Toy Story 4 Earns $1 Billion, Becomes Fifth Disney Film to Do so in 2019
Toy Story 4 has officially earned over $1 billion at the global box office, making it the fifth Disney film of 2019 to cross the milestone.
As reported by THR, this achievement has allowed Disney to beat its previous record of four films in one year to earn $1 billion globally, and Toy Story has also become the fourth Pixar film to reach this coveted amount alongside Incredibles 2, Finding Dory, and Toy Story 3.
Toy Story 4 grossed $421.8 million domestically and $579.9 million internationally for a grand total of $1.002 billion through Wednesday, August 14, reaching the billion mark 55 days after its theatrical release on June 21, 2019.
Amazon’s Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Day Causes Chaos in Los Angeles
In support of their Emmy-nominated comedy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Amazon kicked off "Maisel Day" on August 15 in sunny Los Angeles by offering dozens of discounts around the city. The deals were part of a promotion allowing locals to experience the prices they would've paid for the same conveniences in 1959, the setting of the Rachel Brosnahan-led series. Some offerings included pastrami sandwiches for 99 cents at Canter's Deli, movie tickets for 51 cents, Drybar and Blushington beauty treatments between $2.00 and $3.00, and a night at the swanky Hollywood Roosevelt hotel for only $40.
But the best "Maisel Day" offering was the gasoline: The Chevron gas station on Cloverfield in Santa Monica was offering gas for 30 cents That's right, for $6.00 you could drive away with 20 gallons of gas! Apparently, this was so attractive to Los Angeles residents the police had to intervene. According to ABC7's anchor and reporter John Gregory, the police had to "suspend" sales at the gas station until they could get traffic under control.
Ewan McGregor Reportedly May Return for Obi-Wan Kenobi Series for Disney+
Ewan McGregor is reportedly in talks to return as Obi-Wan Kenobi in a brand-new Disney+ series.
THR has reported that McGregor is "in negotiations to reprise the role in a Kenobi-centered series for Disney+," while Deadline has said the "actor is in talks about reprising his role as the heartfelt but headstrong Jedi Master known as Obi-Wan Kenobi in a yet-to-be-titled Disney+ series."
McGregor first played the role of Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1999's Star Wars - Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, and reprised his role in 2002's Star Wars - Episode 2: Attack of the Clones and 2005's Star Wars - Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. He also made a voice-only cameo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Minecraft Dungeons Has Me Interested in Minecraft Again
I used to love Minecraft – maybe even fair to say I lived in it for a short while. That’s not quite the case anymore. Minecraft is certainly still hugely popular (Business Insider reported it has 91 million players as of October 2018), but I know myself and many others have strayed away from the delightfully creative game. Mojang’s first in-house Minecraft spinoff, Minecraft Dungeons, will likely pull me back into the world of destructible blocks and charming mobs, but in an excitingly different way.
Minecraft Dungeons is an action-adventure dungeon crawler that doesn’t require its players to pick a class for their journey. Instead, your gear determines your abilities, which allows you to change your strategy on the fly. Minecraft Dungeons Executive Producer David Nisshagen said this was done to allow players to have some of the flexibility and freedom seen in Minecraft.
Madden NFL 20 is July 2019’s Best-Selling Game
Madden NFL 20 was July’s best-selling video game, marking the 20th consecutive year that a Madden NFL game became the best-selling game of its release month. Fire Emblem: Three Houses was the second best-selling game of July 2019, followed by Super Mario Maker 2.
Madden NFL 20 immediately became the eight-best-selling game of 2019 thanks to the massive popularity of the Madden NFL game franchise. Our Madden NFL 20 review said this year’s entry had some of the best moment-to-moment gameplay in the series. However, we found other areas like the Franchise mode to be a bit lacking this year.
Twitter’s Endless Jeopardy Bot Hosts a Nonsensical, Never-Ending Game
Endless Jeopardy is a Twitter bot that hosts a hilarious trivia game where everything is procedurally generated and the money doesn't matter.
Endless Jeopardy was created by Neil Cicierega, known for the irreverent Potter Puppet Pals in the early-mid '00s (Dumbledore!), the video game Monster Breeder, an album consisting of Smash Mouth mashups, and various other bizarre Twitter bots like Tim Allen Quotes. It is precisely as obnoxious as it sounds.
Anthem Lead Producer Leaves BioWare After Eight Years
After eight years with the company, Ben Irving announced today that he is leaving BioWare. Irving served as the lead producer on Anthem.
Irving announced his departure from BioWare today on Twitter and said that he has accepted a new opportunity at a different video game company. His final message as part of the BioWare team included a shoutout to Anthem, the studio’s most recent release.
“I believe Anthem has a bright future – there is a great team working on it and I look forward to following its progress (and playing it!) from the sidelines,” Irving wrote.
Rian Johnson’s Star Wars Movies Will Go ‘Beyond the Legacy Characters’
Director Rian Johnson may still be putting the finishing touches on his upcoming film Knives Out, but that's not stopping him from teasing his upcoming Star Wars spin-off movies. Johnson confirmed his new trilogy will move "beyond the legacy characters" and focus on finding a new direction for the Star Wars franchise.
Johnson hinted at his plans for these movies in an interview with Observer.
“I think that the fun and challenging part of it is to dive in, figure out what’s exciting and then figure out what it’s going to be,” Johnson said. “We’re doing something that steps beyond the legacy characters. What does that look like? To me, the blue sky element of it is what was most striking about it. I know the way that I’m coming at it and what’s fun about it for everyone in George Lucas’ films is figuring out, ‘what’s the next step?’ It really makes you think and figure out what the essence of Star Wars is for me and what that will look like moving forward.”
Xbox Scarlett: Playability, Frame Rate Major Focus for Next-Gen Xbox
Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, shared details of next-gen console, Xbox Scarlett with Gamespot in an exclusive interview.
Spencer talked about the importance of playability and high frame rates with Xbox Scarlett, saying, "Ensuring that the games load incredibly fast, ensuring that the game is running at the highest frame rate possible. We're also the Windows company, so we see the work that goes on
PC and the work that developers are doing. People love 60 frames-per-second games, so getting games to run at 4K 60
I think will be a real design goal for us."
Get a First Look at the Upcoming Art of Borderlands 3 Book
One of the Borderlands series' most defining features is its unique art style. It's not cell-shaded, and it's not pure polygonal. It's a blend of hand-drawn inking techniques and rendered models, and is instantly recognizable and absolutely unmistakable.
Borderlands 3 carries on this tradition, adding new characters, locations, weapons and enemies to the franchise. The upcoming The Art of Borderlands 3 book collects the art involved with creating the next game in the Borderlands series.
Take a look at some of the pages from The Art of Borderlands, releasing October 29:
The Art of Borderlands 3 was written by former Rare Ltd. designer Chris Allcock, with an introduction by Gearbox Art Director Scott Kester.