What is eSports? History & Rise of Video Game Tournaments

Years ago, eSports was a community of video gamers who would gather at conventions to play Counter Strike, Call of Duty, or League of Legends.

These multiplayer video game competitions would determine League of Legends champions, the greatest shooters in Call of Duty, the cream of the crop of Street Fighter players, the elite Dota 2 competitors, and more.

But today, as the history of eSports continue to unfold, media giants such as ESPN and Turner are broadcasting eSports tournaments and competitions. And in 2014, Amazon acquired Twitch, the live streaming video platform that has been and continues to be the leader in online gaming broadcasts. And YouTube also wanted to jump on the live streaming gaming community with the creation of YouTube Gaming.

eSports Market Growth Booming

To put in perspective how big eSports is becoming, a Google search for "lol" does not produce "laughing out loud" as the top result. Instead, it points to League of Legends, one of the most popular competitive games in existence. The game has spawned a worldwide community called the League of Legends Championship Series, more commonly known as LCS or LOL eSports.

What started as friends gathering in each other's homes to host LAN parties and play into the night has become an official network of pro gaming tournaments and leagues with legitimate teams, some of which are even sponsored and have international reach. Organizations such as Denial, AHQ, and MLG have multiple eSports leagues.

And to really understand the scope of all this, consider that the prize pool for the latest Dota 2 tournament was more than $20 million.

Websites even exist for eSports live scores to let people track the competitions in real time if they are unable to watch. There are even fantasy eSports leagues similar to fantasy football, along with the large and growing scene of eSports betting and gambling.

So it's understandable why traditional media companies would want to capitalize on this growing trend just before it floods into the mainstream. Approximately 300 million people worldwide tune in to eSports today, and that number is growing rapidly. By 2020, that number will be closer to 500 million.

eSports Industry Analysis - The Future of the Competitive Gaming Market

Financial institutions are starting to take notice. Goldman Sachs valued eSports at $500 million in 2016 and expects the market will grow at 22% annually compounded over the next three years into a more than $1 billion opportunity.

And industry statistics are already backing this valuation and demonstrating the potential for massive earnings. To illustrate the market value, market growth, and potential earnings for eSports, consider Swedish media company Modern Times Group's $87 million acquisition of Turtle Entertainment, the holding company for ESL. YouTube has made its biggest eSports investment to date by signing a multiyear broadcasting deal with Faceit to stream the latter's Esports Championship Series. And the NBA will launch its own eSports league in 2018.

Of course, as with any growing phenomenon, the question becomes: How do advertisers capitalize? This is especially tricky for eSports because of its audience demographics, which is young, passionate, male-dominated, and digital-first. They live online and on social media, are avid ad-blockers, and don't watch traditional TV or respond to conventional advertising.

So what will the future of eSports look like? How high can it climb? Could it reach the mainstream popularity of baseball or football? How will advertisers be able to reach an audience that does its best to shield itself from advertising?

Robert Elder, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled an unparalleled report on the eSports ecosystem that dissects the growing market for competitive gaming. This comprehensive, industry-defining report contains more than 30 charts and figures that forecast audience growth, average revenue per user, and revenue growth.

Companies and organizations mentioned in the report include: NFL, NBA, English Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, NHL, Paris Saint-Germain, Ligue 1, Ligue de Football, Twitch, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, ESPN, Electronic Arts, EA Sports, Valve, Riot Games, Activision Blizzard, ESL, Turtle Entertainment, Dreamhack, Modern Times Group, Turner Broadcasting, TBS Network, Vivendi, Canal Plus, Dailymotion, Disney, BAMTech, Intel, Coca Cola, Red Bull, HTC, Mikonet

Here are some eSports industry facts and statistics from the report:

• eSports is a still nascent industry filled with commercial opportunity.
• There are a variety of revenue streams that companies can tap into.
• The market is presently undervalued and has significant room to grow.
• The dynamism of this market distinguishes it from traditional sports.
• The audience is high-value and global, and its numbers are rising.
• Brands can prosper in eSports by following the appropriate game plan.
• Game publishers approach their Esport ecosystems in different ways.  
• Successful esport games are comprised of the same basic ingredients.
• Digital streaming platforms are spearheading the popularity of eSports.
• Legacy media are investing into eSports, and seeing encouraging results.
• Traditional sports franchises have a clear opportunity to seize in eSports.
• Virtual and augmented reality firms also stand to benefit from eSports.  

In full, the report illuminates the business of eSports from four angles:

• The gaming nucleus of eSports, including an overview of popular esport genres and games; the influence of game publishers, and the spectrum of strategies they adopt toward their respective esport scenes; the role of eSports event producers and the tournaments they operate.
• The eSports audience profile, its size, global reach, and demographic, psychographic, and behavioral attributes; the underlying factors driving its growth; why they are an attractive target for brands and broadcasters; and the significant audience and commercial crossover with traditional sports.
• eSports media broadcasters, including digital avant-garde like Twitch and YouTube, newer digital entrants like Facebook and traditional media outlets like Turner’s TBS Network, ESPN, and Canal Plus; their strategies and successes in this space; and the virtual reality opportunity.
• eSports market economics, with a market sizing, growth forecasts, and regional analyses; an evaluation of the eSports spectacle and its revenue generators, some of which are idiosyncratic to this industry; strategic planning for brand marketers, with case studies; and an exploration of the infinite dynamism and immense potential of the eSports economy.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
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Spoilers below if you haven't watched episode two of the second season of "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," titled "Kimmy's Roommate Lemonades." 

"Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" put a lot of consideration into its homage to Beyoncé's internet-breaking "Lemonade" album and film (or, if you prefer, "visual album").

"Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" stars Ellie Kemper as Kimmy, who has restarted her life in New York City after being held captive for 15 years by a crazy cult leader. Kimmy's over-the-top roommate is Titus (Tituss Burgess).

"Titus very rarely lets people see the real Titus and I think Kimmy is someone who gets to see that over the years," "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" cocreator Robert Carlock recently told Business Insider. "A big goal for Titus this season is kind of taking that armor of fabulousness off, but not at the expense of the character and what he was going through."

On the second season of the Netflix comedy, which debuts Friday, Titus hits a rough patch with his boyfriend Mikey (Mike Carlsen) and they end up breaking up. The show's producers knew that Titus would need to express his feelings about the relationship's end in an epic way.

"We asked ourselves how Titus would deal with this kind of thing," Carlock said. "He would have to express it with the fabulousness of Beyoncé. So in the same way that visual album told a story, we wanted to use it as a framework to tell Titus' similar journey. So to us that was his story in the episode and it wasn't going to be just a little copy of 'Lemonade.'"

The show went all out. Cocreator Tina Fey wrote the episode and her husband, composer Jeff Richmond, wrote and composed the episode's songs.

"We had a lot of meetings about what visual things do we want to try and parallel to make that connection the real album deals with and connecting into the similar journey Titus has," Carlock said.

Helmed by veteran TV director Tristram Shapeero, the episode parodied the underwater opening for "Hold Up" by shooting at a Jewish Community Center's pool and replacing the women from Beyoncé's take with Barbie dolls, which Titus collects on the show. The show also shot with an actual city bus at its soundstages in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

"Tristram Shapeero also directed the pilot and has done a bunch of episodes for us," Carlock said of the director. "He just went in with a very clear plan about how to do our version."

In the same vein of Beyoncé's project, the show producers wanted to keep the parody secret. It was tough and almost got out while they were shooting on the street in Brooklyn. Someone from a local business posted a few seconds of Burgess in the yellow dress on Instagram.

"One of our producers went to the business and asked them to please take it down, which I think they did very nicely," Carlock said. "We didn't want that to get out too soon. But it's tricky to be walking around Brooklyn breaking car windows in a giant yellow dress and try to keep it a secret. Although, you know, New York absorbs that kind of stuff pretty easily."

Watch part of "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt's" take on "Lemonade" below:

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NOW WATCH: Netflix and Marvel just dropped the first 'The Defenders' trailer — and it looks amazing

Goldman Sachs was honored at a gala dinner for Room to Read, a global organization seeking to transform the lives of millions of children in Asia and Africa, at the High Line Hotel on May 11. 

David Solomon, president and co-chief operating officer at Goldman Sachs was an honoree on the night. He told Business Insider he was picking up the award on behalf of CEO Lloyd Blankfein, co-COO Harvey Schwartz, and the more than 120 current and former partners who have contributed to the charity. 

A number of top Goldman Sachs executives making generous contributions on the night. Greg Lemkau, who had just been promoted to cohead of the investment bank, made a donation, as did his cohead John Waldron. FX de Mallmann, chairman of investment banking, and Dan Dees, head of tech, media and telecoms banking, also made big contributions. 

The level of their generosity was only challenged by PIMCO, with a number of executives at the bond giant, including Andrew Balls and Marc Seidner, making large contributions. In all, the event raised $2.8 million.

Sean 'Diddy' Combs was presented with the Superhero Award for his commitment to education. The rapper and entrepreneur is the cofounder of Capital Preparatory Harlem Charter School. At one point, Combs raised the stakes in a bidding war during a charity auction, offering to personally produce a track for the winner. Someone on PIMCO's table weighed in with a $50,000 bid to bag the prize. 

Take a look at the event:

John Wood, the founder of Room to Read, welcomed guests to the gala dinner.

Howard Schiller, the former CFO of drug company Valeant, mingled with the crowd.

Edith Cooper, global head of human capital management at Goldman Sachs, was there.

Doping in cycling has been around forever, but the 1980s, '90s, and 2000s rank among the darkest years for the sport.

A huge number of the riders in that period doped, with Lance Armstrong among the most cunning and sinister offenders.

Many others doped, but in addition to taking lots dope and lying about it for years, Armstrong was also a vindictive person who personally went after people he didn't like, and, by several accounts, he made their lives hell. That, in short, made him different from the other dopers.

Alas, the sport is trying to move on.

That's why it's rather jarring to see Armstrong in the new mockumentary from HBO scheduled for July 8. "Tour de Pharmacy" is a "fictional, none-too-serious look" at doping and the Tour de France. (In case you missed it, Armstrong won seven Tours but had all those titles stripped.)

The trailer, below, came out Friday, and Armstrong has a cameo in it.

The movie might turn out to be funny, and maybe worth watching, but if you're a bike-racing fan, it looks kind of cringe-inducing, even as a mockumentary.

Absurd and sad, much like pro cycling in the 1980s, '90s, and 2000s.

Here's the press release:

In 1982, during a dark and fictitious time in cycling history, the sport’s most venerable, time-honored race was marred by the doping of virtually all of its competitors. Riddled with nefarious characters, that year’s competition was a hornet’s nest of moral depravity. Through the perspective of five riders, TOUR DE PHARMACY gives an inside look into the grim realities of the darkest event in a sport notoriously tainted by controversy.

Starring and executive produced by Andy Samberg (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine”; HBO’s “7 Days In Hell”), and written and executive produced by Murray Miller (“King of the Hill”; HBO’s “Girls”), this fictional, none-too-serious look at that sordid event debuts SATURDAY, JULY 8 (10:00–10:50 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.

The special will also be available on HBO NOW, HBO GO, HBO On Demand and affiliate portals.

Among the notables making appearances in TOUR DE PHARMACY are: John Cena, Daveed Diggs, Orlando Bloom, Freddie Highmore, Jeff Goldblum, Danny Glover, Julia Ormond, Dolph Lundgren, James Marsden, Kevin Bacon, Nathan Fielder, Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, Joe Buck, Mike Tyson, J.J. Abrams, Phylicia Rashad, Chris Webber, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Lance Armstrong.

TOUR DE PHARMACY marks Samberg and Miller’s second collaboration for HBO under their Legends of Sport banner, following the 2015 mockumentary “7 Days In Hell,” which was called a “bawdy, outlandish skewering of tennis” by the New York Times, and “strange and splendid” by the Los Angeles Times.

The special is helmed by returning director Jake Szymanski; written by Murray Miller; executive producers, Andy Samberg, Murray Miller, David Bernad; produced by M. Elizabeth Hughes; co-executive producer, Jake Szymanski.

SEE ALSO: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? The Lance Armstrong team that dominated the Tour de France

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NOW WATCH: CBS just unveiled the first trailer for 'Star Trek: Discovery'

Netflix has made a gargantuan amount of original shows and movies in the last few years — and will release 1,000 hours of new content just this year.

You'd have to spend 41 days binge-watching Netflix non-stop to see it all. So if you're like us, you're having trouble keeping track of which Netflix shows are worth your time.

To create a cheat sheet for you, we asked reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes to tell us which Netflix shows had the highest critic ratings of all time. We looked only at shows Netflix made itself, not ones it co-produced, or licensed only in some markets. The shows also had to have at least one "Certified Fresh" season, to make sure they have a high enough number of reviews.

Here are the top 24 Netflix original shows, sorted by their Rotten Tomatoes critic score from lowest to highest (if there was a tie, we used the audience score to break it):

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No. 24: 'House of Cards' — 84%

Critic score: 84%

Audience score: 91%

Netflix description: "Is it true that absolute power corrupts absolutely? Congressman Frank Underwood absolutely intends to find out."

No. 23: 'Narcos' — 84%

Critic score: 84%

Audience score: 95%

Netflix description: "First they got coke. Then they got money. Now the Colombian cartels want the power. Let the drug wars begin."

No. 22: 'BoJack Horseman' — 85%

Critic score: 85%

Audience score: 94%

Netflix description: "He's a half-horse, half-man, has-been TV star who drinks a bit too much. He's really got a lot going on right now."

"Twin Peaks" is finally back on Sunday night.

Showtime has kept many details of its revival of the cult show close to the vest. But as the premiere inches closer, we'll let you in on the insider details you need to know.

More than 25 years ago, in 1990, "Twin Peaks," a mysterious story set in a quaint Northwestern town rocked by a shocking murder, changed TV forever. Created by David Lynch and Mark Frost, the series only ran for two seasons but went on to become a highly influential cult hit, and now it's finally getting its season three.

If you're dying to know more about Showtime's "Twin Peaks" revival, here's what we know:

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David Lynch is directing all 18 episodes.

It's been more than two decades since David Lynch directed episodic television. When asked what fans should expect from his directing style for the "Twin Peaks" revival during the Winter 2017 Television Critics Association press tour, he was fairly vague.

"First, it was just the same as all the others," Lynch said. "I see it as a film, and film in parts is what people would experience. And it was a joyful, fantastic trip with this great crew and great cast. This word 'expect' is a magical word, and people expect things, and their expectations are met, hopefully, when they see the thing."

Despite long days during the shooting of the series, star Kyle MacLachlan expressed his awe of Lynch's work ethic.

"It didn't matter how long [the shoot day was], he was there. He was always up, cheerful, and smiling, and so were we," MacLachlan, who's playing FBI Agent Dale Cooper again, said.

The original script for the revival was 400 pages.

Lynch had his work cut out for him.

“I think it took me six hours and a few cups of coffee to read, but it was wonderful,” MacLachlan told Entertainment Weekly of the first time he read the script.

The production returned to shoot in Washington, the fictional setting and actual shooting location of the original "Twin Peaks."

"[It was] both the same and different," Lynch said at TCA of returning to Washington. "If you go back 25 years in any town and revisit it again, it's that way. It's many things remain the same. But also, you feel a change."

WWE Hall-of-Famer Diamond Dallas Page began to defy the odds before he ever stepped into a wrestling ring. He began what would be become a storied career at the unlikely age of 35, and he didn't become a fan-favorite until the age of 40. DDP, as he was known to his fans, evolved into one of the most popular superstars in the history of both the WCW and WWE promotions.

After suffering a back injury in the late 1990's, Page said doctors told him his career was over. Page wouldn't have it. He discovered the healing power of yoga, which got him back into fighting shape and extended his career far longer that anyone would have imagined.

After retiring as a full-time WWE performer, Page created DDP Yoga, a fitness brand based in just outside downtown Atlanta. The brand's marketing materials state that "it ain't your mama's yoga." DDP Yoga blends yoga techniques with a cardio workout meant to increase heart rate. Page calls it "cardi-yoga."

The company initially focused on DVDs, selling more than 300,000 units. Now, DDP Yoga is focused on the digital space. It has an app that offers workouts, nutritional plans, and motivational material.

The company uses social media as its primary marketing tool. The company's Facebook account has over 193,000 followers, and DDP Yoga's Twitter account as more than 210,000, along with 441,000 following Page's personal account. 

We dropped by the DDP Yoga Performance Center near Atlanta to talk to Page about his journey, and to get a one-on-one yoga lesson with the man himself. 

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Pokémon Go creator Niantic Labs is currently throwing an in-game celebration, dubbed Adventure Week, that rewards players with a handful of bonuses.

One of those bonuses is the increased spawning of certain rock-type Pokémon, including rare creatures like Aerodactyl.

To help the game's 65 million players know which Pokémon will spawn more frequently over the following week, a Reddit user named Sralladah made this handy chart:

One Pokémon left off the chart is Slugma, which evolves into Magcargo.

Here are the other in-game bonuses you should know about (all promotions end at 1:00 PM PDT on May 25):

• Buddy Pokémon only need to walk one-quarter of the normal distance to find candy. So if a Pokémon that usually collects candy every 3 kilometers, they'll only have to walk three-fourths of a kilometer.
• More items can be collected from each Pokéstop.
• A new adventurers hat is available for all trainers to wear in the game.
  

SEE ALSO: Here is every single Pokémon currently in Pokémon Go

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With "Alien: Covenant" arriving in theaters Friday, director Ridley Scott is continuing the story of space's most horrific species that he started 38 years ago with his sci-fi classic.

Since then, we've been entertained and more than a little scared following the battles franchise hero Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) has had with all sorts of aliens — from the chest-burster in "Alien" to the menaces in "Aliens." Meanwhile, we held back laughter while watching the awful spin-off "Alien vs. Predator" franchise. 

Here we look back on all the movies to rank the best "Alien" movie:

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8. "Alien vs. Predator: Requiem" (2007)

Made smack-dab in the dark days of the "Alien" franchise when Ridley Scott was too busy making movies with Russell Crowe to worry about what was happening to his creation, "Requiem" was apparently able to get off the ground solely on the basis of having the alien fight the Predator again.

It's a terrible sequel, featuring low-grade special effects and zero stars. We all have to thank Sir Ridley for deciding to make "Alien" prequels, or who knows which other characters from the 20th Century Fox library the alien would have fought next.

7. "Alien: Resurrection" (1997)

The last movie starring Sigourney Weaver is a disappointing attempt to expand the franchise. You can't ignore the star's apparent lack of interest in returning to play the character or Winona Ryder looking so out of place. But it does have some great character actors sprinkled throughout.

6. "AVP: Alien vs. Predator" (2004)

Director Paul W. S. Anderson (the "Resident Evil" movies) pits two iconic sci-fi characters against each other. I could give you a little sense of the plot, but, honestly, aren't you just watching to see the alien and Predator fight?

Danny McBride is best known for his foul-mouthed, egomaniac Kenny Powers, the character he played for four seasons on the HBO series "Eastbound & Down." But there's a lot more to McBride than raunchy one-liners and an incredible head of hair. And audiences are going to realize that very soon.

First, McBride will show his action-hero chops in Ridley Scott's "Alien: Covenant" (opening Friday), in which he plays Tennessee, the pilot of the colony ship Covenant. He gives an impressive dramatic performance on top of kicking some alien butt. Then through his production company Rough House Pictures, he's directing episodes of HBO's "Vice Principals" (season two premieres later this year) and currently writing the screenplay for a "Halloween" reboot he's making with director David Gordon Green ("Pineapple Express") and producer Jason Blum ("Get Out," "Split").

McBride talked to Business Insider about his evolving career and why we will never see a Kenny Powers movie.

Jason Guerrasio: Did getting cast in "Alien: Covenant" start with Ridley reaching out to you?

Danny McBride: Yeah. I got a call that Ridley wanted to meet. At the time my agent was a little coy about it and didn't really say what it was in reference to. So being a humongous fan of Ridley's since I can remember, being able to sit down with him was a no-brainer. So we just started talking about the directors we like and then he suddenly pulled this giant book with sketches of giant spaceships and I just lost my sh--. I just had to pull everything in and act like I was totally cool with it, but I wasn't, I was screaming inside. I just couldn't believe it, I was like, he's talking to me about "Alien"! I was just excited that it sounded like he was going to make another "Alien" and then I was like, "Oh, you're considering me for it?" So he cast me in it. It's surreal. Never in a million years would I ever imagine ever showing up in a Ridley Scott movie, especially a Ridley Scott "Alien" movie.

Guerrasio: Did you say to him you didn't want to be the comic relief in the movie or was that not a concern of yours?

McBride: That conversation didn't come up and and he immediately came to me with the role before I saw the script. I just assumed he's going to give me a script and watch it be basically a Kenny Powers character, but then when I actually saw the script and what he wanted me to do, I was excited. It's not like I didn't know that I could work in a movie like that, but the idea that someone like Ridley Scott believed that I could, that was awesome.

Guerrasio: Did the Tennessee role change through making it?

McBride: What you see on-screen is very similar to what was on the page. The script was just so well-written. This is one of the few films I've been on that the final cut really reflects the script. It's not like there's a bunch of stuff left on the cutting-room floor, they just really knew what they were doing.

Guerrasio: Was the hat your idea?

McBride: The hat was Ridley's idea. He talked about that very early on and he wanted it to be an homage to some of the things in "Dr. Strangelove."

Guerrasio: Seriously?

McBride: It was crazy because the hat had a professional wrangler on the set. The person would sit there on set and made sure the hat was folded properly.

Guerrasio: You've been on big films before, but this must have been an experience to live through just because of its scope.

McBride: I went to film school and making movies has been a real passion of mine. I've been really fortunate that the acting career has been able to give me a front-row seat for all sorts of productions and directors and people I've admired, so every movie I act in I'm always excited by how things unfold. But a movie like this with this level of set design and spaceships and visual effects, you just look back and take it all in. I mean, that cargo mover I'm on at one point in the movie, when I came to the set they built that ship for real and had it on a 50-foot gimbal that went up and down and shook, it was awesome. I was strapped into that thing for a week and it was like you were riding an amusement-park ride all day long. [Laughs] I mean, the production design of the Covenant bridge, it was insane and it just screams Ridley Scott and the original "Alien."

Guerrasio: And they even built an alien to chase you guys so you weren't just acting across from a tennis ball that would become a monster in postproduction. There was something really chasing you.

McBride: For sure. In fact, they had a 6'5" contortionist with an alien costume on doing crazy alien crawls and sh--. It was fun. They would say, "Here comes the alien," and you would look up and yeah, it was there. It struck fear in your heart. [Laughs]

Guerrasio: Can any of that trickle down to what you, David Gordon Green, and Jody Hill do on the shows and movies you make with your production company Rough House Pictures?

McBride: It always trickles down. You would be a fool not to take the things you see and how you see guys like Ridley Scott working and apply that to what you do in your life. I think how much fun I had on something like "Alien" and being on the set where people are getting killed and you see Ridley getting excited over the gore, watching that I just thought to myself David is going to love getting dark like this for "Halloween."

Guerrasio: You originally wanted to get into this business as a writer-director. You finally have a directing credit on an episode of "Vice Principals" from last season. What finally led to you doing that?

McBride: Acting happened accidentally for me. We started out making low-budget independent films and we didn't have access to incredible actors so we settled on our friends sometimes and that got me into this. I was in LA quite a long time writing at night and waiting tables and doing PA jobs and doing camerawork and after "The Foot Fist Way" came out I started getting offers to act so it was a no-brainer to follow that path and see what happened. As the years went on, the acting took over and didn't allow time to direct things. Then on "Eastbound" I loved that collaboration with David and Jody so much that I never wanted to direct an episode. Kenny Powers is in every frame of that show and I just thought it was always better to have another voice of reason on the set and not make it some one man-driven thing. But when it came to do "Vice Principals," both those guys said, "You should direct some of this," so I had a blast doing it. I direct an episode in the second season and it definitely has sparked my interest back in directing and maybe pause on the acting and really get into it. So I'm trying to direct a feature next year and we'll see what happens.

Guerrasio: Something you've written?

McBride: Yeah.

Guerrasio: Is "Halloween" where your head is at right now?

McBride: Yeah, we're on that full-time. We're trying to shoot this fall so we're jamming away to continue this saga of Michael Myers.

Guerrasio: Would it be correct to say this is a continuation of "Halloween" and "Halloween II"?

McBride: Around that era, yeah. Definitely a continuation and a little bit of a reinvention, but it's like we're really trying to take it back to what John Carpenter originally started with and what was so horrifying about it. I've always loved those films and it's been awesome to watch, because we're writing, we're devouring all the sequels and all the versions of "Halloween," and at the end of the day you're dealing with a masked man who killed people and it's crazy to see all the different versions of what people tried to do or what might have been lost from the original in the hopes of creating more story. So we're just trying to learn from that and I feel what happened with Michael Myers, unfortunately, is in those later sequels he almost became a Frankenstein's monster. He became this superhuman — nothing could really kill him. And that doesn't make him scary anymore. For us, we look at it and it's much scarier to just have that man who is hiding in the shadows as you're taking the trash out in the backyard as opposed to a guy who could be shot a bunch of times and still keeps coming back to life. So David and I are really trying to get it back to that grounded, original, scary version of Michael Myers.

Guerrasio: What is John Carpenter's involvement right now?

McBride: David and I had our pitch of what we wanted it to be and we wrote Jason Blum to also pitch it to John because that was important to David and I. Both of us were just as wary as any other filmgoer of all the reimagining of all these classic films we grew up on. We as fans weren't going to do this unless we really thought that we had a cool way to take this and give something to "Halloween" fans to be excited about. And so we had to make sure there was that but we also wanted to make sure it was something that John Carpenter liked as well because he's the master, he's the creator of this. So if it's an idea he thinks is sh-- then we wouldn't have any interest in spending any time on it.

So we went to him and that was incredibly nerve-wracking and as soon as we got to this office I was just thinking, "Damn, what the fuck? What kind of nerve do we have? We're walking into John Carpenter's office to tell him what we want to do with Michael Myers, this is crazy." And we sat down with him and he was f---ing cool and funny and smart and we pitched him our take and he dug it, he was into it, and that's cool. He understood why we were an interesting choice for this. He was just talking about how close he thinks horror and comedy work. Both require pacing and knowing when to release tension and when to build it and it's really about orchestrating an audience's reaction whether it's to make them laugh or make them scream and sh-- their pants. It's all in the engineering of the pace, and it was cool to see that he got that and didn't think we were being brought on to make the franchise funny, because that really isn't me and David's ambition for this at all.

Guerrasio: Do you really think he will do the score?

McBride: In the meeting he said he would, yeah. So we hope that we don't let him down and deliver a piece of sh-- that he wouldn't want to score. [Laughs] In the room he definitely said that that would be fun so we'll see if his enthusiasm maintains after we hand in the final product.

Guerrasio: So you're planning to start shooting in the fall?

McBride: Aiming to shoot this fall. They want to release it on the 40th anniversary of "Halloween," which is next Halloween, so we're trying to zero in on that. 

Guerrasio: I have to ask you about Kenny Powers. Is he completely out of your system or would you and Jody consider a movie version of "Eastbound & Down"?

McBride: You know, I don't think we would do a movie. I always get weirded out when I see a TV show that then has a movie. I don't know, it's just odd. I think part of why "Eastbound" worked is the idea that it was a 30-minute format and that requires an acceleration of the storytelling. I think part of the comedy is that you could get so much jammed into 30 minutes. I think if we were ever to go back into it, it would definitely be another season. But we just had a blast doing that show and feel comfortable where we left it. So having stopped working on that, we've been able to do other things like "Halloween" and "Vice Principals" so I think those opportunities are a little more exciting than going back to something we've already done.

Guerrasio: With what Rough House is doing and being in an "Alien" movie, life has to be really good right now.

McBride: I love it because we're having fun and finding people who are willing to let us have fun and that's always been the goal for us. We were guys from North Carolina and Virginia — far, far away from Hollywood — who have always loved to do what we're doing right now. It's awesome to be answering questions about "Alien" and then looking at note cards for "Halloween." It's pretty surreal.

SEE ALSO: Kevin Bacon gets real about nudity and being a male sex object: "It's not the worst thing"

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While we might be in a golden age for TV creatively, we're nowhere close to the appointment viewing of an older era.

Modern technology like DVRs has made it so people can watch several shows that air at the same time whenever they want. Before that, fans had to make hard choices about what to watch and make sure they got home in time for it.

And TV ratings don't come in the huge numbers of yesteryear. When they do, they tabulate viewing over several days. The 1990 series finale of alien comedy "Alf" brought 21.7 million viewers to their TV sets all at the same time. For comparison, last year's season finale for the most-watched show on TV, CBS's "The Big Bang Theory," had 14.73 million viewers.

Since we're in that time of year when dozens of shows are ending their runs, we compiled the finales that had the most Americans gathered around to watch ever.

Here are the 20 most-watched scripted TV series finales of all time:

SEE ALSO: All the TV shows that were just canceled

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20. "L.A. Law" (NBC) — 22.1 million viewers

After eight seasons, "L.A. Law" made its final closing argument on May 19, 1994. On the series finale, Becker (Corbin Bernsen) is feeling his best days are behind him at the ripe old age of 42. At the same time, the firm plans to celebrate senior partner Mckenzie's (Richard Dysart) 65th birthday, but he has a surprise for them: He's retiring. That throws the firm into chaos and forces the partners to look for new jobs.

Source: The Quad City Times

19. "MacGyver" (ABC) — 22.3 million viewers

The adventures of a young MacGyver are currently airing on CBS, but it's tough to live up to the success of the original crafty secret agent. The "MacGyver" series finale, which aired on May 21, 1992, in its seventh season, revealed that Sam — a cool, young biker, who helped out on a tough case — was actually MacGyver's son!

Source: World Heritage Encyclopedia

18. "St. Elsewhere" (NBC) — 22.5 million viewers

"St. Elsewhere" was a groundbreaking urban medical drama that aired on NBC from 1982 to 1988. Its alumni include Denzel Washington, Ed Begley Jr., Howie Mandel, and Mark Harmon. Viewers tuned into its May 25, 1988, series finale to find out that the whole series took place in the very active imagination of a young autistic boy! 

Source: Star-News

As we delve deeper into the summer-movie season, it seems like a good time to look back on the year so far in movies and highlight the most memorable ones. 

Box-office performance doesn't always dictate if a movie is good. Some of the titles below didn't make a huge killing at the multiplex, but there's a good chance that you'll be talking about them long after this year is over. And the early part of 2017 has had some surprising bright spots.

From studio giants like "The Fate of the Furious" and "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2," to indies including "Colossal" and "T2: Trainspotting," here are the 11 best movies of the year... so far:

SEE ALSO: 35 movies coming out this summer that you need to see

11. “Colossal”

Writer-director Nacho Vigalondo's unique mix of comedy, social commentary, and sci-fi is given its biggest exposure yet thanks to the casting of stars Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis for his latest movie. "Colossal" explores the dangers of alcoholism as Vigalondo puts Hathaway front and center playing a party girl who suddenly realizes she's controlling a giant that's destroying Seoul. Sudeikis is her old friend who is also her evil enabler. If you're seeking something different from a movie, this is it.

10. “T2: Trainspotting”

I know what you're thinking: Why the hell would anyone make a sequel to "Trainspotting"? But give this a chance if you haven't yet. Director Danny Boyle along with Ewan McGregor and the rest of the original cast from the landmark first movie deliver an impressive sequel that offers a new story but still celebrates the things we loved about the first one.

9. “The Lego Batman Movie”

Filled with the clever fun that made 2014's "The Lego Movie" a hit, this one has the added bonus of throwing in great Batman jokes as well. 

Nintendo has a brand-new Mario game coming to its brand-new game console. It's called "Super Mario Odyssey," and it's a bizarre-looking, 3D Mario for the Nintendo Switch.

It's the first major "Super Mario" game for the Switch, and it's a marquee title. As such, Nintendo is using this year's annual video game trade show —  the Electronic Entertainment Expo (or "E3,") in mid-June — as a means of blowing out its big new Mario game. And that means we're about to learn a ton more about "Super Mario Odyssey."

But we've already seen a ton of clues about what to expect from Nintendo's next major Mario game. Here's everything we know so far:

SEE ALSO: How a Nintendo superfan turned his Switch into the perfect Super Nintendo throwback

First things first: This is definitely a 3D Super Mario game, in the lineage of "Super Mario 64" and "Super Mario Galaxy." That means it's a "sandbox-style" game. The world is segmented into levels, but the levels are massive and open-ended.

"Super Mario 64" was both the first 3D Mario game and the first Mario game where levels were open-ended. No flagpole, no definitive beginning and end. Instead, you collected stars in any order you wished.

In "Super Mario Odyssey," Mario explores a variety of real-world locations. He's got a flying ship for getting from place to place:

The HBO movie “The Wizard of Lies” (airing Saturday) showcases the legendary talents of both its star and director, Robert De Niro and director Barry Levinson, who worked together for the fourth time on the feature. They deliver a powerful look at the revelation that Wall Street pillar Bernie Madoff concocted the biggest Ponzi scheme in history and how it dismantled his entire family.

De Niro plays Madoff as a cool and calm hustler who, after the 2008 crash, runs out of tricks and finally admits to swindling over $50 billion from people since the 1970s (he's currently serving a 150-year prison sentence). Levinson takes a complex financial story and turns it into a heartbreaking family saga, in which the patriarch fails his loyal children, Mark (who committed suicide in 2010) and Andrew (who died of lymphoma in 2014), along with his wife, Ruth (extraordinarily played by Michelle Pfeiffer).

De Niro and Levinson talked to Business Insider about the challenges of bringing “The Wizard of Lies” (based on Diana B. Henriques' book of the same name) to the screen, developing their classic 1997 movie “Wag the Dog” as a TV series (also for HBO), and what De Niro has gone through to reverse-age himself for his upcoming movie with Martin Scorsese, “The Irishman.”

Jason Guerrasio: Mr. De Niro, I believe Diana's book was optioned in 2011. Were you involved in the project since then?

Robert De Niro: Yeah, I don't know when it was optioned, or dropped by other people, but as far as I know we were on it for a few years. 

Guerrasio: What attracted you not just to Madoff but to Henriques’ book?

De Niro: The book was great. We were just trying to make it into a good screenplay and it went through a few iterations and finally Barry and his son Sam came on and that was good. We were finally at a point where we could make it. 

Guerrasio: Mr. Levinson, when you came on, where was the script at and where did you want to take it?

Levinson: I think it was the focus on Bernie and the family dynamic that we wanted to get to and then build it out. So if you understand Bernie's behavior with his family, which would lead to the ultimate destruction of the family, you will learn a lot about Bernie. And then you have all these thousands of people whose lives were affected by this man. So I think it was to shift the focus from the pure financial aspects of it and see the man and his behavior and the family and how it all came unglued. With that design we can get connected to the character and the emotions and then you deal with the financial. 

Guerrasio: Mr. De Niro, did you want to meet Madoff?

De Niro: We thought about it. [Producing partner] Jane [Rosenthal] and I talked about it, and I thought it may be too much to go down there. And other people were having problems. Even Diana Henriques, she was very limited in her time with him. Someone else I knew had gone down to see him and he was very limited. He couldn't do an interview with him. I forget exactly what he did, but he could talk to him but couldn't do an interview. So I just felt with the limited time, and me going there would have been a big deal made about it, that I just didn't. I met his lawyer and some of his friends. Relatives and in-laws. 

Guerrasio: Did you feel you had to hear him on tape? Did you need to hear his voice?

De Niro: I heard his voice. There's little on him but there was one thing that I played over and over again.

Guerrasio: His voice is similar to yours.

De Niro: Exactly. And my hair is similar to his. And as far as the baldness in the front, we looked at that very carefully and shaved the front of my scalp. Because when you put on those bald caps and the fake hair on top, it looks good but not as good as when you do it with your hair. And doing it this way is a commitment because you then know there are things you can't do later in reshoots because the hair grows back. But there are ways to work around it. 

Levinson: The interesting thing is Diana plays herself in the movie and doing the scenes with Bob, seeing she was the person who sat across from Bernie when interviewing him for the book, after a few takes I would go to her and say, "How is Bob's Bernie?" And she said, "There are some moments that he's so close to Bernie that it gave me goosebumps." And I thought that was good. 

Guerrasio: Was it a challenge to portray Madoff, who is obviously a con man, as seeming trustworthy?

De Niro: Because he's?

Guerrasio: He's full of sh--.

De Niro: But people want to believe him. So he's doing a good job. He's letting you do all the work. And then there's the reputation. People want to come to him and he will only choose who he wants to be in his investment circle, if you will, then it becomes easier and easier. 

Guerrasio: Because his reputation precedes him. He was a chairman of the NASDAQ — why would he not be on the level?

De Niro: Exactly. 

Levinson: The con artist has to keep evolving, otherwise he's caught. His thing was he would tell people, "I don't know if I want your money." 

De Niro: That was his MO and his strength. I don't want to say it's his brilliance, but that was the scheme he used. He had this fatherly persona so people would put their guard down and think, "How could this guy screw me?"

Guerrasio: The way you guys highlight Madoff's sons and what they went through is so heartbreaking. The suicide of Mark — was that always in the script and did you always want to show it in such a raw manner?

Levinson: It's one thing to say his son committed suicide, but to understand what took place, cause and effect — that he could not live with this shame and he so desperately needed Bernie's love — that's what happened. You can't back away from it. You want to understand the gravity of what this man brought about. Mark commits suicide, an investment banker commits suicide, there are casualties. This isn't a guy with a gun that kills people but this man destroys the lives of thousands of people. 

Guerrasio: He kills you with a smile and a handshake. 

Levinson: Right.

Guerrasio: Mr. De Niro, can you compare this character to anyone you've played in the past?

De Niro: No. I don't think so. Unless you see —

Guerrasio: I see a little Sam "Ace" Rothstein from "Casino." A little. 

De Niro: A little. Possibly. It's different. He was not a person who would lie or betray his family like Bernie did. This is a whole other thing. 

Guerrasio: This isn’t the only HBO project you guys are working on. What's the latest on the "Wag the Dog" series?

Levinson: It's developing, we're waiting on a script. 

Guerrasio: Mr. De Niro, is there any interest in coming back as Conrad, your character from the movie?

De Niro: I don't know. We haven't talked about it. [Turns to Levinson] Should I?

Guerrasio: [Laughs] So it's really early in development. 

Levinson: It is. 

Guerrasio: Watching what's unfolding in politics, is it like watching "Wag the Dog" all over again? 

De Niro: It is. It's unbelievable. 

Levinson: You just look at it all: Deny, deny, deny. Keep shifting the headline all the time. All those things are in the movie, and we've ended up with all of those things now. It's crazy to see that's what has come about now. The idea of diversion. It's like what Bob says in the movie when William H. Macy says, "There's no war," he says, "Of course there's a war. I see it on TV."

De Niro: [Laughs and shakes his head]

Guerrasio: Mr. De Niro, can you talk at all about the technology being used in "The Irishman" to make you look decades younger? Is that something you guys are still planning to do?

De Niro: Yeah. We're doing that. 

Guerrasio: Have any preliminary things happened? Getting all the motion-capture dots all over your face?

De Niro: We did that. Then we did some tests. I did a scene from "Goodfellas" and then they worked on that piece and we've been slowly moving along. We're going to make it great. 

Guerrasio: Was it a trip seeing a CGI version of yourself as a younger person?

De Niro: If they can perfect it, I'll be able to work for another 30 years. [Laughs]

SEE ALSO: Danny McBride talks about what his "reinvention" of "Halloween" will be like

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NOW WATCH: CBS just unveiled the first trailer for 'Star Trek: Discovery'

Warning: Spoilers for the original "Twin Peaks" seasons and "Fire Walk with Me" below.

"Twin Peaks" ended 26 years ago, but it wasn't over.

The last aired episode of the surreal show from the minds of David Lynch ("Mulholland Drive") and Mark Frost took the already weird small-town drama into an even weirder orbit. While ABC canceled the show after the 1991 season-two finale due to sagging ratings, it still had more story to tell, which it will get to do, picking up decades later in the Showtime "Twin Peaks" revival premiering Sunday night.

"Beyond Life and Death" plunges Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) into an alternate reality known as the Red Room. And to understand "Twin Peaks," you need to know what's in the Red Room. The FBI agent, having solved the Laura Palmer murder mystery that was making viewers impatient, follows a new villain, Windom Earle, who kidnapped Annie Blackburn at the Miss Twin Peaks Pageant.

After solving a number of clues in a manner that is too complicated and eccentric — and very "Twin Peaks" — to explain here, Cooper follows Windom's tracks to a wooded area where he has taken Annie through a red curtain that appears behind a pool. It's what The Log Lady (a sort of clairvoyant in the world of "Twin Peaks") calls a "gateway."

Cooper enters the circle of trees where there is the pool. A curtain appears and he walks through it. The curtain glows briefly and then vanishes. So does Cooper.

And then things get funky. Cooper has entered the Red Room (contained in the Black Lodge, but never mind that right now) that he had visions of in his dreams. (It would also become important in Lynch's pequel film released after the show's original run, "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me," which tells the story of Palmer's death.) There's a dancing little person (known as The Man from Another Place) who talks strangely, and a very tall man, and some eye-popping, eerie decor choices.

As with many things David Lynch has created, it's hard to say exactly what the Red Room signifies. But it is essentially Lynch's dream world, where he plays with the subconscious thoughts and ideas of "Twin Peaks," and where characters seem to pass through life and death and, as the title suggests, to somewhere beyond those states. It's a kind of perdition, and has all the answers to the puzzles of "Twin Peaks" — but we still haven't figured them out. The Man from Another Place calls it, ominously, "the waiting room."

The dead Laura Palmer shows up in the Red Room as Cooper talks to The Man from Another Place. She tells Cooper, "I will see you again in 25 years." Which is funny because in our own world it has been almost exactly 25 years since the episode aired, and we're about to find out what Palmer had in mind.

Palmer doesn't say much more, but after a whole lot of confusion that involves doppelgängers, a tussle between Killer Bob (who killed Palmer) and Windom, and a stab wound for Cooper, the agent does finally recover Annie from the Red Room/Black Lodge. Annie is taken to the hospital, and Cooper wakes up in bed.

But Cooper, we'll find out soon, is not the Cooper we know. He walks to the bathroom, making like he's going to brush his teeth, then squeezes toothpaste into the sink, and bashes his head into the mirror. We see an image of Killer Bob, and Cooper cackles. "How's Annie?"

It's a kooky, chilling moment, and one of the finest on "Twin Peaks." Has Bob taken over Cooper's body? Is he going to wreak more havoc 25 years later in the sleepy Pacific Northwest town? Or will Cooper return to his more placid, coffee-loving, pie-eating, crime-solving self?

We'll find out soon enough, but in the meantime bask in the glory that is the Red Room, and Lynch's mind.

SEE ALSO: 100 movies on Netflix that everyone needs to watch in their lifetime

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Though it came down to the wire, Disney/Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2" has finally been dethroned.

"Alien: Covenant," 20th Century Fox's latest teaming with director Ridley Scott on his legendary franchise that he started back in 1979, won the weekend with an estimated $36 million, according to BoxOfficeMojo.

That just edged out "Guardians 2," which after two consecutive weekends at number one, came in second with $35 million.

At one point this weekend, it looked like "Guardians" might upset the "Prometheus" sequel as on Saturday "Guardians" sales spiked 74% from its Friday take of $8.8 million, while "Covenant" slipped 21% following its $15.28 million Friday (including $4.2 million from Thursday night previews). But Sunday estimates has the latest "Alien" movie topping the Marvel heroes.

With a 73% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and only receiving a CinemaScore of a B grade, it looks like the casual "Alien" fan decided to pass on the opening weekend for "Covenant."

"Alien: Covenant" is the third best opening in the franchise, behind "Prometheus" ($51 million) and "Alien vs. Predator" ($38.2 million).

SEE ALSO: Every "Alien" movie, ranked from worst to best

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NOW WATCH: Netflix and Marvel just dropped the first 'The Defenders' trailer — and it looks amazing

After TV networks decided what will stay and what will go, the carnage is now over. That means fans can breathe and focus on what survived for another year and the new shows.

To find out which new shows have most captured fans' attention, Business Insider partnered with Amobee Brand Intelligence, a company that provides marketing insight and measures real-time content consumption across the internet. Amobee analyzed the digital engagement around the newly announced shows in order to find out which ones were attracting the most chatter.

The reboots and revivals had the most tongues wagging. The trend of bringing back series has been in full force for the last few years. This season, "American Idol," "Roseanne," and "Will & Grace" will be joining those ranks.

Another popular theme: shows that belong to a franchise, such as ABC's new Marvel's show, "Inhumans," and CBS's "Big Bang Theory" spin-off, "Young Sheldon."

Here are the 10 most talked-about new shows right now:

SEE ALSO: 43 TV shows that have been canceled

DON'T MISS: Here are all your favorite TV shows that are coming back for another season

10. "The Good Doctor" (ABC)

Fresh off finishing his run with "Bates Motel," Freddie Highmore stars on "The Good Dootor" as a young surgeon with autism and savant syndrome whose social skills and medical talents are tested at a new hospital.

9. Untitled "Grey's Anatomy" spin-off (ABC)

ABC is copying NBC's "Chicago" franchise model by ordering a spin-off of "Grey's Anatomy" set in a firehouse. 

8. "Wisdom of the Crowd" (CBS)

"Wisdom of the Crowd" features "Entourage" star Jeremy Piven as a tech inventor who crowdsources an app that solves his daughter's murder and can revolutionize crime solving.

The big stars are in the South of France looking their most glamorous for this year's Cannes Film Festival and getting their photos shared across the world.

Following her eye-catching red dress at last year's Cannes, model Bella Hadid returned to the festival to grace the legendary red carpet. But fellow model Emily Ratajkowski also showed up and was turning everyone's head. Then there are the movie stars like Robin Wright, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Williams, and Uma Thurman. 

And Rihanna then put everyone to shame.

But the person having the best time has to be festival jury member Will Smith. When he's not arguing about Netflix with jury president Pedro Almodóvar, he's having an incredible time walking the carpet and waving to the fans.

Here are photos of all the stars looking fabulous at this year's Cannes:

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

Let's just take a second to appreciate the star power and fashion of Rihanna...

She completely shut down the red carpet for the premiere of Netflix's "Okja."

"Okja" star Tilda Swinton also did not disappoint.

Do you remember Mayim Bialik on "Blossom?" She currently plays Amy Farrah Fowler on "The Big Bang Theory" and is the author of the new book "Girling Up." The actress, who is also a neuroscientist, explains what's going on in our brains when we get nostalgic for things like shows we loved as kids — like her popular '90s sitcom.

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Following is a transcript of the video:

My name is Mayim Bialik, and I play Amy Farrah Fowler on "The Big Bang Theory."

I'm often recognized for my role in "Blossom," the '90s sitcom where I was playing the lead character from the years that I was 14 to 19.

And there actually is kind of a neuroscience reason why we are nostalgic for things. Obviously our brains store everything we experience as memories. And sometimes we store them consciously, and sometimes they're stored more unconsciously.

But one of the reasons that we have such a fondness for certain things is that memories are better encoded when they are paired with a very strong emotional response. So if something tragic or sad happens, you will often remember it in a very persistent way, and if something makes you feel good or makes you laugh a lot, which I think maybe people experienced with "Blossom," you sometimes will get a stronger sense of memory and connection from something that has a positive emotion associated with it.

I should add that sometimes experiences that are negative can be so powerful that you don't remember them at all. That's a whole different chemical process.

Depending on where I am, and I guess the age of the person coming up to me, a lot of people tend to know me from "Big Bang Theory." It's a show that has tens of millions of people watching it every week, so statistically speaking, many people who also like me on "Blossom" are probably watching "Big Bang Theory."

But once in a while, I'll get someone who says "I don't watch 'Big Bang Theory,' but I really loved you on 'Blossom.'"

Often I'll get young women, young enough to be my daughter, saying "my mom loved you on 'Blossom,' but I'm too young to have seen it, so I love you on 'Big Bang Theory.'"

That makes me feel old.

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Images of President Donald Trump placing his hands on a glowing orb has set alight the internet, prompting comparisons to science fiction and fantasy villains.

The pictures were taken while Trump — on a nine-day trip to the Middle East and Europe — along with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi visited a new Saudi center for combating extremism.

The trio placed their hands on the orb to formally open the center, and set a welcome film in motion. Social media users were swift to let their imaginations run wild.

"Oh my god. Trump has obtained the Bajoran Orb of Time," tweeted games developer and US congressional candidate Brianna Wu, in a reference to a mythical object from the "Star Trek" universe.

"I am gone from Twitter for like a few hours, and now Trump is a holding a Palantír!" Twitter user chrisError wrote, a reference to one of the magical crystal balls used by characters in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" series, notably the evil wizard Saruman, to see across time and space.

Many users also referenced Hydra, the fictional villains in several Marvel comics properties, with some posting pictures of the event along with the group's catch phrase: "hail Hydra". Others joked that Trump was trying to "take down the illuminati."

Others took a different approach to poking fun at the US president. The Church of Satan, a US-based religious group which claims to have "defined Satanism," posted a picture of the event on its official Twitter account with the comment: "For clarification, this is not a satanic ritual."

Trump, a famously prolific Twitter user, has thus far not made reference to the activity on his personal or official Twitter accounts. Still, some joked about how Trump's tweets would change now that Trump has touched the orb.

SEE ALSO: 'We are not here to lecture': Trump calls on Middle Eastern leaders to 'drive out' the 'crisis of Islamic extremism'

DON'T MISS: Here are some videos of Trump and his cabinet members awkwardly dancing with swords in Saudi Arabia

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