While the rest of the world was off ringing in the New Year, Star Wars: The Last Jedi was busy crossing an important landmark. 

Actually, make that two.

Less than three weeks after its debut, The Last Jedi has officially crossed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office. As of writing, its total is up to $1.04 billion, according to Box Office Mojo. 

Only Beauty and the Beast and The Fate of the Furious did better globally in 2017, with $1.26 and $1.24 billion, respectively. (Despicable Me 3 lags just behind with $1.03 billion.) Read more…

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Source: Mashable | What backlash? 'The Last Jedi' just crossed billion at the box office

Unless you live in a designated warm place like Miami or Los Angeles, New Year’s is widely accepted as the worst holiday of the year.

Thankfully, there are little tweets for us cold climate people that keep us goingHamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda had one of the sweetest this year, with just the right amount of corniness to make it chug.

Miranda pulled up a Facebook post he wrote on New Years Eve six years ago as he was creating Hamilton.

“It’s very hard to write battle wraps between Jefferson and Hamilton when you’re nowhere near as smart as the people for whom you are writing. The hamster in the hamster wheel that runs my fevered brain needs a drink,” Miranda wrote at the time. Read more…

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Source: Mashable | Lin-Manuel Miranda's tender New Year's message made the holiday a little less horrible

There’s only one person in this entire damn universe with the power to command the world to stop—Beyoncé. 

In the final milliseconds of 2017, the dulcet sound of Beyoncé ordered the world—and year— to stop. And, as 2018 began, she gave the world permission to “carry on.” 

This was no coincidence, friends. Ingenious Twitter user @xavierliciouss spent New Year’s Eve conducting an extremely important experiment involving “Feeling Myself” by Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé. 

“So I tested out the theory that if you play “Feeling Myself” by Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé at exactly 11:58:50 pm on New Year’s Eve, Beyoncé will say “world stop” in 2017 and “Carry on” in 2018, AND BITCH IT WORKEDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!” she wrote. Read more…

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Source: Mashable | Genius ushers in 2018 with iconic moment from Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj's 'Feeling Myself'

While some of us were dancing our hearts out and glugging champagne, others were ushering in the New Year in the most magical way possible — at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 

They didn’t have to run through a wall at King’s Cross Station to get there, though. They went along to Universal Studios Hollywood, where Hogwarts Castle happens to be located. 

As the clock struck 12, people looked to the sky to feast their eyes upon a kaleidoscopic display of fireworks above Hogwarts Castle. 

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Source: Mashable | New Year's Eve at Hogwarts Castle was a magical kaleidoscope of fireworks

All Mariah wants for 2018 is… hot tea?

Mariah might have managed to emerge from her New Year’s Eve performance unscathed this time around. But, there was one thing she wasn’t thrilled about—the absence of hot tea. Oh dear.

A lip sync fail turned Mariah’s 2016 appearance on Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin’ Eve into an excruciatingly awkward disaster of epic proportions. But, things were looking up for Mariah one year on, performance-wise at least. 

After singing her iconic 1990 song “Vision of Love,” Mariah was getting ready to sing “Hero.” But, before she got started, she had one demand. A demand that was not met.  Read more…

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Source: Mashable | Mariah Carey had just one hot demand during her NYE performance