You’re talking about the due diligence before actual paperwork is signed, and any money changes hands. That’s absolutely true, which is why what we see on TV are merely handshake deals.

However, the producers know full well the products and the entrepreneurs who are gonna be on the show. It’s their job to find…

This is all for television and ratings.

Anybody by this point in time should know that the producers on Shark Tank vet every single pitch before they start filming, because the last thing they want is either obvious scams, the founders of the companies being unable to comport themselves appropriately (which is a waste…

I can think of two reasons that don’t necessitate a significantly long-lived career and spotlight.

1. Person has a debilitating illness or life circumstance that will likely see them not reach retirement age.
2. Person accomplished an amazing feat at a young age that is unlikely to be replicated or surpassed.

Franchise movies have always run on the character being the star.

You’re being too generous here, and your timeline is a bit muddled.

Keanu was already cast in Dracula before Point Break was released (and Coppola himself said that he casted Keanu because of his looks, not because of Point Break or anything else; and, again, Keanu wasn’t the first choice; Christian Slater turned down…

They aren’t just doing better, they’ve basically doubled their worldwide box office with each release, which is something you tend to not see with movies that are new IPs. That success has led to the development of a TV spin-off, so that’ll be another test to see if the success of the franchise is due to the presence…

Pitt, for what its worth, doesn’t really take a lot of those prototypical roles that I believe you’re thinking about. Outside of his big tentpole movies, he’s taking roles which are either adaptations of an existing work, or are being written by a writer/director known for great shit (Moneyball, The Curious Case of…

He was certainly a movie star, but even after The Matrix trilogy, he wasn’t nearly at the level of Will Smith or Tom Cruise (or, down a tier in terms of box office, DiCaprio’s, Pitt’s, Washington’s, or Clooney’s). You also have to remember that The Matrix becoming the cultural and cinematic phenomenon it became wasn’t…

Look at the James Bond franchise. Are people going because it’s Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig? No, they’re going because it’s James Bond.

I’d say the closest MCU actor that comes close to breaking the mold (outside recent additions like Angelina Jolie or Charlize) is ScarJo. But even with her I’m struggling to think of her last big non-MCU film/role.

Tom Hiddleston was decidedly not a star (at least in the US) before he played Loki, and while he can’t open a solo, non-prior IP movie, he certainly wasn’t a big name before he got the role.

Hell, his most famous US-based role was playing F. Scott Fitzgerald in Midnight in Paris, and that was released the same year as…

Agreed.

The reality is that none of the major Marvel stars, save for perhaps Scarlett (and even that’s tenuous, since her biggest non-Marvel roles have come from Ghost in the Shell, which is a prior IP, and Lucy, which has the ingrained Luc Besson fanbase) have really opened a solo movie to movie-star level success.

Gran…

But calling the highest ranking woman ever in US government

You do realize that the majority of sales for the FF series, especially post-FFVII, have come from outside of Japan, in particular US and EU sales?

Further, with increased development costs, SE (and most developers/publishers) cannot depend on home market sales alone for big budget titles. Sure, certain genres of games…

It’s because MS realized years ago that focusing on PC + GamePass + Services is a much easier way to make money and keep people within the Microsoft ecosystem of gaming.

People forget that this was their intention dating all the way back to Games for Windows Live and attempting cross-platform gaming using Vista and…

It’s because MS realized years ago that focusing on PC + GamePass + Services is a much easier way to make money and keep people within the Microsoft ecosystem of gaming.

People forget that this was their intention dating all the way back to Games for Windows Live and attempting cross-platform gaming using Vista and…

The last two times I went to Gamestop for a game were both midnight releases (and coincidentally, both in 2015 when I was just a bit closer and within walking distance of Gamestop).

1. GTA V for PC (I already had it for 360)
2. MGS V for PC

The MGS V was actually a digital code and I simply wanted to do a midnight…

Haha, I studied economics in college so discussion like these are a bit second-nature, but thank you for the kind compliment.

Gamestop’s big issue is that they have a lot of expensive real estate and other overhead that they can’t quickly get rid of and are dependent on once-in-a-blue-Moon revenue streams (such as the release of a new console, a big game release, or idiotic Redditors goosing the stock price) in order to stay afloat.

The…

maybe when Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka dropped out of events and obligations to preserve their sanity it was actually an inflection point for others to do so, because this is a WAY healthier way to deal with stress than what SNL performers used to do, i.e. tons of coke, alcohol, pot, etc.