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<br /> Experiments are great if they usher in something new and meaningful. When the <keyword id="303" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Director">director</keyword> is <keyword id="189787" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Devika-Bhagat">Devika Bhagat</keyword> and one of the lead characters is <keyword id="34091" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Abhay-Deol">Abhay Deol</keyword> (hailing from the legendary <keyword id="9281" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Dharmendra">Dharmendra</keyword> clan), one hopes to see a plot as intriguing as <em><keyword id="30024" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="80" keywordseo="manorama-six-feet-under">Manorama Six Feet Under</keyword></em> where Devika was the story &amp; <keyword id="236139" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="screenplay-writer">screenplay writer</keyword> and Abhay was the lead character. So we have expected the actor-director combo to set the screen on fire this time, with a new format of storytelling. Deol has co-produced the rom-com and his real-life girlfriend <keyword id="76307" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Preeti-Desai">Preeti Desai</keyword> has also teamed up with him, but all to no avail. Thanks to an inane plot, the flick has literally crashed at the <keyword id="25892" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="box-office">box office</keyword>.<br />
<br /> The numbers are quite dismal after Day 4 (February 3) and the flick has grossed a paltry Rs 4.6 crore as per industry estimates. According to <keyword id="255727" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Box-Office-India">Box Office India</keyword>, “<em><keyword id="1526690" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="One-By-Two">One By Two</keyword></em> fared poorly at the box office as it collected a little over Rs 1.50 crore nett over the weekend. The collections were around Rs 50 lakh nett on Friday and Saturday each while there was a little jump on Sunday to Rs 55 lakh nett (approx). The film is a disaster all over as some circuits hardly had any contribution.”<br />
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The movie has been released on January 31 and has hit about 500 screens across India. But unless it witnesses some miraculous jump in collections, this one may not be able to recover the costs.<br />
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Now, let’s have a look at the story itself and what it brings to the audience. <em>One by Two</em> revolves around the <keyword id="2045033" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Parallel-lives">parallel lives</keyword> of two people – <keyword id="49316" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Software-engineer">software engineer</keyword> Amit Sharma (Abhay) and <keyword id="2045034" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="aspiring-dancer">aspiring dancer</keyword> Samara Patel (Preeti), born out of wedlock but trying to connect to her rich father. Both Amit and Samara have struggled to cope with their personal hard luck stories and a lot of coincidences bring them together, but not until the last scene. That may hit you hard, especially if you are waiting to watch some bubbly romance, while the surprising twists and turns are not enough to see the movie through.<br />
<br /> At best, you get to see stereotypes – a jobless Amit dumped by his girlfriend; his loving mom (<keyword id="15316" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Rati-Agnihotri">Rati Agnihotri</keyword>) anxious to see her son settled and Samara’s alcoholic mom (<keyword id="12972" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Lillete-Dubey">Lillete Dubey</keyword>) helped by her daughter. There’s an extremely weak subplot – that of Amit hacking into a dance reality show to wreck the producer who is now dating his ex – which finally connects the central characters.<br />
<br /> Serious movie-goers might have expected some Luis Buñuel-type <keyword id="2045045" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Neo-reality">neo-reality</keyword> in a plot where <keyword id="2045053" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Disjointed-storylines">disjointed storylines</keyword> suddenly converge. But the movie doesn’t step beyond the ground reality; nor does the urban sparkle contribute to the freshness of theme or originality of characters. The gags look tired after a time; the plot fails to impress in spite of endless possibilities and the lead duo can’t display the kind of acting prowess that would have broken the traditional mould and taken the flick to a new height of <keyword id="2045050" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Urban-isolation">urban isolation</keyword> and <keyword id="2045051" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Chance-connections">chance connections</keyword>.<br />
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<strong>Image:</strong> Indiatimes

One By Two: Fragmented
Storytelling Fails To Impress, Flops At Box Office

<ul><li>A couple from Tamil Nadu has decided to host their wedding within a Harry Potter-themed <keyword id="11121339" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="metaverse" source="Orion">metaverse</keyword>.</li><li>Currently the state allows only 100 people to attend wedding ceremonies, but there’s no law against gathering in a virtual world.</li><li>The couple’s wedding reception is going to be held in a virtual world built using <keyword id="2462624" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="polygon" source="Orion">Polygon</keyword>’s blockchain platform.</li></ul>The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a wrench in many a plan to get married but, just as work-from-home kept businesses going, love is taking to the metaverse. And, that’s just what one Indian couple is doing.<br /><br />With the burgeoning Zoom weddings industry quickly <a href="https://theprint.in/opinion/pov/indias-zoom-wedding-experiment-fizzled-out-it-didnt-have-that-four-day-hangover/561459/">fizzling out</a>, when the wave of omicron cases forced them to cancel their wedding party, Tamil Nadu-based Dinesh Kshatriya and his fiance Janaganandhini Ramaswamy decided to step into the metaverse.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="wazirx" comment="wazirx" text="wazirx"><span data-til="noop">wazirx</span></cmsannotation><br />On January 9, the Tamil Nadu government had announced that people going to family functions would have to produce invitations, and that only 100 people would be allowed at weddings. This put a dampner on Kshatriyan and Ramaswamy’s plans, who presumably had invited many more for their reception — a common occurrence for Indian weddings.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Organising a Hogwarts-theme metaverse wedding" comment="subhead" text="Organising a Hogwarts-theme metaverse wedding"><span data-til="noop">Organising a Hogwarts-theme <keyword id="12973220" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="metaverse-wedding" source="Orion">metaverse wedding</keyword></span></cmsannotation><br />A project associate at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, Kshatriyan decided to collaborate with homegrown blockchain firm Polygon and mixed reality company Tardiverse to build his own little virtual world themed on the <keyword id="6357995" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="harry-potter" source="Orion">Harry Potter</keyword> universe. <br /><br />He tweeted the invitation, which invited guests to appear virtually in the <keyword id="708827" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="hogwarts" source="Orion">Hogwarts</keyword> School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the school for witches and wizards in the books and movies.<br /><div type="twitter" handle="kshatriyan2811" handlename="Dinesh Kshatriyan 💜" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1476996173038686212/CNsOlxEl_normal.jpg" favoritecount="541" retweetcount="128" status="I feel so proud and blessed that I have seen and taken advantage of many great opportunities in this world before m… https://t.co/yPkjf3WWON" createdat="1641870873000" id="1480739883681415169"></div><br />The guests won’t have to put on virtual reality (VR) headsets, and can join in on the festivities through a simple web browser – they just need the right login credentials as well, Kshatriyan explained in an <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/dinesh-sp-janaganandhini-ramaswamy-tardiverse-metaverse-wedding-reception-2022/article38296616.ece">interview</a> with The Hindu. The wedding is scheduled to take place on February 6.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Not the ‘first’ Indian metaverse wedding" comment="subhead" text="Not the ‘first’ Indian metaverse wedding"><span data-til="noop">Not the ‘first’ Indian metaverse wedding<br /></span></cmsannotation>The wedding has since been covered widely as the first Indian metaverse wedding. While Kshatriyan may very well be the first Indian to think of the idea, he’s definitely not the first ever. On December 10 last year, the New York Times (NYT) <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/08/fashion/metaverse-virtual-wedding.html">reported</a> about Traci and Dave Gagnon, who didn’t just host a reception but also walked the aisle in the metaverse.<br /><br />Does this mean metaverse weddings are going to be the next big thing? As NYT pointed out in its article — “How the immersive virtual world known as the metaverse, which few of us understand, will change the traditional wedding is, at the moment, anyone’s guess. But the possibilities of having an event unfettered by the bounds of reality are interesting enough to consider.”<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The 'metaverse' is still a work-in-progress" comment="subhead" text="The 'metaverse' is still a work-in-progress"><span data-til="noop">The 'metaverse' is still a work-in-progress<br /></span></cmsannotation>Titans of technology, like Mark Zuckerberg and Satya Nadella are more than excited about the metaverse to the point where Zuckerberg has renamed <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/facebook-is-changing-its-name-to-meta/articleshow/87346459.cms">Facebook to Meta</a>. Meanwhile, Nadella has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/microsofts-activision-blizzard-acquisition-will-boost-its-metaverse-plans/articleshow/88991167.cms">spent $68.7 billion</a> to buy the third largest gaming firm in the world, Activision, to ramp up metaverse activities. But there are more than enough people who don’t really believe in the concept just yet.<br /><br />Perhaps the most important criticism of metaverse products today is that the term doesn’t refer to fragmented virtual worlds that do not interact with each other. Instead, the metaverse is supposed to be one continuous virtual space which allows everyone in the world to interact within the space, buy property, explore economies and even get jobs — as depicted in science fiction movie Ready Player One.<br /><br />There’s one problem with all that though. We just don’t have the computing power required for such a world, let alone a chip that’s powerful enough and have it fit inside something as portable as a wearable set of goggles or headsets.<br /><br />“We need several orders of magnitude more powerful computing capability, accessible at much lower latencies across a multitude of device form factors. To enable these capabilities at scale, the entire plumbing of the internet will need major upgrades,” Raja Koduri, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group at Intel, said in a <a href="https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/opinion/powering-metaverse.html#gs.iyi67m">blog post</a> on December 14.<br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:</strong><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/terras-luna-token-continues-to-hold-its-own-even-in-a-crypto-bear-market-heres-why/articleshow/89021154.cms">Terra's LUNA token continues to hold its own even in a crypto bear market — here's why</a><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/lifecycle-of-cryptocurrencies-from-creation-to-trade-and-destruction/slidelist/89052114.cms">Lifecycle of cryptocurrencies – From creation to trade and destruction</a><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/twitters-long-awaited-hexagonal-profile-pictures-that-give-bragging-rights-to-nft-holders-is-here-but-not-everyone-loves-it/articleshow/89042268.cms">Twitter’s long-awaited hexagonal profile pictures that give bragging rights to NFT HOLDers is here — but not everyone loves it</a><br />

This Indian couple plans to get married in a Hogwarts-themed metaverse to beat the pandemic's restrictions

<br /> The latest <keyword id="30679" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="horror-flick">horror flick</keyword> from the <keyword id="143" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Bollywood">Bollywood</keyword> stable has all the right credentials, but lacks just one thing. In spite of being loaded with scary clichés, it fails to scare the daylights out of you as <em><keyword id="500381" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ragini-MMS">Ragini MMS</keyword></em> did two years ago. After all, Jimmy Shergill-starrer <em><keyword id="1976250" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Darr-The-Mall">Darr @ the Mall</keyword></em> has been made by <em>Ragini MMS</em> director <keyword id="2076858" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Pavan-Kripalani">Pavan Kripalani</keyword> (the 2011 movie was his directorial debut) and expectations were high on that score. Moreover, a sequel of <em>Ragini MMS</em> (directed by <keyword id="820957" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Bhushan-Patel">Bhushan Patel</keyword> this time) will be hitting the theatres next month and we were wondering if the ‘mall horror’ can give it a run for its money. But going by the <keyword id="25892" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="box-office">box office</keyword> response, <em>Darr @ the Mall</em> has plenty to worry about and offers very little to scare competitions.<br />
<br /> Released on February 21, along with <keyword id="2075818" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Randeep-Hooda-Alia-Bhatt-starrer">Randeep Hooda-Alia Bhatt starrer</keyword> <strong><em><a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/entertainment/movies/Highway-ExploresShadow-Zones-But-Fails-To-Impress-At-Box-Office/articleshow/31008054.cms">Highway</a></em></strong>, Bollywood drama <em>Dee Saturday Night</em> and a documentary called <em><keyword id="6391288" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="Gulabi-Gang">Gulabi Gang</keyword></em> (not to be confused with the Madhuri Dixit-Juhi Chawla-starrer, to be released soon), <em>Darr @ the Mall</em> has its task cut out. But the <keyword id="2076867" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Horror-thriller">horror-thriller</keyword>, which tells the story of a mall that unleashes its evil side on the people trapped in it, has been a <keyword id="2076872" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Box-office-bomb">box office bomb</keyword> from the start. Although it has hit more than 1,100 screens, the occupancy rate was really low – around 20% in the first three days and just 15% on the crucial Day 4. According to Box office India, the horror-thriller has netted around Rs 3-3.25 crore in the domestic market after the opening weekend. Day 4 (Monday, February 24) collections were a dismal Rs 25 lakh, as per some insiders, and that sets the tone for the rest of the week.<br />
<br /> The story is a kind of hotchpotch and that might have been its undoing. Here, we have three distinct fragments that should form the thrilling whole but these are not tightly interwoven and seem to be falling apart at times. First, we have <keyword id="6747" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Manchanda">Manchanda</keyword>, the mall owner, and his board of directors spending the night at the haunted mall (as part of a publicity stunt) before the gala opening; next, we find his daughter <keyword id="510679" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ahana">Ahana</keyword> (<keyword id="647029" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="nushrat-bharucha">Nushrat Bharucha</keyword>) and her junky friends partying inside; and finally, there is <keyword id="4666" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jimmy-Shergill">Jimmy Shergill</keyword> or the 24-year-old <keyword id="274961" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Vishnu-Sharma">Vishnu Sharma</keyword>, the chief of security at the mall, who flashes around his flashlight to track the evil spirits. The pieces of the puzzle lie in unravelling the past that comes alive in the spine-chilling night. But if you ask us, the fear factors are pretty predictable and won’t get you too many goosebumps.<br />
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<strong><em>Dee</em></strong><strong><em> Saturday Night</em>: Repetitive without the grace </strong><br /> The other release of the week is directed by <keyword id="513190" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jay-Prakash">Jay Prakash</keyword> and features the story of Mumbai gone bad as the city’s Richie Riches fervently indulge in drug, sex and crime (in case you can’t guess, <em>Dee</em> stands for <keyword id="2076881" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Dirty-English-Entertainment">Dirty English Entertainment</keyword>, the culture of rich Mumbaikars). Well, if the theme reminds you of Madhur Bhandarkar’s <em>Page 3</em>, let’s tell you about the eye candies and moral candies thrown in generous measures to keep you engaged.<br />
<br /> To cut a long story short, here you will find too many skimpily clad <keyword id="624" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Women">women</keyword> engaged in all things immoral while a determined <keyword id="1119548" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="ACP-Dhoble">ACP Dhoble</keyword> (<keyword id="177770" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Arif-Zakaria">Arif Zakaria</keyword>) raids the vicious rave parties, catches the miscreants and subjects them to inspiring lectures and moral lessons. Then there is the quintessential small town girl (<keyword id="2054328" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="mahi-khanduri">Mahi Khanduri</keyword>) who is trying to hold on to her traditional values. The movie promotes good causes and teaches you some sound principles at the cost of the art called cinema. And the outcome? It’s a complete washout at the box office, not even touching Rs 10 lakh, as per Box office India.<br />
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<strong><em>Gulabi Gang</em> (documentary)</strong><br /> This one has negligible <keyword id="1839596" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="box-office-collections">box office collections</keyword> but the award-winning docu film, co-written and directed by <keyword id="1488228" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Nishtha-Jain">Nishtha Jain</keyword>, is based on the real-life <keyword id="2076888" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Gulabi-Gang-of-Bundelkhand">Gulabi Gang of Bundelkhand</keyword> (Uttar Pradesh). The group of lathi-wielding women vigilantes and activists was set up by <keyword id="1408081" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sampat-Pal-Devi">Sampat Pal Devi</keyword> in a bid to fight against domestic abuse and violence against women. Unlike other drab documentaries, Jain has managed to create an insightful human document that pits personal practice against ideology and exposes the shortcoming inherent in us.<br />
<br /> Mohar Basu of KoiMoi sums it up beautifully when she writes: Jain carries me with her daunting <keyword id="6374782" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="journey">journey</keyword> that I will hold on to for many years probably. The instances were revolting, the tall talks about women’s morality a sham and despite the distressing situations, <em>Gulabi Gang</em> is a ray of hope, brimming with optimism to change the stringent attitudes with galvanising ferociousness.<br />
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It could be the journey <em><keyword id="6354768" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Highway">Highway</keyword></em> has missed – a journey of revelation, realisation and an ecstatic upliftment of your inner self.<br />
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<strong>Images:</strong> Indiatimes &amp; Wikipedia

Box Office: Darr @ The Mall, Dee Saturday
Night Disappoint; Nishtha Jain’s Gulabi Gang Is Must-watch

<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Hidden beneath the vibrant European city of Paris is an eerie network of old caves and tunnels housing the remains of 6 million people: <span>the </span><a href="http://www.catacombes.paris.fr/">Catacombes de Paris</a>. </span></p><p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The tunnels, located beneath the Palais de Chaillot, stretch as far as about 200 miles, though only a small section of it is open to the public today.</span></span></p><p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The majority of the network has been off-limits since 1955, but even in the area still accessible to tourists are fascinating remnants of Paris' history.</span></span></span></p><p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The limestone quarries were used as a natural resource since the time of the Romans, providing construction material for Paris' buildings. Eventually, the city continued to expand over the quarries, creating a vast underground world. </span></span></p><p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In the 18th century, </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">when Parisian cemeteries like its largest, Cimetière des Saints-Innocents, became overpopulated, s</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">ix million bodies were both transferred from cemeteries and buried directly into the underground limestone passageways, giving the catacombs a reputation of the world's largest grave.</span></span></p><p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Since they were officially opened to the public in 1876, the catacombs have attracted the interest of thousands of visitors and historical figures like King Charles X, who is said to have thrown wild parties there, and Napoleon III.</span></span></p><p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">They were used by the French Resistance to hide from Nazis in World War II, and ironically, by the Nazis to built an underground bunker. </span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">In some places, bones are laid out in careful patterns, stacked high on top of one another. </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Other areas include a sea of fragmented skeletons along the floor.</span></span></p><p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">There is also graffiti dating all the way back to the French Revolution etched along portions of the wall.</span></span></span></p><p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Famous figures buried here include Jean-Paul Marat, known from the French Revolution, and Maximilien de Robespierre, an iconic member of both the Revolution and the Reign of Terror. </span></p><p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Unofficial visits are not permitted considering how dangerous this can be, but there are secret entrances across the city , like sewers and metro tunnels, that lead into the site. </span></span></p><p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">There is even an entire group of explorers known for entering the network illegally. The Cataphiles have been going deep underground the catacombs for years, hosting everything from bars to movie screenings in the subterranean world. </span></span></p><p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Today, about a mile of the Catacombs is open to explore, with a public entrance in </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Paris' 14th arrondissement. </span></span></span></p><p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">There is also an area that houses a themed </span><a href="http://www.catacombes.paris.fr/fr/expositions/la-mer-paris'">exhibition</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> each year, with this year's showcasing the history of Paris when it was occupied by the Lutetian sea about 45 million years ago. </span></span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>The Catacombs are open for tours Tuesday to Sunday. <span>Tours are about 45 minutes long and cost 10 euros for adults. </span></span></span></span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eagle-over-paris-video-2014-11">Watch This Amazing Video Of An Eagle With A Camera Soar Over Paris</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="N3cTJqcTr4HsJOMGka0f-xVrXW6Dkmg-" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Step inside the Catacombs, Paris' most bizarre tourist attraction

<p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></strong></p><ul><li><strong>Disney&#xa0;</strong><strong>is preparing for a full-scale rivalry with Netflix.</strong></li><li><strong>That means Disney needs all the programming it can get as it plans for a direct-to-consumer, digitally-dominated <keyword id="6354777" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Media">media</keyword> future.</strong></li><li><strong>Disney's first shot in this war may be to buy <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/05/disney-and-fox-are-closing-in-on-deal-could-be-announced-next-week--sources.html">a collection of assets from 21st Century Fox</a>.</strong></li><li><strong>More deals are sure to follow.</strong></li></ul><p><br>Disney may be closing in on a media-industry-rocking deal to acquire a collection of assets from 21st Century Fox. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/05/disney-and-fox-are-closing-in-on-deal-could-be-announced-next-week--sources.html">CNBC</a> reports that a deal, which would include Fox's movie studios, could be announced as soon as next week.&#xa0;</br></p><p>The deal comes as media companies look for ways to survive as consumers shift their attention to ad-free streaming services from Netflix and Amazon, cut the cord in increasing numbers and spend an inordinate amount of time glued to mobile screens and social media.&#xa0;</p><p>Disney's already declared that it is going to war with Netflix by launching its own streaming service. Already Disney has some big assets to offer subscribers to this potential service, including movies made by its own studios and the rights to mega-hits like Star Wars. But it's going to need as many big guns as it can get in that fight.&#xa0;<br><br>If the future is less about cable bundles and classic TV <keyword id="35666" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="advertising">advertising</keyword>, and more about bringing content directly to paying subscribers, giants like Disney can't stand pat. That's where Fox comes in.</br></br></p><p>As one industry observer put it, "nobody knows what the business model of the future is. But if you have a lot of content, you're either going to get people to pay for it, run ads in it, or license it to somebody. So this is a pretty good hedge for Disney."</p><p>So, here's what we're thinking about in terms of breaking down the potential deal:</p><h2>Building out a super-powered library</h2><p>Disney's content library seems as good as it gets: Mickey, Pixar, Marvel. Given the company's plans to pull back on Netflix distribution to build out its own streaming service, it's arguably in great shape to launch its own streaming subscription business.</p><p>But as consumer media consumption fragments more every year, Disney will need as extensive a menu as possible to make sure they have something for everybody's plate, said Mike Kelly, CEO of Kelly Newman Ventures, a media industry consulting firm.</p><p>"Media has always been a distribution business, but digital is about one-to-one," he said. "So the only way to remain central to consumers is to continue to have scale by owning as much of a library as possible."</p><p>Netflix's approach to this has been to spend heavily to develop new shows, and compete with the likes of HBO and major TV networks for potential hits. With Fox, Disney would grab the rights to a trusted library including&#xa0;&#xa0;X-Men, Deadpool, Planet of the Apes, Avatar, and Captain Underpants, and of course the added capability of finding and nurturing future blockbusters.</p><h2>Defending against FANG</h2><p>Beside fighting Netflix, everyone in media is making sure they don't get taken out by the rest of Silicon Valley - namely Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple. These companies have huge scale, deep pockets and are getting aggressive in content while dominating digital advertising.</p><p>"People talk about Facebook and Google taking 85 cents of every dollar in digital ads, but the way those companies look at it is that they are only taking like 20% of advertising overall," said Kelly. "They want it all."</p><p>Indeed, overall the so-called <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-news-fang-futures-tech-companies-2017-11">FANG companies</a>&#xa0;"are trying to eat [media's] lunch," he said. For big media players, "this is about being around five years from now."</p><h2>What about sports?</h2><p>This is where it gets really interesting. CNBC is now reporting that Fox's regional sports networks will be included if this deal happens.</p><p>That means that while Disney wouldn't control the Fox broadcasting network and its NFL rights, or FS1, Fox's fledgling ESPN wannabe, it could theoretically control local sports networks like Fox Sports Detroit, which broadcasts Detroit Tigers and Detroit Pistons games, or part of the Yes Network in New York, which streams the Yankees and Brooklyn Nets.</p><p>There's a massive amount of money in local sports rights and advertising. And remember, like parent company Disney, ESPN is planning to launch its own direct-to-consumer sports streaming service, which could suddenly become a lot more enticing to fans of certain local teams. Is this why Disney <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/disney-stock-price-big-advantage-movie-service-will-succeed-2017-9-1002319885">purchased the streaming technology firm BAMTech? </a></p><p>In other words, even if companies like Amazon and Facebook continued to dabble in live sports rights, a Fox deal could be a total game changer for Disney.</p><h2>Don't forget FX</h2><p>If a Disney/Fox mashup is about traditional media girding for an 'over the top' future, the FX network could provide to be a great test case. The network has produced a continued slate of prestige shows with small, but passionate fan bases (think "The Americans" and "American Horror Story.") FX has recently begun offering an ad-free version of the network to <a href="http://www.adweek.com/tv-video/for-6-a-month-comcast-subscribers-can-watch-fx-and-fxx-without-ads/">Comcast subscribers for $6 a month.</a></p><p>FX CEO John Landgraf is one of the more respected minds in the TV business, and coined the phrase 'peak TV' describing the current glut of scripted series. He said a <a href="http://newyork.advertisingweek.com/replay/-fox-seminar-2017-09-28-1615">few months ago during an Advertising Week</a> event that a linear TV network may not be "the best expression of our brand." Maybe FX tries to become the next HBO Go?&#xa0;</p><p>Or, as Landgraf noted, maybe FX figures out a way to bring premium TV content to consumers for free - with a limited number of targeted ads. Either way, FX would be a solid addition to the Disney portfolio.</p><h2>The power of Avatar</h2><p><span>Fox is spending over $1 billion on four planned sequels to James Cameron's smash hit "Avatar." Those movies basically have to work. Is anyone better suited to maximizing the marketing and profit potential of a franchise like that (theme parks, merchandise, etc.) than Disney?</span></p><h2>Netflix won't stay still and may want to make more deals</h2><p>Netflix is planning to spend an astonishing $8 billion on content next year. How can they keep this spending up? Its subscription service officer a better business model than cable TV or advertising, argued Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief content officer, speaking at the UBS event on Tuesday.</p><p>Sarandos also gushed about the company's recent acquisition of the comic book publisher Millarworld, which provides Netflix with exclusive access to a stable of characters that could be turned into TV shows and movies.</p><p>"It's very freeing... owning your IP," said&#xa0;Sarandos. Owning IP can lead to&#xa0;much bigger relationships and partnerships, he said. And Sarandos didn't shoot down the idea when he was asked if Netflix might want to make more such deals.</p><h2>Then there are a bunch of unanswered questions:</h2><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>What happens to Hulu?&#xa0;</strong>According to CNBC, Disney could end up controlling a majority stake in Hulu - which is a joint venture between 21st Century Fox, Disney and Comcast. This could present an odd conflict: would Disney prioritize it's own streaming service over Hulu, even though <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/handmaids-tale-emmy-pushing-hulus-business-2017-7">Hulu</a> already has a built-in subscriber base?</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">What happens to Hulu if Disney/Fox pulls its content? Would Disney sell it to somebody else? Will it outlive its usefulness over time?</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">Or, as one observer suggested, <strong>could Hulu be used as the base service to jump-start a Disney subscription offering?</strong></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>Who's in charge?&#xa0;</strong>Could a Murdoch best known for a <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-15671615">phone hacking scandal in the UK</a>&#xa0;actually run the company that brought you Moana? Yes, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/0c78437e-d9e2-11e7-a039-c64b1c09b482">reported the Financial Times on Tuesday.</a> Disney has been seeking a successor for CEO Bob Iger for several years, and Iger has extended his stay past a planned retirement. Is James Murdoch the right man for the job? He <a href="http://deadline.com/2017/12/foxs-james-murdoch-declines-talk-disney-negotiations-1202220424/">declined to talk about the deal at the UBS Media Conference on Tuesday, reported Deadline.</a></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">Murdoch has painted himself as a digitally savvy, ready-to-shake-things-up media mogul. Is he just what Disney needs?&#xa0;</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>What about a smaller Fox?&#xa0;</strong>If the deal closes, the Murdochs will suddenly have a pile of cash, and a small collection of assets: Fox network, Fs1 and Fox News. Those networks are all solid, but will suddenly seem very vulnerable as media becomes all about being big. What if Fox suddenly loses the NFL in a few years, for instance?</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">Could the Murdochs suddenly become buyers again? &#xa0;Or could the family recombine the Fox assets with News Corp. (Barron's, The Wall Street Journal, etc), as Kelly suggested?</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>There are so many other dominoes to fall.&#xa0;</strong>What happens to Viacom? Discovery/Scripps? What does Facebook do on TV? Amazon? It will be very hard to stand pat in the new media world ahead.&#xa0;</p><p>To read more about media's Game of Thrones-like machinations, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/fox-takeover-battle-is-motivated-by-fear-2017-11">click here.</a></p><div></div><div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/waking-up-mornings-psychology-2016-3">A Harvard psychologist says this is the first thing you should do when you wake up</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div></hr>

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