draws

Amazon’s prequel series to The Lord of the Rings – The Rings of Power – made its debut on Prime Video after years of hype for Amazon’s most ambitious streaming project to date.   Unsurprisingly, this adaptation of Tolkien’s lore did not disappoint when it came to numbers. It attracted a whopping 25 million viewers on opening day, obliterating the 10 million set by HBO’s Game of Thrones spin-off, House of the Dragon just over a week prior.   This was likely helped by the headline-dominating publicity regarding the…

ADT Inc. ADT 16.23% has secured investments totaling $1.5 billion from State Farm and a partnership aimed at expanding the security company’s customer base and improving risk-mitigation for insured homeowners, the companies said. Under the deal, which was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal, State Farm will spend $1.2 billion to buy 133.3 million ADT shares, or about 15% of the company. That represents a share price of $9,…

TikTok, with its over billion users, is one of the most downloaded apps in the world. However, it has been facing increased scrutiny in recent times over data security concerns. Several cybersecurity analysts reportedly discovered a security breach of an insecure TikTok server which supposedly allowed access to storage containing personal user data. TikTok has refuted these claims of a breach. However, Microsoft too reportedly discovered a “high-severity vulnerability” in the Android application of TikTok, “which would…

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has set a new record. Amazon Prime Video has confirmed that the LOTR prequel series has drawn 25 million global viewers, within the first 24 hours, making it the biggest premiere on the service. This is a monumental feat, given Amazon has already dumped in over a billion dollars (about Rs. 7,993 crore) for its five-season commitment. The Rings of Power premiered on September 2, with the first two episodes, exclusively on Prime Video.“It is somehow fitting that Tolkien's stories —…

By Jonathan Landrum Jr. | Associated Press LOS ANGELES — “Spider-Man: No Way Home” has swung back on top of the box office during a holiday weekend where American theaters aimed to lure moviegoers with discounted $3 tickets. The first “National Cinema Day” nationwide promotion became the highest-attended day of the year, drawing an estimated 8.1 million moviegoers on Saturday, according to The Cinema Foundation. The one-day event – offered on more than 30,000 screens and held in more than 3,000 theaters, including major…

An AMC movie theater in New York.Scott Mlyn | CNBCA $3 movie ticket promotion meant to boost sales across cinemas during a typically sleepy weekend for the business has drawn in 8.1 million customers, according to the National Association of Theater Owners.By those numbers, Saturday was the best day of the year for movie theater attendance, the group said.Movie theaters pulled in $24.3 million in ticket sales from the National Cinema Day promotion, according to Comscore. The media analytics company said that was a 9%…

Amazon. com Inc. said more than 25 million people around the world sampled the premiere of its highly-anticipated series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” on Sept 2., the biggest debut in the streaming service’s history. Based on the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, the series is the most expensive television production ever. The Wall Street Journal reported that the budget to make the show, coupled with the fee to acquire the rights from the Tolkien…

Nigerian stocks gained 0.25 per cent between them on Wednesday, partly offsetting the rout the market encountered at the previous session as the exuberance from the strong earnings performance of Stanbic IBTC Holdings at half year spurred activity. The net profit of the financial services group accelerated to N30.7 billion for the period from January to June after revenue expanded by 45.2 per cent, triggering increased buy orders for its shares. Its board also declared an interim dividend per share of N1.50, a…

HBO’s “House of the Dragon” drew nearly 10 million viewers in the U.S. during its Sunday night debut and briefly led the HBO Max streaming platform to crash for some users, in another sign of the interest in the prequel to “Game of Thrones.” The audience was the largest in HBO’s history for the debut of a new series, the network said. The strong premiere numbers for “House of the Dragon” comes at a critical time for HBO and its new parent company Warner…

All hail the queens of Beyoncé and Madonna’s “Break My Soul (The Queens Remix),” who are officially losing their minds over their shout-outs from the supreme Queen Bey.Lizzo, Kelly Rowland, Jill Scott, Alicia Keys, Missy Elliott and more have responded on social media to the remix, which crowns a number of female artists — past and present — musical royalty in the style of Madonna’s “Vogue.” The “Queens” edition of Beyoncé's hit single came out on Friday — a week after the buzzy release of her seventh studio album,…