Advertisement

The upcoming Hollywood blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home is set to be a box office hit after breaking the UK record for advance ticket sales, which are being snapped up at three times the rate of those for the James Bond movie No Time to Die.

Odeon, the biggest operator in the UK and Ireland with more than 120 cinemas, said it had sold over 200,000 tickets for the film in the first seven days since release.

The rate of ticket sales to see the film, which stars British actor Tom Holland as Peter Parker, has broken the presale record set by 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. Odeon also said that the Spider-Man presales rate in the first seven days was three times that amassed by Daniel Craig’s eagerly anticipated and final film as James Bond.

“As we head into the festive period, we are really pleased with the advance booking numbers … Read more

Selfridges’ owner, the Weston family has been seeking about £4 billion for the department store chain, is understood to have agreed terms with Central Group in the last few days and wants to close the deal by the end of the year. According to the Times, which first reported the deal. 

The UK retailer owns 25 outlets, including a huge flagship store in London’s Oxford Street, and branches in Dublin, the Netherlands and Canada.

Selfridges was founded in 1908 by US retail magnate Harry Gordon Selfridge. The chain has been owned by the billionaire Westons for 18 years.

The Weston family put the chain up for sale in June, a few months after the death of Galen Weston, who oversaw the move to take the department store private in 2003.

The family control Selfridges through Wittington Investments Ltd, in Canada, which is separate from the UK arm of the same … Read more

For the first time in their 98-year history, Disney has elected a female as new chairman of the company. Susan Arnold, who has been a Disney board member for 14 years, will succeed Bob Iger at the end of this year.

Arnold was formerly an executive at global investment firm Carlyle. Mr Iger, who stepped down as Disney’s chief executive in 2020 after 15 years in the role, will leave the company by the end of this month.

“As I step into this new role as chairman of the board, I look forward to continuing to serve the long-term interests of Disney’s shareholders and working closely with CEO Bob Chapek as he builds upon the company’s century-long legacy of creative excellence and innovation,” Ms Arnold said in a statement.

Arnold has also served in senior roles at some of America’s biggest companies.

For the last eight years she has … Read more

Spotify unveiled its traditional year-end “Wrapped” campaign, which, as always, digs into the music and podcast streaming platform’s reams of data to take a temperature check of pop culture. The overarching theme this year is that 2021 was totally normal—well, at least when compared to 2020.

The work leans heavily on out-of-home executions, which offer witty takes on our collective listening habits, informed by the billions of streams throughout the year. As you can see below, each one references the idea of normalcy in some way—ironically, of course, since the year was far from normal.

“We’ve spent a lot of time dreaming about a return to ‘normalcy,’ but as we sat down and began reflecting on this year, we realized there is no such thing as ‘normal’ and that’s something worth celebrating,” says Alex Bodman, global executive creative director at Spotify. “On Spotify, ‘normal’ is whatever you listen to, however … Read more