Steve Ballmer announced plans to step down from his CEO role at Microsoft August of 2013.
He'd joined the company in 1980 as the company's 30th employee, making $50,000. By the end of his 34-year stint, he was worth $21 billion+, making him the 32nd richest person in the world.
By December of 2013, Ballmer was starting to unplug from his gig as CEO. He didn't want to set any new plans in motion before a new CEO replaced him.
As a result, for the first time, Ballmer found himself with a lot of spare time and he wasn't sure how to fill it. So he turned to CBS's hit show, "The Good Wife," and binge-watched episodes, according to Bloomberg Businessweek's Ashlee Vance.
Ballmer's family estimates the retired billionaire watched 100 episodes, mostly from bed on his Microsoft Surface, in a two-week span.
"My kids teased me about it mercilessly," Ballmer tells Vance. "They said, ‘Dad, how’s the wife?'"
Ballmer says he's out of his funk now. He is the proud new owner of the LA Clippers, a team he purchased for $2 billion. And of his TV binge he says, he wasn't depressed.
"It was more like, ‘Wow, this is weird. I have nothing to worry about right this minute.’ ”
A lawmaker in Hong Kong who supports the Chinese government reportedly cited Kung Fu movies as a justification for the violent crackdown on the protesters who have become known as the "Umbrella Revolution."
According to the South China Morning Post, the politician, Leung Che-cheung, told his colleagues on the Hong Kong Legislative Council the umbrellas protesters have been using to block tear gas could be used as an "aggressive weapon" and necessitated a violent response by police officers. To prove his point, Leung cited martial arts movies.
"It is basic common sense that an umbrella can be an aggressive weapon, but many lawmakers are just completely ignorant about history," Leung said.
The decision may have seemed a bit odd considering Sandler's most recent films have flopped in the states; however, the comedian has proven himself in recent years to be popular overseas at the box office.
The Adam Sandler decision was driven by following market after market seeing Adam’s films, either from his deepest catalogue to his newest releases, outperforming not only their box office, but performing wonderfully in every territory. Defying conventional wisdom that American comedy doesn’t travel. More importantly, he really performs well in the box office in our key markets like Brazil, like Germany, like the UK. His last movie was 60% international [“Blended”]. Adam is not only a proven 20-year star, meaning he has a movie that performs well at the box-office every summer for 20 years, he is a real global superstar. We see that in the data, and the more international we get, the more access we have to those data points versus relying on conventional wisdom of generic thinking that American comedians don’t travel so well.
Netflix's Adam Sandler offerings vary a lot by country. Here are the current films available to stream in Brazil, Germany, and the UK, respectively.
Here are the Sandler movies available in the US in October.
We previously pointed out that Sandler’s main audience at the box office the past few years has really been driven by international audiences. Since 2011, four of his last six movies including "Just Go With It," "Jack and Jill," Hotel Transylvania," and "Blended" have all performed better overseas.
When asked how the company will measure the success of Sandler's films Sarandos didn't give any specifics. Instead, he said success will be measured similarly to their original content and whether or not people "get excited about Netflix because of it."
I would think about it the same way we look at the successes around original series or any of our licensed series. Relative to what you’re paying do you get this kind of three legs of success with the viewing, the brand halo, and the net subscriber additions based on access to the content. Particularly in this one, we try to be as consumer friendly as we can and I think the model here is telling us that consumers want access to those films sooner and that we can build a model that’s economically feasible to do it.
Think about measuring success as the same way we do series: Do people get excited about Netflix because of it?
During the call, CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings positioned the Sandler deal as similar to how Netflix has been dealing with original series.
“Think of it with us playing with this idea of episodic and serialized, but now in the movie form and seeing what kind of great brand allegiances we can create for Adam’s fans — that’s not everybody, but they’re very identifiable," said Hastings.
Sandler's upcoming movies will stream exclusively on Netflix. Fans will not see them in theaters.
The budgets for the four films are similar Sandler's previous movies, according to Vulture. Sandler's big-budget films have average budgets ranging from $75-$80 million. His most recent film, "Blended," cost an estimated $40 million.
It can be tough to sift through the thousands of games out there.
Luckily, we've collected the best games for your iPhone, iPad, and Android device, chosen for their stunning design, fun gameplay, and overall polish.
From fast-paced arcade games like "Timberman" to gorgeous and sprawling epics like "Broken Age," you're bound to find something that's to your liking.
"Broken Age" is stunning fantasy story from legendary game developer Tim Schafer.
"Broken Age" is a hand-painted adventure game that features voice acting from Elijah Wood and Jack Black. There's a full orchestral soundtrack, gorgeous graphics, and a lovely coming-of-age story that tells the story of teenagers Vella and Shay who live in different worlds. As you follow their stories, you can switch between their worlds and characters.
"Timberman" is a fast-paced arcade game where timing is everything.
"Timberman" asks you to chop as fast as you can through four different levels. The faster you chop, the longer you stay alive, just make sure to swap sides to avoid the descending branches.
"Badland" is a sidescroller game with haunting and beautiful graphics.
"Badland" is an award-winning action adventure game with 80 unique single-player levels, and the game's gorgeous graphics might be the best we've ever seen. Your objective is to guide a creature through creepy environments and beat objectives and challenges, and a multiplayer mode lets up to four players play with he same device.
Actress Chloe Grace Moretz is just 17-years-old, but she's already commanding nearly half a million dollars per film.
Moretz, who started acting when she was 7 years old, rose to fame starring in the "Kick-Ass" franchise and won critical acclaim for her recent role in Martin Scorsese's "Hugo."
So when the teen signed on to Denzel Washington's latest action flick, "The Equalizer," it's no surprise she also took home a $400,000 payday.
And depending on how well the film does at the box office, she could earn a lot more.
TMZ obtained a copyof Moretz's contract because it has to be filed with the courts since she is still a minor.
The documents revealed that Moretz would get an additional $150,000 if the movie earns $100 million in the US and Canada.
And she's almost there!
While "The Equalizer" opened in theaters Sept. 26, it's already raked in over $82 million domestically. Since the film will still be playing in most theaters this weekend, there's a solid chance it will hit the $100 million mark in the next few weeks.
Moretz's $550,000 payday is on par, if not better than, popular actresses in a similar age range.
Shailene Woodley, 22, earned just $250,000 to $500,000 for the first installment of "Divergent," according The Hollywood Reporter sources.
For the first "Hunger Games," 24-year-old Jennifer Lawrence received$500,000 up front (plus bonuses based on box-office performance), but reportedly negotiated a $10 million deal for the second installment "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire."
Some of the best shows ever didn't stay on TV for as long as they should have.
That's just how it is in the cutthroat TV industry, where impatient network executives are focused only on last night's ratings. Indeed, some shows don't even make it to debut — recently NBC canceled its Will Ferrell-produced, Krysten Ritter sitcom "Mission Control" and Fox canceled the ambitious ancient Egyptian drama "Hieroglyph" before they even aired.
17. CBS: "Jericho" fans pulled an incredible stunt that got the show back on the air for one final season.
Seasons: 2 (2006-2008) What it's about: CBS' sci-fi actioner centers around the small town of Jericho, Kansas, in the aftermath of nuclear attacks on the country.
Why it shouldn't have been canceled: The show was so beloved after only one season that when news of its cancellation went public, fans sent more than 40,000 pounds of peanuts to the CBS offices in an effort to change executives' minds. The nuts were an ode to the final scene of season 1 in which Jake Green exclaims "nuts" when a neighboring community takes over the town and demands he surrender. The stunt worked, and the show was given one more season before taking the ax yet again after ratings didn't improve. "Jericho" ranks No. 11 on TV Guide's list of "Top Cult Shows Ever."
16. ABC: "Pushing Daisies" suffered from the writers strike.
Seasons: 2 (2007-2009) What it's about: Bryan Fuller's quirky fantasy/comedy series stars Lee Pace ("Guardians of the Galaxy") as Ned, a piemaker with the ability to bring dead things back to life with a simple touch.
Why it shouldn't have been canceled: "Pushing Daises" was unlike any other show on television, and that ultimately led to its downfall. The show was simply too out there for general audiences, and while critics and fans adored the series, it never gained a large enough audience to sustain life. "Daisies" also suffered from poor timing, as the infamous writers strike took place during production. The series won seven Emmys and a DGA award and received three Golden Globe nominations in just two years.
15. HBO: "Mr. Show" was funny but didn't connect with viewers.
Seasons: 4 (1995-1998) What it's about: "Mr. Show" is a sketch comedy series that aired on HBO and starred Bob Odenkirk ("Breaking Bad") and David Cross ("Arrested Development") before they really hit it big. Many popular comedians and writers, like Paul F. Tompkins andComedy Bang Bang's Scott Aukerman, got their start on the show.
Why it shouldn't have been canceled: "Mr. Show" stood out from the pack by being darker, more subversive, and well-rounded than its competition. The series felt like an American answer to "Monty Python" in a lot of ways, especially when seemingly unrelated sketches would connect to one another via goofy segues. "Mr. Show" was nominated for Emmys in both 1998 and 1999, and the AV Club loves it so much that its writers went back and reviewed the series in 2010.
Actor Edward Norton isn't just a two-time Oscar nominee, he also holds the honor of being the first-ever Uber passenger in Los Angeles.
Norton appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Thursday night, revealing that being "Rider number one" was a perk of knowing Uber founder, Travis Kalanick.
“I met Travis, who started Uber, back when it was still kind of this funky little experiment in San Francisco, and I was super-impressed by what he was doing,” Norton said. “As someone who's had a long-standing antipathy and occasional physical battle with New York cab drivers, I begged him to bring it to New York City. Begged him, literally. ”
While the New York resident was visiting Kimmel in Los Angeles, he even used the car service to take him to the beach to go surfing.
Despite not receiving any continued perks (such as no surge pricing) from his pal Travis, Norton says he still frequently uses Uber in New York.
"In New York they now have a messenger delivery service, where you can use Uber to pick something up and take it somewhere," the actor told Kimmel. "I like bicycles and scooters so I think I'm going to become an Uber messenger." Watch the interview bit below:
Earlier in the show, Kimmel showed a video in which he actually became a registered Uber driver to “give rides and change lives” while picking up unsuspecting passengers.
His first victim was a man preparing to return to his African home country of Gabon.
The man was shocked to see Kimmel in the driver’s seat, exclaiming, “Oh my God, no f------ way. That is so funny, I always see you on TV.”
The two continued to ride around town and even stopped at a souvenir shop on Hollywood Boulevard so that the man could pick up gifts for his family.
At the end of the car trip, Kimmel told the audience, "Driving an Uber car was a lot of fun because I got to have all these conversations with people and at the end of it, they just go in their house."
That price point is much higher than that of its competitors. Both Netflix and Hulu Plus subscriptions cost $7.99 per month, and Amazon Prime costs $99 per year, which equates to about $8.25 per month. That means HBO's streaming service could cost almost twice as much as its competitors — or $180 per year.
HBO CEO Richard Plepler made the announcement on Wednesday, saying that a "standalone, over the top" version of HBO is coming in 2015. The news comes just after Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said that such a service was being seriously considered in September.
It's unclear if consumers will be willing to pay a $15 subscription, especially when there are other cheaper ways of getting that same content. Many HBO GO users share their passwords with each other so they can watch content without paying for a subscription, and it's also possible to stream many of these series for free online.
When you're the son of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, you undoubtedly inherit a unique view of what life is all about. We caught up with Hefner's 23-year-old son Cooper, a recent graduate of Chapman University's film school.
Cooper serves as a brand ambassador for the company his father founded in 1953. He acts as the "face" of the company at official events, but his main responsibility is strategizing to sustain the brand's relevance with Millennials.
We sat down with Hefner at the infamous Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles and asked him about the best business and life advice he's gotten from his famous father.
Few things are more telling than Halloween costumes. Though there are costume choices that consistently top lists each year — princesses, pirates, and sexy nurses are always popular — pop culture tends to make things a little more interesting.
They tell us what mattered most in pop culture at that point in time, whether it was a particular character from a movie or television show or an outrageous musician who had everyone talking.
So here they are, from 1994 to present day.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers were huge in 1994. Twenty years later, "Power Rangers Megaforce" is still on TV, but it's the Mighty Morphins that are the most recognizable breed of Power Rangers to this day.
Star Trek costumes became popular once again when the first season of "Star Trek: Voyager" premiered in 1995.
Middle schoolers everywhere dressed up as serial killer Ghostface in 1996, the year the first "Scream" movie premiered.
The beauty of Ubisoft's open-world "Assassin's Creed" series isn't necessarily the gameplay or the characters.
It's how amazingly real the settings look.
The games are historically accurate and so full of rich detail, you almost feel like you're visiting the locations in real life.
Previous games have taken place in 15th-century Florence, Venice, and most recently, America during the Revolution, and on the high seas during the 18th century. But with the next next iteration, called "Assassin's Creed: Unity," Ubisoft decided to go back to the franchise's roots and set the game back in a densely populated European city: Paris.
"When we started 'Unity,' we knew that this was going to be the first fully 'next-gen' title of 'Assassin's Creed,'" Ubisoft Montreal creative director Alexandre Amancio told Business Insider.
"Because we knew this, we also knew this was probably a good time to go back to the roots. Any franchise, be it video game or movie, especially those that rely on rich narratives, tend to start becoming bogged down by the weight of their own mythology. So we knew that this was going to be a sort of new start."
When the first "Assassin's Creed" game came out in 2007, it introduced something called "social stealth," where you could blend in with the crowds.
The idea of interactive crowds was new to the video game industry at the time. And back then, Ubisoft boasted that there were 200 nonplayable characters loaded at once.
With "Unity," that number has been boosted to thousands.
The team looked at several different timelines in Paris' history and landed on setting it during the French Revolution.
"It's a period where not only is there political upheaval and a lot of interesting and famous historical characters, but there's huge crowds. And the crowds are not happy," Amancio said. "It offered the proper fuel for our new narrative."
And much like in the games before it, the imagery is stunning.
Here's Notre Dame in the game. It took the artist who created it close to a year to model it inside and out.
"Sometimes we actually do intentionally slip in some inconsistencies. For example the famous spire in the back of Notre Dame wasn't built until almost 100 years later," Amancio says. "We felt that when people saw Notre Dame, if that wasn't there, it wouldn't feel like Notre Dame. It's not done out of a mistake. Sometimes what feels real and what is real are two very different things."
Gene Simmons, best known as the demonic bass player of legendary hard rock band KISS, is above all else a very successful entrepreneur.
He is the business architect behind the band that he told CNN Money he believes, from the endless merchandising and touring since 1973, is worth somewhere between $1 billion and $5 billion.
He's the owner of the LA KISS arena football team, Simmons Records, the Cool Springs financial services firm, and Rock & Brews restaurant chain, among other ventures. He also starred in the "Gene Simmons Family Jewels" reality show that ran for seven seasons on A&E, and gives motivational speeches at corporate events. He has unabashedly focused his life on building the Gene Simmons brand.
In his new book "ME, Inc.," Simmons explains that the first time he realized that he was going to dedicate his life to the pursuit of making money was when he made his first profit selling fruit as a poor boy in Israel.
He was forever changed by the experience of being able to, despite a lack of running water and food, not only buy an ice cream cone but give his mother money.
Back when he was 7 years old and still went by his birth name Chaim Witz, Simmons decided one day that there was an opportunity in the crowds that passed by his neighborhood on their way home from work each day. He told his friend Schlomo that they were going to hike up nearby Mount Carmel and pick cactus fruit to sell to commuters.
He and Schlomo borrowed a vat of ice water from a local grocery and spent a day filling it with fruit they picked.
"We didn't realize that it was a business venture, and we wouldn't have known what the phrase meant. But we did have a sense that if we worked hard, we might make money. And that was an exciting idea: making money," Simmons writes. "It still is."
By sunset, the boys discovered they made the equivalent of two dollars, which Simmons estimates would today be about $20.
On the way home, he grabbed an ice cream cone for two cents, which he says is still the best one he's ever had.
When he arrived at his house, his mom was upset that he had been gone all day. But her expression changed when he placed a handful of coins on the table.
"The astonished look on her face will forever be etched in my mind," Simmons writes. She gave him a big hug and called him "my little man."
"So I made the connection that, 'Oh, hard work not only makes you money so that you can buy an ice cream cone, which I did, but it also makes your mom love you all that much more,'" Simmons tells Business Insider.
In his book he writes that as he hugged his mother while covered in cactus pricks, "I knew that work was good. Work resulted in money. Work and money resulted in food. Work and money resulted in happiness. And that is the most profound capitalist lesson I have ever learned, though I was far too young to understand it at the time."
It was a lesson he took with him to the US when he moved with his mother two years later, and a lesson that he used to motivate him to always find new business opportunities, regardless of the field.
And when he cofounded KISS, he never saw it as just a musical project, he says. He always saw it as a music business.
"The KISS thing, when you really look at it," he tells us, "has become this huge monster, despite the fact that critics say that doing games and slot machines and golf courses is not credible. Critics still live in their mother's basement. We own the world."
Mel Gibson just cannot find a buyer for his $30 million Costa Rican estate (via Curbed).
The home, which has been languishing on the market since 2010, was purchased by Gibson back in 2007 as a refuge from the paparazzi that dogged him.
And though you may not think of Costa Rica as a super exclusive retreat for millionaires, this piece of real estate may just change your mind.
The estate has over 500 acres of secluded jungle surrounding it, as well as three villas on the property.
This is the third time the forested compound has been listed for sale. The first was in 2010 for $32 million and the second in 2012 for $29.8 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Maybe the third time will be the charm for this $29.7 million slice of paradise.
Playa Barrigona is located on the Nicoya Peninsula, a completely secluded section off the western coast of Costa Rica.
The Spanish influence radiates through the home, evident in the entrance courtyard.
The main home, Casa Guanacaste, is a hacienda-style residence with two floors, 8 bedrooms, and 7 bathrooms.
It didn't take Michael Keaton a long time to board "Birdman," the actor's new film out this weekend.
During a panel at New York Comic Con for the film, Keaton shared the story of how he was cast in director Alejandro González Iñárritu's movie about a washed-up actor, Riggan Thomson (Keaton), hoping to rejuvenate his career with a Broadway play.
Keaton said he first learned about "Birdman" while filming another movie, which he flew home in the middle of shooting to discuss.
"I got a call saying, 'Alejandro was making a movie,'" said Keaton. "I was working on a movie and they said, 'well, unfortunately, you probably can't fly home because you're in the middle of making this movie' and when his name was mentioned, I said, 'Well, maybe I should find a way to fly home because, like I'm sure Edward [Norton], I'm a big, big fan of his movies."
The actor said it took him less than 30 seconds to decide to star in the movie after dinner with Iñárritu who has made movies including "Babel" and "21 Grams."
"So, it was that simple. I flew home and they wouldn't ... they couldn't tell me what it was about and now that I've done the movie I understand why they couldn't explain it because I'm not sure what happened," he said.
"I went and had a dinner with him [Iñárritu] and it was very pleasant and very interesting," Keaton said. "If you've ever spoken with him, you'd know why. He's just a very interesting, extremely passionate guy which is contagious. At the end of the evening he said, 'Well, here. Read this.' It took me about, I don't know, 27 seconds to decide, 'Yeah, I want to do this.'"
"Birdman" opens this weekend in Los Angeles and New York in limited release. The film has been receiving rave reviews. The film holds a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Perched on a balcony of the Javits Center, where New York Comic Con was held over the weekend, a 15-foot-tall, seven-ton steel behemoth greeted costumed attendees as they rode up the escalator.
Two engineers scaled the support structure and disappeared into the copper-colored body. The pilot closed a front-facing gate and took hold of the joysticks. The Megazord-like structure rumbled to life and its right arm, its only arm, swung to take aim at the crowd. It seemed angry; the crowd was loving it.
This is MegaBot, the first of its kind. Its creators are three engineers on a mission to usher in the next generation of major sports leagues: Robot SmackDowns. Co-founders Andrew Stroup, Gui Cavalcanti and Matt Oehrlein spoke to Business Insider exclusively about their vision for a serialized, possibly televised competition in which these colossal bots fight to the death.
"Is this the evolution of WWE, UFC, and NASCAR? Giant, fighting robots?" Stroup asks, seriously. "We think so."
"Pacific Rim" Come To Life
Stroup, an aerospace and mechanical engineer by way of the Department of Defense, and Cavalcanti, a mechanical engineer and founder of Artisan's Asylum, met in 2012 as competitors on Discovery Channel's elimination-style engineering competition show "The Big Brain Theory: Pure Genius." Their mutual love of robotics led them to continue designing and prototyping parts long after the show aired.
"We've been primed for this our entire lives," Cavalcanti says. The idea for the league grew out of their lifelong obsession with robotics and video games; they grew up with one foot in reality and the other in the futuristic war zones of MechWarrior and StarCraft. After completing a year's worth of research and development, they recruited Oehrlein, a control theory engineer with a legendary reputation in the hacker-makerspace community, and quit their jobs to make MegaBots a reality.
Stroup, Cavalcanti, and Oerhlein secured starter funds from an unnamed angel investor — one who "raised a hand in the crowd" because he believed in their ambition — and began construction in Artisan's Asylum four months ago. It's a nonprofit design and manufacturing shared space in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Each co-founder contributes a unique skill set: Cavalcanti uses physics and engineering principles to turn concept art into steel, Stroup welds and develops the fluid power systems, and Oehrlein designs software for the control systems, or "the brains of the robot." And with the help of about 10 other developers, they've completed the first MegaBot's fully functioning torso, cockpit, arm, and two main weapons systems.
How The League Works
The team hopes one day fans will root for bots the way they do for racing's Jeff Gordon, ultimate fighting's Ronda Rousey, and boxing's Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
"With NASCAR, the UFC, and WWE, there’s a platform on which they operate,” Stroup says. Race car drivers compete on tracks across the country, while boxers sell out arenas. These events are streamed on television or Pay-Per-View. Networks strike deals with the leagues for the rights to play their content exclusively. They're money-making machines.
Competitors create brands within those leagues, moving from city to city and carrying that brand recognition. "The masses attach to them," Stroup explains. The more exposure competitors have, the more the audience becomes engaged and interested in the overall league.
MegaBots, Inc. plans to copy that model. Assuming it raises enough money to build a fleet, its plan is to take the bots on the road. They will tour the country, face off in epic battles against other MegaBots, and build a fan base. Stroup says (without giving specifics) networks have reached out and will closely watch how MegaBot, Inc.'s upcoming Kickstarter campaign performs. The possibilities for distribution seem endless, though the team is tight-lipped about the exact direction it's headed.
"These Aren't Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots"
In existing robot battles, the player controls his or her droid using a glorified remote control from the other side of the room. The sense of imminent danger is lost.
In a MegaBots battle, a two-member team sits inside the bot's upper torso, where the controls systems are housed. Although the co-founders assure me that the pilot and gunner are well protected inside, the situation presents a heightened suspense.
Each 15,000-pound robot is equipped with six-inch cannons inside its arms that fire paint-filled missiles and cannon balls at 120 miles per hour. Good aim can cause enough damage to jam its opponent's weapons system or shoot of a limb. "These aren't Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots," Stroup laughs.
The-counders haven't yet determined the fight rules (or at least aren't sharing them). But when standing in the shadow of the 15-foot-tall steel beast at New York Comic Con, it's hard to imagine it will be anything other than entertaining to watch.
What Comes Next For MegaBots
MegaBots presents a chance to close the gap between technology and sports, inspire a new generation’s love of robotics, and create an entirely new revenue stream. The co-founders estimate that MegaBots could match annual revenues of existing, comparable sports leagues, between ticketing, cable network deals, sponsorships, and merchandise. For reference, the WWE is valued at $1 billion; the UFC, $1.65 billion; and the International Speedway Corporation (which derives approximately 90% of its revenues from NASCAR), $1.35 billion.
Getting there won't be easy.
While an angel investor has taken the team this far, MegaBots is enlisting the help of sports and robotics fans to carry them the rest of the way. They’re launching a Kickstarter campaign later this month with the goal of raising a seven-figure sum. It’s a hefty price, but not totally unexpected. “We’re not building iRobots,” Stroup says. “There’s seven tons of steel in these bots."
The number of MegaBots created in the next year is directly correlated to how much money the team raises. If the Kickstarter campaign meets its goal, they hope cable networks will interpret it as an indication of the public's interest in the sport. More "talks" of a TV show or special may follow.
And when I ask who will comprise the teams that man the bots, Stroup offers a tease: “There will be interesting incentives for Kickstarter engagement."
We’ll update this page with a link to the Kickstarter campaign when it launches in October.
Kim Kardashian may be sitting front row at fashion week, but it's her younger half sisters who are proving to be the most influential in the fashion world.
While Kendall Jenner, 18, has been strutting down the runway next to Naomi Campbell this year, it's actually 17-year-old Kylie Jenner who holds the most influence over young fans' fashion choices.
According to data provided to Bloomberg Businessweek by fashion site Polyvore, "an analysis of its 20 million monthly unique users shows that Kylie has been gradually trending up compared with her sisters in the past two years."
Polyvore, whose users are mainly age 18 to 24 females who spend money on clothes, put together a chart showing the daily search interest for each of the five Kardashian and Jenner sisters since 2012. Kylie has quickly risen the ranks of popularity in the past two years.
Kylie's rise in popularity is due in part to the fact that she is different from her sisters — a little more punk, gothic, and relatable.
The 17-year-old had a major trendsetting moment at sister Kim's wedding when she showed up for the fancy affair with blue hair.
The popular look lead to Kylie launching her own hair-extension line, Kylie Hair Kouture, which she often promotes on Instagram to her nearly 13 million followers.With her hair extension line, the "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" E! reality show (for which she reportedly she makes $5,000 per episode), promotional tweets (she makes thousands per tweet), and endorsement contracts with brands like PacSun, the 17-year-old is already a millionaire.
With all of her current projects, Kylie doesn't even have time for high school, opting to be home schooled instead.
Kylie admitted last year that she only spends about "three to four hours" studying per day, "Then I usually work. I’m pretty busy all day."
Read businessweek's full article on the Kardashian sisters' changing popularity here >
The summer box office may have had one of its worst years financially, with hits few and far between, but thankfully, the fall looks to be a bit more promising.
In addition to some major tentpole releases, there are a slew of Oscar-hopefuls as well as some performance-heavy films including the return of the "girl on fire" Katniss Everdeen and "The Dark Knight" trilogy director Christopher Nolan.
We've sifted through dozens upon dozens of upcoming releases to bring you a definitive list of films you can't miss this fall.
"The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby"
Release Date: Sept. 12
Why to see it: The ambitious film chronicling both sides of a broken marriage debuted as two separate features (one told from the man's point of view, the other from the woman's) at the Toronto Film Festival last fall before The Weinstein Company picked it up and altered its structure. The film opening in September is the cut that debuted at Caanes, "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them," a streamlined, two-hour version of the three hours that make up the individual features.
The uncut individual films "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him" and "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her" open in limited release Oct. 10. Release strategy aside, the film has garnered its fair share of positive feedback and boasts an epic cast featuring Jessica Chastain, William Hurt, Bill Hader, Viola Davis, and James McAvoy.
Why to see it: SNL alumsBill Hader and Kristen Wiig star as siblings in this offbeat dramedy, and if early buzz is any indication, the film may wind up on quite a few "best of" lists by the end of the year. The film debuted at Sundance to rave reviews, many of which cited Hader's and Wiig's performances as its greatest asset.
Why to see it: It's been over a year since Denzel Washington's most recent appearance on screen ("2 Guns"), which is a shame considering the man tends to elevate the material no matter how generic the idea may seem on paper; the man made a movie about a runaway train exciting. "The Equalizer" sounds like a perfect Denzel vehicle, ripe for butt-kicking and name-taking, as he must "come out of retirement" to rescue Chloe Grace Moretz from Russian gangsters. Another reason to tune in? Denzel reunites with "Training Day" director Antoine Fuqua for the first time since making the award-winning film.
It was held in a stadium in Seoul that was built for the 2002 World Cup.
The stadium can accomodate 45,000 people, and was poised to sell out as of September. And millions more watched it online.
The guys who took home the $1 million prize, as well as a 70-pound trophy (called the Summoner's Cup), is Korean team Samsung White, which used to be known as MVP White until Samsung took over sponsorship in 2013. It overthrew team Star Horn Royal Club, which has three members who are from China, two from Korea, and one from Hong Kong.
It's appropriate that the match was played in Seoul, where e-sports has its own television channel and players train as though it were an athletic sport. And it's not a coincidence that 7 out of the 10 people who played in Saturday's match are Korean.
"Most of the biggest championships are won by Chinese and Koreans simply because the number who go at it in a professional manner and put everything aside are from those two countries. In the West that’s difficult, in the West many wouldn’t say e-sports is everything in their life, but in China and South Korea they would say it is," NewZoo Chief Executive Peter Warman told The New York Times' Paul Mozur. NewZoo is a market research firm for the gaming industry.
The road to the finals was no easy path. The teams had to go through several rounds consisting of dozens of matches before showing off their talents on Saturday night.
Based on its stats, Samsung White seemed to be the favorite to win, and it didn't disappoint. Leading up to the finals, it cleared its whole Group without losing a single match and had a 12-1 record.
But, even with its 11-5 record, Star Horn Royal Club didn't go down easy.
E-sports is a huge business, and it's only getting bigger. Riot Games, the company behind the popular "League of Legends," boasts 67 million active monthly players. And it's bringing in $1 billion.
The rise of gaming is thanks to the Asian financial crisis in the '90s. The South Korean government made a big push in telecom and internet infrastructure, and soon most people had computers in the home and speedy internet, the Times says.
Kids swarmed to internet cafes — rather than to basketball courts and soccer fields — to play games and hang out. And in 2000, the government created the Korean e-Sports Association.
“Fourteen years ago you had a government that gave a thumbs up to e-sports, it was professionally organized, and it was on television, so it became a mainstream thing. The way soccer is around the world,” e-sports commentator Jonathan Beales told The Times.
There's even a television channel dedicated to e-sports, called OnGameNet, or OGN.
But, like with all sports, it's still a niche market. “The majority of fans are really casual. There are a few hardcore fans — some very dedicated fangirls, as you would know if you watch the OnGameNet stream — but they are easily in the minority,” OnGameNet Global contributor Michael “Chexx” Kiefer told LoLesports.
On Tuesday, Variety reported Robert Downey Jr. was in final negotiations to reprise his role as Iron Man in "Captain America 3."
The film is expected to follow the events of the Civil War comic books in which the two heroes clash over a law asking superheroes to reveal their identities and register in a government program.
Expect to see Iron Man vs. Captain America as they go head to head when "Captain America 3" hits theaters May 6, 2016.
Why would Disney and Marvel add Iron Man and pit two of its most popular heroes against each other?
Warner Bros. originally set the date for its "Batman V Superman" film to July 2015 before pushing it back to May 6, 2016— the weekend where Disney has released both its "Avengers" and "Iron Man 3" films. Both grossed more than $1 billion at theaters.
While Disney and Marvel may very well have had this plan in play for a while (the Mouse House claims to have a schedule of Marvel films at the ready through 2028) there's another good reason to add Iron Man to a "Captain America" sequel.
Now that "Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice" will hit theaters six weeks ahead of Disney and Marvel's "Captain America 3" they need a huge answer to Batman and Superman going toe to toe in a big action film.
Take a look at the box-office grosses of every live-action Batman film since 1989. With the exception of 1997's "Batman & Robin," the bat has always performed in theaters, no matter which actor has donned the cape and cowl.
How do you compete with that? Feature your own superhero brawl between two beloved superheroes going toe to toe.
While Batman has always been a lucrative franchise for Warner Bros., Disney has the edge with another "Captain America" sequel for two simple reasons.
Audiences are more receptive to two characters — Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark and Chris Evans' Steve Rogers — they've seen on screen for years now than to a Ben Affleck Batman whom the jury is still out on and a Superman who received mixed reviews in 2013's "Man of Steel."
Some of the best shows ever didn't stay on TV for as long as they should have.
“I met Travis, who started Uber, back when it was still kind of this funky little experiment in San Francisco, and I was super-impressed by what he was doing,” Norton said. “As someone who's had a long-standing antipathy and occasional physical battle with New York cab drivers, I begged him to bring it to New York City. Begged him, literally. ”
Few things are more telling than Halloween costumes. Though there are costume choices that consistently top lists each year — princesses, pirates, and sexy nurses are always popular — pop culture tends to make things a little more interesting.
When the first "Assassin's Creed" game came out in 2007, it introduced something called "social stealth," where you could blend in with the crowds.
MegaBots, Inc. plans to copy that model. Assuming it raises enough money to build a fleet, its plan is to take the bots on the road. They will tour the country, face off in epic battles against other MegaBots, and build a fan base. Stroup says (without giving specifics) networks have reached out and will closely watch how MegaBot, Inc.'s upcoming Kickstarter campaign performs. 
The-counders haven't yet determined the fight rules (or at least aren't sharing them). But when standing in the shadow of the 15-foot-tall steel beast at New York Comic Con, it's hard to imagine it will be anything other than entertaining to watch.
With her hair extension line, the "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" E! reality show (for which she 
On Tuesday,
