Numlock News: April 7, 2025 • Mega, Epic, Minecraft

Apr 07, 2025

By Walt Hickey

Welcome back!

Minecraft

A Minecraft Movie made an expectation-smashing $157 million domestically and $144 million internationally for a global launch of $301 million. The movie more than doubled domestic expectations, snapping a cinematic box office dry spell and and producing a headline for the movie industry that will be about as well received as “Delicious Manna Rains Down From The Friggin Sky.” The movie also scored the top opening ever for a video game adaptation, which beats The Super Mario Bros Movie, incidentally also starring Jack Black. It’s the best domestic opening since Deadpool & Wolverine, final numbers may end up being even higher when they come out today. It is even doing well in China.

Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter

Lotto

The Mega Millions lottery is overhauling its system, hiking ticket prices from $2 to $5, and retooling its odds structure (following in Powerball’s footsteps) to get more frequent big jackpots that can grab headlines and move tickets. The starting jackpot is going up from $20 million to $50 million, and the Mega Millions consortium projects that the average jackpot win will go up to $800 million after the odds change. The odds of winning the jackpot will shift from 1 in 303 million now to 1 in 290 million in the new game. The lottery business is a massive one with people spending $113 billion on lottery products in 2024 in North America.

Kelly Tyko, Axios

Goals

Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin has broken what was believed to be an unbreakable record, notching his 895th career goal on Sunday against the New York Islanders and beating the 894-goal record of hockey G.O.A.T. and former Canadian icon Wayne Gretzky. Ovechkin accomplished this feat by defying the traditional curve of a hockey career. Normally, a player’s ability to score goals begins to decline starting in their late twenties, and becomes nigh untenable following age 35. Gretzky beat Gordie Howe’s record of 802 goals at age 33, when he was in his last ever 30+ goal season. Ovechkin had a 41-goal season when he broke Gretzky’s record at 39 years old.

Neil Paine, Neil’s Substack

Hear Me Roar

The 2-millimeter-long caterpillar of the two-lined hooktip moth has become one of the smallest animals ever measured, making territorial noises to scare off competing caterpillars. The moth lays eggs on leaves and twigs of birch trees, and larvae have now been observed (with a laser vibrometer) to vibrate at 25 times per minute when another caterpillar of the same species drops nearby onto their leaf. The strategy works; in 71 percent of cases, the larvae that had first dibs on the leaf kept their territory.

Gennaro Tomma, Science

Money

A new survey asked Americans what money can actually buy and found that at least “to some extent,” 85 percent of Americans believe money can buy fun, social status and political influence. Large numbers also believe money can buy career success (78 percent), good health (75 percent), physical attractiveness (72 percent) and legal immunity (71 percent). The jury was more out on happiness (63 percent “to some extent”, 35 percent “not at all”), respect (51 percent “to some extent”, 46 percent “not at all”) and inner peace (43 percent “to some extent”, 53 percent “not at all”). The “not at all” responders dominated when asked if money can buy love (55 percent not at all), talent (62 percent), intelligence (65 percent), a sense of humor (75 percent) or good morals (80 percent). Concerning.

Taylor Orth, YouGov

Plush

According to Circana, adults buying for themselves made up 20 percent of plush toy sales in 2024, with companies and brands like Build-a-Bear (which is behind the Jellycat line) and Squishmallows cashing in on adult collectors. If anything, it’s an indication that every generation will eventually just re-invent the Beanie Babies, and that there are many economic forces in this world, but nostalgia will always be unbeatable.

Leah Asmelash, CNN

Epic

The new Epic Universe park in Orlando is the first new theme park to open in Orlando in 26 years. While currently in the middle of technical rehearsals, the $7 billion property will open for good May 22, the latest attempt from Universal to challenge Disney in the $92.5 billion Orlando tourism market. Disney has long been the park to beat in central Florida, which sees 50 million guests annually across 6 parks and 25 hotels. The new park, composed of 5 regions — Celestial Park, Isle of Berk (from How to Train Your Dragon), Dark Universe (Universal Monsters), Super Nintendo World (what it says on the cartridge) and The Ministry of Magic (from that British wizard book series that isn’t Discworld) — aims to make Universal’s parks more than just the day trip you take when you go to Disney.

Brooks Barnes, The New York Times

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