Ash vs Evil Dead, Fargo, Rock’s WrestleMania Plans
Hey guys, Eric and Matt here with either the final Channel Surfing of 2015 (if you go by when we recorded it) or the first Channel Surfing of 2016 (if you go by when we posted it). You choose!
In this big, 90 minute+ installment, we cover some end of the year TV news before going into three spoiler-packed chats on the just-completed seasons of Ash vs Evil Dead and Fargo and then on a movie (whaaaaaat?) some of you may have heard of called Star Wars: The Force Awakens. To guide you though the various spoiler conversations, in case you want/need to skip any, check out the time code below!
5:30-8:00: The state of DC Comics on the CW8:00-14:30: The Rock revealing he’ll be a part of WrestleMania 32
The Force Awakens Beat Titanic at the Box Office
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has surpassed Titanic to become the second-highest grossing domestic film of all-time.
Box Office Mojo, which reports box office totals for the majority of films across the globe, currently places the recently released film at over $686 million in the US, though weekend projections have it with $740 million by the end of Sunday. This should put it within striking distance of James Cameron's other goliath, Avatar, which topped out at just over $760 million.
The Force Awakens already became the highest grossing Disney film ever, passing 2012's The Avengers in late December.
Super Famicom Box Art Book Gets Collector’s Edition
Bitmap Book's Super Famicom: The Box Art Collection went up for pre-sale today, offering a special collector's edition that is only available before its official release. The book is a compilation of Super Famicom's Japanese game packaging, "professionally shot and presented as a glorious hardback edition."
Bound in "charcoal grey wibalin with a gold foil block logo and lithographically printed," the regular hardback book will cost around $40 USD, with the collector's edition coming in a little over $70 USD. The collector's edition features artwork by Wil Overton—former lead concept artist at Rare—and comes enclosed in an "oversized Super Famicom style game box."
Overton's cover art will also be sold as a poster, with 50 signed by the artist himself. These won't come with the collector's edition, but can be bought separately on the Bitmap Books website.
Star Citizen Focusing on VR in 2016
Virtual reality support for Star Citizen will "get up to speed" in early 2016, says CEO Chris Roberts.
In a December livestream by Roberts Space Industries—and transcribed on RoadtoVR—Roberts says that the goal is to have VR support for all major VR headsets.
The development team has been focusing heavily on releasing Alpha 2.0, leaving VR implementation in the background. According to RoadtoVR, some parts of Star Citizen do have support for the Rift DK1, but the game has not caught up to more recent developments in VR technology.
"It’s a little more complicated because we’ve changed the engine so much," Roberts says. "We’ve changed the rendering pipeline to enable us to do a lot of things that we need to do so it’s not very easy."
Disney Infinity Now Most Popular Toys-to-Life Series
Catapulted by both anticipation and Star Wars: The Force Awakens' release in December, Disney Infinity Star Wars games and toys have raked in over $200 million in sales this fall.
Thanks to revenue from the Disney Infinity: 3.0 The Force Awakens play set, released on the same day as the film, the franchise has now passed both Skylanders and LEGO Dimensions in the toys-to-life category, according to Fortune. In December, John Vignocchi, VP of production at Disney Interactive Studios, confirmed the game's number-one ranking in the genre.
SuperData Research CEO Joost van Dreunen said the positive reception to The Force Awakens helped sales for Disney Infinity, stating that because Star Wars is one the most recognizable franchises "it allows Disney to demand a higher minimum guarantee as part of the various licensing agreements."
Midseason TV Preview
With 2015 now in our rear view, it's time to settle in for a whole new slate of new and returning TV shows. A massive amount (is there any other kind of 'amount' these days?) ranging from huge properties like Game of Thrones and Marvel's Daredevil to the miraculous return of FOX's The X-Files.
The Walking Dead, Agents of SHIELD, Gotham, Empire, Once Upon a Time, and more come back from their multi-month winter hibernations while new shows like Colony, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Billions, Hap and Leonard, Shadowhunters, and The Shannara Chronicles make their debuts. All while Mythbusters, American Idol, and Banshee air their final seasons.
Midseason also means the return of Better Call Saul, The Americans, Always Sunny, The 100, Black Sails, Vikings, Shameless, and Marvel's Agent Carter. Plus, on the wrestling front, Lucha Underground is back for a second season while TNA's Impact Wrestling and WWE's Smackdown both change networks (and nights).
Star Wars Battlefront Sells 12 Million Copies in First 2 Months
Star Wars: The Force Awakens may be breaking box office records, but it's not the only Star Wars property that's been successful in the past few months. EA's Star Wars Battlefront has sold 12 million copies since its release in November.
The first-person shooter sold approximately 6 million copies in November and an additional 6 million in December. At an average retail price of $55, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter told Fortune he believes the game has generated close to $660 million in earnings.
Although many of these sales came before The Force Awakens' release, Randy Nelson, content manager of Sensor Tower’s store intelligence platform, believes the movie's success has played a huge role in generating "buzz around all things Star Wars."
Don’t Expect the Next Game of Thrones Book Anytime Soon
George R.R. Martin has provided an update on the status of his next book in his popular A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series, the basis for Game of Thrones, confirming Winds of Winter is not done, with no set date on when it will be finished or released.
"I won't make excuses. There are no excuses," Martin said in a post on his LiveJournal. "No one else is to blame. Not my editors and publishers, not HBO, not
David
& Dan
. It's on me. I tried, and I am still trying."
The author went on to say he's not sure when it will be done or published, noting he's still months away, "and that's if the writing goes well." Martin also said he has no intention of setting another deadline for himself "to trip over."
There’s a Mystery Waiting to Unlock in Steam’s Winter Sale
If you think you have what it takes to unlock a mystery, the Steam Winter Sale is awaiting your attempts right now. An alternate-reality game, the purpose of, and ultimate prize for unlocking, have yet to be determined, is now running its course on Steam.
Cue the X-Files theme music, because things are about to get mysterious. A subreddit dedicated to the cracking the case has a good breakdown of what is known so far.
On day 1 of the Steam Winter Sale, which began December 22, a comic showed up on the front page of the Steam storefront with a barcode on the cover. Scanning the barcode returned the same code as the one tattooed on Hitman 47 from the Hitman series.
Recreate Star Wars Melee Battle With New Hot Toys Figures
You've seen the movie, and you've seen the memes, and now you can recreate one of the most epic melee battles in Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the comfort of your home or office.
If you haven't seen the movie, you might want to just go ahead and skip over this story, as it contains mild spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
The figures from Hot Toys are 1/6 scale and depict former Stormtrooper Finn and his melee rival, the unnamed Riot Control Stormtrooper the internet has dubbed "TR8-TOR." The two meet in battle during The Force Awakens and Finn is nearly out-classed by his former peer, but is saved by a well-placed shot from Han Solo.