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A Minecraft Movie just beat Captain America and Mario at the box office. The new film, inspired by the beloved brick-based video game and starring Jack Black and Jason Mamoa, pulled in $157 million at its domestic box office opening this weekend. Thats more than double analysts early prediction that the film would gross $60 million. Its also well past the record of the previous top opener of 2025, Disneys Captain America: Brave New World, which netted $88.5 million at its opening weekendmeaning A Minecraft Movie has now enjoyed the most successful opening weekend of the year. By video game-to-movie adaptation standards, the Minecraft film is also playing in a league of its own. In 2019, for example, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu opened with a $58 million weekend, and, last year, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 opened with $60 million at the box office (considered a strong start at the time). The Super Mario Bros. Movie, released in 2023, was the previous record holder for the largest video game adaptation opening weekend of all time, raking in $145 million. By all accounts, A Minecraft Movies debut has been a smashing success. Rocky Horror for Gen Alpha? To some extent, it makes sense that A Minecraft Movie might appeal to wide audiences, given that, as of 2023, it had sold over 300 million copies, making it the second most-sold video game behind only Tetris. Still, even the most optimistic industry analysts capped the films potential box office open earnings at $90 million, and it had a so-so rating of 48% on Rotten Tomatoes before this weekend. One explanation for the films success could be its memeability. Over the weekend, many viewers took to social media to share that younger audiencesparticularly Gen Alphaseemed to be turning the Minecraft movie-viewing experience into an interactive event. Videos of audiences clapping every few minutes, reciting lines aloud, and even throwing popcorn in the air have all gone viral on TikTok, with some viewers even reporting that the police had to be called to their screenings to settle audiences down. I saw Minecraft in the theater with my kids last night and am still processing what I saw, one tweet with 46,000 likes reads. The only cinematic experience I can compare the audience participation to is Rocky Horror, except its with teenagers and their phones and the movie is not even a weekend old. Audiences have particularly taken to one scene in which a baby zombie (one of Minecrafts main monsters) rides a cuboid chicken, causing Blacks character to exclaim, Chicken jockey! Clips of audiences reacting rowdily to the scene made the rounds over the weekend, which, in turn, only attracted more viewers eager to join the trend to theaters. [Image: Warner Bros. Pictures] the minecraft movie is truly one of the worst movies ive ever seen but the universal reaction to ‘chicken jockey’ im seeing made it all worth it, one X user wrote. Another added, The Minecraft Movie is a must watch cultural experience, over a video of audience members giving the chicken jockey scene a standing ovation. Considering that the film has been in theaters for just four days, only time will tell whether A Minecraft Movie becomes the next Rocky Horror Picture Show, or if (in a much more likely scenario) young fans’ outsized reactions are only a passing fad.
Category:
E-Commerce
Economy Candys shelves brim with sweets from around the worldgummies from Germany, lollipops from Spain, chocolates from Japan, and a panoply of candies from across the U.S. Standing amid it all, columns of bright jellybeans to his left and exotic Kit Kats to his right, owner Mitchell Cohen is quick with his assessment of how many of this shops 2,000-plus items are affected by the historic round of tariffs announced by President Donald Trump. I think all of them, Cohen says at his store on New York’s Lower East Side. Few corners of the American economy are untouched, directly or indirectly, by the sweeping tariffs being imposed by Trumpeven a little store like Economy Candy. Cohen had just begun to feel a barrage of inflation-driven price increases from suppliers ease when the tariff threats arrived. For a business with a name like Economy Candy, he wants to remain affordable but fears how high some prices may have to climb in the coming months. I think its gonna be another round of this hyperinflation on some items, says 39-year-old Cohen. If were putting tariffs everywhere, it is going to go up. Stepping into Economy Candy feels like a time warp. Its name is emblazoned on a sign in a vintage, blaring red script, and crossing below its green-and-white striped awning, past the bins of Smarties, butterscotches and Lemonheads in the front window, an indecipherable sweetness fills the air, oldies music sounds overhead, and customers mill around stacks of candy bars they forgot still existed. It represents just a blip in the countrys $54 billion candy industry. But it was already feeling the weight of surges in prices of cocoa and other ingredients before tariffs were layered on. Candy and gum prices are up about 34% from five years ago and 89% from 2005, according to Consumer Price Index data. Price, according to the National Confectioners Association, has become the top factor in consumers candy purchase decisions, outweighing a buyer’s mood. About a third of Economy Candys products are imported, crowded on shelves and tables near the stores rear. There arent just more German Haribo varieties than the Haribo store in Germany, as Cohen claims, but gummies the brand makes in France, Austria, and Britain. They have every Milka bar they can find in Switzerland, every type of Leone hard candies that Italy churns out and as many exotic Kit Kats from Japan as they can fit. On products like these, the tariffs toll is obvious. Pistachio Snickers bars are from India, now subject to 26% tariffs, while passion fruit mousse Snickers are from Portugal, now under the 20% European Union levies. But even an American-made Snickers isnt immune. While the bars may roll off conveyors in Texas, they rely on ingredients from around the globe. Sourcemap, which tracks supply chains, says Snickers bars include chocolate from Guyana and sugar from Brazil and are wrapped in packaging from Canada. All are now subjected to varying levels of tariffs. Theres a lot of ingredients in there that have to come from other countries, says Andreas Waldkirch, an economics professor at Colby College who teaches a class on international trade. Unless youre talking about something very simple from your local farmers market, almost every product relies on ingredients from elsewhere. Those indirect costs are really whats going to drive up prices. The story repeats with American candies across the storethe boxes of Nerds and bags of Sugar Babies and rolls of Smarties are all inextricably tied to the global supply chain. A table teeming with those domestic delicacies takes center stage near Economy Candys entrance. Cohen took over the store from his parents, who took it over from their parents before. He got his first haircut in the store. He was behind the register as a child. He took his wife by on their first date. As a kid, everything on the stores centerpiece table of American treats cost 59 cents. By 2020, the price was $1.29, but customers who bought a whole box paid a discounted rate of $1 per piece. Now, Cohen cant even get them wholesale at that price. Today, he sells the items on the table for $1.59. Cohen calls the selection a loss leader but thinks it’s important to showcase his store’s affordability. Once the tariffs are fully implemented, hes not sure hell be able to put off price increases. When your margins are coming down and your dollar doesnt go as far at the end of the day, you really start to feel it, he says. But I dont want anyone to come into Economy Candy and not think that its economical. The biggest-ticket implications of the tariff blitz understandably gain the most attentionthe thousands of dollars a cars price tag may grow, the tens of thousands that disappear from a retirement account in a single day. But here among the root beer barrels and licorice strands, you’re reminded that small-dollar items are affected too, and so are the families selling them. At its birth, the business Cohens grandfather started focused on shoe and hat repairs. But in the wake of the Great Depression, when few in a neighborhood of crowded tenements had money for such fixes, the business pivoted. Candy, once relegated to a cart out front, took over the store. In the 88 years since, business hasn’t always been Chuckles and Zagnuts. The Sept. 11 attacks kept tourists away and had sales sagging and the pandemic closed the store and forced it to pivot to online sales. If tariffs upend things, Cohen isnt sure how he might adapt again. He sells products that arent made in America and he sells American products made with ingredients from across the globe. He had just been making headway on beginning international sales, but the web of tariff rules may make it impossible. The average U.S. tariff could rise to nearly 25% if the import taxes Trump put on goods from dozens of countries are fully implemented Wednesday. That would be the highest rate in more than a century, including tariffs widely blamed for worsening the Great Depression. Trump said imposing the tariffs amounted to a liberation day for a country that has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by friend and foe alike, insisting it was very, very good news for the U.S. Cohen isn’t sure how that can be true for a business like his. I can understand bringing manufacturing and bringing things back to America, but you know, we rely on raw materials that just arent native to our country, he says. And its not like I can get a green tea Japanese Kit Kat from an American company. As Cohen stood before mounds of strawberry candies in shiny wrappers and little cubes of caramel in cellophane, the first word of the tariffs concrete impact on him arrived. A French supplier emailed saying it wa immediately imposing a 5% surcharge due to the tariffs, expressing regret for the move and hope that the situation will be resolved swiftly. Cohen wore a smile anyway. He wants this to be a happy place for visitors. You travel back to a time when nothing mattered, Cohen says, “when you didnt worry about anything. Matt Sedensky, AP national writer
Category:
E-Commerce
John Gutierrez had been thinking about buying a new laptop for the past year. The Austin, Texas, resident needed a computer with faster processing and increased storage for his photography work and had his sights set on a product from a Taiwanese brand.Then President Donald Trump announced expansive new import tariffs Wednesday, including a 32% tax on imports from Taiwan. That same day, Gutierrez ordered the laptop, with a base price of $2,400, from a retailer in New York specializing in photo and video gear.“I thought I’d bite the bullet, buy it now, and then that way I’ll have the latest technology on my laptop and don’t have to worry about the tariffs,” he said.Gutierrez was among the U.S. consumers rushing to buy big-ticket items before the tariffs take effect. Economists say the tariffs are expected to increase prices for everyday items, warning of potentially weakened U.S. economic growth.The White House hopes the tariffs prod countries to open their economies to more American exports, leading to negotiations that could reduce tariffs, or that companies increase their production in the U.S. to avoid higher import taxes.Rob Blackwell and his wife needed a new car that could handle long drives from Arlington, Virginia, to their son’s college. Their current electric vehicle is older with a limited range, and it will soon be used by his daughter, who is on the verge of getting her driver’s license.“I have been telling my wife that for some time we were going to need to do it,” he said, “and I was watching to see what the president did with tariffs.”Blackwell wanted another EV, but said leasing made more economic sense because the technology is ever-changing. He had his eye on the new General Motors Optiq; it’s an American car but made in Mexico, which could be subject to tariffs on supply chains that might increase the cost.After hearing that tariffs would be announced, they made plans the weekend before to lease the car. He said the dealership honored the agreement they worked out before the tariffs were finalized. And although he said the salespeople were a pleasure to deal with, Blackwell sensed a shift in their stance.“They know what we know, which is suddenly it flips from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market very quickly,” Blackwell said, adding that he is happy with his choice.“It was just a simple rational decision,” he said. “If this is what the government’s going to do, I need to get my act together.”Lee Wochner, CEO of the Burbank, California-based Counterintuity marketing and strategy firm, also needed a new vehicle. He wanted a more presentable car for business meetings, but kept putting it off because of his busy work schedule.On March 27, a Thursday, he told his firm’s car broker: “Ed, I need a car pronto and it’s got to happen by Sunday.”The broker gave him some car and pricing options and he leased an Audi Q3, which was delivered Sunday to his house by a nearby dealership.A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation showed how much he saved by leasing before the tariffs were implemented. If he had waited, Wochner said, it would have cost about another $4,300.“One of the things my car broker said was that deals that were already written, some of the dealerships were ripping them up already and renegotiating them because they were afraid that they weren’t going to be able to get enough new inventory at a price anybody would buy,” he said.He believes prices will continue to increase because the U.S. has lost the trust of the international trade market.“If you need a new car, if you can get that pre-tariff deal still, you should go get it,” he said, “because who knows what next Wednesday might be like.” Claire Rush and Mark Thiessen, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
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