It's the nerds, basically: "The model for modern language creation lies not in philosophy or international relations, but in the work of the Lord of the Rings author, J. R. R. Tolkien—that is, in fantasy." - The Atlantic
Last year's surprise global hit: "Men wrestle tigers and hurl motorcycles, entire armies are single-handedly subdued, the dance scenes are supercharged. Stylised, CGI-heavy, logic-defying, yet ingeniously choreographed and meticulously composed, it feels like something fresh and invigorating." - The Guardian (UK)
The two-hour special averaged about 5.1 million total viewers, which was up 18% compared to last year’s audience of about 4.3M. It was the No. 1 show of the night in terms of total viewership. - Deadline
"Unlike the schlockier disaster porn that precedes it, the technical disaster movie depicts a real or realistic catastrophe that is in principle avoidable. Their carnage and destruction are never existential horrors or acts of God; they are the consequences of human complacency, stupidity or resignation." - The Point
Critics hated it, audiences flocked to it, and some social media commenters and media columnists argues that it was immoral even to have written and made the show. Did they have a point, or did they miss the point? - BBC
The Avatar sequel comes at a time of great debate in the VFX world about the working environment and treatment of VFX artists in the blockbuster movie space. - BBC
On the high end, it’s a 22% jump from what Comscore is expecting 2022 to final at, that being $7.4B. This year’s domestic box office also reps a 72% surge over 2021’s $4.3 billion. - Deadline
The story of the year was undoubtedly HBO Max; Warner Brothers Discovery CEO David Zaslav made radical changes to the streaming structure and axed many in development, renewed, in production, and completed projects. - Collider
"On TV, 2022 has been the year of the American dream — with a catch. For many of the hustlers, entrepreneurs and strugglers onscreen, that aspiration still exists. But ... it can cost you an important part of yourself." - The New York Times
Believe it or not, the movie still hasn't made a profit: it will need to gross between $1.5 billion and $2 billion to recoup its famously high costs. The original Avatar, released in 2009, is the highest-grossing film in history at $2.97 billion. - Variety
All of the major cable network operators — A+E Networks, AMC Networks, Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery — have seen annual output of scripted and unscripted content decline when compared with cable’s peak year for output, which is 2014. - Variety
The danger of the current moment is a second hollowing: the relegation of even lower-budget productions to commercial oblivion, the ever-widening gap between the spectacular successes and the quiet failures. In a way, the industry has done itself in, aesthetically. - The New Yorker
"Do we want you to argue with this list? Of course we do. That's the nature of the beast. ... No doubt you'll say: How could that movie have been left off the list? Or this one? Or that one? Trust us: We often asked that very same question ourselves." - Variety
Streaming may be the future, but in the present, it’s not paying the bills. The subtext of the Streaming Wars always has been that the heady days of free-for-all spending wouldn’t last forever. - The Ringer
Here's the story of how Zhang Yiming built the tech giant ByteDance and its star video app became a global juggernaut — only to find itself caught between U.S. concerns about data privacy and the ever-tighter rule of Xi Jinping's Chinese Communist Party. - The New York Times Magazine
