Latest news with #ApolloCreed
Forbes
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Perseverance: The Underdog's Superpower
Underdogs don't succeed because they are the biggest, the best, and the brightest, or even because they are the boldest. They succeed because they have perseverance. Rocky is the ultimate underdog story—at least, in fiction. With all the subsequent sequels, it's easy to forget that in the original, Rocky Balboa's goal wasn't to win against Apollo Creed. Rather, his goal was 'to go the distance' with Creed, to persevere through a full 15 rounds. In my upcoming book, Underdog Nation, I also share about Sylvester Stallone's own underdog story, and his perseverance to position himself as the movie's lead when the studio was set on hiring a 'big name.' In the end, his tenacity won out. But how do underdogs develop this superpower? Is it natural talent or something more? Throughout my own life, I've seen this over and over. My father showed perseverance when he chose to stay in Vietnam to keep fighting, even though he had no idea what would happen next. When I entered Officer Candidates School for the Marines, it required immense perseverance because I had no idea what I was about to face. As soon as we arrived at Quantico, the sergeants started drilling us and shouting at us to get our tails off the bus and in line. Within minutes, one sergeant was barking in my face—the only Asian face in the line—asking why I was even there and if I was 'a Viet Cong spy' (and no wonder since this was the same year the movie Platoon was released). The moment was so shocking and unanticipated that my eyes welled up with tears, and I nearly broke down and cried. I was totally unprepared for the moment. Suddenly, I was a little refugee boy again, facing an unknown and uncertain future, and ready to go back home with my mom. In retrospect, our recruiter did his best to prepare us for the experience by not warning us what OCS would be like. He wanted us to be in shock because perseverance requires the ability to operate in a new environment. In the face of the unknown, you have to develop mental toughness—mental stamina. Right off the bat, perseverance is more about mental stamina than it is physical, even when you're performing a physical activity. Ask anyone who's finished a marathon and you'll hear the same story repeated—the last 6.2 miles are finished through mental grit. Success means being able to finish the marathon—and it's not a matter of luck. There's a formula for finishing well. You have to be prepared for the unknown—the weather, how you'll feel that day, and any circumstances that might occur during the race, like a pulled muscle or a hole in your shoe that suddenly appears. All of that happens first in the mind. You don't build up mental stamina overnight, though. It's a process. The more situations where you have to be mentally tough, the more perseverance and stamina you develop. It's the same with amateur golf. You can't do the same stuff every time you go out on the course and expect different results. That's the insanity cycle. You have to build up the mental stamina. You have to learn how to adjust your mental approach to different types of weather and ground conditions. Practice doesn't make perfect—competing (and often losing or, as the saying goes in golf, choking) does create perseverance. And with enough perseverance, you make progress. When I entered sales, I learned just how much perseverance is the great differentiator. If you don't have the mental toughness to take a 'no,' you won't last long. According to reports from Marketing Donut, 80 percent of prospects say 'no' before they ever say 'yes,' yet 44 percent of salespeople give up after the first rejection. They simply don't have the mental stamina to push back for more information, or to follow up and hear 'no' again. When I failed to take our company public the first time, I changed our go-to-market approach and rewrote the entire prospectus. Underdogs don't succeed because they are the biggest, the best, and the brightest, or even because they are the boldest. They succeed because they have perseverance. Because they are willing to face the unknown with mental stamina. When you consider your own level of perseverance, which one of those two areas do you need to grow in?
News.com.au
12-06-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
Gelded Italian import Tempesti to continue improvement for Matt Cumani at Sandown on Saturday
Apollo Creed wasn't the only one to have trouble with an Italian Stallion. Like the Rocky movie combatant, Ballarat trainer Matt Cumani found his Italian Stallion difficult to handle. Apollo Creed lost his heavyweight title in Rocky II. Tempesti lost his stallion status after Cumani had him gelded a few weeks after the Italian Derby runner-up started work in Australia. • PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet's team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW! 'In Italy, they told me he was a very straightforward and very well behaved horse but Australia is very different with all the stables being open-aired and all the horses passing in front of them,' Cumani said. 'We sort of sold him as the Italian Stallion and he very much lived up to that name and he got very overexcited on the track, on the barn and everywhere to the extent where he was almost too dangerous. 'We hadn't even got to jumpouts and racing yet, so we hadn't even experienced tie-ups, the clerks of the course or anything like that. 'After about four weeks of training and giving him a good go as a colt, we decided we had to geld him.' The new version of Tempesti has impressed Cumani with his attitude in his two jumpouts and two races in his care. Tempesti was an easy winner at Group 2 level on a heavy track in Italy in 2023. Tempesti finished in the second half of the field at his Australian debut at Flemington in March but indicated his promise when running on well for third over 1800m at Sandown last month. Cumani said spacing Tempesti's runs was crucial to the six-year-old performing at his best, which meant bypassing a 2000m race at Flemington last Saturday to tackle Saturday's 1800m contest at Sandown. 'I actually thought his first run here in Australia was quite good, even if it didn't look visually impressive,' Cumani said. 'But if you look at the times, his finish was actually pretty good in a decent race. 'The only thing is that I would have loved to have stepped him up to 2000m in his next race but he's a horse that seems to thrive off not much racing. 'I didn't want to go two weeks into his next run, which was the 2000m at Flemington last weekend. 'But given he ran so well over 18 (00m), I was happy to give him another go at it' Cumani said he would like Tempesti to race 'a pair or two closer' to the lead from barrier six at Sandown. He added Tempesti could be competitive in minor stakes races over 2000m in the spring provided the Italian Group 2 winner gets conditions to suit. Tempesti is unbeaten in six starts on heavy ground in his homeland.
Newsweek
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Michael B. Jordan Producing Creed Series for Prime Video.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek's network of contributors The first Creed spinoff series is entering production at Prime Video. The upcoming drama, titled Delphi, follows fledgling boxers training at the fictional Delphi gym. Michael B. Jordan and his company Outlier Society are producing the series, which is currently a Prime Video exclusive. According to reports, Outlier Society currently has a first-look film deal at Amazon MGM Studios, meaning if the show performs well it could lead to a big screen crossover. Michael B. Jordan stars in Creed 3 Michael B. Jordan stars in Creed 3 MGM The Creed trilogy, itself an offshoot of the six-film Rocky franchise, debuted in 2015. It follows Adonis Creed (Michael B. Johnson), the son of Rocky's first rival, Apollo Creed. Over the trilogy, we follow his rise from juvenile delinquent to world boxing champion, defeating his opponents and battling personal demons. Creed Box Office Creed has grossed over $660 million worldwide across three films, with each film increasing the box office earnings. Here's how much each Creed film has made. Creed (2015) - $174.2 million Creed II (2018) - $213.6 million Creed III (2023) - $276.1 million Delphi Boxing Academy, to give it its full title, exists in both the Rocky and Creed series. Operating out of Los Angeles, California, it was founded by Tony 'Duke' Evers, who trained the Apollo Creed there. Duke's son Tony Evers inherited the gym, and trained the son of Apollo Creed, Adonis Johnson Creed. Adonis is still at Delphi to this day, where he holds the WBC Heavyweight title. Delphi, which will air on Prime Video in 240 countries and territories, already has its showrunner and executive producer in Marco Ramirez. He previously acted as showrunner on another boxing drama: Hulu's La Máquina starring Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, and Eiza González. Outlier Society, meanwhile, is also developing a Muhammad Ali series called The Greatest. Delphi Release Date There is currently no release date for Delphi, but don't expect it any earlier than 2028.
Business Insider
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
Ryan Coogler's deal to own 'Sinners' is a gamble that could still pay off big time
After years of making films based on existing IP like Marvel comics and Apollo Creed, Ryan Coogler finally made an original movie. It could pay dividends for the rest of his life. The unique terms of Coogler's deal with Warner Bros. for his genre-bending vampire movie "Sinners" give the 38-year-old filmmaker ownership of the movie in 25 years, putting him in rare company with the likes of auteurs like Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino, both of whom have landed similar deals. And with "Sinners" becoming a box office sensation — it's brought in over $200 million domestically, making it the second-highest grossing North American release in 2025 — Coogler could have his hands under a moneymaking faucet. "He's making a lot of money off it now and has the potential to make money 25 years from now through ownership," Jonathan Handel, a veteran entertainment and technology attorney with the law firm Feig Finkel, told Business Insider. "But he's rolling the dice." Will that gamble pay off, and how, exactly, could Coogler make or lose money on the deal? Though Handel hasn't seen the contract between Coogler and Warner Bros., he used his decades of experience writing contracts for directors and stars to walk us through some scenarios to explain what could happen when Coogler regains the rights to "Sinners." Deals like Coogler's come with creative control — but they're not a blank check There are various ways a filmmaker can come to own their own work. Some use a tactic known as a "negative pickup," in which the filmmaker finds the financing and makes the movie on their own, then sells the finished project to a studio, which distributes it and does the marketing. M. Night Shyamalan did this with Universal for the 2019 thriller "Glass," and most recently, Francis Ford Coppola did it with Lionsgate for "Megalopolis." Others self-distribute, side-stepping a studio or distributor and footing the bill for the entire release. For instance, Steven Soderbergh launched Fingerprint Releasing for the run of his 2017 heist movie "Logan Lucky," while Taylor Swift made deals directly with theater chains for the release of her Eras Tour concert movie in 2023. But it's exceedingly rare to get a studio to agree to give the rights of one of its movies back to the filmmaker after some period of time. Many of the auteurs who enjoy this perk got their start on the independent film scene, where the practice was more common. Jim Jarmusch has pushed to own most of his films, while Quentin Tarantino owns "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" because he made a deal with Sony that grandfathered him into the rights deal he'd had since the "Pulp Fiction" days with Harvey Weinstein at Miramax Films. Creatively, the deal was something Coogler said he needed. He previously told Business Insider that his only motivation for the deal was to emphasize the film's themes of Black ownership, as the two main characters, both played by Michael B. Jordan, set out to own a juke joint in the Jim Crow South before things take a bloody turn. Handel noted that by pushing for ownership in 2050, Coogler is literally and symbolically betting on himself, and the prospect that "Sinners" will still be in the public consciousness two-plus decades from now. "Coogler would have gotten more money up front if he hadn't pushed for ownership," he said. "You have to give something to get something in negotiation. So he's definitely betting that it will have value in 25 years." Coogler could score a major licensing deal if new technology changes how we consume movies after 2050 According to Handel, Coogler could really cash in if there's a major shift in the way we watch movies after he regains the rights to "Sinners." For example, if we're suddenly watching movies on an immersive 3D platform and "Sinners" is under the ownership of Coogler, he could take in millions landing licensing agreements to view the film in that format. However, if that technology becomes the streaming of tomorrow before the rights to "Sinners" revert to Coogler in 25 years, the director could miss out, either because Warner Bros. could choose not to convert the title to that platform, or because of something called a "holdback," in which the copyright cannot revert to Coogler until certain conditions are met. "In this instance, WB might do a holdback where there can be no new version created within five years of the rights reverting," Handel said. Though this is only a hypothetical, Handel said it's an example of the level of complexity that could be in the contract Warner Bros. and Coogler signed. Even if Coogler doesn't have the rights to 'Sinners' sequels, he could still cash in The ending of "Sinners" hints at a potential franchise, and 25 years from now, Coogler would be in control to do whatever he wants in building that out. But chances are, Warner Bros. would want a sequel — maybe even more than one — a lot sooner than 2050. When that moment comes, a lot of questions about payout will depend on who has the sequel rights. Reps for Coogler and Warner Bros. did not respond to a request for comment about who holds those rights. Even if Coogler doesn't have the rights to the sequels, Handel said he would still benefit. Coogler still presumably would have profit participation on any sequels, as he does on the first movie, and if Warner Bros. wanted to do any kind of box set 25 years from now, they would have to make a deal with Coogler to have the first movie involved. "He's got the upper hand, because if I'm Warners and I own the other pictures, I have to go to Ryan and do a deal with him," Handel said. So how much money could Coogler make once the "Sinners" rights revert to him? Reports from Matthew Belloni at Puck put that figure at about $1 million a year, based on the predictions of Hollywood insiders who focus on movie libraries and licensing deals. But Handel isn't confident that any figure can be put on the deal as of now. "To contend that you can make a prediction like that is fantasy land," he told BI, noting that there are too many unknown variables to predict what Coogler could earn from "Sinners" 25 years in the future. What he is sure of is that Coogler's deal has left the rest of Hollywood interested and intrigued: "The high-level directors are having conversations with their representatives about this."
Miami Herald
12-02-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
What does a new deal with Aldi and Winn-Dixie mean for Miami shoppers? Here's a rundown
Winn-Dixie may have big challenges in its home state of Florida, but the Jacksonville-based supermarket chain has survived Publix dominance, a merger with Aldi, and, well, the price of eggs. Still, it fights on, the plucky Rocky to the others' mighty Apollo Creed. After a merger with discount grocer Aldi and the possible disappearance of the brand, Winn-Dixie and its Rewards card will live. There won't be as many Winn-Dixie markets after Aldi converts hundreds of them, but many will survive the merger deal. Aldi is selling back stores it doesn't want to a new consortium, including the current Winn-Dixie chief. This month a group of private investors, led by Anthony Hucker, the current CEO and president of parent company Southeastern Grocers, and the grocer's supply chain partner C&S Wholesale Grocers, acquired Southeastern Grocers and many of its Winn-Dixie stores back from Aldi. Aldi bought Southeastern Grocers in March 2024 and about 400 of its Winn-Dixie and Harveys stores. Aldi announced plans to convert hundreds of Winn-Dixie locations. Harveys Supermarket has about 10 stores in Florida in Jacksonville, Winter Park, Ocala, Havana, Lakeland and Lake City but none in the South Florida region. The conversion of Winn-Dixie stores into Aldi markets is still happening, but retail experts say the latest move is a strategic win for both brands. 'It seems Aldi sized up the opportunity, learned a little about what makes its supermarket competitors tick, then picked some prime locations to convert and turned the keys back over to people who are willing to run large food stores,' the trade site Grocery Dive said. MORE: Which Winn-Dixie markets will become Aldi stores in South Florida? Here's first list The grocery store back-and-forth doesn't involve Fresco y Mas, which was owned by Southeastern Grocers but went independent when Aldi bought the parent company. 'The purchase solidifies the grocer's continued legacy in the Southeast and aligns both leadership and ownership for reinvestment and growth in the organization,' Southeastern Grocers said in a statement sent to the Miami Herald. 'From the beginning, we shared that we intended for a meaningful number of Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarkets to continue to operate, and we're delivering on that promise while also supporting Aldi growth,' Aldi said, confirming it had divested about 170 of the stores that were not part of the conversion plans. Aldi said it's undergoing an 'ambitious five-year national expansion of 800 stores by the end of 2028.' Here is what the new twist in ownership may mean for the South Florida grocery shopper: What happens next with Aldi and Winn-Dixie? The agreement includes the acquisition of SEG grocery and liquor store operations under the Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket names. Southeastern is now running those reacquired stores. How many stores: About 170 grocery stores in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as the existing Winn-Dixie liquor store business are back in SEG possession. Aldi intends to complete its conversion plans of about 220 Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket stores to the Aldi format over a three-year period expected to wrap in 2027. Some of these conversions are in South Florida. Neither Southeastern nor Aldi released a full list of the 220 stores remaining under Aldi's control. Converting South Florida stores We know of a few previously announced Winn-Dixie to Aldi conversions in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties among the 220 stores Aldi retains. At some point later in 2025 or 2026, these Winn-Dixie supermarkets will become Aldi stores: ▪ Aventura Winn-Dixie at 20417 Biscayne Blvd. ▪ Fort Lauderdale Winn-Dixie at 941 SW 24th St. ▪ Boynton Beach Winn-Dixie at 8855 Boynton Beach Blvd. ▪ Westlake Winn-Dixie at 5060 Seminole Pratt Whitney Rd. in Palm Beach County. 'In the meantime, Aldi and SEG leadership will continue to work together closely to ensure a smooth transition, with dedicated leaders overseeing the store conversion and hiring process. SEG will continue to operate the remaining stores identified for conversion in the normal course of business, with the same level of care and focus on quality and service, up to and until each respective store is closed for conversion,' Southeastern Grocers said. 'When stores reopen as Aldi, shoppers can expect a quick, easy shopping experience with great products at the lowest prices, saving up to 36% on an average shopping trip. For families of four in Miami, that means they can save up to $4,029 every year shopping at Aldi, compared to a traditional grocer,' Aldi said. We haven't verified that touted amount of annual savings. However eggs — the subject of much discussion due to rising costs and shortages linked to the nationwide avian influenza outbreak — on Feb. 4 were priced at $4.67 for a dozen large Grade As at an Aldi in the Hammocks neighborhood in West Kendall. Aldi's eggs were cheaper that week compared to competitors like Publix ($5.49) in Kendall's Palms at Town & Country shopping center and a Winn-Dixie ($7.39) on Coral Way in Miami. READ MORE: How much do eggs cost in Miami? When will we know which stores stay as Winn-Dixie? Southeastern Grocers hasn't publicly revealed the 170 regained stores it will control and potentially renovate. Southeastern Grocers statement: 'We will be informing our associates first of those decisions as they are finalized, and as market conditions permit. We will share this information with each community once our associates have been appropriately informed.' Will the remaining Winn-Dixie stores get spruced up? Some Winn-Dixie stores underwent renovations that were overdue. For instance, a faded strip mall location at the Sunset West Shopping Center at 8710 SW 72nd St. was remodeled and reopened in the summer of 2023. The 57,124- square-foot Winn-Dixie at 3275 Coral Way — with its attached liquor store that opened in 1990 in the space of the former Twin (and later Triple) Gables movie theater — is more than twice the size of the average 22,000-square-foot Aldi. Renovations of some of the 170 stores could get face lifts, the company suggested. Southeastern Grocers statement: 'We know that our success of the past several years was driven in part by spending the necessary capital to invest and remodel our store facilities, grow our liquor store business with additional locations, and add select new grocery store locations where we had the opportunity to do so within our footprint. Our plans provide for sufficient capital expenditures to be deployed to pursue these same investments going forward.' What about Winn-Dixie Rewards? Southeastern Grocers said it planned to continue Winn-Dixie's savings programs, including its Rewards app..
