The Sandbox, a decentralized gaming virtual world and a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, has entered into a strategic partnership with Havas Play, a Havas Group agency connecting brands to communities, passions and purpose, in order to develop metaverse meaningful brand experiences. The new partnership will allow Havas Play clients to engage their communities in immersive decentralized entertainment experiences. Havas Play will work closely with The Sandbox to strengthen its ability to help brands optimize their relevance within Web3 culture by creating engaging interactive experiences and activating their fans and customers. The partnership will include a new training program to upskill hundreds of Havas Play creatives and technologists on how to create custom brand experiences in The Sandbox, and how to use VoxEdit and GameMaker tools for building digital assets and experiences in The Sandbox. This new metaverse program will consist of three separate tracks for executives, creative practitioners, and media experts and strategists. The partnership will allow Havas Play to empower its client brands and communities through immersive interactive experiences,increasing engagement among their fans and followers through gamification mechanics, which are generally not available with traditional social media. The Sandbox fully embraces the idea of the metaverse as a continuous shared digital space where worlds and heroes collide to make magic. With over 360,000 unique players spending 80 minutes a day on average during its 10-week Alpha Season 3, which finished in November, The Sandbox has a strong track record of engaging users across the globe. Over 400 partners have joined The Sandbox, including Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, The Rabbids, Cut the Rope, Tony Hawk, Gucci Vault, The Walking Dead, Invincible, Snoop Dogg, Adidas, Deadmau5, Steve Aoki, SM Entertainment, The Smurfs, Care Bears, and Atari, all following The Sandbox team’s vision of empowering players to create their own experiences using both original and well-known characters and worlds….
Is “Glicked” The New “Barbenheimer”? “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” Hit Theater Screens
"Barbenheimer" was a phenomenon impossible to manufacture. But, more than a year later, that hasn't stopped people from trying to make "Glicked" — or even "Babyratu" — happen.
The counterprogramming of "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" in July 2023 hit a nerve culturally and had the receipts to back it up. Unlike so many things that begin as memes, it transcended its online beginnings. Instead of an either-or, the two movies ultimately complemented and boosted one another at the box office.
And ever since, moviegoers, marketers and meme makers have been trying to recreate that moment, searching the movie release schedule for odd mashups and sending candidates off into the social media void. Most attempts have fizzled (sorry, "Saw Patrol" ).
This weekend is perhaps the closest approximation yet as the Broadway musical adaptation "Wicked" opens Friday against the chest-thumping sword-and-sandals epic "Gladiator II." Two big studio releases (Universal and Paramount), with one-name titles, opposite tones and aesthetics and big blockbuster energy — it was already halfway there before the name game began: "Wickiator," "Wadiator," "Gladwick" and even the eyebrow raising "Gladicked" have all been suggested.
"'Glicked' rolls off the tongue a little bit more," actor Fred Hechinger said at the New York screening of "Gladiator II" this week. "I think we should all band around 'Glicked.' It gets too confusing if you have four or five different names for it."
As with "Barbenheimer," as reductive as it might seem, "Glicked" also has the male/female divide that make the fan art extra silly. One is pink and bright and awash in sparkles, tulle, Broadway bangers and brand tie-ins; The other is all sweat and sand, blood and bulging... Read More