When Netflix said they were getting into the live sports business, we never expected they meant this…Famed competitive eater Joey “Jaws” Chestnut will go bun-to-bun with rival Takeru Kobayashi on Labor Day in a weiner-takes-all hot dog eating competition, an announcement made in the wake of Chestnut being banned from competing at Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4th. A lot has transpired in the world of competitive eating this week, so let’s play ketchup.

Earlier this week, Joey Chestnut – who has won Nathan’s contest 16 times, including last year’s and 2021’s record-setting 76-dog day – unveiled that he had been disinvited from the Coney Island contest. This was due to Chesnut having a sponsorship with Impossible Foods, which Major League Eating deemed a “rival brand.” Chesnut took to X to express his frustrations, writing, “I was gutted to learn from the media that after 19 years Im banned from the Nathan’s July 4th Hot Dog Eating Contest. I love competing in that event, I love celebrating America with my fans all over this great country on the 4th and I have been training to defend my title.” He ended his remarks with, “Sadly, this is the decision Nathan’s and Major League Eating are making, and it will deprive the great fans of the holiday’s usual joy and entertainment. To my fans, I love you and appreciate you.  Rest assured that you’ll see me eat again soon!! STAY HUNGRY!”

Enter Netflix, who announced one day later that Joey Chestnut will take on Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi in the aforementioned September 2nd showdown. Kobayashi – who holds world records in eating everything from buffalo wings to cow brains – actually announced his retirement just last month but is clearly up for competing to be top dog. “Retiring for me will only happen after I take him down one last time. This rivalry has been brewing for a long time. Competing against Joey live on Netflix means fans all over the world can watch me knock him out.”

While it’s a huge disappointment for fans of competitive eating (or those curious to see what gluttons are made of) that Joey Chestnut will not be at Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest this year, Netflix’s offering is far from a wurst-case scenario.

How do you feel about Joey Chestnut being banned from Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest? Will you check out his match against Kobayashi on Labor Day?

The post Joey Chestnut to face Kobyashi in live Netflix event following Nathan’s Hot Dog ban appeared first on JoBlo.

The weekend sees the release of Pixar’s Inside Out 2. Given the company’s dire track record as of late, many expect it to be the movie that puts the company back on top of the box office heap. Over at Box Office Pro, they predict the movie can open with anywhere from $85 to 115 million. While I’d love to see the box office get a much-needed kick in the pants, I think these predictions are too optimistic for a few reasons.

For one, PIxar’s track record in terms of openings has been pretty bad over the last few years. Lightyear, which everyone assumed would be a smash hit given that it’s a spin-off of the Toy Story movies, opened with $50 million, a number many considered disastrous. However, it got a lot worse, with Elemental opening to a terrible $29 million last summer, even though it legged out to a decent $150 million plus finish (significantly ahead of Lightyear, which was torpedoed by bad worth of mouth). Inside Out 2 is getting respectful reviews (including ours), but no one is saying its on par with the original, which opened with $90 million nine years ago, on track to an incredible $350 million plus finish – a number that used to be pretty achievable for the company.

But, ever since the disastrous idea to release Pixar movies direct to Disney Plus during the pandemic and to shorten theatrical windows, family audiences have been very picky about what they go see. Going to a movie with the family is very pricey, and people are having to tighten their belts a bit, and they’ve been feeling it at the box office for years. While I still think Inside Out 2 will open decently, I do not expect it to make over $60 million. Even that number might be overly optimistic, but we’ll see.

Meanwhile, Bad Boys: Ride or Die should easily hang on to number 2, with it looking to fall about 50% to $28 million. The Garfield Movie should lose most of its family audience in the face of Inside Out 2, meaning it will finish in 3rd place with about $6 million. John Krasinski’s IF should hold on to 4th place with about $5 million, while WB’s The Watchers, which lost a huge chunk of its audience this week, should slip to 6th behind Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which should make about $3 million.

Here are my predictions:

1. Inside Out 2: $60 million
2. Bad Boys: Ride or Die: $27 million
3. The Garfield Move: $6 million
4. IF: $5 million
5. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: $3 million

Do you think Inside Out 2 will do better than I think it will? Let us know in the comments!

The post Box Office Predictions: Will Inside Out 2 restore Pixar’s box office crown? appeared first on JoBlo.

During Summer Game Fest last week, Deck Nine Games revealed that it’s returning to original Life Is Strange protagonist Max Caulfield in a direct sequel, Life Is Strange: Double Exposure. The studio held a reveal lifestream today, June 13, and on top of interviews with the development team and Max voice actor Hannah…

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During Summer Game Fest last week, Deck Nine Games revealed that it’s returning to original Life Is Strange protagonist Max Caulfield in a direct sequel, Life Is Strange: Double Exposure. The studio held a reveal lifestream today, June 13, and on top of interviews with the development team and Max voice actor Hannah…

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The same year he was cast to play the iconic character Kramer on the sitcom Seinfeld, Michael Richards could also be seen on the big screen in the comedy UHF – which was a financial disappointment at the time of its release in the summer of 1989, but has gone on to gather a huge cult following over the years. Musician “Weird Al” Yankovic plays the lead role of George Newman, who is put in charge of the UHF television channel Channel 62, with Richards in the supporting role of janitor-turned-host Stanley Spadowski… and for a while, it looked like Richards would be playing Stanley while dealing with a case of Bell’s palsy.

As Richards writes in his memoir Entrances and Exits, “Before the Seinfeld pilot, I star in three pilots: Herndon (1983), Help (1984), and Slickers (1985). All three are offered to me. The second pilot, Help, is retooled and called Marblehead Manor, and NBC airs twenty-four episodes in the 1987-1988 season. Though I didn’t find my niche in the pilots, I am able to do some physical comedy in Marblehead Manor. The producers welcome it, and the writers serve me well. The work I do provides a segue into the character of Stanley Spadowski in Weird Al’s film UHF.

It’s summer 1988, and I’m set to head for Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the next six weeks of shooting when out of the blue half my face freezes up with Bell’s palsy. What causes this kind of paralysis is a mystery, but it looks like I’ll have to back out of the film. I call Weird Al, and his response is classic. “Now you can play Stanley with half your face not working. You’ll be funny. It’ll be great.”

Right. It’s all part of the character now.

When I get to Tulsa for the shoot, Al is eager to see my face, but the palsy has gone away. He’s actually disappointed. Then, he lights up. “Maybe it’ll come back!”“

I’m sure Richards didn’t share Weird Al’s disappointment that his Bell’s palsy facial paralysis had gone away, but it’s nice to know that Al was supportive and encouraged Richards to report to set while he was dealing with the medical condition.

Directed by Jay Levey, who wrote the screenplay with Weird Al, UHF has the following synopsis: After losing yet another job, George wonders if there is any career that can handle his outrageous personality. When George’s uncle hands him the deed to a local TV station, George creates a series of television shows based on social satire and hyperactive humor, with the help of his best friend, Bob. However, a rival station’s bitter CEO tries to destroy George’s wacky programming, forcing him to fight back.

Weird Al and Michael Richards were joined in the cast by David Bowe, Fran Drescher, Kevin McCarthy, Victoria Jackson, Stanley Brock, Sue Ane Langdon, Anthony Geary, Billy Barty, Trinidad Silva, Gedde Watanabe, Vance Colvig Jr., David Proval, John Paragon, Belinda Bauer, Dr. Demento, Emo Philips, Patrick Thomas O’Brien, John Cadenhead, and the Kipper Kids.

Are you a fan of UHF? What do you think of Michael Richards’ story of Bell’s palsy and Weird Al? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post UHF: Michael Richards nearly played his role with a case of Bell’s palsy appeared first on JoBlo.

HBO‘s sophomore season of House of the Dragon doesn’t premiere until Sunday, but the network is ready to announce Season 3 today! This announcement is an amoosbouche for the carnage, incest, and backstabbing to come when Season 2 launches this weekend. Word about HBO greenlighting House of the Dragon Season 3 is hardly a surprise, considering the show’s overwhelming success. In addition to attracting new fans to the epic familial drama series, many who wrote off Game of Thrones after an underwhelming final season have caved to the FOMO and embraced the star-studded spinoff.

House of the Dragon is based on George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood,” set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, and focuses on the House Targaryen.

After a significant death in House of the Dragon Season 1, Rhaenyra and Alicent are ready to go to war, trading “blood for blood” and burning oppressors where they stand. The Game of Thrones spinoff is set hundreds of years before the original series. It is based upon George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, a Targaryen history book that chronicles the history of House Targaryen, starting with “Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and [going on] to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold the throne, all the way up to the civil war, known as the Dance of the Dragons, that nearly tore their dynasty apart.”

Matt Smith, Eve Best, Steve Toussaint, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno, Harry Collett, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, Phia Saban, Jefferson Hall, Matthew Needham. Abubakar Salim, Gayle Rankin, Freddie Fox, and Simon Russell Beale join D’Arcy and Cooke as primary cast members.

While House of the Dragon Season 3 was inevitable, it’s nice to have an official announcement about the show’s continuation. In addition to more House of the Dragon, HBO is working on another GOT spinoff series, Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. HBO has now cast the lead roles for The Hedge Knight, with Peter Claffey (Vikings: Valhalla) and Dexter Sol Ansell (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) set to star in the series as Dunk and Egg.

The official logline for The Hedge Knight: “A century before the events of Game of Thrones, two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros … a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall (Claffey), and his diminutive squire, Egg (Ansell). Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne, and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends.”

The Hedge Knight is written and executive produced by George R.R. Martin and Ira Parker, with Ryan Condal, Vince Gerardis, Owen Harris, and Sarah Bradshaw also executive producing. The series is based on three novellas published by Martin — The Hedge Knight (1998), The Sworn Sword (2003), and The Mystery Knight (2010). All three stories were then collected and published together as A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms in 2015. The stories have typically been seen as “lighter” tales in the realm of Westeros, but we’ll see if the series follows suit.

The post House of the Dragon to breathe fire on fans again after getting a Season 3 renewal at HBO appeared first on JoBlo.

I have no bullets left in my handgun. I’m low on health. In front of me is an armed soldier ready to shoot my head off. I don’t have more than a second or two before I’m dead. So I chuck my empty pistol at the dude, knocking him down. Meanwhile, I grab his gun and swiftly kill him and two more guards running toward my…

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I have no bullets left in my handgun. I’m low on health. In front of me is an armed soldier ready to shoot my head off. I don’t have more than a second or two before I’m dead. So I chuck my empty pistol at the dude, knocking him down. Meanwhile, I grab his gun and swiftly kill him and two more guards running toward my…

Read more…

Overwatch 2 typically cycles through skins and other cosmetics in its shop, offering certain skins for a few weeks before removing them. Some you can buy directly from the hero menu after they’ve left the shop. But there are some skins that have only been available through limited means and for a short period of time…

Read more…

Overwatch 2 typically cycles through skins and other cosmetics in its shop, offering certain skins for a few weeks before removing them. Some you can buy directly from the hero menu after they’ve left the shop. But there are some skins that have only been available through limited means and for a short period of time…

Read more…