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Sales of fiction books have risen
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Adult fiction titles are booming, thanks to BookTok

It Ends With Us is the latest big screen adaptation to make millions at the box office

Millie Giles

This weekend was a big win for one Hollywood power couple, as Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool & Wolverine surpassed $1 billion at the global box office, and Blake Lively’s big screen adaptation of romance-drama novel It Ends With Us achieved a $50 million debut. Perhaps the only person with more to celebrate than the Reynolds-Lively household, though, is the author of the book that inspired the latter movie: Colleen Hoover.

While the 44-year-old Texan first self-published back in 2012, her books have exploded in popularity since 2020. According to Circana BookScan via Vox, Hoover’s titles have now sold almost 30 million in-print copies; in 2022, she held 6 of the top 10 spots in the NYT paperback fiction list, outselling the Bible that year; and It Ends With Us has been a NYT bestseller for over 132 weeks, currently standing at No.1 for combined print & e-book fiction despite being published 8 years ago.

Page-turning

Indeed, Hoover’s meteoric rise has coincided with the ‘BookTok’ boom. During the pandemic, a global community of readers and authors converged on video sharing app TikTok to discuss their favorite titles, offer recommendations, and post reactions to viral novels, giving rise to major author success stories like Hoover, Sarah J Maas, and Taylor Jenkins Reid, among others.

Cut to present, and the #BookTok hashtag has garnered over 35.6 million posts, and counted more than 200 billion total views on the app at the end of last year. Zoom out, and you can even see a broader jump in the popularity of young adult fiction (+50%) and adult fiction (+42%) titles — BookTok’s bread and butter — relative to pre-pandemic 2018, per Circana research on the US book industry; meanwhile, nonfiction titles have seen a slight slump over the same period.

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Millie Giles
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Kids these days are listening to more songs from the good old days

Music nostalgia is in full swing, and the younger listeners of today appear to be partying like it’s pre-1999.

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Drake whiffs on an expected No. 1 on Spotify

Drake started at the bottom and he’s here, but not quite at the top... of Spotify, at least.

It’s been nearly three weeks since Drake dropped his three surprise albums — “Iceman,” “Habibti,” and “Maid of Honour.” Heading into the month, prediction markets were rating it a near certainty, a 98% chance, that Drake’s sonic onslaught was enough to snag the No. 1 slot on Spotify at least once in June.

But, while he surpassed the late Michael Jackson and took up three slots on the Billboard album chart at once, his newly released songs haven’t quite cracked the popular music-streaming platform’s top charts, and market seem to think the moment has passed.

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(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

Spotify’s “Top Songs - Global” chart currently show that Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” which is more than four decades old, Justin Bieber’s “Beauty and a Beat,” which climbed back to the top of Spotify charts following his Coachella set in the spring, Olivia Rodrigo’s new angsty love song “The Cure,” and BTS’s “Swim” are all ahead of Drake’s “STFU Janice” from his “Iceman” album.

While Spotify previously reported last month that Drake’s “Make Them Cry” was the most streamed album in a single day this year, that was later revealed to be a data error.

Prediction markets currently show traders are betting there’s only a 15% chance Drake will have a No. 1 song on Spotify in June.

Meanwhile, Taylor Swift is in the lead at 98% — a day before the release of her new original song “I Knew It, I Knew You,” which she wrote and performed for Disney and Pixar’s upcoming “Toy Story 5” — followed by Olivia Rodrigo, whose highly anticipated album “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love” comes out next Friday.

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(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

Spotify’s “Top Songs - Global” chart currently show that Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” which is more than four decades old, Justin Bieber’s “Beauty and a Beat,” which climbed back to the top of Spotify charts following his Coachella set in the spring, Olivia Rodrigo’s new angsty love song “The Cure,” and BTS’s “Swim” are all ahead of Drake’s “STFU Janice” from his “Iceman” album.

While Spotify previously reported last month that Drake’s “Make Them Cry” was the most streamed album in a single day this year, that was later revealed to be a data error.

Prediction markets currently show traders are betting there’s only a 15% chance Drake will have a No. 1 song on Spotify in June.

Meanwhile, Taylor Swift is in the lead at 98% — a day before the release of her new original song “I Knew It, I Knew You,” which she wrote and performed for Disney and Pixar’s upcoming “Toy Story 5” — followed by Olivia Rodrigo, whose highly anticipated album “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love” comes out next Friday.

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Collectibles revenue grew 65% year over year in its latest quarter.

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Will critics and audiences go out of this world for Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day”?

Legendary director Steven Spielberg is back with his first film in four years.

While 2022’s Oscar-nominated “The Fabelmans” was a semi-autobiographical film, it looks like he’s back to his sci-fi roots with the upcoming release of Universal Pictures’ “Disclosure Day.”

The movie stars Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Colman Domingo, and follows a cybersecurity whistleblower (O’Connor) and meteorologist (Blunt) who work together to uncover government secrets and expose the truth about extraterrestrial life.

Some first reactions out of early screenings shared on social media have been praising the film so far. Germain Lussier, a senior entertainment reporter at Gizmodo, posted on X that the movie is Spielberg’s “best film in 20 years,” while many have praised Blunt’s performance as one of her best. Others have said it is reminiscent of the filmmaker’s other sci-fi classics like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”

To be considered “fresh,” movies have to receive at least 60% on Rotten Tomatoes. While the global embargo for formal reviews doesn’t lift until Tuesday, June 9, at 12 p.m. ET following more advance screenings in Los Angeles, New York, and other cities ahead of the June 12 release date, traders on prediction markets are currently betting there is a 68% chance that the movie will score above 85% on the site.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

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‘Disclosure Day’ First Reactions Call Steven Spielberg’s Sci-Fi Epic ‘His Best Film in 20 Years’ and Praise Emily Blunt’s ‘All-Time’ Performance

‘Disclosure Day’ First Reactions Call Steven Spielberg’s Sci-Fi Epic ‘His Best Film in 20 Years’ and Praise Emily Blunt’s ‘All-Time’ Performance

The movie stars Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Colman Domingo, and follows a cybersecurity whistleblower (O’Connor) and meteorologist (Blunt) who work together to uncover government secrets and expose the truth about extraterrestrial life.

Some first reactions out of early screenings shared on social media have been praising the film so far. Germain Lussier, a senior entertainment reporter at Gizmodo, posted on X that the movie is Spielberg’s “best film in 20 years,” while many have praised Blunt’s performance as one of her best. Others have said it is reminiscent of the filmmaker’s other sci-fi classics like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”

To be considered “fresh,” movies have to receive at least 60% on Rotten Tomatoes. While the global embargo for formal reviews doesn’t lift until Tuesday, June 9, at 12 p.m. ET following more advance screenings in Los Angeles, New York, and other cities ahead of the June 12 release date, traders on prediction markets are currently betting there is a 68% chance that the movie will score above 85% on the site.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

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Millie Giles
BLOCKS, BUSTED
6/3/26
Major movie franchise sequels might not be the safe bet they once were

With internet-born indie horrors storming past the latest “Star Wars” movie, it seems Hollywood’s winning formula might not always add up.

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