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  • Nate Bargatze Sets Guinness World Record for Most Tickets Sold for a Stand-Up Comedy Tour (EXCLUSIVE)

    Nate Bargatze Sets Guinness World Record for Most Tickets Sold for a Stand-Up Comedy Tour (EXCLUSIVE)

    Nate Bargatze and his “Big Dumb Eyes” just set a Guinness World Record.

    The Tennessee-born comedian has officially sold the most tickets for a stand-up comedy tour, surpassing the previously record held by Jeff Dunham.

    Bargatze will be presented with the Guinness World Record onstage at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Saturday. Ahead of the show, his “Big Dumb Eyes” world tour had sold approximately 2,016,254 tickets, passing Dunham’s “Spark of Insanity” tour, which sold 1,981,720 tickets. The final ticket number on Bargatze’s Guinness World Records certificate will be confirmed later this weekend.

    Bargatze accomplished the feat at an impressive pace. To achieve the previous record, Dunham sold 1,981,720 tickets across 386 venues between Sept. 13, 2007, and Aug. 21, 2010 (35 months and 8 days). Bargatze’s “Big Dumb Eyes” tour, which began on April 6, 2025, crossed the 2 million mark after just 16 months and 10 days — and across only 128 venues. (There were also no puppets on the Bargatze tour.)

    Along the way, Bargatze broke 84 venue records, according to his reps, which included becoming the only comedian to sell out three consecutive performances at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena in a single calendar year — a feat matched only by Taylor Swift and Garth Brooks.

    Bargatze, whose clean, deadpan comedy has made him famous among all age groups, was crowned by Pollstar as the highest-grossing stand-up comic, with $77.5 million reported in 2025 alone. Earlier this year, he crossed over onto the silver screen with his movie “The Breadwinner,” and he is currently planning to build a $350 million theme park in his home state of Tennessee called Nateland.

    Bargatze is repped by Brillstein Entertainment Partners, UTA, Ginsburg Daniels Kallis and 2PM Sharp.

  • Why the world’s second-largest Bitcoin mining power is shutting down rigs in its capital city

    Why the world’s second-largest Bitcoin mining power is shutting down rigs in its capital city

    Crypto mining was banned in Moscow, the surrounding Moscow Region and parts of Kursk, with the restrictions set to run through Dec. 31, 2032.

    The measure, established under government decree No. 936, also prohibits participation in crypto mining pools. The decree was signed on July 25 and published on July 31, local media reports.

    Russia as a whole accounted for an estimated 175 exahashes per second, or 16.4% of Bitcoin’s global computing power, in the first quarter, according to Luxor’s Hashrate Index. That placed it second behind the U.S., although it’s unclear what capacity was located in the newly restricted region.

    The country’s Energy Ministry said a year-round restriction was needed to reduce the risk of power-capacity shortages as energy-intensive mining facilities connect to regional grids. Mining currently consumes roughly 1 gigawatt in the Moscow power system, while the region’s target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Interfax reported after the decree was first signed.

    Mining is also linked to the country’s Western sanctions.

    Russian companies had been using domestically mined bitcoin in international payments after legal changes designed to counter Western restrictions, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in December 2024.

  • Locarno: Marco Cavazzin’s ‘Mutrion,’ Set in the Venice Lagoon, Scoops Leopards of Tomorrow Director Award

    Locarno: Marco Cavazzin’s ‘Mutrion,’ Set in the Venice Lagoon, Scoops Leopards of Tomorrow Director Award

    “Mutrion,” a short film set in the Venice lagoon by 26-year-old Italian director Marco Cavazzin, has scooped the best director award at the Locarno Film Festival’s Pardi di Domani (Leopards of Tomorrow) section.

    “Mutrion,” which is the only Italian entry in the section, stars Manfredi Marini, who previously starred in Giovanni Tortorici’s “Nineteen,” and Giulio Maroncelli and is produced by the independent studio Etimo. The short, shot entirely on the lagoon islands, is supported by the Veneto Film Commission and distributed by Italy’s Cattive Produzioni.

    “In a lagoon suspended in time, legend has it that sooner or later every inhabitant loses the toenail of their right big toe,” says the synopsis. “It has never happened to Marco. But now that he has returned, something inside him is beginning to crack.”

    The story follows Marco (played by Manfredi Marini), who in childhood was nicknamed “Mutrion” (which means “sulky”). Marco left the lagoon area at age twenty. Unlike the other locals, he never lost his toenail. Returning four years later, he faces the community’s tacit expectations and structural isolation, causing something deep within him to fracture as the landscape shifts between physical reality and psychological projection.

    “This short stems from the desire to tell a story of return, the attempt to reconnect with a place that has become both familiar and distant over time. In the Venetian lagoon, rituals, superstitions and family stories are still present and continue to shape collective identity,” Cavazzin said in his directors’ statement.

    Locarno’s Leopards of Tomorrow selection was judged by a jury panel made up by Lebanese director Mounia Akl; South African producer Steven Markovitz and Italian director Antonio Piazza. Mutrion was the only Italian entry among 20 works from all over the world, including France, the U.K., Iran, Qatar, China, Taiwan, the U.S. and Ukraine.

  • Robot maker Unitree is going public. Hyperliquid traders see 4x upside from IPO price

    Robot maker Unitree is going public. Hyperliquid traders see 4x upside from IPO price

    Crypto traders are betting that Unitree Robotics will be worth more than four times its IPO valuation when the Chinese robot maker debuts on the public markets.

    Unitree priced its Shanghai STAR Market offering at 150.80 yuan ($22.37) per share, valuing the company at roughly $9 billion. Pre-IPO perpetual contracts trading through Hyperliquid, however, were between $92 and $94 on Friday, equivalent to a valuation of about $38 billion, blockchain analytics firm Allium said in a report.

    The premium reflects lofty expectations for one of China’s closely watched robotics companies. Founded in Hangzhou in 2016, Unitree makes four-legged and humanoid robots for research, industrial and consumer applications. Revenue reached $253 million last year, up 335%, while humanoid robot shipments topped 5,500, according to Allium’s report.

    The firm’s IPO was reportedly 8000 times oversubscribed by retail traders, with trading expected to begin between Aug. 17 and Aug. 21.

    Unitree pre-IPO market on Hyperliquid

    Pre-IPO perps

    Unitree’s public-market debut is also shaping up to be the latest in a corner of crypto derivatives that has recently expanded rapidly: pre-IPO perpetual futures.

  • Swiss mega-bank UBS ramps up its Bitcoin exposure with a massive 24-fold surge in ETF call options

    Swiss mega-bank UBS ramps up its Bitcoin exposure with a massive 24-fold surge in ETF call options

    Banking giant UBS, with over $7 trillion in assets under management, has reported a more than 24-fold quarterly increase in call option exposure tied to BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) in the second quarter.

    That increase, which gives it the right to acquire IBIT shares at a later date at a set price, came as its outright IBIT holdings rose about 12%, according to a regulatory filing this week.

    The Swiss banking group reported calls representing 1.95 million underlying IBIT shares as of June 30, up from 80,000 three months earlier. UBS separately held 407,890 IBIT shares worth about $13.6 million, compared with 364,371 shares at the end of the first quarter, according to its Q1 filing.

    Put option exposure, giving UBS the right but not the obligation to sell IBIT at a set date and price, moved in the opposite direction. UBS reported puts representing 143,300 underlying shares, down about 53% from 303,300 at the end of March.

    Its direct IBIT position also remained below the 548,614 shares reported at the end of 2025, according to its fourth-quarter filing.

    UBS 13-filing for IBIT. (CoinDesk)

    The disclosure also does not include strike prices or expirations, making it difficult to determine UBS’s net directional exposure from the filing alone.

  • ‘Ahsoka’ Season 2 Brings the Force — and More Anakin Skywalker — with First Trailer

    ‘Ahsoka’ Season 2 Brings the Force — and More Anakin Skywalker — with First Trailer

    Ahsoka is heading back to the small screen, with the first look at season two of the Star Wars series arriving during D23 Friday.

    In the footage, Ashsoka trains with a force ghost of Anakin Skywalker as she embarks on new challenges, declaring, “We’re in more danger than I thought.” She’s seen in climates all around the galaxy, navigating with support from her wide-ranging group of space friends and being pushed to her limit. Anakin pushes her at one moment, “Are you a Jedi or not?”

    The season will bow in early 2027 on Disney+.

    Per the logline, “As Ahsoka and her Jedi apprentice Sabine Wren travel across a mysterious and perilous world to find their way home, their friends Hera, Ezra, Zeb, and Chopper, must face the powerful Grand Admiral Thrawn and his sinister allies, who seek to plunge the New Republic into war.”

    Rosario Dawson returns to lead the series as the title Jedi hero. Hayden Christensen will return as Anakin, while the role of Baylan Skoll will be played by Game of Thrones alum Rory McCann, who steps in for the late Ray Stevenson.

    Season one of the show also starred Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Ivanna Sakhno, Diana Lee Inosanto, Eman Esfandi, Evan Whitten, Genevieve O’Reilly and Lars Mikkelsen

    Ahsoka bowed three years ago in August 2023 and was a solid ratings performer for the streamer. It hit Nielsen’s top 10 original streaming series charts every week that it premiered new episodes.

    Lucasfilm co-chief Dave Filoni is behind the project after co-creating the character for the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars nearly 20 years ago.

  • ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Footage Shows Off a “Broken” Doctor Doom

    ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Footage Shows Off a “Broken” Doctor Doom

    Doctor Doom finally gets his closeup in the latest Avengers: Doomsday trailer.

    Robert Downey Jr.’s villain is front and center in the new look of the film, which returns the actor to the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the first time since Avengers: Endgame. It’s the same look that was shown at San Diego Comic-Con last month, but is now available to the public as of Friday night, where it also screened at D23.

    As part of the presentation, Hugh Jackman sent in a clip of himself on camera, with Deadpool whispering to him off screen. “Just wanted to check in, just wondering if you might need some help rounding out the cast?” Deadpool coaches him what to say and they bicker. “I’d love to join and I might be able to convince Ryan to appear in Avengers: Doomsday.”

    (Ryan Reynolds appeared at Comic-Con in character as Deadpool, where he crashed the Doomsday panel to suggest he wanted in on the movie.

    The Russo Bros. direct the film, which has a sprawling cast, ranging from stars of the original 2000s X-Men movies such as Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, to original Avengers cast such as Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth, to Black Panther‘s Letitia Wright and Winston Duke to more recent MCU additions, such as Shang-Chi‘s Simu Liu and Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn. There’s also Captain America actor Anthony Mackie and Ant-Mans star Paul Rudd, in addition to Thunderbolts players Sebastian Stan, Florence Pugh, Wyatt Russell and David Harbour.

    Marvel has unveiled a few looks at the movie publicly so far. There were a series of character-based teasers released in late 2025 and early 2026, as well as a trailer unveiled in July.

    The feature has a release date of Dec. 18.

  • ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’ Footage: Ryan Gosling Races Through the Galaxy With Young Sidekick

    Ryan Gosling already survived going to space in “Project Hail Mary,” but now he’s ready to blast off to a galaxy far, far away in “Star Wars: Starfighter.” The upcoming “Star Wars” movie previewed footage at D23 and is set to release in theaters on May 28, 2027.

    Disney and Lucasfilm have kept plot details about “Starfighter” locked up tight, but it’ll be the first follow-up to 2019’s “Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker” and a fully standalone story. Gosling’s movie will be set five years after the latest trilogy ended, with the chance that some characters may return from the “Star Wars” sequels. “Deadpool & Wolverine” director Shawn Levy, a self-professed “Star Wars” fan, helms the new movie with a script by Jonathan Tropper.

    Levy and Gosling appeared onstage at Disney’s D23 fan event Friday night to preview the film.

    “Our movie comes out May 2027. I’m honored that we’re releasing our film on the same exact weekend that the original ‘Star Wars’ came out exactly 50 years earlier,” said Levy. “‘Starfighter’ embodies the themes of hope and family that have always ben core to [these films]. It takes place in a period of time that’s never been shown in a Star Wars adventure.”

    In the short teaser shown at D23, Gosling’s pilot character Kade Auberon finds a young man playing with a star fighter jet that’s decommissioned but was known as the fastest ever built. After tuning her up, Gosling flies through alien landscapes, including massive, skyscraper-sized geysers emerging from a planet’s ocean. There’s also a shot of droids shooting at the ship, and Kade’s robot pilot helping him take off.

    The cast includes young actor Flynn Gray, who appeared in a first-look photo of himself and Gosling in character shooting in the Mediterranean Sea. Unlike past “Star Wars” locations like the desert planet Tatooine or the snowy Hoth, “Starfighter” could feature a more distinct look after the crew filmed in Sardinia, Italy. Fellow cast members include Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings and Amy Adams.

    “Star Wars” fans have waited a long time for another big-screen adventure since “The Rise of Skywalker.” “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” which continued the story of Pedro Pascal’s masked bounty hunter and Baby Yoda, previously hit theaters May 22. After three seasons of “The Mandalorian,” “Star Wars” has thrived on Disney+ with streaming shows like “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” “Ahsoka,” “Andor,” “The Acolyte” and “Skeleton Crew.”

  • ‘Frozen 3’ “Royal Wedding” Between Anna and Kristoff Is Crashed by New Villain in First-Look

    ‘Frozen 3’ “Royal Wedding” Between Anna and Kristoff Is Crashed by New Villain in First-Look

    Bundle up! Frozen 3 is coming.

    At its D23 fan event on Friday, Disney offered up a first-look at the third entry in its hit franchise, which is set to glide into theaters on Nov. 24, 2027.

    In celebration, Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell walked hand-in-hand onto the D23 stage before launching into a (slightly tech issued) rendition of song “Frozen Heart,” as Bell teased “Anna and Elsa are going on their biggest journey yet.” The stars confirmed that Anna and Kristoff will be getting married in the story and “this royal wedding has been a long time coming.” They added that love is in the air for everyone — even Olaf.

    Josh Gad then arrived to sing a love song to Samantha, in reference to a joke from the second film. Menzel declared, “We will find ourselves far from Arendelle in wild and dangerous land” and cut to the footage, which showed Anna and Kristoff’s wedding seemingly being crashed by a new villain. As they trudge through an icy forrest, the villain comes down from a snowy peak and says “The sisters of Arrendale, we finally meet.”

    Frozen‘s past two iterations have been a smash at the box office, with the 2013 original earning $1.28 billion and 2019’s Frozen II bringing in $1.45 billion. Menzel and Bell lead the franchise as royal sisters Elsa and Anna. Following the death of their parents, Elsa, voiced by Menzel, is to become queen but must navigate her dangerous icy powers along the way. Gad, as beloved snowman Olaf, and Groff, as Anna’s fiancé Kristoff, round out the main voice cast.  

    Frozen 3 was originally dated for 2026 but was pushed back, with Gad explaining in 2025, “There’s a reason the movie is coming out in 2027 and that is because no one wants to rush this. Everyone wants this to not just be a sequel or a money grab. They want this to be absolutely worthy of the story we set out to make in 2013.”

    He continued, “We want to give audiences something that is worth the years of waiting and years of anticipation. I know that they are actively working on that and I know that they have a story that they are very, very, very excited about.”

    Former Disney CEO Bob Iger previously announced that a Frozen 4 was also in development, though that film has not yet been dated.

  • Marvel’s ‘X-Men’ Reboot Sets May 2028 Release Date

    Marvel’s ‘X-Men’ Reboot Sets May 2028 Release Date

    The long-awaited X-Men movie is finally coming to the MCU.

    Marvel Studios exec Kevin Feige made the official announcement that the X-Men movie will release on May 5, 2028. The cast will include Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, Kit Connor as Cyclops, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Inde Navarrette as Rogue, Maya Boyd as Storm and Christopher Abbott as Prof. X. Adam Driver will play the evil Mr. Sinister.

    It will be the first X-Men movie since Disney acquired Fox and its library of mutant characters. Several X-Men heroes have popped up in the MCU in recent years, and the billion-dollar blockbuster “Deadpool & Wolverine” and hit animated series “X-Men ’97” on Disney+ have slowly brought the mutants back in force. Now, the heroes will get their first proper movie since Fox’s “Dark Phoenix.”

    There have been cameos from Fox’s X-Men stars in MCU movies, like Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Prof. Charles Xavier in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” Kelsey Grammer also appeared in the ending of “The Marvels” as the super-smart, blue-haired scientist Beast. 

    After “Deadpool & Wolverine” paved the way for Fox’s X-Men characters to return, “Avengers: Doomsday” is going all out. Stewart and Grammer will be back for the team-up movie, in addition to Ian McKellen as the magnetic mastermind Magneto, James Marsden as the laser beam-shooting Cyclops, Alan Cumming as the teleporting Nightcrawler and Rebecca Romijn as the shape-shifter Mystique. After debuting in “Deadpool & Wolverine,” Channing Tatum’s card-throwing Gambit will also join the team in “Doomsday,” which hits theaters on Dec. 18.

    Fox’s X-Men movies were hits in the 2000s with the original X-trilogy and the prequel films, starring James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as young Prof. Xavier and Magneto. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine was the breakout star of the franchise, landing himself three standalone movies and the blockbuster “Deadpool & Wolverine.” However, the Fox franchise sputtered out with “New Mutants,” leaving the X-Men without a home on the big screen.