Numlock News: January 2, 2024 • Comics, Steamboat Willie, Wonka

Jan 02, 2024

By Walt Hickey

Welcome back! Happy New Year!

Wonka

The biggest movie of the holidays was Wonka, which has grossed $140.2 million domestically and $400 million globally, pretty solid for a $125 million movie. Other films have not been so lucky: Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has made $81.8 million domestically over its two weeks of release, which is particularly rough given the $200 million price tag for, and I don’t think I can emphasize this enough, a movie about Aquaman. The musical adaptation of The Color Purple has grossed $47.1 million domestically, and has aspirations for awards season. All told, the 2023 box office finished at $9 billion, considerably more than the $7.4 billion of 2022 but still off the highs of the $11.4 billion of 2019.

Brent Lang, Variety

Good Vibrations

A new study is investigating the potential for vibrating diet pills, which have been found to considerably cut food intake in experiments conducted on pigs. The thought goes that vibrations will stimulate nerve endings in the stomach wall that indicate fullness to the brain, and these vibrations might be delivered by means of a 31-by-10-millimeter pill that shakes for 38 minutes upon arrival in the stomach. When inserted into young pigs that were around the size of a human, they found that their vibration-induced hormonal changes were the same as those after consuming a meal, and that animals ate 40 percent less than the control group.

Mitch Leslie, Science

Comics

While the major comic distributors have stopped sharing sales data, it’s still possible to understand some of the overarching trends in the comic book market for last year by looking at the size of the slate of new releases. Last year, there were 4,748 new comic book releases from publishers, which is the highest number of new releases seen since 2019. Since 2015, the total number of new releases peaked in 2017, with 5,919 new comics, decreasing slightly to 5,309 new comics in 2019, only to crash to 3,876 new comics as of 2020. The number of comics released last year is only slightly higher than the 4,711 released in 2022, a potential sign of a new normal for the industry, 11 percent lower than the level seen in 2019. Publishers are looking to variant covers to juice sales numbers, with the average comic book release having 2.8 variants.

John Jackson Miller, Comichron

Grand Canyon

The FTC has accused Grand Canyon University of violating rules that prevent abusive and deceptive telemarketing practices, including calling people on the Do Not Call list and alleging that they understate the cost of completing an accelerated doctoral program. They also allege that Grand Canyon, as well as its parent company Grand Canyon Education, deceived prospective students about its tax status, as the Education Department has rejected its attempt to convert to nonprofit and says it operates for the profit of the company that owns it, paying 60 percent of its revenue to Grand Canyon Education. This follows a $37.7 million fine for Grand Canyon over how it advertised its doctoral degree program.

Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Education

Books

A new poll found that 46 percent of Americans did not read a book in 2023 as of a December 16-18 poll. Overall, 26 percent of respondents reported reading between one and five books, 10 percent somewhere between six and 10 books, 8 percent between 11 and 20 books, and 11 percent more than 20 books so far. Indeed, the most active readers are reading a whole lot of books: 6 percent of respondents said they read over 40 books, a truly impressive stack. The most broadly popular genre among fiction readers was mystery and crime, which 37 percent of respondents said they’d read, and the most popular nonfiction genre was history, read by 36 percent of respondents.

David Montgomery, YouGov

Yondr

Schools are shelling out lots of money for magnetically sealed pouches where students store their phones during class, with school districts across 41 states spending $2.5 million over the past eight years to buy the pouches from Yondr. Most of that has come in the past year and a half, as schools try to find new ways to secure student attention during class. The earliest customers of Yondr were comedians and musicians who wanted to take extra steps to make sure fans were unable to record material in shows and sets, but the pouches quickly spread into school districts.

David Ingram, NBC News

Public Domain

On Monday, works created in 1928 and sound recordings from 1923 entered the public domain in the United States, works that include Lady Chatterley’s Lover, the original German version of All Quiet on the Western Front, J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and an obscure independent animated film called Steamboat Willie. Finally, we can play iconic songs like “Makin’ Whoopee!” “There’s a Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder,” “You’re My Necessity, You’re The Cream in My Coffee” and “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love)” without the express written consent of the original copyright holder. Lots more stuff from later eras is almost certainly in the public domain — not all of the works had their copyrights properly renewed after their initial 28-year term — but January 1 is the day that certifiably moves all the 1928 works into the public. It’s estimated that only 2 percent of the copyrights between 55 and 75 years old retain any commercial value.

Jennifer Jenkins, Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain

Thanks to the paid subscribers to Numlock News who make this possible. Subscribers guarantee this stays ad-free, and get a special Sunday edition. Consider becoming a full subscriber today.

Send links to me on Twitter at @WaltHickey or email me with numbers, tips or feedback at walt@numlock.news. Send corrections or typos to the copy desk at copy@numlock.news.

Check out the Numlock Book Club and Numlock award season supplement.

Previous Sunday subscriber editions: Comics Data · Extremely Online · Kevin Perjurer · Kia Theft Spree · Right to Repair · Chicken Sandwich Wars · Industry of AI · Four-day Work Week ·