This year's highest-grossing actors starred in some of this year's biggest blockbusters.

Forbes compiled a list of 2014's highest-grossing actors at the box office.

Jennifer Lawrence topped the list, starring in two of this year's blockbusters: "X-Men: Days of Future Past" and "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1."

Chris Pratt was the highest-grossing actor of the year. Both of his movies this year, "Guardians Of The Galaxy" and "The Lego Movie," surprised at theaters.

Many of the actors on the list starred in superhero movies, such as "X-Men," "Guardians Of The Galaxy," and "Captain America."

Forbes determined their list by compiling the global box-office grosses of each actor's films from Box Office Mojo. 

Below are the top 10 highest-grossing actors and actresses of the year, via Forbes:

1. Jennifer Lawrence: $1.4 billion ("X-Men: Days of Future Past," "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1", "Serena")
2. Chris Pratt: $1.2 billion ("The Lego Movie," "Guardians Of The Galaxy")
3. Scarlett Johansson: $1.18 billion ("Captain America: The Winter Soldier," "Lucy," "Under the Skin")
4. Mark Wahlberg: $1 billion ("Transformers: Age of Extinction")
5. Chris Evans: $801 million ("Captain America: The Winter Soldier," "Snowpiercer")
6. Emma Stone: $764 million ("The Amazing Spider-Man 2," "Magic In The Moonlight," "Birdman")
7. Angelina Jolie: $758 million ("Maleficent")
8. James McAvoy: $747 million ("X-Men: Days Of Future Past," "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them")
9. Michael Fassbender: $746 million ("X-Men: Days Of Future Past")
10. Hugh Jackman: $746 million ("X-Men: Days Of Future Past")

NOW WATCH: Adam Savage From 'MythBusters' Has An Incredible Connection To The Star Wars Franchise

SEE ALSO: The Highest-Grossing Movies of 2014

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Mark Cuban talked with Henry Blodget at Business Insider's IGNITION 2014. He told us why he does Shark Tank despite his already busy schedule. 

Edited by Devan Joseph. Special thanks to Justin Gmoser and Sam Rega.

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From 1985 to 1987, the spy war between the US and the Soviet Union reached a bizarre fever pitch.

CIA assets inside the KGB were rounded up and executed, and no one could figure out why. A disgruntled ex-CIA agent evaded an FBI surveillance dragnet and fled to Moscow, partly by using a human-sized dummy to throw off his trackers. A US Marine guard fell for a KBG honeypot and allowed a Soviet operative into the American embassy in Moscow. To top it all off, a KBG colonel defected to the US and then re-defected to the Soviets after fleeing his CIA handler while they were eating at a French restaurant in Washington, DC's posh Georgetown neighborhood.

Events that could shift the balance of Cold War were coming hard and fast, and one man was in some way connected to all of them: Aldrich Ames, a CIA veteran currently serving a federal life sentence for espionage.

The hunt for Ames — who was perhaps the most damaging mole in the agency's history — and the events surrounding his betrayal of the United States was the subject of "The Assets," an 8-part miniseries that ran on ABC in early 2014. The show's pilot was the lowest-rated premier for a primetime drama in history. No matter: the whole thing's on Netflix Instant Watch. And if you have any interest in the Cold War, intelligence, or the darker regions of human nature the show belongs on your to-do list.

Plot-wise, "The Assets" is broadly similar to "Zero Dark Thirty." Both are about hard-charging female CIA agents fighting the agency's institutional inertia (and male-dominated hierarchy) while hunting a menacing, arrogant, and almost hopelessly concealed enemy. In "The Assets," that agent is Eastern Europe analyst Sandy Grimes, and the enemy is a suspected CIA mole responsible for exposing as many as 10 high-level assets that the KGB caught and executed in the mid-80s.

Grimes, played by Jodie Whittaker, is one of the few inside of the agency who's convinced of the mole's existence and continues hunting him even after the Soviet Union's fall. She's one of the few in the CIA bold enough to argue that the KGB was playing America's premiere intelligence agency for fools or to grasp the implications of such a breach. Her persistence pays off, but only after the mole hunt becomes a personally all-consuming side-note within the larger, mostly unseen history of the 1980s spy war.

Unlike in "Zero Dark Thirty," we actually meet the target of the hunt. "The Assets" doesn't try to soften Ames, played by Paul Rhys. He's an image of pure venality, in it for money and material advancement, though possibly driven by other, deeper motives that he's too afraid to fully confront. Maybe the most remarkable thing about "The Assets" is that it's able to make an objectively villainous figure complicated and human without using glorification as a crutch. 

It's easy to see why "The Assets" was a ratings bust. There aren't any shootouts and few chase scenes. The tension builds through the endless drudgery of spy work: the meetings and bureaucracy, the boxes of fading documents, the slow-burning suspicions and constantly frayed nerves. In FX's "The Americans," the KGB station in Washington has a frat house vibe to it, while the Russian spies are relatable and even sort of hip. In "The Assets," the KGB offices are austere and menacing places. The men working in them them are hard and unrepentant, but oddly pathetic as well. 

"The Assets" also has none of "The Americans'" appetite for relativism either. Much of the latter show's drama comes through the way in which the value system and internal lives of the FBI agents and the KGB operatives they're hunting begin to closely resemble and even blur into each other.

In "The Assets," the CIA is imperfect and even negligent. But there's no attempt at drawing cheap equivalencies with the KGB. There's no comparing the way Ames is eventually treated with the Soviet agency's brutal and extra-legal methods for weeding out its own traitors. And there's no comparing their essential purposes, either. In "The Assets," the CIA is out to protect the American way of life against a determined enemy — even if it can fall captive to fatal stretches of dysfunction in the process.

That might explain another reason "The Assets" didn't catch on. The show is capable of exposing the sometimes appalling shortcomings of the US intelligence community while also affirming the essential virtue of its mission. After the Snowden disclosures and the CIA torture report, the public discourse has had difficulty holding both of these thoughts simultaneously.

Something as grounded as "The Assets" might have introduced more realism and cognitive dissonance than a popular audience can handle around intelligence-related matters at the moment. At the opposite end of the spectrum from "The Americans" is "Zero Dark Thirty" itself, a film whose narrative was shaped through authorized leaks and consultations with the CIA.

That's why a show like "The Assets" is so important. It uses the intrigue of the late Cold War to strike a middle ground that's vital in the present day.

SEE ALSO: 12 big geopolitical events we think will happen in 2015

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Over 60 titles are leaving Netflix at the end of the year.

Before "Friends" and other new films join the streaming site in January, "Gladiator" and "Batman" will be among the many pictures bidding farewell.

If you're looking for something to watch with friends and family New Year's Eve, look no further.

Here's everything leaving Netflix at the end of the month in alphabetical order. We've highlighted a few of our favorites.

"12 Angry Men" (1957)
"A Mighty Heart" (2007)
"A River Runs Through It" (1992)
"Backdraft" (1991)
"Bad Boys" (1995)
"Batman" (1989)

"Beethoven" (1992)
"Beethoven's 2nd" (1993)
"Beverly Hills Cop" (1984)
"Big Trouble in Little China" (1986)
"Boyz n the Hood" (1991)
"Braveheart" (1995)
"Can't Buy Me Love" (1987)
"Carrie" (1976)
"D3: The Mighty Ducks" (1996)
"Duck Soup" (1933)
"Far And Away" (1992)
"G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Seasons 1-2" (1983-1986)
"Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (1985)
"Gladiator" (2000)
"Good Burger" (1997)
"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967)
"Happy Gilmore" (1996)

"Hitch" (2005)
"Hotel Rwanda" (2004)
"Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1959)
"Kiss the Girls" (1997)
"Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979)
"Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" (1998)
"Love Actually" (2003)

"Manhattan" (1979)
"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
"My Girl" (1991)
"My Girl 2" (1994)
"Red Dawn" (1984)
"Rocky I-V" (1976-1990)

"Roman Holiday" (1953)
"Saved!" (2004)
"Scary Movie 2" (2001)
"Spaceballs" (1987)
"Stargate" (1994)
"Taylor Swift: Journey to Fearless" (2010)
"The Bad News Bears Go to Japan!" (1978)
"The Brady Bunch Movie" (1995)
"The Breakfast Club" (1985)
"The Chronicles of Riddick" (2004)
"The Company Man" (2010)
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951)
"The Grapes of Wrath" (1940)
"The Longest Yard" (1974)
"The Mighty Ducks" (1992)
"The Original Kings of Comedy" (2000)
"The Parent Trap" (1998)
"The Phantom of the Opera" (1989)
"The Usual Suspects" (1995)
"The Wedding Planner" (2001)
"Titanic" (1997)

"Tombstone" (1993)
"Transformers: Generation 1" Seasons 1-4 (1984-1987)
"Turner and Hooch" (1989)
"You've Got Mail" (1998)

Note: In the future, we'll post this list about halfway through the month and will re-up it toward the end of the month.

SEE ALSO: Everything coming to Netflix in January

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The recent Sony attack is considered one of the worst cyberattacks in US corporate history. The hackers stole over 100 terabytes of data, including personal data of thousands of employees and business partners.

So it’s not hard to imagine how chaotic it was for the 6,000 employees at Sony. 

According to The Wall Street Journal, company email was immediately shut down after the attack, forcing every employee to resort to “an old-style communication network.” They relied on phones, gmail accounts and note pads to reach each other. They even took out old BlackBerrys because of smartphones’ own email servers, while paychecks had to be cut manually, using an old machine.

When Kevin Mandia of the cybersecurity firm FireEye was brought in to clean up the mess, he described the damage as “unprecedented in the history of corporate cyberhacks,” it says.

In fact, despite all the investigation, it’s still unclear who was behind the attacks, and according to the WSJ report, it’ll take another eight weeks to fully restore Sony’s network.

And if anything, this should all serve as a wake up call to every company in America. 

As the WSJ report points out, the way Sony treated corporate security was pretty subpar. Despite suffering from a massive hack in 2011, which resulted in losing personal data of over 100 million Playstation users, Sony seems to have mismanaged its cybersecurity system again. Although it beefed up its security team and firewalls, it still failed to “monitor one firewall and 148 other pieces of computer gear” while turning over its cybersecurity work in-house, the report says. 

And this will only result in long-term damages, as Sony CEO Michael Lynton said, ““It took me 24 or 36 hours to fully understand this was not something we were going to be able to recover from in the next week or two.”

On Nov. 24, computer screens of Sony employees flashed a warning indicating the company's computer systems had been compromised and data had been stolen.

Sony's systems were crippled. A unknown group calling itself GOP claimed credit for the hack.

Hackers dumped information online and news organizations scrambled to cover every possible angle. Threats of violence against movie theaters led to Sony canceling the Dec. 25 theatrical release of "The Interview," a film in which Seth Rogen and James Franco play talk show hosts enlisted by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. 

American officials have concluded that North Korea was “centrally involved," and the investigation is ongoing.

The movie was later released online and ended up being shown in some theaters on Christmas Day.

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Target has come under fire for featuring a white model in a campaign to promote its new “Annie for Target” clothing line because the actress who plays "Annie" in the latest movie is black.

Yahoo Parenting reports that one 8-year-old biracial Annie “super fan” saw an ad online, which featured a white girl wearing Annie’s iconic red dress and locket outfit, and said to her mom: “That’s not what Annie looks like. How come the new black Annie isn’t good enough? Does that mean I’m not good enough?”

The mom, LaSean Rinique, was so taken aback by the campaign that she created a petition on Change.org calling for Target to “immediately pull” the “misleading ads” and issue an apology to Quvenzhané Wallis, who is the star of the new movie. Rinique claims that while the online ads do feature a diverse selection of models, the in-store ads only feature white girls.

The petition, which had more than 9,500 supporters at the time of writing, states: “Why does [sic] African American actors have to beg for respect, especially as it relates to advertising? When does it stop? Target it should stop now with this petition! Despite most beliefs, African Americans are capable of portraying more than drug dealers, pimps, and other bastardized portrayals of our culture. Gone are the days that African Americans sang or read lines from behind the scenes while our counterparts lip synced and was viewed as the stars. Quvenzhané Wallis earned that role and we demand your respect.”

People have also been complaining and expressing their surprise about Target’s choice of models for the Annie marketing campaign on Twitter.

A Target spokesperson told New York Magazine that girls from a variety of different backgrounds were featured in the campaign, reflecting that “anyone can embody the spirit and character of Annie.”

The statement continues: “As for the involvement of Quvenzhané Wallis, we had conversations with her team about being in the campaign, but ultimately it did not come to fruition. Fortunately, we had the pleasure of working with Ms. Wallis a number of times, including appearances at Target’s sales meeting in September and a launch event in New York City in November. We had a great experience working with Ms. Wallis and appreciate her efforts in promoting this collection.”

Here's another marketing image for Target's Annie clothing line, which shows a variety of models.

SEE ALSO: See The Blatantly Sexist Ad Sony PlayStation Has Quickly Pulled

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Do you ever finish watching a movie and wish it had been done slightly differently? You're not alone.

There are hundreds of people working together online to create unofficial fan edits out of movie, modifying them in clever — and frequently bizarre —  ways to create something totally new.

15. Bateman Begins: An American Psycho

Most fan edits correct errors in movies, or add in deleted scenes. However, some ambitious people edit different movies together to make something totally new. This fan edit combines footage from 'American Psycho', 'Batman Begins', 'The Dark Knight' and 'The Machinist' and creates one long story. 

It's difficult to describe the plot of 'Bateman Begins', but it uses the rough outline of 'Batman Begins' as the movie's beginning, and then Christian Bale is shown to become more deranged and violent using footage from 'American Psycho' and 'The Machinist'. It sounds bizarre, and it is, but it makes for an entertaining watch.

14. AARRSSTW-WTSSRRAA

In case you hadn't guessed, this is the original 1977 'Star Wars' movie re-sorted by shot length. That's right, some eager 'Star Wars' fans made exact measurements of how long each camera angle lasts for and rearranged the entire movie. 

Is it watchable? No, not really, it's difficult to make sense of the movie now. But it does show just how dedicated 'Star Wars' fans are, and forces you to look at the movie in an entirely different way.

You can watch the whole movie here.

13. Caddyshack: No Respect

'Caddyshack: No Respect' is an unofficial fan edit of classic 1980 cult comedy movie 'Caddyshack' which cuts out the character of Al Czervik as much as possible. 

Here's the creator of the fan edit explaining why he made the changes:

"I hate Rodney Dangerfield. With a passion. He is not funny. Never was. His annoying presence stands out even more in Caddyshack next to comedic greats like Bill Murray and Chevy Chase."

Rarely has the simple act of listening to the rain, drinking coffee, and then opening a moonroof been so...

Well, trippy.

Matthew McConaughey is at it again in his role as Lincoln's woozy brand ambassador. This time, he's hanging out in a cafe or bistro of some sort, by himself, while the rain pours down on his Lincoln MKZ sedan (a terrific car, actually).

Then the rain stops.

McConaughey sees this is a sign from the cosmos and head out to the MKZ.

Then he opens the dewy moonroof. It's a Very Large Moonroof (Lincoln calls it a "fully retractable panoramic roof").

It really lets in that night air, all cool and damp now that the rain has ended.

Sometimes you just gotta wait on that rain.

It's not about killing time or having somewhere to go.

It's just about livin' in your moment.

Your own moment. 

Can't rush that. But you need to be ready. And you will be.

These might be the best car ads every created by human hands on planet Earth.

Study it:

SEE ALSO: Matthew McConaughey Says We Shouldn't Hug Trees In Trippy New Lincoln Ad

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It's really hard to be funny. It's even harder to be funny and get paid for it. But the cartoon editor of The New Yorker, Bob Mankoff, has made a living making people laugh for decades.

He says there are a lot of scientific theories about what makes something humorous – he cites 3 main categories of what works and why.

Produced by Sam Rega

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Some of the most entertaining moments on ABC's "Shark Tank" are when the investors compete with each other to nab a deal with a promising entrepreneur. But sometimes, the Sharks will team up and split an investment.

In a recent podcast interview with Bloomberg View, Mark Cuban says that he usually tries to avoid joint deals, but if he's going to go for it, he most enjoys working with Barbara Corcoran because "she's always got a unique spin on things."

When we told Corcoran this, she replied, "It's mutual," saying that she most identifies with Cuban's approach to business.

She explained:

[It's] because he's buttoned-up, he does the due diligence fast, he closes the deals, he's smart — not to take anything away from the other Sharks, who are smart in different ways — but he's particularly smart in more ways, I think.

I'm smart in certain ways, but I know all the stuff I'm not good at. He seems to be smart across the board. And so, my odds of winning with Mark are better.

More importantly, I like efficiency. So if a deal's gonna happen, it's gonna happen. Boom. Done. And he's cut from the same cloth. Whereas the other Sharks, I think they take a lot more time and are more thoughtful, more cautious in their deal making.

Looks like the show's producers made a good choice sitting the two of them next to each other on set.

NOW WATCH: 'Shark Tank' Investor Explains What Your Clothes Say About You

SEE ALSO: 'Shark Tank' Investor Barbara Corcoran On What Drives Her, What She Invests In, And How She Balances It All

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Chris Rock recently opened up to "CBS This Morning" host Charlie Rose about how being black and famous in Hollywood is very different from being white and famous.

"Being famous as a black guy is a little different than being famous as a white guy. Tom Hanks is an amazing actor, but Denzel Washington is a god to his people," the comedian told Rose, not in jest. "Denzel Washington has a responsibility to his people that Tom Cruise, Liam Neeson, all these guys don’t have. They just make their art."

Rock continued: "No one says, 'Hey, Tom Cruise! Stay white! Don't forget your whiteness! Come back and visit white people! What-chu doin' for white people, Tom Cruise?! Yo Stallone, what are you doing for Italians?!'"

Black people "want to know that Denzel loves his people," Rock says. "That’s he doing stuff for his people. They feel his highs and lows more than white people. If Tom Hanks does a bad movie, there’s gonna be another good movie by somebody white next week. If Denzel does a bad movie, I might not see a good black movie for a year. I am really left out here hanging."

Rock acknowledged that he felt the same pressure on himself "a little bit."

In his new directorial feature "Top Five," Rock plays a version of himself who is trying to make it as a serious actor.

"I wanted to do a movie about black fame," he says of the film, in theaters Dec. 12.

He says with this movie, he finally "found a tone that works" for him.

Rock, who has appeared alongside Adam Sandler in the "Grown Ups" franchise and in "The Longest Yard," says that following in Sandler's career footsteps hasn't always been the smartest move for him.

Rock says: "Men always get their fashion sense from whatever friend gets laid the most ... so since Sandler is my biggest movie star friend, I was like, 'OK, I'll just do what he's doing,' but it didn't really fit me. It fits when I'm in a movie with him, but it didn't fit to make a movie with that tone. Or even an Eddie Murphy movie, that wasn't my tone."

But outside of his movie career, Rock says, "standup will always be at the core of my life. I really like it. I kind of love it."

Watch Rock's full interview with Charlie Rose below:

SEE ALSO: Jerry Seinfeld's One Great Trick For 'Talking To Regular People'

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In a new episode of the popular web series "Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee," Jerry Seinfeld takes Amy Schumer for a ride in a Ferrari before settling into some serious conversation at a New York City diner.

When Schumer admits she is sometimes uncomfortable during "meet and greets" with people, Seinfeld gives her one piece of advice.

"Here's my trick for talking to people — numbers!" Seinfeld says seriously, "Ask them questions to which the answer is a number."

When Schumer asks "Why numbers?" Seinfeld explains:

"There's always an answer. This is Seinfeld's secret technique for talking to regular people — 'How long have you lived here? What time do you start work? When did you do that?'"

Schumer, catching on, adds: "How many of your grandparents are alive? What age were you when you lost your virginity?"

Of sometimes feeling socially awkward, Seinfeld explains that, "as a comedian, the world has a transparent quality to you, you see through everything and spend all of your time trying to cogitate."

The two comedians also discussed what it's like dating an alcoholic.

"Have you ever dated an alcoholic?" Schumer asks Seinfeld, who says yes. "Was it fun for a while? And then it’s like, oh, this is actually pretty dark. I’m wondering what it’s like to date me." She then reveals: "In actuality I will have like two glasses of wine a couple times a week and I feel really bad about it."

Watch the full webisode here.

SEE ALSO: Jerry Seinfeld Wrote A Great Thank-You Note To Mark Zuckerberg For His Web Show's Surprising Success

MORE: Jerry Seinfeld Gives 2 Smart Pieces Of Career Advice

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The New Year is just around the corner, which means it's resolution season. 

To help you make the most of the change in calendar, we asked industry leaders and world-changing entrepreneurs, including Arianna Huffington and Mark Cuban, what they're resolved to do in 2015. 

'Shark Tank' investor Daymond John wants to hit the slopes more often.

"New Year's Day is when I like to reset my 10 goals. Let me think of a fun one..." he says. "I'd like to start to snowboard more. I'd like to try to start to do the half pipe."

Drybar founder Alli Webb hopes to spend more time with her children.

"The very first thing that popped into my head was to spend more time with my boys," says Webb. "My older son Grant is almost 10, my youngest, Kit, is 7 — the last few years have been so crazy busy for me, and I don't want to miss this magical time in my kids' lives when they still actually want to hang out with their mom!"

Cofounder and CEO of The Global Poverty Project Hugh Evans is committed to ending extreme poverty.

He says 2015 "is a pivotal year for the movement to end extreme poverty by 2030."

"My resolution is to use Global Citizen's unique mix of disruptive events, grassroots organizing, and digital campaigning to hold our world leaders accountable to create a world where clean water and toilets are taken for granted, where no one goes to bed hungry, children have access to immunizations, and no child is denied an education. I am committed to realizing this world without extreme poverty."

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F. Scott Fitzgerald gave some fantastic advice to his 11-year-old daughter Scott in a 1933 letter, as Maria Popova points out at Brain Pickings.

Discussing what to worry about in life, Fitzgerald touches on several things that are relevant in 2014: 

Things to worry about:

Worry about courage
Worry about cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship

Things not to worry about:

Don’t worry about popular opinion
Don’t worry about dolls
Don’t worry about the past
Don’t worry about the future
Don’t worry about growing up
Don’t worry about anybody getting ahead of you
Don’t worry about triumph
Don’t worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault
Don’t worry about mosquitoes
Don’t worry about flies
Don’t worry about insects in general
Don’t worry about parents
Don’t worry about boys
Don’t worry about disappointments
Don’t worry about pleasures
Don’t worry about satisfactions

Things to think about:

What am I really aiming at?
How good am I really in comparison to my contemporaries in regard to:

(a) Scholarship
(b) Do I really understand about people and am I able to get along with them?
(c) Am I trying to make my body a useful instrument or am I neglecting it?

The letter is found in "F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters."

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2014 wasn't a great year for movies in general.

Only one movie managed to make $1 billion, "Transformers: Age of Extinction."

A lot of movies underperformed at theaters, resulting in what will be the lowest box office in nine years according to the Hollywood Reporter. 

We've rounded up the biggest flops of the year from a "Hercules" film to Johnny Depp's latest. 

13. "Veronica Mars" (Warner Bros.)

Budget: $6 million
Worldwide gross: $3.5 million
Opening weekend: $1.9 million

This was really a movie made for the fans, by the fans. Reviews for the Kickstarter-funded movie were overall great; however, many noted that unless you were a fan of the series, you may be a bit confused watching the film. That may have led to more fans of the series flocking to theaters. While there are no numbers available for how the movie performed on video on demand (VOD), VOD numbers for the film may not mean much since Warner Bros. issued refunds after difficulties downloading the film via video service Flixster.

Since the movie was funded by Kickstarter, this was more of an exercise in experimentation for the studio.

(Source: Box Office Mojo)

12. "Tyler Perry's The Single Mom's Club" (Lionsgate)

Budget: n/a
Worldwide gross: $16.3 million
Opening weekend: $8.1 million

Tyler Perry's films are usually a guaranteed box-office hit; however, when his latest film debuted in March it became the director's worst-performing movie to date. As a result, Lionsgate shares fell 5%. We don't know the actual budget, but Perry's films usually cost around $20 million to make.

(Source: Box Office Mojo)

11. "Vampire Academy" (The Weinstein Company)

Estimated budget: $30 million+
Worldwide gross: $15.4 million
Opening weekend: $3.9 million 

Vampires just aren't popular anymore in theaters and The Weinstein Company's attempt at jumping on the genre bandwagon proved that. Not even "Modern Family" star Sarah Hyland could save this adaptation of the popular book series.

(Source: Box Office Mojo)

F. Scott Fitzgerald gave some fantastic advice to his 11-year-old daughter Scott in a 1933 letter, as Maria Popova points out at Brain Pickings.

Discussing what to worry about in life, Fitzgerald touches on several things that are relevant in 2015: 

Things to worry about:

Worry about courage
Worry about cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship

Things not to worry about:

Don’t worry about popular opinion
Don’t worry about dolls
Don’t worry about the past
Don’t worry about the future
Don’t worry about growing up
Don’t worry about anybody getting ahead of you
Don’t worry about triumph
Don’t worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault
Don’t worry about mosquitoes
Don’t worry about flies
Don’t worry about insects in general
Don’t worry about parents
Don’t worry about boys
Don’t worry about disappointments
Don’t worry about pleasures
Don’t worry about satisfactions

Things to think about:

What am I really aiming at?
How good am I really in comparison to my contemporaries in regard to:

(a) Scholarship
(b) Do I really understand about people and am I able to get along with them?
(c) Am I trying to make my body a useful instrument or am I neglecting it?

The letter is found in "F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters."

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The new year is usually a down time for television and new movies, so fire up the streaming services. 

Netflix has announced its list of January releases.

Among the lineup for Jan. is Tom Hank's "Cast Away," Oscar-nominated "Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy," and "Mean Girls."

The best addition is all 10 seasons of "Friends."

Here's what you should check out on Netflix in January:

TV

"Dallas" (available 1/1)
Season three of the newer TNT series.

"Friends" (available 1/1)
Calling all Ross and Rachel fans. All 10 seasons of the hit NBC comedy will be available to stream. 

"White Collar" (available 1/3)
Season five of USA's hit about con man Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer) helping the FBI.

"Psych" (available 1/8)
Season eight of of USA's comedy about a crime consultant (James Roday) who fools a police department into believing he has psychic abilities which help him solve crimes.

For the kids: "The Adventures of Puss in Boots" (available 1/16)
Part of DreamWorks Animation's deal with Netflix, the original spin-off series stars Puss in Boots of the popular "Shrek" franchise.

Movies

"Cast Away" (available 1/1)
Wilson! Tom Hanks's Oscar-nominated picture about survival after being stranded on an island is a must-watch.

"Mean Girls" (available 1/1)
 Tina Fey's hit starring Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams recently had its 10-year anniversary.

"To Be Takei" (available 1/1)
You probably missed out on this year's documentary on "Star Trek" actor George Takei who is also known for his work as a gay-rights activist and for sharing fantastic memes and images online. 

"Frank" (available 1/8)
Michael Fassbender stars as Frank, a singer who wears a giant fake head. It sounds bizarre, but we've been told to watch this one for awhile so we're glad it will finally be streaming. Fassbender will be starring in Universal's upcoming Steve Jobs movie and was excellent in "12 Years a Slave."

"Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy" (available 1/16)
The three-time Oscar-nominated picture about espionage during the Cold War has a great cast including Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, and Benedict Cumberbatch.

"Chef" (available 1/28)
You may not have heard about director Jon Favreau's ("Iron Man") indie starring Sofia Vergara, Scarlett Johansson, and Robert Downey, Jr. The film received exceptionally positive reviews after screenings at South by Southwest and the Tribeca Film Festival.

Here's the full list of January releases:

Available 1/1

"101 Dalmatians" (1996)
"Bad Boys II" (2003)
"Batman & Robin" (1997)
"Bruce Almighty" (2003)
"Cast Away" (2000)
"Dallas" Season 3 (2012)
"Get Low" (2009)
"Election" (1999)
"Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas" (1998)
"Fort Bliss" (2014)
"Friends" Complete series (1994-2004)
"Get Low" (2009)
"Jarhead 2: Field of Fire" (2014)
"Jeepers Creepers 2" (2003)
"Mean Girls" (2004)
"Shall We Dance?" (2004)
"Son of God" (2014)
"Soul Plane" (2004)
"To Be Takei" (2014)
"The French Connection" (1971)
"The Quiet Man" (1952)
"The War of the Worlds" (1953)
"Wayne's World 2" (1993)

Available 1/2

"From the Rough" (2013)

Available 1/3

"Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" (2014)
"White Collar" season 5

Available 1/7

"Brick Mansions" (2014)

Available 1/8

"Frank" (2014)
"Psych" season 8 

Available 1/9

"Z Nation" season 1

Available 1/13

"Being Human" season 4

Available 1/15

"Wolfblood" season 3 

Available 1/16

"The Adventures of Puss and Boots" season 1
"The Fall" season 2
"Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy" (2011)

Available 1/23

"Iliza Shelesinger: Freezing Hot" (2014)

Available 1/28

"Chef" (2014)
"Beauty & the Beast" season 2

Note: A version of this post originally ran Dec. 17, 2014. We usually run these lists at the end of the month. Netflix will be releasing this info mid-month moving forward. We'll continue to update if there are additions.

SEE ALSO: The biggest box-office bombs of 2014

AND: The best-reviewed movies of 2014

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Actress Michelle Williams has sold her gorgeous ivy-covered Brooklyn townhouse for more than one million over the asking price, 6sqft reports. 

Williams bought the property in 2005 with her then-boyfriend Heath Ledger for a mere $3.6 million, according to Curbed. 

The townhouse spent barely four months on the market before being sold for $8.8 million.

Which makes sense because in addition to be an incredibly lovely and inviting home, the townhouse is packed with amazing amenities including a temperature-controlled wine cellar, heated floors, and a rooftop garden with a waterfall. 

Williams is reportedly moving to LA to focus on her career, and leaving this incredible space behind.  

Welcome to 126 Hoyt Street in the popular Brooklyn neighborhood of Boerum Hill. The incredible corner property is covered in lush greenery.

The interior of the home is very spacious, and is centered around a nearly 1,000-square-foot “loft-like parlor floor.”

The home has 12-foot-tall ceilings and huge windows that shower the kitchen with natural light and views of the garden.

Last year was a terrible year for movie attendance, with audience numbers plunging to the lowest they've been in two decades.

Even with hits like "Guardians of the Galaxy," "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1," and "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," the last time theater attendance was this bad was in 1995, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

According to preliminary estimates, roughly 1.26 billion consumers purchased cinema tickets between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31. That's the lowest number since 1.21 billion in 1995 and not that far ahead of 1994 (1.24 billion). The last time admissions fell below the 1.3 billion mark was in 2011, when only 1.28 billion people when to the movies.

Of course, these are still technically estimates. We won't see the official numbers for last year's movie attendance until the National Association of Theater Owners reveals how much the average price of a movie ticket in 2014, but it's expected to be north of $8.15, which would be an increase from 2013's average ticket price of $8.13.

So why the low attendance numbers?

Aside from the increasing trend of watching movies at home using streaming services like Netflix, 2014 also saw some of its biggest films underperform at the box office, namely Sony's "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" and "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1."

Revenue for the U.S. box office is also likely to drop 5% to $10.36 billion, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which would be the worst year-over-year decline in nine years.

The year's biggest surprise hit?

That belongs to the highest gross film of 2014, Marvel's "Guardian's of the Galaxy," which earned $332 million domestically and over $772 million worldwide.

SEE ALSO: The 20 Most Beautiful Apps Of The Year

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