Numlock News: October 4, 2021 • Pandora, Venom, Jeopardy!
By Walt HickeyWelcome back! Let There Be No Time To Die: The Legend of the Many Saints Of NewarkIt was a stellar weekend for the box office and one of the most hopeful times for the exhibition business in a while: the new James Bond flick No Time To Die opened to $119.1 million across 54 markets in its foreign rollout, a record-setting number (it’s the first pandemic movie to open to $100 million overseas without China). Then in the domestic market, Venom: Let There Be Carnage made $90.1 million, a theater-exclusive hit that numbers among Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in terms of performance. That means the sequel beat the first Venom’s opening of $80 million, a film that went on to gross $856 million, and since this is Venom the operative word being “gross.” The success of the pair of films — one about a ruthless, arguably villainous killer who uses violence to try to take control of Earth, and the other about Venom — is outstanding news for the recovery of the cinema. Rebeca Rubin, Variety and Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter EaglesA gigantic eagle that escaped its enclosure at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh was found safe Sunday afternoon in Pine, Pennsylvania. The Steller’s sea eagle, Kody, is 15 to 20 pounds and escaped his habitat on September 25. The city has been on the lookout for Kody all week — native to coastal northeastern Asia and with a diet of fish and water birds, the banks of the Allegheny are not exactly a taste of home, and handlers were worried about Kody’s ability to hunt and overall safety. Multiple sightings of the raptor helped bring him in safe. In bad news, reports indicate that following Kody’s recapture, Gandalf still remains stuck on top of Orthanc. John Hayes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Michael Divittorio, TribLIVE TakeoffThe Federal Aviation Administration and NASA have made a new system to make takeoffs and landings easier at airports, a system designed to reduce traffic on the tarmac and make the taxi process more efficient. Inputs include 11 real-time variables from airlines, and the early pilot program had phenomenal results in Charlotte: the FAA spent four years testing it with American Airlines, and reduced taxiing times enough to save 275,000 gallons of fuel a year, cut carbon emissions by 2,900 tons, and reduced delays by 40 minutes a day for passengers. The plan is to roll out the software to the 27 busiest airports in the country starting next year. Jeopardy!On Friday, Matt Amodio logged his 33rd win on Jeopardy!, beating James Holzhauer’s run and securing the second-longest winning streak in the history of the program, and with $1,267,801 in the bank coming in at No. 3 all time on the financial front. His style is understood as a fusion of the Daily Double-seeking style that defined Holzhauer’s run and the willingness to guess and guess well that defined Ken Jennings’ stint. Amodio’s found 74 percent of Daily Doubles in his games, which would put him between the 71 percent of Jennings and the 77 percent of Holzhauer’s runs, which is a good indicator of both trivia talent and buzzer speed. Pandora’s BoxA cache of 11.9 million files from the companies employed by the ultra-wealthy to squirrel income offshore have been leaked, files that contain details about the finances of over 100 billionaires, 35 current and former world leaders who have hidden wealth abroad as well as 300 public officials from over 90 countries. The 2.94 terabytes of data exceeds even the 2016 Panama papers (2.6 terabytes) and 2017 Paradise papers (1.4 terabytes). Among the revelations were the $100 million property empire of the ruler of Jordan, the £400 million of property held by the ruling family of Azerbaijan, as well as dealings of the president of Cyprus and the prime minister of the Czech Republic. A new study found that emails sent outside of work hours can be a significant source of anxiety and misunderstood intentions. The research, published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, set up an experiment that asked email senders to log how quickly they hoped a recipient would respond to a non-urgent after hours email, and then asked recipients to log how quickly they thought the sender wanted a response. Receivers assumed they needed to respond 36 percent faster than the email sender actually expected, an overestimate the researchers called “email urgency bias.” Laura Giurge and Vanessa Bohns, The Wall Street Journal ChinaThe Chinese box office has long been a target of Hollywood, but the latest data is pretty grim for the Western film business. In 2019, U.S. films accounted for 32 percent of China’s box office, a figure that is down to just 15 percent this year. So far just 17 American films have seen a China release, which is down from 30 films released last year and 52 released back in 2019, which itself was down from the high of 63 released back in 2018. This year’s film blackout — an annual event designed to give local films a leg up — was bigger than usual and took place during the 100-year anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. Christopher Palmeri and Shirley Zhao, Bloomberg Thanks to the paid subscribers to Numlock News who make this possible. Subscribers guarantee this stays ad-free, and get a special Sunday edition. Consider becoming a full subscriber today. The best way to reach new readers is word of mouth. If you click THIS LINK in your inbox, it’ll create an easy-to-send pre-written email you can just fire off to some friends. Send links to me on Twitter at @WaltHickey or email me with numbers, tips, or feedback at walt@numlock.news. Send corrections or typos to the copy desk at copy@numlock.news. Check out the Numlock Book Club and Numlock award season supplement. 2021 Sunday subscriber editions: Remote Work · Latinos · Vapes · Smoke · Jeopardy! · Mangoes · BBLs · Summer Box Office · Time Use · Shampoo Bars · Wikipedia · Thriving · Comic Rebound · Return of Travel · Sticky Stuff · For-profit Med School · A Good Day · Press Reset · Perverse Incentives · Demon Slayer · Carbon Credits · Money in Politics · Local News · Oscar Upsets · Sneakers · Post-pandemic Cities ·Facebook AI · Fireflies · Vehicle Safety · Climate Codes · Figure Skating · True Believer · Apprentices · Sports Polls · Pipeline · Wattpad · The Nib · Driven2020 Sunday Edition Archive2019 Sunday Edition Archive2018 Sunday Edition ArchiveYou’re on the free list for Numlock News. For the full experience, become a paying subscriber. |
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Numlock News: October 1, 2021 • Mermaids, Disasters, Trackers
Friday, October 1, 2021
By Walt Hickey Nomen-clash-ure Dollar Tree announced that it would no longer sell items for exactly $1 and $1 only, instead upping the price of some items to $1.25 or $1.50. They are the latest in a
Numlock News: September 30, 2021 • James Bond, Fat Bears, Baseball Cards
Thursday, September 30, 2021
By Walt Hickey PFF Pro Football Focus, a data and analytics firm that supplies to all 32 teams and about 95 percent of the Power Five college programs, got a $50 million investment in exchange for a
Numlock News: September 29, 2021 • Lego, Horses, Take The Money and Run
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
By Walt Hickey Lego Lego reported making 23 billion Danish kroner ($3.62 billion) in the first half of the year, up 46 percent. That's good enough to be the biggest toy company in the world,
Numlock News: September 28, 2021 • Squid, Sumo Wrestling, Bees
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
By Walt Hickey Dahl Last week Netflix spent £500 million to acquire the rights to Roald Dahl's work, which includes Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, several incredibly regrettable
Numlock News: September 27, 2021 • James Bond, Catalogs, Feral Hogs
Monday, September 27, 2021
By Walt Hickey Welcome back! Shang-Chi Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings surpassed Black Widow to become the domestic highest-grossing film of the pandemic, with last weekend's
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