What better way to ring in the new year than with a bunch of new TV shows and movies to binge? Amazon Prime Video is adding a bunch of new titles to its library to kick off 2019, including some very exciting films.Among the movies coming to Prime this month is 2006's Alpha Dog, Escobar: Paradise Lost, and Fahrenheit 11/9. Additionally, Golden Globe nominee Eighth Grade, which was released in 2018, will arrive on the service on January 13. The most exciting new addition just might be the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, though, which was added to Prime on January 1.As for new TV show additions, the most notable arrivals are of Amazon Prime Video originals. New seasons of Informer and The Grand Tour arrive in January, plus a brand-new series called Four More Shots Please. Additionally, the Prime Video original film Beautiful Boy arrived on January 4.You can take a look at everything Amazon Prime Video is adding in January below. Make sure you also take a look at Netflix and Hulu's offerings for the month.Coming to Amazon Prime Video in JanuaryJanuary 1A Beautiful Mind (2001)Alpha Dog (2006)Brazil (1985)Breaking Big, Season 1First Civilizations, Season 1Frontline, Season 36GI Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II (2018)Going to War (2018)Jane Eyre (2011)Nova Wonders, Season 1Reprisal (2018)Rwanda: The Royal Tour (2018)The Art of the Shine (2018)The Jazz Ambassadors (2018)Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)January 3Leave No Trace (2018)January 4Beautiful Boy (Prime Original movie)Sherlock Gnomes (2018)January 11Informer (Prime Original series), Season 2January 12Final ScoreJanuary 13Eighth Grade (2018)January 16The Debt (2010)January 18The Grand Tour (Prime Original series), Season 3January 19Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018)January 25Escobar: Paradise Lost (2014)Four More Shots Please! (Prime Original series), Season 1January 29Endeavour, Season 5 Info from Gamespot.com

Slightly Mad Studios CEO Ian Bell has revealed the company is developing a standalone console. Exact hardware and software specs haven't been announced yet, but Bell has provided a few details.The first mention of the console came via Twitter, when Bell tweeted, "The Mad Box is coming." Bell told Variety that the Mad Box will probably release in about three years and support up to 120 frames-per-second for virtual reality play. "It will support most major VR headsets and those upcoming and the specs will be equivalent to a very fast PC two years from now," Bell wrote. "We're in early talks with manufacturers of components so we can't say much more right now other than we have the designs specced out in detail."When it comes to games on the console, Bell wrote, "We think exclusives are 'exclusionary' but given that we'll be shipping a cross platform engine to all developers it will be their choice. As of now we have no plans to pay developers 'incentives' to exclude other hardware vendors." He further explained that Slightly Mad Studios thinks "the industry is a little too much of a monopoly or a micro oligopoly," and The Mad Box aims to bring some healthy competition to the console race, which for years has pretty much exclusively been a three-way battle between Microsoft's Xbox, Sony's PlayStation, and Nintendo's hardware.Bell added that early design builds for the Mad Box will be revealed in about four to six weeks. The Mad Box is planned to release worldwide and be competitively priced in comparison to other upcoming consoles. "We have multiple investors already offering the required funding for us to see the product to completion, but it's still early days and we're looking at the best offers right now," Bell wrote.2018 saw numerous changes to a lot of gaming hardware, including consoles. Some were good, and others not so much. Check out our report cards for more detailed accounts.GameSpot 2018 Report CardsXbox One Report Card For 2018: Year In ReviewPlayStation 4 Report Card For 2018: Year In ReviewNintendo Switch Report Card For 2018: Year In ReviewVR Gaming 2018 Report Card: Here's A Review Of How The Year WentPC Report Card For 2018: Year In ReviewInfo from Gamespot.com

Sony isn't messing around with its holiday sale this year. Between now and January 15, you can save up to 70% on nearly 1,700 games, expansions, and digital items for some of the biggest titles of 2018 and beyond. And if you're a PS Plus member, you'll get an even bigger discount on many of the on-sale items. We've already highlighted some of the best PS4 games on sale, and a selection of the best titles available for $5 or less. But now that we've arrived at Week 4 of the sale, a new batch of games has been added, making now a good time to see if anything you want is on discount.If you're in the market for a big-budget shooter, you can grab Battlefield V for $36. It received high marks in our Battlefield V review and is set to get a decent amount of added content in the coming months--including a battle royale mode. Speaking of add-on content, Prey, one of last year's more overlooked titles, got an expansion called Mooncrash that turns the game into a roguelike experience, complete with randomized loot and procedurally generated enironments. You can get the base game and all of the DLC for just $20 right now in Prey: Digital Deluxe Edition.For fans of moody Metroidvania-style games, Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition is on sale for $10. The crossover fighting game Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite is on sale for $20, and the seriously scary first-person horror game Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is down to $18.The sale also features a whole lot of PS3 and PS Vita games on sale as well. And if you'd like to see just the deals on PSVR games, the PS4 exclusives, or 2018 releases, you can filter those games here. Just make sure you finalize your purchases by January 8, when some of these games go back up to regular price. And note that the sale ends once and for all on January 15.Alienation -- $3Armello -- $6Assassin's Creed Origins -- $24Assassin's Creed Odyssey -- $30Bastion -- $3.75Batman: Arkham VR (PSVR required) -- $12Batman: Return to Arkham -- $8Batman: Arkham Knight -- $8Battle Chef Brigade Deluxe -- $12Battlefield 1 -- $4Battlefield V -- $36Battlezone Gold Edition (PSVR required) -- $8Beyond: Two Souls -- $12Bloodborne -- $7Bravo Team (PSVR required) -- $24Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons -- $6Burnout Paradise Remastered -- $6Castlevania Requiem: Symphony of the Night & Rondo of Blood -- $10Conan Exiles -- $25The Crew 2 -- $20Danganronpa 1-2 Reload -- $20Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony -- $36Darkest Dungeon -- $8.25Day of the Tentacle Remastered -- $4.50Destiny 2: Forsaken - Legendary Collection -- $42Deus Ex: Mankind Divided -- $4.50Dishonored 2 -- $13Dragon Age: Inquisition -- $10Dying Light -- $14The Elder Scrolls Online -- $10Elite Dangerous -- $9Everybody's Golf -- $14Fallout 4 -- $15Farpoint (PSVR required) -- $8Fortnite - Standard Founder's Pack -- $20Fortnite - Deluxe Founder's Pack -- $40God of War -- $26God of War III Remastered -- $3Grand Theft Auto V -- $15Gravity Rush Remastered -- $9Gravity Rush 2 -- $12Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 -- $16Headlander -- $8Heavy Rain -- $12Heavy Rain & Beyond: Two Souls Collection -- $16Hello Neighbor -- $9Hitman 2 -- $30Hitman Go: Definitive Edition -- $2Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition -- $10Horizon Chase Turbo -- $13Infamous: First Light -- $7.50Infamous: Second Son -- $10Injustice 2: Legendary Edition -- $18The Inpatient (PSVR required) -- $12Inside -- $6The Jackbox Party Pack 4 -- $16Jak and Daxter: The Precursor's Legacy -- $6Jak II -- $6Jak 3 -- $6Journey: Collector's Edition -- $5Jurassic World Evolution -- $30Just Cause 3 -- $6Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes -- $7.50Knack -- $4Knack 2 -- $10Lara Croft Go -- $2.50The Last Guardian -- $11The Last of Us Remastered -- $16The Last of Us: Left Behind - Stand-Alone -- $4Lego The Incredibles -- $30Life is Strange: Complete Season -- $4Life is Strange: Before the Storm Complete Season -- $5Limbo -- $2Mad Max -- $5Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite -- $20Mass Effect Andromeda -- $7.50Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 & 2 Combo Pack -- $15Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1+2 -- $30Mega Man 11 -- $24Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor GotY Edition -- $10Middle-earth: Shadow of War -- $12.50Minit -- $6.70Monster Hunter World -- $25Mortal Kombat XL -- $5Mr. Shifty -- $1.50The Mummy Demastered -- $13N++ -- $7.50Need for Speed -- $5Need for Speed Rivals -- $5Oddworld: New 'n Tasty -- $5The Order 1886 -- $3Outlast 2 -- $9Overcooked -- $4.25Overcooked 2 -- $17.50Overwatch Legendary Edition -- $30Owlboy -- $12.50Oxenfree -- $5Peggle 2 -- $3PlayStation VR Worlds (PSVR required) -- $4.50Psychonauts -- $2Pyre -- $8Rain World -- $8Ratchet & Clank -- $16Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered -- $12Resident Evil 7: Biohazard -- $18Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration -- $12Rogue Legacy -- $4.25Shadow of the Colossus -- $14Shantae: Half-Genie Hero -- $10Shantae and the Pirate's Curse -- $13The Sims 4 -- $10Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition -- $4.50South Park: The Fractured But Whole -- $18Spider-Man -- $40Spyro + Crash Remastered Game Bundle -- $49.50Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection -- $26Thief -- $3Thumper -- $6Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition -- $6Torn (PSVR required) -- $15Transistor -- $5Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection -- $16Uncharted 4: A Thief's End -- $16Uncharted: The Lost Legacy -- $8Unravel -- $8Unravel 2 -- $8Until Dawn: Rush of Blood (PSVR required) -- $4.50Virginia -- $3Wipeout Omega Collection -- $6The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition -- $20WWE 2K19 -- $30Yoku's Island Express -- $10Yooka-Laylee -- $10Info from Gamespot.com

One of Fallout 76's most explosive features was temporarily out-of-service recently. A bug rendered players unable to launch nuclear weapons, before Bethesda issued a statement that it was aware and issued a hotfix. Usually the nuclear launch codes are reset on a weekly basis, every Monday evening, and players have to battle their way through enemies to find the new ones. Codes in hand, they can go to a nuclear silo and launch them at spots on the map to punish other players, or simply give a fresh dose of radiation to a spot and create mutated high-level enemies there.This week, however, the old codes were still in place, and no longer worked. The changeover took place on New Year's Day. In a statement on Twitter, the company said it's aware of the issue and looking into it. Then, on January 2, the game went down for maintenance and came back up just over an hour later.#Fallout76 Players: We’re aware of and actively investigating an issue with Nuke silo access. Thank you for your patience while we look into this issue. — Bethesda Support (@BethesdaSupport) January 1, 2019This is far from the first unexpected hiccup to hit Fallout 76. The game has experienced an ongoing series of issues, from low review scores to controversy over its special edition canvas bags to a personal data leak. The studio hasn't shown any sign of slowing its plans for the game, though. It's still regularly issuing patches and announcing upcoming features, including a new mode without PvP restrictions, and the ability to run your own shop.Info from Gamespot.com

The holidays may be over, but Xbox Game Pass members will be getting new Xbox One games to play at no additional charge in January. Six new games are landing on the service between January 3-10. That's in addition to two late December arrivals Microsoft introduced after the announcement of December's lineup.December's late additions include Life is Strange Complete Season, which contains all five episodes of the time-manipulating adventure game's first season. A week later, all three episodes of the prequel, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, hit the service. Next, on January 3, subscribers will get access to the first episode of Life is Strange 2 (with the rest of the episodes arriving on the service as they're released).Also coming to Xbox Game Pass on January 3 are the futuristic dino-survival game Ark: Survival Evolved and the aptly titled Farming Simulator 17, which has you tend crops and livestock while you manage a farm. January 7 sees the addition of the online combat game Absolver, followed on January 10 by Just Cause 3 and the brand-new 3v3 combat game Aftercharge.Xbox Game Pass lets you download and play over 100 Xbox One games, including first-party titles on the day they're released. That means you can play games like State of Decay 2 and Forza Horizon 4 already, and will gain access to Crackdown 3 when it launches on February 15.You can sign up for Xbox Game Pass for for $1 for the first month and pay $10 for each additional month. Currently, the service is only available for Xbox One, but Xbox boss Phil Spencer has big plans for the future and wants to see it come to "every device."Xbox Game Pass January TitlesLife is Strange Complete Season (December 20)Life is Strange: Before the Storm (December 27)Life is Strange 2: Part 1 (January 3)Ark: Survival Evolved (January 3)Farming Simulator 17 (January 3)Absolver (January 7)Just Cause 3 (January 10)Aftercharge (January 10)Info from Gamespot.com

The recent 14 Days of Fortnite event has wrapped up a bit sooner than some players expected. Epic has acknowledged that it shared an inaccurate date for when the challenges would expire, and it's giving out one of its special rewards to make up for it."We apologize for communicating the wrong end date for 14 Days of Fortnite on social channels," Epic wrote on its Twitter account. The company had indicated that players would have time after all 14 days of challenges were offered to complete them all. That turned out not to be the case, much to the chagrin of players who were counting on that extra time to knock out the challenges.As an apology, Epic will hand out the 14th reward--the Equalizer glider--to anyone who completed at least one of the event's challenges. Those who qualify for the freebie will get the item in the "near future," but an exact time table wasn't shared.Drop in on the new year in style! 🍾 Complete today’s challenge and earn the DJ Glider. pic.twitter.com/vYAmacYPU9 — Fortnite (@FortniteGame) January 1, 2019The glider in question features an equalizer on it and some accompanying music that plays while it's deployed. You can get a look at it in action here.News of this freebie comes just as the next set of challenges, those for Week 5 of Season 7, is set to be released on January 3. In the meantime, a new Fortnite patch has been released that again introduces new content, including a boom box.Info from Gamespot.com

With 2018 officially behind us, Amazon has revealed its 100 best-selling video game items of the past year. As usual, the list encompasses all of the gaming-related products the online retailer sold in 2018, from peripherals and accessories to gift cards and subscriptions, but the most popular game item in any category was Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.Nintendo's new mascot brawler was both Amazon's best-selling video game and the retailer's overall best-selling game product in 2018--a distinction that is all the more impressive considering the title launched less than a month ago. The fighting game has been a major commercial success for Nintendo, setting new sales records for the series around the world shortly after its release. GameSpot also selected it as one of our 10 best video games of 2018.The remainder of the top 10 games list is almost evenly divided between Switch and PS4 titles. The PS4 version of Rockstar's critically acclaimed open-world western, Red Dead Redemption 2, was Amazon's second-best-selling game of 2018, while Super Mario Party rounded out the top three. Two of 2018's biggest PS4 exclusives, Marvel's Spider-Man and God of War, were No. 4 and No. 9, respectively, while Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu and the PS4 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 were No. 7 and No. 8.Some of 2017's biggest Switch exclusives also reappeared on 2018's best-sellers list. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Mario Odyssey were Amazon's No. 5 and 6 best-selling games of the past year, respectively, while the Switch launch game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild closed out the top 10.The list of overall game products was dominated by gift cards and accessories. You can see Amazon's top 10 best-selling games below. The complete list of the retailer's 100 best-selling game products can be found here.Amazon's Top 10 Best-Selling Video Games Of 2018Super Smash Bros. UltimateRed Dead Redemption 2 (PS4)Super Mario PartyMarvel's Spider-ManMario Kart 8 DeluxeSuper Mario OdysseyPokemon: Let's Go PikachuCall of Duty: Black Ops 4 (PS4)God of WarThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the WildAmazon's Top 10 Best-Selling Game Products Of 2018Super Smash Bros. Ultimate$10 PlayStation Store Gift Card$20 PlayStation Store Gift CardAmFilm Glass Nintendo Switch Screen Protector12-Month PlayStation Plus MembershipNintendo Switch w/Neon Joy-Cons$50 PlayStation Store Gift CardNintendo Switch Pro Controller$10 Xbox Gift Card$25 Xbox Gift CardInfo from Gamespot.com

The new Sandra Bullock Netflix movie Bird Box has proven to be incredibly popular, but now the streaming giant has issued a warning to viewers about it.In the film, Bullock and others wear blindfolds so they can't see the horrors in the world that cause people to kill themselves. In real life, people are blindfolding themselves and doing regular stuff in what's been labeled the BirdBoxChallenge.As you'd expect, wearing a blindfold while walking down the street or through the woods can be problematic. There are already countless videos of people getting physically hurt partaking in the challenge, and now Netflix has urged people to be careful. "Can't believe I have to say this, but: PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE," Netflix said in a statement on Twitter."We don't know how this started, and we appreciate the love, but Boy and Girl have just one wish for 2019 and it is that you not end up in the hospital due to memes."Can’t believe I have to say this, but: PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE. We don’t know how this started, and we appreciate the love, but Boy and Girl have just one wish for 2019 and it is that you not end up in the hospital due to memes. — Netflix US (@netflix) January 2, 2019Birdbox was released on Netflix at the end of December, and it quickly became the platform's most-watched movie in its first seven days.In other Netflix news, here's a roundup of all the new TV shows and movies landing on the platform in January. Info from Gamespot.com

Actor Jack Black has launched a YouTube channel dedicated in part to gaming, and it's proving to be wildly popular before he's even uploaded any kind of substantial content. Black launched his new channel, Jablinski Games, on December 21, and it took just a week for it to reach 1 million subscribers. After 10 days, the channel is up to more than 2.5 million subscribers, so it's definitely off to a very good start.Probably jokingly, Black said Jablinski Games will be bigger than Ninja and PewDiePie. He plans to upload new videos every Friday, and in addition to games, Black's videos will focus on food and life. His second video, released on December 25, was posted in celebration of Jablinski Games reaching 1 billion errrr 1 million subscribers.It remains to be seen what form Black's videos will take or if he'll have guests. Whatever the case, the videos will surely be wacky, given the tone and direction of the two teasers we've seen so far.Black is of course no stranger to video games. He starred as Eddie Riggs in Double Fine's 2009 action game Brutal Legend. He also voiced a character in Double Fine's crowdfunded game Broken Age.Outside of games, Black, 49, is a major film star whose credits include School of Rock, King Kong, the Kung Fu Panda series, and most recently Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. He's also an accomplished musician; he sings and plays guitar in the band Tenacious D with Kyle Gass. Info from Gamespot.com

What might be considered the first episode of Black Mirror's fifth season, Bandersnatch, is out now on Netflix. But thanks to that episode and what a huge undertaking it was, we'll have to wait for the rest the next installment of creator Charlie Brooker's sci-fi series.Bandersnatch debuted on Netflix on December 29 after a two-year effort, and anyone who's spent a little time with it can see why its creation took so long: it's a choose-your-own-adventure story, in which the viewer makes decisions about how the story will go at key intervals. Certain decisions trigger endings to the story, or automatically dial the viewer back to earlier points to make different choices so things don't go quite so badly (or, since this is Black Mirror, sometimes worse).All those choices and alternate storylines meant that Black Mirror is more like four episodes of the show, Brooker told The Hollywood Reporter. And making it took so much doing that the rest of the season has been pushed a little deeper into 2019--although just when this year it'll actually see release on Netflix has not yet been announced."We knew going into it that it would be difficult and challenging and more complicated than a normal film that we would do. Even then, we underestimated," Brooker told THR. "As the story expanded, I like to say that the story got longer and it got wider. So the whole thing started expanding a bit like an inflatable life raft in a small room."Though, like all Black Mirror episodes, Bandersnatch is a standalone story, it may well have an influence on the future of the series. Brooker said in the interview that Colin Ritman (Will Poulter), one of the characters in Bandersnatch, could show up in future Black Mirror episodes.That discussion is a bit of a spoiler, so read on at your own risk.In Bandersnatch, Colin suggests that the various choices and different storylines viewers are seeing are the result of multiple realities that influence each other. That would play into the meta view of the Black Mirror series as a whole, which is filled with self-referential Easter eggs even though all of the stories seem to take place in versions of our world that don't share common technology or people. If Colin is right about his idea of multiple realities existing together, as Bandersnatch suggests, then seeing him in other Black Mirror episodes could extend that multiverse theory to the entire series."Ostensibly, he could go on forever, because he's both dead and not dead," Brooker said. "I like the idea that he could show up anywhere. I could see him popping up in 'San Junipero' or running around in 'White Bear.'"Still, we're stuck waiting to find out when we'll see any more Black Mirror, whether Bandersnatch's characters make it into the rest of the season or not.Info from Gamespot.com

Pokemon Go's first in-game event of the new year is now underway. Developer Niantic has kicked off the Adventure Sync Hatchathon, which is scheduled to run until January 15 and will reward players with extra Candy and Stardust for hatching Eggs.During the event, you'll be able to earn twice the normal amount of Stardust and Candy for each Pokemon Egg you hatch. On top of that, Niantic says you will have a higher likelihood of receiving 5 and 10 km Eggs--which can hatch into Pokemon like Elekid, Magby, and Chansey--by spinning the Photo Disc at PokeStops and Gyms.Adventure Sync is one of the many new features Niantic introduced to Pokemon Go in 2018. When enabled in the settings menu, it allows the game to keep track of the distance you've walked even when it's idle, making it much easier--and much less taxing on your phone's battery--to hatch Eggs.Before the Hatchathon ends, Niantic will host Pokemon Go's first Community Day of 2019. That event takes place on Saturday, January 12, and features increased spawns of the Gen 2 starter Totodile. Moreover, you'll be hatch Eggs at a quarter of their typical required distance during the Community Day, which means you'll potentially be able to earn a ton of Stardust and Candy thanks to the ongoing Hatchathon bonuses.With January's arrival, Niantic rolled out a new set of Field Research tasks for Pokemon Go. As in December, completing enough of these to achieve a Research Breakthrough can lead to an encounter with one of several Legendary Pokemon, including two new possibilities: Ho-Oh and Lugia. Meanwhile, the game's latest Legendary, Heatran, will remain available in Raid Battles until January 15.Info from Gamespot.com

If the established rotation for which developer is responsible for each Call of Duty game continues into 2019, then it's Infinity Ward's turn next. And a recent tweet of a skull by the company's senior communication manager Ashton Williams may confirm that it is Infinity Ward that's at the helm and also hint at what the next Call of Duty title might be. Although there was no accompanying text, the skull itself could imply that Infinity Ward is working on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4.Since Infinity Ward is the developer behind Call of Duty: Ghosts, many first suspected the tweet was teasing Ghosts 2. However, Kotaku's Jason Schreier has since claimed in a forum post that isn't the case. Prior to Ghosts and Infinite Warfare, Infinity Ward was responsible for the widely popular Modern Warfare series. Fans may recall that one of the major characters from Modern Warfare 2, Lieutenant Simon "Ghost" Riley, wore a skull-patterned balaclava. Williams' tweet may be in reference to that, which could mean there's a Modern Warfare sequel starring the character scheduled for 2019.However, considering the popularity of Modern Warfare Remastered, Williams tweet could instead just as easily be a hint that a remaster for Modern Warfare 2 is in the works as well. Infinity Ward released Modern Warfare Remastered alongside Infinite Warfare, so the developer could be planning to do something similar with whatever new game is planned. This is all conjecture though, and the tweet could just as easily be a tease for a brand-new Call of Duty series that has nothing to do with Modern Warfare.Treyarch's 2018 Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 was the first game in the franchise to not feature a traditional single-player campaign. Instead, Black Ops 4 included the franchise's first battle royale mode, titled Blackout. There hasn't been an announcement of whether 2019's Call of Duty will implement either of these changes.Info from Gamespot.com

The long-running and wildly popular American sitcom The Big Bang Theory is ending with its current 12th season, and now we've learned more details about how it will wrap up. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Harold & Kumar actor Kal Penn and Lord of the Rings star Sean Astin will guest-star in the show's final season. Penn and Astin will play physicists who by accident confirm Sheldon and Amy's super-asymmetry theory, which could have a major impact on how things turn out. There is no word yet on when the episode featuring Penn and Astin will air.There were reportedly discussions about a 13th season, but they never materialised. The five original actors are set to make around $900,000 per episode for the 12th season, according to Variety.Season 11 averaged 14 million viewers per episode, making it one of the most popular shows on TV, according to Variety. A spinoff, Young Sheldon, premiered in 2017.In other news, Home Alone actor Macaulay Culkin says he was pursed for a part in The Big Bang Theory years ago but he turned it down multiple times.The Big Bang Theory airs on CBS, whose parent company--CBS Corp.--owns GameSpot parent company CBS Interactive.Info from Gamespot.com

True Detective Season 3's release date is drawing ever closer--the series returns to HBO for its Season 3 premiere on January 13. For True Detective fans, that comes with some trepidation, as the general consensus is that the show's second season in 2015 did not live up to the high bar set by Season 1. But there's some hope: True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto said during a recent press conference that he didn't shy away from the backlash against Season 2."I understood that there was a lot of stuff in Season 2 that people hadn't really wanted to see, based on Season 1 of True Detective, but I'm very proud of the work everybody did," he told a room of journalists. "I just try to keep getting better at what I do, and move forward, and I think substantive criticism is a big part of that, so I try not to shut myself off from any of it, and really just try to get better."He added that for True Detective Season 3, he wanted to "narrow the focus" of what they're trying to do, and he emphasized that creating the show is "a big team effort."True Detective Season 3 focuses on Wayne Hays, a detective played by Mahershala Ali, and a single investigation that spans three separate time periods: 1980, 1990, and 2015. Hays remains the focus in all three settings, which made for unique challenges in every aspect of this season's creation, from the writing to Ali's multi-faceted performance of the same character at three very different points in his life.Pizzolatto said he started with the character, Wayne Hays, "and the desire to tell a man's life story in the form of a detective story." In the most recent setting, Hays is beginning to suffer from dementia, and he struggles to recall aspects of the case. "If he's losing his life story near the end of his life, then who he is becomes a mystery to himself, in a way," Pizzolatto said.With those ideas and themes in place, Pizzolatto began to conceive of the case itself, in which two children go missing in the Arkansas Ozarks. "I wanted a case that it was possible could be revisited over these three separate timelines, so there would have to be an element that was unresolved in each of those timelines," he said. "And I also wanted something that was--even though there is that murder, something that was less sensationalistically violent and perhaps more closely tied to the idea of family, because so much of the case would ultimately impact this character's family and haunt the family in its own way...It kind of haunted me the more I thought about it." Comparisons with True Detective's beloved Season 1 will be inevitable, but Pizzolatto said Season 3 is vastly different--both structurally and thematically--from the original eight episodes, which aired all the way back in 2014."It's a much, much more complicated structural thing we all tried to do this year than existed in Season 1," he said. "I feel like this one has a lot more light in it than previous seasons, and maybe reaches for hope a bit more. I'm not even sure this is properly 'noir,' given where it goes."Ali, who was also present during the press conference, added that he thinks the anthology show's treatment of its settings provides a through line between seasons. "Your setting is always a character in the story in a very real way," the actor said, turning to address Pizzolatto. "Even looking for the children, as the mystery unfolds, we were really with a camera crew hiking 30 minutes to start work, with gear, and finding our location, and then beginning our day's shooting. So to really be in that space, I really can't put words to it, but I will say that I'm confident that it feeds you with something, as an actor, to be in the environment of the real mountains or the caves in which this mystery started."Season 3's structure seems inherently at odds with its genre, as a mystery is generally dependant on withholding some information from viewers until it's time to make the reveals. With Hays revisiting the case in later time periods, how can the events of earlier ones remains mysterious? How do you keep viewers engaged when huge chunks of the show are set decades after the initial case? "It was the most challenging thing I'd ever tried to do," Pizzolatto admitted. "When I originally had this idea, I was like, 'Yeah, but how would you even do that?' It's like some impossible math problem, how you keep a mystery going and have these reversals and revelations without cheating the audience and going, 'Well, I could have shown you this, but I just didn't show you.'"He said one of his goals this season was to have "no tricks up his sleeve"--in other words, not to mislead viewers simply to keep the mystery going. "Because 2015 and 1990 are happening at the same time as 1980, you're sort of constantly being told what is going to happen," he said. "It's telling you everything that's going to happen before it happens. I wanted to be able to do that--to not play any cheap games with the viewer, to respect their attention and their time, but still reward them with revelation and reversal."With that goal in mind, it seems possible that True Detective Season 3 will swing too far in the other direction. But Pizzolatto said he'd love if viewers restarted Season 3 from the beginning after watching the finale, to pick up on things they missed the first time around."I'd love it if they did that, but I don't know," he said, clearly humbled: "I mean, they might get to the end and be like, 'I never want to watch this again.'"Let's hope, when True Detective Season 3 premieres on HBO on January 13, that isn't the case. Info from Gamespot.com

Disney had a monster year in 2018 at the box office. Its movies collectively made $3.092 billion in the United States and $7.325 billion globally, according to a box office roundup by Entertainment Weekly. The domestic box office performance is a new all-time record, while the global result is the second-highest ever, only behind the $7.605 billion that Disney movies collectively made in 2016.Marvel movies helped Disney's performance substantially in 2018. Avengers: Infinity War raked in $2.049 billion globally, while Black Panther made $1.347 billion worldwide. The Disney Pixar movie Incredibles 2 pulled in $1.24 billion globally, while Ant-Man and the Wasp took in a mighty $623.1 million. New releases Ralph Breaks the Internet and Mary Poppins Returns are also expected to be big-time money-makers.Disney movies were not guaranteed box office smashes in 2018, however, as Solo: A Star Wars Story took in $393.6 million worldwide--the worst result in the history of the Star Wars series. The Oprah-starring A Wrinkle in Time, meanwhile, only made $132.9 million worldwide.Disney is expected to have another massive year in 2019 thanks to major new releases like Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame from Marvel, along with new live-action versions of Aladdin, Dumbo, and The Lion King. Disney also has Toy Story 4 coming up this year from Pixar, while the long-awaited Frozen 2 hits theatres just before Thanksgiving, and it's expected to be a huge success. On top of those, the final entry in the new Star Wars trilogy, Episode IX, comes to theaters in December 2019.What's more, Disney is buying many of competitor Fox's assets, including Deadpool and X-Men, so even bigger box office returns in the future are expected. Info from Gamespot.com