Kiss sells catalog for estimated $300M
It’s never really the end of the road for Kiss. The hard rock quartet have sold their catalog, brand name and IP to Swedish company Pophouse Entertainment Group in a deal estimated to be over $300 million, it was announced Thursday.
This isn’t the first time Kiss has partnered with Pophouse, which was co-founded by ABBA’S Björn Ulvaeus. When the band — Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons as well as guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer — took the stage at the final night of its farewell tour in December at Madison Square Garden, they ended by revealing digitized avatars of themselves.
The ways in which Kiss’ avatars will be utilized has yet to be announced, but Pophouse CEO Per Sundin says fans can expect a biopic, a documentary and a Kiss experience on the horizon. An avatar show is scheduled to launch in 2027. Sundin says the goal of the purchase is to expose Kiss to new generations — which he believes sets Pophouse apart from other acquisitions of music catalogs.
“I don’t like the word acquisition,” Simmons said, assuring the band would never sell its catalog to a company they didn’t appreciate.
“Collaboration is exactly what it’s about. It would be remiss in our inferred fiduciary duty — see what I just did there? — to the thing that we created to abandon it,” he said. “People might misunderstand and think, ‘OK, now Pophouse is doing that stuff, and we’re just in Beverly Hills twiddling our thumbs.’ No, that’s not true. We’re in the trenches with them. We talk all the time. We share ideas. It’s a collaboration. Paul and I especially, with the band, we’ll stay committed to this. It’s our baby.”
Colfer adds Juniper Lane book:
Bestselling author Eoin Colfer has a new set of adventures ready for young Juniper Lane.
Colfer’s “Guardians of Cedar Wood” is scheduled to come out in 2025, Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, announced Thursday.
It’s the second book in Colfer’s middle-grade series about Juniper Lane and a helpful reindeer who were featured in Colfer’s 2023 holiday tale, “Juniper’s Christmas.”
In “Guardians of Cedar Wood,” Juniper is now an apprentice to Santa who finds herself battling unfriendly visitors in the forest of Cedar Wood.
Taylor-joy reveals she married Mcrae:
Anya Taylor-joy confirmed Monday that she got married — two years ago — and it’s no April Fools’ joke.
“The Queen’s Gambit” and “Super Mario Bros. Movie” star shared details about her Big Easy nuptials on Instagram, posting images from the romantic day to mark her second wedding anniversary with musician Malcolm Mcrae.
“Two years ago, on April Fools, I secretly married my best friend in New Orleans,” the actor, 27, wrote. “The magic of that day is ingrained in every cell of my being, forever.”
April 5 birthdays: Filmmaker Roger Corman is 98. Actor Michael Moriarty is
83. Actor Jane Asher is 78. Actor Mitch Pileggi is 72. Rapper Christopher “Kid” Reid is 60. Guitarist Mike Mccready is 58. Musician Paula Cole is 56. Producer Pharrell Williams is 51. Actor Sterling K. Brown is
48. Actor Hayley Atwell is
42. Actor Lily James is 35.