greyenlightenment
investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...
User ID: 68
‘The Marvels’ Meltdown: Disney MCU Seeing Lowest B.O. Opening Ever At $47M+ — What Went Wrong
SATURDAY AM UPDATE: The last-minute push for The Marvels with an appearance by star Brie Larson on The Tonight Show and at a theater in NYC post-actors strike have not moved weekend grosses any higher for Marvel Studios‘ The Marvels. The film is seeing a Friday in the vicinity of where we expected it at $21.5M, and a weekend opening between $47M-$52M, the lowest ever for Disney‘s Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Oh, also, The Marvels gets one of several post-pandemic B CinemaScores from audiences after Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (B+), Thor Love & Thunder (B+), Eternals (B), and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (B). Comscore/Screen Engine PostTrak exits are worse at 3 1/2 stars and a 73% positi
It's even worse after factoring in double-digit inflation since 2021 or so. Disney, however, is the master of 'Hollywood accounting' and squeezing every drop of water from a franchise installment, such as licensing or merchandizes for years after the movie is discontinued from theatres. Also the "Disney‘s Marvel Cinematic Universe" is comprised of 24 movies. Some of these movies are expected to be underwhelming or loss-leaders and are not given an equal marketing push. It's assumed that Iron Man sequels will do better than stuff like "Ant-Man and the Wasp".
Richard Hanania blames gender pandering/wokeness, but it's worth noting that the 2017 Wonder Woman did well ($800+ million gross total , $100+ million open) despite obviously having a female lead. Also, having a pretty (by conventional Western standards) blonde lead does not also fit into the wokeness paradigm either.
greyenlightenment
investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...
4mo ago
good find. the extended thread was omitted
- China itself is not ending, and the Chinese clearly contribute a lot to American prosperity. It's only the particular forms of that civilization that can be disrupted by immigration; this is both known and desired.
I never bought into this trope that east asians lack creativity to counterbalance high Iq. I don't see it. for the math paper I'm working on, most of my sources are from Chinese authors.
Do they not donates as much? I dunno. The evidence suggests Asians are big donors:
Hong Kong Family Stumps Up With Harvard's Largest-Ever Donation. The family of Gerald Chan, a Harvard-educated investor, is donating $350 million to the university's School of Public Health, the largest gift in the 378-year history of the U.S.'s richest university.
A US$ 115 million donation to California Institute of Technology or Caltech in the United States from Chinese billionaire Chen Tianqiao and his wife Chrissy Luo tops a generous year for donations to international education and research institutions from Chinese philanthropists.
MIT has received one of the largest gifts in its history, from alumnus Samuel Tak Lee ’62, SM ’64, to establish a real estate entrepreneurship lab that will promote social responsibility among entrepreneurs and academics in the real estate profession worldwide, with a particular focus on China.
- Controversial Chinese Tech Billionaire Gives Millions to Elite American Universities https://freebeacon.com/national-security/controversial-chinese-tech-billionaire-gives-millions-to-elite-american-universities/
Ma Huateng, the founder of Tencent, has given at least $5 million to Princeton through his personal charity since 2017 and $5 million since 2018 to MIT, according to previously unreported Department of Education records. Ma also serves on the advisory boards for the Yale Center Beijing and the Cornell China Center, where he and other Chinese business leaders advise the schools on developing partnerships in China. Tencent's charity contributed $900,000 to Columbia University in 2017, according to the Department of Education records.
Same for foreign gifts: Interests based in China contributed over $168 million to 46 American colleges and universities during a six-month period in 2021 https://www.thecollegefix.com/nearly-170m-in-contracts-and-gifts-flowed-to-u-s-universities-from-china-in-2021/
There is still a fair bit of that on the right; “Taylor Swift marrying Travis Kelce will save the white race” memes are going strong, although you and Hanania are correct that they’re currently being outcompeted on the DR by the edgier contrarian takes
The twitter-right so badly wants to bring her under the fold. Not going to happen, I'm afraid. She is a 'cat person' which is not a good sign either for those hoping she will repopulate the Aryan race.
greyenlightenment
investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...
3mo ago
I don't see any confusion. The left is going leftward, as it historically has done. Conservatives are in the strongest position in a long time. So many wins over the past few years, like Elon Twitter buyout, successful buycotts of brands, plagiarism scandals, SCOTUS, etc. . Biden's approval numbers are among the lowest ever for an incumbent. They right just needs to step back and let the left hang itself by its petard. Wokeness does not need a counter-response; its existence turns off enough people.
greyenlightenment
investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...
3mo ago
The problem is when the Overton window shifts. So what is safe today in a decade will be uncovered as a skeleton.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-men-charged-operating-25m-cryptocurrency-ponzi-scheme
Saffron and Mazzotta also allegedly conspired to obstruct official proceedings by concealing assets, concealing or destroying evidence, and falsifying records. The defendants also allegedly conspired to conceal the source and location of victims’ cryptocurrency investments through various means, including using methods known as “blockchain hopping” and through services known as “mixers” or “tumblers” that are designed to prevent cryptocurrency tracing.
A sufficiently determined adversary can trace the origin of coins passed through tumblers. Also, tumbers can 'dirty' crypto by mixing them with fraudulent coins, making them blacklisted in the processes by merchants who refuse to accept tumbled coins.
greyenlightenment
investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...
2mo ago
There is evidence federal agencies have reconstructed Monero transactions. Monero is better but still has holes. https://www.wired.com/story/bitcoin-seizure-record-doj-crypto-tracing-monero/
greyenlightenment
investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...
2mo ago
It can be traced. the only fresh bitcoin is coins direct from miner or major exchange.
greyenlightenment
investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...
2mo ago
He made a lot of promises and initiatives that were half-assed or had little hope of happening, like promising to stop social media censorship, the wall, etc. but this is typical of politicians. Firing James Comey was an unforced error though.
You probably noticed after that unfortunate subway incident that left-wing reddit was quick to say "We failed Jordan Neely", and if you understand that statement, you understand the Blue Tribe. To the Blue Tribe, Jordan Neely acted the way he did because the group failed to include and empathize with him. Penny is a murderer not because he killed Neely, but because he acted without the consent and validation of the group. Tutto nello feelz, niente al di fuori dello feelz, nulla contro lo feelz
from what I recall, to the blue tribe, Neely was murdered by a vigilante. It was not a matter of society having failed him. I don't think the debate, what little was actually debated beyond people shouting past each other, was framed as a collective failing of society.
- This is where the hole comes in. My position is that the secular liberal dominiation of academia has effectively castrated our society's ablility to discuss certain topics in a reasonable manner by baking liberal assumptions about how the world ought to work (rather than how it actually does work) into the vocabulary of the discussion.
The recent post-Musk surge of the HBD-left after such ideas were unshackled by the threat of censorship by the old owners, is evidence that at least some on the center or center-left are willing to confront these harsh truths--not just about IQ but also crime stats. Many of these people also agree with you on the innocence of Daniel Penny. On this community, by my estimate, most people here at least are on the side of Penny. I don't think it logically follows that one must support Trump to oppose leftism . Much of modern liberalism is just anti-whiteness, which is a reductive but also accurate lens. Or the invocation of the noble savage trope . Had the races been reversed, the Penny story would have been ignored.
All thebpenalties come with interest, so the defendants collectively owe around $450 million, not counting the $80+ million owed to E Jean Carroll. Even for Trump, that's serious money. Trump has of course said he will appeal, but to do so he will need to put up the full amount in bond first,
And what are the odds he will pay? Probably not that good. AFIK, no one has collected on the Alex Jones Sandy Hook verdict either, due to asset shielding. Does anyone actually pay these huge civil verdicts out of pocket? I think his much greater concern is losing a criminal case, and even then, Trump is Teflon and nothing sticks to him. And given his advanced age, he may die before paying anyway. Trump is smart enough to savvy enough to know what lines not to cross. Trump being precluded from running would also have to be weighed against the risk of civil unrest and a major retaliatory blowout turnout in 2024.
greyenlightenment
investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...
4mo ago
Although the odds are low, this is a bigger threat than AI but not as newsworthy. Things which are the least possible, like UFOs, get the most media coverage.
greyenlightenment
investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...
4mo ago
This would be an interesting use of Chat GPT to see if it can tell the difference between a slur used for rhetorical effect or pejoratively
greyenlightenment
investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...
4mo ago
Game development seems like a good enough grift, right?
If the objective is to make money fast, this is probably not an ideal path . Game dev. is saturated beyond belief
greyenlightenment
investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...
2mo ago
This culture of feeling pleasure over the misfortune of the hated Lindell promoted by such media and such echochambers might be influencing your happiness at his misfortune.
it is hard to frame him as a victim, imho. Mike profits from pillow sales by generating media attention. Likewise, the mainstream profits from ad revenue despite also being wrong a lot. The incentives encourage lies and sensationalism on both sides. There is no downside for the media being wrong. They book the ad revenue profit, issue retraction after the damage has been done and ad revenue realized, and move on and people forget.
greyenlightenment
investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...
3mo ago
great write up. nominated
greyenlightenment
investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...
5mo ago
This is not to say that white men are somewhat underrepresented, that despite being 31% of the US population, they’re only 15% of those being cast in ads, or something along those lines. This is to say that there are literally no white men in TV commercials. You can watch ad-supported TV for hours and not see a single one. For a while I noticed that white men were allowed to be shown, but only if there was a non-white, non-male onscreen with them. But more recently the trend has been to simply not show them at all.
yeah, blacks are 13% of US population yet have 70+% representation in ads, it seems. Same for govt. work (not just blacks but other minorities too). Some stereotypes are true.
greyenlightenment
investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...
5mo ago
I am a bit, um, obsessed with the "sex recession": the dramatic decline in sexual activity in high school and college-aged people. Sex is perhaps the most human activity there is--the physical enactment of our Darwinian imperative, the raison d'etre of so many hormone-drenched adolescents. And yet: young people aren't having sex. Why?
It's interesting how some on the right has shifted from decrying how there is too much promiscuity (pre-20210 or so), to now from a trad-perspective decrying how young people are not having enough sex and lowered fertility rates. The left have become the new prudes, in a figurative neopuritan sense but also literally in terms of everything becoming rape or unfounded rape accusations.
Look, I'm not stupid. At this point, I've had enough experience with the "stereotype literature" to know that, overwhelmingly, stereotypes tend to be true. But even I wasn't prepared for how much sex black teens were having in the 90s. I could cite a lot of different numbers, but just to choose one example: apparently, in 1990, more than 80% of black male 9th graders reported being non-virgins. Over 80%! And even if you rightfully suspect some exaggeration due to male ego, more than 65% of black female 9th graders report being non-virgins.
not too surprising , at least to me. Black culture is heavily sexualized especially during the pre-2000s: movies, TV, music, etc. Blacks always playing oversexualized or hyper-masculine roles. Blacks in the early 90s had more relative social statis in high school back then even compared to now, before the influx of Hispanics and other groups became more common.
Why did the US end up with this system? In Canada, there is no equivalent to the SAT. To apply to university, you usually just submit a high school transcript.
It helps that the stakes tend to be much lower. Lower paying jobs, less winner-take-all, fewer billion-dollar tech start-ups, no hedge funds, etc. Reduce the returns to elite education and you consequently reduce the competition too. More competition means you need more testing to differentiate applicants. Overseas, there is a lot of competition despite the economies being weaker than the US, but it's implied that top-scorers who get admitted to top universities, like in India, China, etc. will be able to land good-paying jobs in the US.
Ironic how trying to make it painless just makes it worse
greyenlightenment
investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...
4mo ago
DeSantis isn't making too impressive a showing right now, unless events have moved on, which is rather disappointing after his performance as governor of Florida. Is he now finally deciding to stop trying to be the anti-Trump and come out as his own guy?
if not for Trump, DeSantis has the goods to win. It's just that Trump is so dominant.
the elite dislike trump so much he is still free despite tons of jan 6th ppl actually being sentenced, some for a long time. I don't think the elite ever hated trump that much. Until 2015 trump was heavily embedded with the entertainment industry. This is narrative to explain why he gets negative media coverage. To the elite, Trump is a tool.
I have no idea what the word racist means anymore. The definition has expanded to include, in theory, everyone, making it a useless descriptor.
Many dems believe 2016 was stolen; for the right, it's 2020. The problem is , recent elections have become too close and too high stakes. no one talks about irregularities or inconsistencies of the 1984, 1980, 1996, 2008, or 2012 elections, which were more overtly lopsided. Instead of either side occasionally running duds like Mondale, Dole, Romney, etc. the process of selecting candidates has become much more optimized and the nation more divided, overall, leading to closer elections in which refereeing and counting plays a more important role. This is going to get worse and people will continue to lose faith in the process, for both sides.
More options
Context Copy link