Ultra-exclusive: Some Soho Houses are halting memberships

12/12/23 7:00PM

Crowded houses

‍Some iconic Soho House locations are getting even more exclusive in 2024, with Houses in New York, Los Angeles, and London all announcing that they’d be halting admittance to new members in the new year.

Soho House & Co, the company behind the buzzy members-only clubs (which can cost up to $5k to get into), is introducing the measures to combat overcrowding in British and American branches, as the number of people on the SHCO waitlist hit ~98,000 last quarter, a record high for the company.

‍Worldwide exclusivity

‍The original House opened almost 29 years ago in (somewhat unsurprisingly) London’s fashionable Soho area, where it quickly became a favorite haunt of creative types looking for a place to relax, have fun, and meet like-minded people. Back then, under the stewardship of founder Nick Jones — who broke the new member news to current Housers via email on Friday — the company counted just 500 members... though it’s certainly grown a lot in the years since.

While memberships to Soho Houses around the world, of which there are now more than 40, have grown 73.5k since the business went public in 2021, the company’s efforts to diversify the sort of membership it offers have also proved successful. Indeed, its popular Soho Friends membership — which offers discounted rates at Houses and other member-only perks — was up more than 260% in Q3 from the same period in 2021, helping revenues soar to record highs in each of the last 2 quarters.

Millie Giles13h

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.