Paramount pushes in: New streamers are still finding ways to grow

2/16/23 7:00PM

Mounting‍

‍Paramount+ just had its best quarter on record after welcoming 9.9 million new subscribers to the Plus party.

The bad news for those new subs? Things are only going to get more pricey from here on in. Paramount is keen to capitalize on its growing sub-count, making the decision to hike prices across its major markets after the wider company saw an advertising slump which sent sales down 7% for the quarter.

‍New kid on the couch

‍Since rebranding from CBS All Access back in early 2021, Paramount’s foray into streaming has been a blockbuster success, gaining subscribers every quarter, unlike some of its more long-standing rivals which have started to stagnate. Global smash hits like Top Gun: Maverick and the neo-Western series Yellowstone were highlighted as key international drivers for Q4, helping the platform to pull up a seat at the 50m+ club.

All told, Paramount+ now sits at 56m subscribers, up ~40m in 2 years, a clear sign that its partnership-based approach to the streaming game — it offered all Walmart+ members a free subscription last year, for example — is clearly paying off. While it’s still some way off Netflix, which recently deprived its 231 million-strong subscriber base of its shuffling “surprise me” feature, Paramount+ still looks to be on a healthy trajectory. It seems that there's still space on the couch for multiple streaming services to capture 50-100m strong audiences.

Millie Giles20h

Tamagotchis are making a comeback, 3 decades after first becoming a global toy craze

If you were a ’90s kid, you might remember the craze around little egg-shaped toys with an 8-bit digital screen, displaying an ambiguous pet-thing that demanded food and attention.

Now, on the brand’s 30th anniversary, the Tamagotchi — the Japanese pocket-sized virtual pet that launched a thousand cute and needy tech companions, from Nintendogs to fluffy AI robots — is making a minor comeback.

Tamagotchi Google Search Trends — Sherwood News

Looking at Google Trends data, searches for “tamagotchi” spiked in December in the US, up around 80% from just six months prior, with the most search volume in almost two decades.

While the toys are popular Christmas gifts, with interest volumes often seen ticking up in December each year, the sudden interest might also have something to do with the birthday celebrations that creator and manufacturer Bandai Namco are putting on, including a Tokyo exhibition that opened on Wednesday.

Game, set, hatch

More broadly, modern consumers appear to have a growing obsession with collectibles (see: Labubu mania), as well as a taste for nostalgia (see: the iPod revival, among many other trends).

But, having finally hit 100 million sales in September last year, the brand itself is probably just glad to exist, giving a whole new generation the chance to experience the profound grief of an unexpected Tamagotchi death.

Millie Giles

PANDORA’S BOX OFFICE

1/5/26

“Avatar: Fire and Ash” surpasses $1 billion globally after 18 days

James Cameron is now the first director in history to have four consecutive movies gross over a billion dollars.

$5.6B

Max Knoblauch12/23/25

Disney could be well on its way to its third billion-dollar film of the year following a $345 million opening weekend for “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” The film’s opening gross puts the “Avatar” franchise’s total box office earnings at $5.6 billion — and counting.

The latest film, the second “Avatar” entry under Disney’s tent, earned about 75% of its total box office gross internationally — in line with previous movies in the (as of now) trilogy. Domestically, this one earned $88 million, falling short of expectations.

“Fire and Ash” was the widest Imax release ever, debuting on 1,703 screens globally and earning $43.6 million through the format. The $345 million “Fire and Ash” opening weekend was the second-highest of 2025, behind Disney’s “Zootopia 2,” which recently passed the $1 billion mark, globally.

Year to date, Disney has earned $5.8 billion globally at the box office.