on The Wall Street Journal and more than 100,000 printers.
• The hackers claim the primary goal of the hack is to make people aware of security flaws in their technology.
• PewDiePie has not claimed involvement, but has joked about the hacks on Twitter as they are reported.

A group of hackers has claimed responsibility for hijacking thousands of smart TVs and Google Chromecast devices around the world. The hacked devices were forced to play a YouTube video seeking support for the platform's most popular star, Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg.

So how does hacking random entertainment systems help the YouTube star?

PewDiePie is currently leading a campaign to become the first YouTuber with 80 million followers, as Bollywood channel T-Series threatens to overtake his follower count. The hacked video tells victims that their device is "exposing sensitive information" while also telling them to subscribe to PewDiePie. A link for more information leads to a video of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," calling back to an old YouTube joke, the RickRoll.

The hackers said they targeted as many as 5,000 devices, and victims of the hack said their devices would automatically play the video every 20 minutes. Organizing under the social media hashtag #CastHack, a hacker using the Twitter and Youtube handle The Hacker Giraffe claimed responsibility along with two other Twitter users using the handles @friendlyh4xx0r and @j3ws3r (pronounced user.) The group claims the hack was intended to make victims aware of their device's security flaws and vulnerability, but also to promote PewDiePie and other YouTubers.

In December, @j3ws3r was linked to another PewDiePie-related hack targeting printers. More than 100,000 printers in multiple countries were forced to print a message in support of PewDiePie, with information detailing their network vulnerability. Just days later, The Wall Street Journal's website was also hacked in support of PewDiePie.

Read more: Hackers target The Wall Street Journal and 100,000 printers around the world to try and help the most popular YouTuber keep his crown

While Kjellberg hasn't suggested that he is involved with the hacks, he has joked about all three incidents on Twitter, including a tweet commending The Hacker Giraffe for the #CastHack attack.

The #CastHack targets open security ports in the victim's home network that make certain information public. The hackers said their exploit shows them what WiFi network a Chromecast or Google Home device is connected to, which bluetooth devices have been shared, any smart device alarms that are enabled, and more. This also allows hackers to play media on your device, rename it, perform a factory reset, or force it to pair with other bluetooth or WiFi devices.

To protect your devices, make sure that UPnP is disabled on your router, and that you're not using unnecessary port forwarding.

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• Forty of the top 50 most-watched sporting events in 2018 were NFL games.
• Nothing came close to topping the Super Bowl, which had more than double the amount of viewers of the second most-watched event of the year — also an NFL game.
• From December 24-30, even with many TV ratings down, nine of the top 10 most-watched programs were football games — six college football games and three NFL programs.

There isn't much evidence that football, particularly the NFL, is dying in the U.S.

According to Sports Media Watch, 40 of the 50 most-watched sports events in 2018 were NFL games. Eight of the top 10 most-watched events were also NFL games. The Winter Olympics and college football were the only other sports to make it into the top 50.

The 2017 Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots dominated every other event, registering 103.3 million viewers. The Patriots' AFC Championship game vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars came in second with 44.08 million viewers.

The five next most-watched events were NFL games, followed by the College Football Championship between Georgia and Alabama, then the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony. Then 15 of the next 20 most-watched events were all NFL games.

No other sport topped 19 million viewers, with Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors coming closest with 18.47 million viewers, according to Sports Media Watch.

Zooming in further, football still has a stranglehold on TV, even when ratings are down. According to the Associated Press, New Year's Eve TV ratings were down across the board. But over the week of December 24-30, ESPN's prime-time ratings topped all networks.

College football ruled in the last week of the year, with the semifinal between Alabama and Oklahoma coming in at No. 1. Nine of the top 10 most-watched programs were football games, with the NFL taking three of them. The latter is still a strong number, considering Week 17 featured many games with teams locked into the playoffs or out altogether.

After two years of declining ratings, the NFL bounced back this year. Beyond the ratings themselves, the league and sports continues to be one of, if not the most popular thing on television.

• Read more:
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• 2019 looks like another huge year for video game fans.
• Between "Kingdom Hearts 3" in January and "Anthem" in February, the first few months of 2019 are packed with major game launches.
• The first quarter has become a kind of junior holiday season, where major game publishers launch major games that missed the holiday window.

The break is over, and we're heading full speed into a new year that's jam-packed with major video games.

In January alone, two massive games are scheduled to arrive: "Kingdom Hearts 3" and "Resident Evil 2." The former is a highly-anticipated sequel starring a massive list of Disney all-stars, and the latter is a highly-anticipated remake of a beloved gaming classic.

And that's before we start talking about risky new blockbusters like "Anthem," from the folks behind "Mass Effect," and the first-ever "Mario Kart" game for smartphones! 

Here's what to expect from the world of video games across the next three months:

SEE ALSO: The 29 hottest video games you shouldn't miss in 2019

1. "Resident Evil 2" (remastered)

The long-awaited remake of fan-favorite horror classic "Resident Evil 2" is nearly ready — it's set to arrive early in 2019, just like so many other great games currently in development.

"Resident Evil 2" introduced the world to Leon S. Kennedy (seen above) — the main character in "Resident Evil 4." Kennedy and Claire Redfield find themselves in the middle of a surprise zombie outbreak in the fictional town of Raccoon City. It's an action-packed introduction to many of the major themes of the "Resident Evil" franchise, and it's getting gorgeously remade for modern consoles.

Release Date: January 25, 2019

Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC

2. "Kingdom Hearts 3"

Woody, Buzz, Rex and the rest of the "Toy Story" gang are moving from film to video games with "Kingdom Hearts 3," an upcoming Xbox One and PlayStation 4 action-adventure game.

The game is the long-anticipated third entry in the "Kingdom Hearts" series — the last major entry, "Kingdom Hearts 2," launched all the way back in 2005 on the PlayStation 2. In "Kingdom Hearts," various Disney characters and their worlds are mashed up with characters that would be right at home in a "Final Fantasy" game.

Alongside the cast of "Toy Story" (and their Earth-like setting), "Kingdom Hearts 3" also stars Goofy and Donald Duck. You may have noticed a third character here — that's "Sora," the main character of "Kingdom Hearts 3" and the one you'll play as.

Release Date: January 29, 2019

Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One

3. "Far Cry New Dawn"

A new "Far Cry" game? Didn't one of those come out, like, in 2018?

Yep! That game was "Far Cry 5," and it came out back in late March on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The open-world first-person shooter was set in America for the first time ever, and featured a new antagonist: a maniacal cult leader with nuclear ambitions.

"Far Cry New Dawn" is a sequel to that game, set in a post-apocalypse Montana 17 years after the events of "Far Cry 5." The trailer alludes to a period of extreme weather following a nuclear detonation, eventually leading to a new world — a world where people shoot saw blades from crossbows, apparently.

Release Date: February 15, 2019

Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC