If you were waiting on The Walking Dead to show signs of slow down in the ratings, you may have a long wait ahead. The Season 4 premiere of the AMC show set another ratings record last night with 16.1 million viewers. The previous highest watched episode was the Season 3 finale with 12.4 million viewers. It was so big that the major networks Sunday night ratings were down 17% total.
How about this? NBC has not announced the ratings for last night’s Sunday Night Football but there is a good chance that The Walking Dead may have drawn more viewers in total. That is f***ing insane. With DVR playback, AMC thinks that total viewership could top 20 million viewers. For a basic cable show.
I enjoyed last night’s premiere. I know the series is far from perfect and can never truly encapsulate how great the comic series is but the show made great strides in Season 3 and looks to be moving at a good pace.
The Talking Dead also had big ratings with 5.1 million viewers. I think we can attribute that to Nathan Fillion.
Rule of thumb in the voice acting world: never doubt Troy Baker. That rule used to be “never doubt Nolan North” but Baker has taken that over with his insanely great performances in huge games like Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us. He is also no stranger to the Batman video game world having voiced The Dark Knight in Lego Batman 2 and Two-Face in Batman: Arkham City.
Now, he takes on the biggest possible role in the Batman universe as The Joker in Batman: Arkham Origins and with Mark Hamill “retiring” from the iconic role after twenty years, how can Baker possibly live up to the precedence set before him?
Here is footage from the Arkham Origins panel at New York Comic-Con where Baker reads a monologue as The Joker from Alan Moore’s classic, The Killing Joke. Before you hit play just remember the rule mentioned before.
………damn.
Whatever deal Baker made with the devil to sound so much like Hamill was well worth it.
[amazon_link id=”B00C7103DO” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Batman: Arkham Origins[/amazon_link] releases on October 25th.
Captain Phillips had a great start in its first weekend but still could not catch Gravity. The space drama fell only 21% grossing $44.2 million. That is an incredible holdover for a fall film. The great reviews and word of mouth (check out my review here) have made the wonderful film a true blockbuster. In two weeks it has grossed $191 million worldwide.
Tom Hanks may not have finished in first but he returned to theaters strong. Captain Phillips opened with $26 million, well above expectations. After a slow start to the year for award worthy movies, it looks like we have had two open up back to back with Gravity and Captain Phillips.
Machete Kills had a huge cast and a lot of promotion and could only manage a sad $3.7 million. It is the lowest gross for a movie opening in over 2,500 theaters in…well, forever.
1. Gravity- $44.2 million/ $123.4 million
2. Captain Phillips- $26.0/ $26.0
3. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2- $14.2/ $78.0
The Xbox One may be releasing this November but Microsoft is not resting on its 8 year old workhorse, the Xbox 360. Three new bundles will be available this year for you holiday shoppers. Two will include the Kinect and all three come with the Xbox 350 E console.
Bundle 1- Xbox 360 250GB console, Kinect, Kinect Sports: Season 2, Kinect Adventures, Forza Horizon and one month of Xbox Live Gold- $399.99
Bundle 2- Xbox 360 4GB console, Kinect, Kinect Sports: Season 2, Kinect Adventures and one month of Xbox Live Gold- $299.99
Bundle 3- Xbox 250GB console, Tomb Raider, Halo 4 and one month of Xbox Live Gold- $299.99
If you purchase one of these bundles between October 13th and January 4, 2014, the bundles will come with a $50 discount.
Unless you really want a disappointing experience, I would skip the first two bundles with the Kinect. The Tomb Raider/Halo 4 bundle looks like a great buy for someone who is needing a replacement console or if you have waited 8 years to jump on the 360 train.
Thing I am excited about with the launch of the Xbox One: Killer Instinct. It is my favorite fighter ever and I am praying that it doesn’t get screwed up.
Thing I want that would make it better: This Killer Instinct FightStick by Mad Catz to complete my teenage years arcade experience.
Why it will not happen: $209.99.
I am pretty sure I could find a KI1 or KI2 arcade cabinet for $500. Screw that.
Killer Instinct releases on November 22nd with the Xbox One. It will be available as a download only title for free with Jago playable to everyone. Characters can be purchased individually or in a package.
Top Gun sucks. Yeah, I said it. Even when I was a kid and everyone in elementary school was yelling full blast about how great it was, I still believed it sucked. It will always suck (to me). If you love it, that is between you and God.
Leave it to Archer to make it fun.
This new promo for Season 5 remakes the Kenny Loggins video for Archer fave, Danger Zone, using characters from the show. One great thing is that Lana will never age as badly as Kelly McGillis has. Seriously, go look her up. It is like she stared directly in the Ark of the Covenant.
After Earth was a huge bomb this past summer. I did not go see it because, well, I was not going to pay $10 to see another M. Night Shyamalan movie. I was, however, willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and rent it at a Redbox (it is out this week) and see if it there was more than I thought to it.
Thank God for Screen Junkies.
They are back with a new Honest Trailer for the Will & Jaden Smith sci-fi movie and good sweet merciful God, what the hell is this? I dare you to watch this and not compare it to another scientologist’s huge bomb, Battlefield Earth.
Will Smith’s name is Cypher Raige.
I’m done. I was on the Shymalan train with everybody else when The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs came out. Hell, I even like The Village. But what the hell happened? He was called the next Hitchcock, now he is on his way to being the next Roger Corman.
Master thief Garrett is back in a new gameplay trailer for Thief. The game is looking quite moody and beautiful and hopefully can keep the legacy of the Thief franchise going. It is being developed by Eidos and published by Square, so if it sells 3 million copies, Square will call it a disappointment.
