Nearly 25 years after the first “Men in Black” film became a smash hit, grossing $588 million worldwide, location-based immersive virtual reality company Dreamscape — in conjunction with Sony Pictures Virtual Reality (SPVR) — is rebooting the alien-fighting adventure at its flagship location in Westfield Century City. On Friday, October 1, “Men In Black: First Assignment” will invite thrill-seekers to outfit as agents, swap Will Smith’s Ray-Bans for a VR headset and battle intergalactic invaders. It’s seen as something of a bellwether as to the public’s appetite for location attractions amidst COVID-19’s lingering Delta variant. Read more

After analyzing hundreds of social media ad campaigns by the top streaming ad platforms, BrandTotal has found that Disney+ is leading in paid share-of-voice, with 30 percent of all impressions. HBO Max is next with 23 percent, with Hulu in third place at 21 percent. The top-five included Peacock with 16 percent and Paramount+ at 7 percent. Meanwhile, the report found Apple TV+ and Netflix to be the least active social media advertisers, with 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively. BrandTotal’s report — Social Intelligence Competitive Snapshot: The Streaming Wars — analyzed paid social advertising campaigns over 90 days beginning June 23, 2021. Read more

Chinese online game companies are falling in line with Xi Jinping’s government mandate to curb negative influences on the country’s youth, vowing to self-police the workarounds kids have found to circumvent regulatory limits on play-time. In August, China banned persons under 18 from playing video games more than three hours each week. More than 200 game firms including Tencent and NetEase say they will comply with regulations announced by China’s National Press and Publication Administration and take steps to ensure the rules are enforced. The NPPA suggested use of facial recognition to accomplish that goal. Read more

A poll conducted by the bipartisan Future of Tech Commission indicates that 80 percent of registered U.S. voters would like to see the federal government take a more aggressive approach to regulating tech giants. The poll found that respondents agreed the government “needs to do everything it can to curb the influence of Big Tech companies that have grown too powerful and now use our data to reach too far into our lives.” In addition, 84 percent of voters say they are “very nervous” about the effect social media has on children. The Commission hopes the findings will help persuade policymakers to regulate the power of Internet platforms. Read more

Twitter is buoying its creators, rolling out a global program to let fans tip content producers and preparing to launch its own creators fund. The Tips feature will initially be made available on iOS and then on Android in the weeks ahead. The news is part of a product slate Twitter says is aimed at improving community and conversations and will include NFT support. The creators fund supports audio on Twitter Spaces. Unlike TikTok, Facebook and YouTube, Twitter’s fund won’t pay top performers but will focus on educating audio creators on topics like monetization, marketing and technical skills. Read more