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Obama endorses Troy Jackson in Maine Senate race
The former president told voters he is “proud to be on board” the Democrats’ campaign to oust Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
China nominates health official to lead WHO
China has nominated health official Song Li to lead the World Health Organization
Produced water forum brings science, questions to Iraan
More than 50 residents, ranchers, elected officials, industry representatives and water stakeholders gathered at the Iraan Civic Center Friday, Oct. 2, for a first-of-its-kind local discussion centered on whether highly saline produced water from Permian Basin oil and gas operations could one day be treated and beneficially reused. Hosted by Friends of the Pecos River and the Texas Produced Water Consortium, the forum ran from 9:30 a.m. to noon and included presentations, refreshments and an extended public question-and-answer session.
Trump has ‘no regrets’ endorsing Ken Paxton for Senate in Texas, even after a new audio leak
Voluntary Business Update on Prosus Food Delivery
AMSTERDAM, October 08, 2026--Prosus N.V. (Prosus) (Euronext Amsterdam: PRX; JSE: PRX) today announces a letter to shareholders outlining a Food Delivery Update for Prosus. The financial information on which this update is based has not yet been reviewed nor reported on by Prosus’s independent auditor.
PepsiCo beats earnings expectations, lowers guidance as it aims to stabilize North America business
PepsiCo stock pops following better than feared results.
MORNING BUSINESS REPORT: Used car prices dropping, Super Bowl to be streamed on Disney+
Jane King has these stories and more from the New York Stock Exchange for your Thursday Morning Business Report.
Xbox Seasonal Savings Sale leads massive drop of 1,600+ deals across three sales
The Microsoft Store has been refreshed with new sales, including the Xbox Seasonal Savings Sale, which discounts hundreds of games, DLC, and more.
Advocates: CPS can lead on universal mental health screening. Will it?
Done well, universal mental health screenings will provide the first population-level map of where youth mental health needs actually sit.
Law firm hires official who worked for Whitmer, Snyder and Granholm to lead new government practice
Melanie Brown, who most recently was the Michigan Economic Development Corp.’s executive ombudsman, will be managing director of Miller Johnson's new government solutions practice.
Hay Festival Dallas expands with books, music, politics
Hay Festival Dallas returns Oct. 15-18 at Wild Detectives and Texas Theatre. Participants include Bun B, Nikole Hannah-Jones and Richard Ford.
Glen Powell on why he doesn't talk about politics: 'My calling is elsewhere'
Glen Powell is opening up about why he refrains from speaking publicly about politics.In a recent interview with Esquire, Powell explained why he doesn't make it a point to talk about politics despite...
Jaya Aysola’s Remarks from UN Panel on Health Care for the Disabled
Speaking on a panel at the SDG Media Zone inside the United Nations headquarters in New York City, LDI Senior Fellow Jaya Aysola, MD, MPH, discussed the ways health care delivery practices currently…
Political homelessness is freeing
In times of political homelessness, Jews can always turn to Judaism for guidance.
Restaurant, Texas Tech students' app, more make Lubbock business news
Business Reporter Alana Edgin reviews recent Lubbock area businesses news and hints at upcoming articles in the Around the Hub column.
TAKE3 comes to Lebanon as LCCCA continues 93-year tradition of live entertainment
The Lebanon County Community Concert Association will welcome TAKE3 to Lebanon on Sunday, Oct. 11, for the second performance of its 2026–27 concert season.
Analysis | The October Surprise isn’t what it used to be
The idea of one news story remaking an entire election in the final weeks of the campaign might be from a bygone era.
F1: Teams to discuss potential budget cap changes
In wake of James Vowles' recent criticisms of the budget cap, Formula 1 is set to evaluate changes to the spending limit at the next F1 Commission meeting. As it stands, all teams are required to spend within a maximum limit of $215 million. The budget cap was introduced several years ago to prevent top …
Hanoi native finds food science passion through UGA research
A UGA student is turning her love for family meals into a career developing products for major food brands.
Pa. election 2026: Where Josh Shapiro and Stacy Garrity stand on health care, abortion, trans rights and more
Pennsylvania’s governor will face a challenging health care environment next year as hundreds of thousands lose coverage.
Covid, Brexit and Liz Truss mini-budget led to lasting decline in mental health, study finds
Researchers found five events, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, caused serious damage to mental wellbeing across UK
The surprising new idea that is reshaping how we think about ADHD
Scientists are starting to uncover the links between being a night owl and some neuropsychiatric conditions.
Alaska found a way to elect more moderates. Now voters might end it.
Alaskans will decide in November whether to ditch a system that allows four primary candidates, regardless of party, to advance to the general election.
How our reporting team exposed an often deadly toll from a mental health crisis in SC jails
Five-part investigative report exposes a growing mental health crisis in South Carolina’s jails, including more than 100 deaths, with with inmates cycling in and out of custody without getting adequate treatment.
Your Pixel can turn into a mini TV studio, now in 11 more apps
Google updates Pixel Camera Services, bringing Connected Camera multi-feed video streaming to 11 new work and messaging apps.
Where to watch Cavs vs. Celtics today: Channel, live stream, time, TV schedule for NBA preseason game
Here's everything you need to know about Cavs vs. Celtics, including TV channel and streaming options for the NBA preseason game.
The Math Singularity Is Here, and Science May Be Next
OpenAI has released an extraordinary body of mathematical work produced by an unreleased frontier model: 722 manuscripts spanning 372 research families across fields including number theory, complexity theory, and mathematical physics. Each result required, on average, the equivalent of roughly three hours of ChatGPT Pro reasoning. A New Era of Discovery We may be witnessing the beginnings of a “math singularity”: a point at which machine-generated discovery accelerates beyond humanity’s ability to independently reproduce, verify, or fully absorb it. If frontier models can generate hundreds of meaningful results in the time it takes a human researcher to investigate one, the constraint will no longer be producing new mathematics. It will be our capacity to validate, interpret, and integrate it. This does not make mathematicians obsolete. It changes their role. They may increasingly serve as guides, critics, and meaning-makers. Increasingly, they will decide which questions matter, determining which results can be trusted, and explaining why they are important. Mathematical insight may become abundant, while human judgment becomes more valuable than ever. Mathematics May Be Only the Beginning Every scientific discipline could eventually experience a similar acceleration. AI systems could generate and test hypotheses, connect findings across specialized fields, and explore possibilities at a scale no human research community could match. In medicine, imagine models identifying overlooked disease mechanisms, designing drugs and clinical trials, personalizing treatments, or discovering cures in months rather than decades. In materials science, AI could help create better batteries and cleaner industrial processes. In climate science, it could accelerate advances in energy, forecasting, and carbon removal. In biology, it could uncover relationships hidden across enormous genomic and molecular datasets. The result would not simply be faster research. It could expand the frontier of what is scientifically possible. The New Bottleneck Scientific discovery, however, is not the same as scientific progress. A medical breakthrough must still survive laboratory testing, clinical trials, regulatory scrutiny, manufacturing constraints, and real-world deployment. As machine-generated ideas multiply, the bottleneck may shift from producing breakthroughs to validating them safely and translating them into practice. We may soon have more hypotheses than laboratories can test, more drugs than clinical trials can evaluate, and more mathematical results than experts can review. That imbalance will require better systems for automated verification, reproducible research, prioritization, peer review, and collaboration between AI and domain experts. The importance of OpenAI’s work is not merely the number of manuscripts produced. It offers a glimpse of a world in which intelligence can explore thousands of intellectual paths in parallel. If ideas cease to be scarce, humanity’s defining challenge will be deciding which are true, which matter, and how to turn them into progress. The math singularity is not the end of human inquiry. It is the beginning of a new kind—one in which machines expand the frontier of knowledge and humans decide where it should lead. Subscribe Share Leave a comment
AI use lifts participation in WorldQuant contest
Hedge fund WorldQuant said on Wednesday registrations for this year's flagship global quant research contest have almost doubled from a year earlier, as increased adoption of AI has helped more university students build trading models.
Juventus joins the race for the new Jude Bellingham
Borussia Dortmund has unearthed a player they believe could be the next Jude Bellingham and they might lose him soon. Juventus is one of the clubs interested in the teenager.The player in question is ...
Strengthening Mental Health and Economic Resilience for Refugees in Chad
This World Mental Health Day, learn about two Sudanese refugees who are healing through community and economic opportunity in Chad.
Yankees Expected to Make Aaron Judge Change After Playoff Sweep
The New York Yankees are expected to transition Aaron Judge to DH in the coming season. The post Yankees Expected to Make Aaron Judge Change After Playoff Sweep appeared first on HEAVY.
Open Studios Tour of Nevada County returns
The 31st annual Open Studios Tour of Nevada County is happening October 10-11 and 17-18 with over 90 studios and over 100 artists participating this year. Free tour guides are
'Below' review: Josh Hartnett's sea monster series is perfect for 'Widow's Bay' fans
Creatures of the deep await in this fun 'Jaws' riff, including sea hags.
Raising the Bar offers spirited history lessons
Once a month, at Hogwash Whiskey Den in downtown Spokane, historian Renée Cebula takes a roomful of students through centuries of American and global history that trace the wars, immigration, tariffs, and changing tastes that have helped determine what ingredients end up in her students’ glasses.
Oil prices climb amid supply fears and shipping attacks; prospect of rate rise weighs on UK housing market
Brent crude heads towards $103 a barrel while Asian shares slide
Nobel Prize in literature to be awarded in Stockholm
The Nobel Prize in literature will be awarded by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm | 104.1 FM KMOX
Mali’s AI Propaganda War: The Fake Fighter With a Real Audience
Bamako-based TikTok account built up more than 436,000 followers with AI-generated material praising the army and the Africa Corps.
Europe’s Far Right Challenges Rising Defense Spending and Support for Ukraine
Far-right parties in Europe are increasingly using voters’ concerns over the cost of living to challenge higher defense budgets.
President Trump announces Roger Clemens will receive Presidential Medal of Freedom, calls for him to enter Hall of Fame
The president said he called MLB commissioner Rob Manfred about Clemens' Hall of Fame candidacy earlier this year. Manfred does not control the Hall of Fame.
Open Science and Equity: Does openness alone lead to fairness?
Open Science improves sharing and reuse of knowledge, increases transparency, and encourages public participation in the research process. While this approach has gained widespread support from researchers and policymakers, the new report, “Equity in Open Science: Case studies of Open Science infrastructures and Open Peer Review”, shows that openness alone does not automatically lead to […]
Sutter Health tests sleep-friendly hospital room innovations
Hospital rooms often make it difficult for patients to sleep due to bright lights and loud noises, but Sutter Health is working to change that at its Innovation Center in San Francisco.
NFL Canada Partnership Could Be A Game Changer For Penn Entertainment Stock (PENN)
PENN Entertainment recently saw its theScore Bet unit secure a multiyear role as an official NFL partner for sports betting and online casino in Canada, alongside an analyst upgrade that reflected these business developments. The Canadian NFL tie-up gives PENN Entertainment another channel to push its digital betting brand into a live sports audience, which could affect user acquisition costs and long term engagement across its broader entertainment ecosystem. We will now look at how PENN...
Yankees left with 'broken clubhouse' after agonizing postseason sweep
Still without Aaron Judge, the Yankees offense went silent against the Rays.
I’m a pediatrician in Michigan, and here’s what I’ve learned about how medical schools can improve community health
In medicine, poverty is often screened for, documented and then ignored as a “social” issue outside the scope of medicine.
Why people from Bermuda come to Boston for healthcare
Mass General Brigham receives more patients from Bermuda than from any other international country or territory.
The Shelborne by Proper: a Miami landmark is back in business
Following a $100mn restoration, the 1940s Art Deco hotel offers a stylish base for soaking up South Beach
President Trump Remarks at Science and Technology Summit in Washington, D.C.
President Trump hosts a summit to highlight technology, artificial intelligence, scientific innovation, and his administration's updated science policy framework.
No on I-638: 'Witch hunt' of trans kids is a threat to all girls who play sports
Having grown up in rural Missouri, I’m all too familiar with the way some people exclude, bully and discriminate against people of different backgrounds, re ...
Breast cancer survivors join together as CHI Health St. Elizabeth shines pink for October
CHI Health hosted its 16th annual ladies night on Wednesday, celebrating those impacted by the disease as they gathered to support one another.
Breast cancer survivors join together as CHI Health St. Elizabeth shines pink for October
CHI Health hosted its 16th annual ladies night on Wednesday, celebrating those impacted by the disease as they gathered to support one another.
Johnson Meets With Veterans in Austin to Discuss Health Care, Affordability
Johnson Meets With Veterans in Austin to Discuss Health Care, Affordability
Valley Health celebrates renovated facility
Valley Health on Wednesday celebrated its newly renovated location in Point Pleasant.
Valley Health celebrates renovated facility
Valley Health on Wednesday celebrated its newly renovated location in Point Pleasant.
Valley Health celebrates renovated facility
Valley Health on Wednesday celebrated its newly renovated location in Point Pleasant.
Valley Health celebrates renovated facility
Valley Health on Wednesday celebrated its newly renovated location in Point Pleasant.
Valley Health celebrates renovated facility
Valley Health on Wednesday celebrated its newly renovated location in Point Pleasant.
Valley Health celebrates renovated facility
Valley Health on Wednesday celebrated its newly renovated location in Point Pleasant.
Gov. Stein and NCDHHS announces $17 million for rural mental health services
North Carolina will invest more than $17 million to expand rural mental health and substance use services in multiple ENC counties, including crisis-response te
Trump administration paving way for temporary sale of some unapproved peptides
Food and Drug Administration scientists and some medical experts have raised alarms about increasing access to certain peptides.
Several Tigers Prospects Looking for Bounce-Back Seasons
Detroit Tigers fans are likely familiar with the top positional player prospects. If not, we’ll see more of guys like Zyhir Hope and Bryce Rainer play in the Arizona Fall League. We’ll analyze these two top prospects and their performances after the league ends. The prospects highlighted include a few former top 100 prospects and …
Tayari Jones' novel 'Kin' wins the Kirkus Prize for fiction, earning a $50,000 award
Tayari Jones' novel “Kin” has won the Kirkus Prize for fiction | KYW Newsradio
Tayari Jones' novel 'Kin' wins the Kirkus Prize for fiction, earning a $50,000 award
Tayari Jones' novel “Kin” has won the Kirkus Prize for fiction | 830 WCCO
Tayari Jones' novel 'Kin' wins the Kirkus Prize for fiction, earning a $50,000 award
Tayari Jones' novel “Kin” has won the Kirkus Prize for fiction | 104.1 FM KMOX
Neanderthal woodworking was far more advanced than we thought, new study shows
Nearly 600 wooden remains from Abric Romaní show Neanderthals used wood for spears and shelter structures between 62,000 and 40,000 years ago.
AI Makes "Open-Source, Clean Room" Implementations Of Adobe Photoshop & Premier In Rust
As an interesting demonstrator for the power of AI and potentially pressing legal challenges, Claude Code and AI agents have created 'open-source, clean-room reimplementation' versions of Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premier, and Adobe Lightroom
Oregon QB Dante Moore out for No. 13 Ducks against No. 21 UCLA after head injury; Dylan Raiola to start
Dana Altman's greatest achievement before he retired? Lifting Creighton out of the mud in the '90s
Oregon men's basketball coach Dana Altman won 792 games in his Division I coaching career. He made perhaps his biggest impact at Creighton, in his home state of Nebraska.
Decades-old frozen pizza brand ends production, leaving fans nostalgic
Conagra Brands said the move is expected to improve margins, while longtime fans of the budget-friendly frozen pizza shared nostalgic memories online.
Meet the two scientists who have just won the 2026 Nobel prize in ...
Learn about the lives of newly minted chemistry Nobel laureates Henri Kagan and Kensō Soai
GLP-1s: the science behind today’s weight-loss drugs
The medicines reshaping obesity treatment grew out of research into how the body handles a meal. Long before weekly weight-loss injections became familiar, scientists were studying signals that travel from the intestine to the pancreas, helping it release insulin when nutrients arrive.
What Are We Missing About Student Mental Health?
Harvard’s Alexis Redding discusses how the entire college experience shapes student well-being and what it takes to build a culture of care.
Measles, the outbreak at the intersection of politics and medicine
Most of us have never had to worry about measles. The name itself sounds rather medieval, and we’re happy to adopt a similar attitude toward the disease. It seems like something that plagues the history books, but has no bearing on our daily lives, yet you may have heard it discussed more often lately. So, what exactly is going on with measles in America?
Cat-powered 'Therapod' visits Westwood, sharing mental health benefits of felines
In between classes, third-year sociology student Veronica Rodriguez spent her Tuesday afternoon petting a Maine Coon cat inside a carpet-lined box. Purina, a pet care company, held the Cat Chow Cats As Therapy Project event at Wilson Plaza on Tuesday and Broxton Plaza on Wednesday to highlight the mental health benefits of cats.
Scientists warn a popular vitamin D supplement may have a hidden downside
Not all vitamin D supplements are created equal, and new research suggests that one popular form may have an unexpected downside. Scientists found that taking vitamin D2 can actually lower the body's levels of vitamin D3, the form naturally produced by sunlight and more effective at boosting overall vitamin D. Previous studies also suggest that vitamin D3 may provide stronger immune protection against viruses and bacteria.
Sentencing date pushed to December for Newsom's ex-top aide facing federal charges
Dana Williamson, a former top political aide to key Democratic leaders in California, including Gov. Newsom, is still struggling with an unexpected health issue and a hearing to discuss her prison sentencing has been postponed.
Google's SynthID AI Detector is Now Available to Everyone
Google today said it is making its SynthID Detector available to everyone for identifying content created using AI. SynthID Detector first rolled out to members of the media last year, and it is now available worldwide in English. SynthID Detector is a website that lets users upload a photo, video, or audio file to determine whether it has a SynthID watermark that identifies it as AI-generated.
SIU hosts Saluki Care Week to promote student mental, physical health
Southern Illinois University is hosting Saluki Care Week to help students destress and connect with on-campus health services.
As AI Learns to Write, Tuhin Chakrabarty Studies What Humans Stand to Lose
As AI models are able to generate increasingly convincing prose, what began as an experiment—can AI write something that sounds plausibly human?—is becoming a commercial reality, with blog posts, YouTube video scripts and even bestselling novels bearing AI’s fingerprints. But the speed of that shift brings unique challenges, including questions of copyright infringement and an
Jaguars Wednesday: “This is a Business Trip …”
Head Coach Liam Coen spoke to the media at the Miller Electric Center Wednesday as the AFC South-leading Jaguars prepare to play back-to-back games in London, including Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Rosie O’Donnell apologizes to Wynonna Judd after labeling her a Trump supporter: ‘I was wrong to assume’
Rosie O’Donnell has apologized to Wynonna Judd after assuming the country music star was a Trump supporter.
International experience gives business leaders an edge, study finds
Business leaders with international experience play a significant role in shaping the success of their organizations and are often associated with stronger organizational performance, including higher ...
Mia Goth files for divorce from Shia LaBeouf nearly 10 years after the actors married
Mia Goth has filed for divorce from Shia LaBeouf nearly 10 years after they married | WBBM Newsradio 780 AM & 105.9 FM
Who Won August and September: Original Films or Franchises?
(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.) I just heard someone say that if you’re reading a pundit or data analyst, and they don’t tell you that they got anything wrong, they’re not a pundit but an “influencer”. I agree with that. You have to tell your audience when you get things wrong, or they won’t (or shouldn’t) trust you as much. Today, we’ve got another edition of “What I Got Right, What I Got Wrong”. In general, I’m patting myself on the back (and patting very hard) about a few things like IP at the box office, LIV golf, horror films, crowdfunding movies, superheroes, and old people going to the theaters. That said, I also made a couple of data mistakes on the streaming bubble popping and HBO’s datecdotes, so I’m not perfect. But first, I need your feedback... Subscribe Follow-Ups: What Should We Call Mid-Budget Movies Which Aren’t Cinematic Enough for Theaters But Are Too Expensive to Make Money on Streaming? After I asked for feedback on what we should call straight-to-streaming films that are too big to pencil out on streaming but not really big enough to resonate in theaters, I got some great suggestions from you all, including... “Moldilocks” from John Aboud “Little Big Indie” from Travis Frick1 “Midflicks” from Jonathan Funke. “Extra-Medium” from Jona Nwuke. (Read the explanation in the footnote.) Between these and Brandon Katz—who suggested “Bermuda Budget Triangle”, “The Platform Gap” and “The Distribution Deadzone”—we’ve got some excellent suggestions. And they’re better than my suggestion, the “Streaming Budget Dead Zone”, so let’s take a poll! The winning entry becomes the new term. Loading... RIGHT: LIV Golf is Fully Bankrupt…Is Anyone Else Next? A few years ago, I was always a bit perplexed at all the articles I’d read praising LIV Golf and their strategy to disrupt the PGA. LIV Golf, a brand new professional golf league, offered PGA stars ten times what they made on the PGA Tour to join their new league. And folks praised this strategy for its initial “success” in that a lot of big names did indeed leave the PGA. Yeah, of course the players came over. LIV Golf paid them so, so, so much more! But LIV Golf hadn’t discovered a way to increase potential revenue. So think about this in basic business terms… They paid much more in costs… …but had no real way to increase revenue. That’s not a strategy! That’s deficit financing. It won’t work unless you bankrupt the competition (and then turn around and pay those same golfers much, much less). It’s not a sustainable strategy and only lasts as long as the company/person/nation backing it decides they’re cool with losing money. For LIV Golf, that meant Middle East oil wealth, in particular Saudi Arabian money. Clearly, the current Iran War has hurt Middle East finances, so they need to trim their more exorbitant spending. And LIV Golf was part of that trimming. This should be a major warning for others. TGL’s parent company, TMRW Sports, just got a $1 billion valuation, despite TGL’s (the indoor golf league) horrible TV viewership of less than half a million viewers per match. Unrivaled, the women’s basketball league, just secured a $650 valuation, despite its horrible TV viewership and a new rival (Project B) entering the scene next year. To relate this to streaming, Hollywood should ask which streamers may have wealthy patrons funding their losses. (Let’s be clear: Google, Amazon and Apple.) Could those patrons lose their appetite? For Amazon, probably not. But Apple has a new boss, so maybe! WRONG: My Analysis of the Streaming Bubble Was Missing a Week I’m going to be congratulating myself a lot today, but I make mistakes too, like this data goof. When I last compiled the data on the decline in TV shows, I was missing one week at the end of June. If you look at the first image, you can see that one week was mislabelled as “July”. Mainly, this image got updated to show a 27% decline, not 29%: This change doesn’t really impact the overall analysis, but it is two percent better. By the way, through the third quarter, the decline increased and it’s now a 30% decrease since 2022. (I’ll write/visualize this in an upcoming article.) But I want you to trust me and my data. Especially these days, when many people are using LLMs that I know are inserting faulty data into their charts, I want to keep earning my audience’s faith. So that’s the accurate data. RIGHT: IP Remains Very, Very Popular In July, I wrote a giant (and I mean giant) article on Backrooms, Obsession, and the box office, going over what we know, what we don’t know about what works in theaters, looking at YouTubers, IP, the horror genre, comic book movies, and a whole lot more. The month of August really tested a lot of my theses and, being honest, mostly supported my arguments. Let’s start with IP. Looking at 8-Aug (the weekend after Spider-Man: Brand New Day came out) to 18-Sep (the weekend that Resident Evil came out, which I think provides a nice bookend to this time period), there were seven films based on pre-existing IP: Resident Evil (2026) ($126 million) Practical Magic 2 ($65 million) _Insidious: Out of the Furthe_r ($65 million) Coyote Vs. Acme ($59 million) Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie ($53 million) Tony ($15 million) Super Troopers 3 ($7 million) Compare those to the notable original films from the past month—I actually could have included more movies, but here are just thirteen, bringing us to an even twenty films—including.... The End of Oak Street ($54 million) Buddy ($26 million) Mutiny ($15 million) By Any Means ($15 million) The Dog Stars ($14 million) Runner ($14 million) One Night Only ($11 million) Hope ($8 million) Spa Weekend ($7 million) The Uprising ($6 million) Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma ($6 million) Onslaught ($3 million) Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man ($2.8 million) Here’s that in chart form: Five of the top six films in this time period were all based on IP. I made a big chart of films that grossed over $200 million at the box office before Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey hit theaters. Let’s update that chart! By the way, if you want to see how I categorized each film—so another bar chart—here it is: I know that many of my fellow critics/pundits/analysts dislike films based on IP and how Hollywood is making so many of them. And I’m sympathetic to this point of view. As I’ve written many, many times before, you need a balance between existing franchises, new IP, and original films. And Hollywood clearly needs to make more films like Resident Evil (a well-made film from a visionary director) and fewer Practical Magic 2’s (which didn’t get critical or customer buzz). But at some point, critics and pundits need to contend with what audiences are telling them: Movie-goers aren’t showing up to original films. Audiences are speaking with their dollars, telling you they want more IP and franchises. You can try to convince studio heads to make fewer IP-based films and franchises, but the data and numbers aren’t there. Instead, critics need to work harder to convince audiences to show up for original films. Aim your ire/concern at the average person, not studio heads.2 Because they’re just making the films that audiences are telling them to make. WRONG: Original Horror Films Didn’t Break Out I’ll be honest, even though I wrote an article casting some skepticism on the horror genre in July, if you asked me to make a prediction, I would have predicted that, in August, a new, original horror film would have blown up. No, seriously, I just assumed that Obsession and Backrooms presaged a change in audience behavior. But none of the buzzy new original horror films from August—Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Onslaught (not an action film in spite of the ads), The End of Oak Street, Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man, or _Buddy—_broke out. To be clear, exactly one of those films (Buddy) had good “ROI”, but again—I try to be specific in my language—none were “popular” in any broad sense of the word. None of them will be “saving” movies theaters like Backrooms or _Obsession_helped save the summer. The new Insidious film and Resident Evil, both based on IP, were far and away the biggest horror films since July. (We’ll see if this changes in October/Halloween season.) RIGHT: Stay Skeptical about Crowdfunding... I’ve long been skeptical about crowd-investing platforms as one of Hollywood’s saviors, mainly because there’s so much hype/buzz. People need to stay more skeptical about more things, explaining both the potential upside but also the downsides. In particular, the media often hypes crowdfunding at the start and never checks in on the actual results after they’ve come in later. And August gave us our first update! _Ice Cream Man—_directed by Eli Roth—grossed $6 million off of a $5.5 million budget. This is a production of The Horror Section, which was one of the first “crowd investing” studios with 2,400 investors, which means that 2,400 investors probably lost money. They certainly aren’t getting as great of returns as if they had just invested their dollars in the stock market. Hopefully Stiletto (Tagline: “Someone’s Going to Make it Rain Blood!”) does better next month. WRONG: Another Data Goof Here’s another data error. When the first episode of House of the Dragon came out, HBO put out that it had 21.5 million viewers in the first three days, and I read that to mean in the US…but no, it was global. So my US-only datecdotes charts shouldn’t have included it. We never got US-only numbers for the first episode, but for the final episode, HBO put out that it had 11 million US viewers. (And that global dropped to 21 million viewers.) Here’s the updated chart (which I’ve since used in the Streaming Ratings Report): Still, this show is absolutely huge. RIGHT: Superhero Films Remain Very, Very Popular After Supergirl flopped, I read a few takes that “comic book movies are going the way of the Western”. Post-Spider-Man: Brand New Day, that take didn’t age well. To be fair, I have a very nuanced take on the superhero genre right now; it’s down right now, for a lot of reasons. But it’s not “dead”. Maybe _Spider-_Man is just a really popular character? I saw that take, and it’s a fair counter-argument. (But pundits arguing that superhero movies were dead should have mentioned this $1.5 billion counter-argument…) But is it just Spider-Man? The next Avengers film already has $50 million in pre-sales (and I was skeptical that that film would do well) and the Avengers: End Game re-release topped the box office two weekends ago (over three original films). And I wouldn’t bet against Batman or Superman. So maybe it’s just Spider-Man, Batman, Superman and the Avengers. Oh, and Deadpool, of course. And Black Panther. And Wolverine. And probably the X-Men. Plus a well-made Wonder Woman or the Hulk film could break out. But that’s it! It’s just those ten characters/teams. Oh, what’s that? Lanterns is also doing well on HBO? (See previous section…) To be fair, I’m actually pretty sympathetic to the argument that more popular characters—like Spider-Man and Batman—anchor more popular films. In fact, I made that exact argument three years ago when I first wrote about the “Marvel-cession”. In many ways, you can blame The Guardians of the Galaxy for fooling Marvel Studios (and the rest of us) into believing that any character could pop. It turns out, the list of iconic characters is probably smaller than most people think. But it’s probably too early to say that superhero films and comic book movies are dead unless “death” means a slight decline over a longtime. RIGHT: Who Killed Theaters? Old People I get frustrated whenever I see headlines or analysis about how young people are “returning” to theaters. As I’ve detailed(for years), young people have always powered the US box office, despite narratives about “kids these days” and their “phones”. Really, what’s changed post-2020/pandemic is that old people aren’t going to the movies nearly as much. This summer, I saw a movie (from an older director) in a theater near a retirement community, and multiple older people at the theater were talking about how this was their first time seeing a movie in years. I dislike personal anecdotes, so YouGov can fill in the data, best summarized by this headline: “Who killed movie theaters? Not the youths”. According to them, 64% of people aged 18-29 have seen a movie in the last year, but only 30% of 65-and-older. 20% of 18-29 have seen a movie in theaters in the last week and 42% in the last month. Here’s the polling data: Most concerning? Many Americans (17%) think theaters are a worse or much worse experience than watching films at home. Slight WRONG: Hadestown Opens Big A live theater capture of the Broadway musical, Hadestown, made $20 million at the US box office, which begs the question: was I wrong to be skeptical about musicals a few years ago? Yes and no. On the one hand, $20 million is a far cry from being “popular”, so yeah, the genre isn’t that popular overall and Hadestown is one of the more popular musicals from recent years (i.e. the “Taylor Swift Data Fallacy” in action). On the other, I doubt filming this cost all that much, and I don’t think that they spent much on marketing, so this is a good source of ancillary revenue. Smaller Updates WRONG: As I mentioned in a Streaming Ratings Report, I underestimated the budget for Enola Holmes 3. It probably cost more like $50 million, if not more. But... I’m not sure that it really matters? At sub-10 million hours, prices have to come down to make this work. WRONG: Netflix is giving Ink a 27-day in theaters! To quote the kids/YouTubers these days, let’s go! Now I might actually have a chance to see Danny Boyle’s latest in theaters. I’d complained about this in a “Coming Soon” section, but I was heartened to read that Netflix is giving multiple films longer theatrical windows this year. RIGHT: Netflix is sending 4-5 films per year to theaters. Netflix is slowly but surely sending more and more films to theaters, as I cautiously predicted earlier this year. For now, it’s just three big films and a number of awards contenders, but still, this is great news. And they’ll be releasing box office grosses! Just this week, Ted Sarandos confirmed that KPop Demon Hunters 2 will come to theaters (and my guess is it performs in the box office top ten at a minimum). WRONG: Angel has 3 million subscribers! How do I know this? Well, they told Deadline, who reported it. I marked this as “wrong”, since they’ve doubled their subscribers in one year but, you know, they don’t really have a hit film to speak of and they’re still losing money. WRONG: Furious was only renewed for one more season. I accidentally wrote “two more seasons” in my latest “Renewals, Cancellations, Un-Orders and Removals Update”. RIGHT: House of David is ending with its third season. In July, Prime Video renewed House of David for a third season, as I just wrote in my latest “Renewals and Cancellations” report. Well, now it’s ending after that third season. Why? As I’ve been writing, its viewership wasn’t great. I got feedback that this show didn’t cost very much, but it cost enough that its limited viewership didn’t save it. WRONG: Adults was a Hulu original! So I missed Adults when it first came out last year; I saw that it aired on FX and just assumed that it was a linear-first program. Turns out, it aired three episodes on FX, but binge-released the rest of its episodes the next day on Hulu. Huh. So I should have covered it last year! But I just wrote about it. 1 “When I was a kid in the 90s, if you wore a t-shirt to school that wasn’t too big and also wasn’t too small, but somehow didn’t quite fit, we’d say you were wearing an “extra-medium” shirt.” 2 As always, a huge exception is Disney, which barely makes anything original anymore.
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