Joey Chestnut to make Coney Island’s summer as hotdog champion returns | New York

Published

6 days ago

July 4, 2025

A rerun of Jaws will be the blockbuster attraction in Coney Island this Fourth of July holiday, but not the classic Steven Spielberg movie enjoying a new lease of life on the 50th anniversary of its release.

The jaws here belong to Joey Chestnut, the undisputed all-time champion of hotdog consumption, and a leviathan in the world of competitive eating that has grown as a sporting spectacle to the point where it is a regular fixture on ESPN.

Enthusiasts of the annual Nathan’s Fourth of July hotdog eating contest will recall that Chestnut, whose nickname is Jaws, was controversially booted from the 2024 iteration of the event he had dominated for the best part of two decades for signing a deal to promote a rival brand of plant-based wieners.

It was, as the event’s impresario, George Shea, declared at the time with trademark grandeur, the equivalent of Michael Jordan telling Nike – purveyors of his lucrative Air Jordan line of sneakers – that he wanted to rep for Adidas too.

Now, to the relief of many, Jaws is returning to the fold after serving a year’s suspension.

On Friday, the world record holder, with 83 dogs and buns scoffed in a single 10-minute period in an unrelated Netflix special in September 2024, will be the star attraction once again in pursuit of his 17th mustard belt.

“I’m thrilled to be returning,” Chestnut, 41, said in a post to X. “This event means the world to me. It’s a cherished tradition, a celebration of American culture, and a huge part of my life.”

Referring to the controversy that caused his exclusion, he was circumspect.

“While I have and continue to partner with a variety of companies, including some in the plant-based space, those relationships were never a conflict with my love for hotdogs. To be clear: Nathan’s is the only hotdog company I’ve ever worked with,” he wrote.

The straw-hatted Shea, mastermind of an event that draws tens of thousands to New York every year, and a television audience estimated to have grown to 2 million since the first contest in 1972, welcomed the return of the king.

“Last year we got as big a crowd as ever, more media than ever, and we had a fantastic contest that was actually more competitive because Joey has been so dominant,” he told the Guardian.

“That said, there’s definitely more excitement now he’s back. We and everybody, fans included, are very excited and looking forward to the Fourth, and his entrance into the arena will be triumphant and explosive.”

A banner displaying world champion Joey Chestnut is seen on 4 July 2023 in Coney Island. Photograph: Amr Alfiky/Reuters

Shea, whose colourful and bombastic introductions of the competitors are as much a part of the spectacle as the mouth-stuffing element that follows, said he had been working for weeks on how he will proclaim Chestnut’s homecoming.

“It’s not his nickname that makes him who he is, it’s his performance that has defined him, and I believe that’s been very significantly elevated by the introductions that I do of him as a larger-than-life figure,” said Shea, a New York-based public relations executive who says working the Fourth of July event is his “annual treat to myself”.

“I try to create a mix that includes straight and grand introductions that describe what these people are doing on the eating circuit, with a mix of funny, absurd and poetic, and then epic when you get to Joey.”

Shea admits it will be hard to top his 2015 introduction, a fire and brimstone speech that somewhat melodramatically hailed Chestnut as an almost otherworldly being: “A comet blazes to herald his arrival, and his victory shall be transcribed into every language known to history, including Klingon,” he pronounced.

“The bratwurst, and pierogi, and Hooters chicken wing eating champion of the world, eight-time Nathan’s Famous hotdog eating champion of the world, the No 1 eater in the world, I give you America itself, Joey Chestnut.”

The expectation for Friday, at least in betting circles, is that Chestnut will come storming back to recapture his crown from last year’s winner, Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti, and a strong field of Major League Eating characters, perhaps even by topping his own event record, set in 2021, of 76 hotdogs.

But the real winner, Shea said, was the sport of competitive eating itself.

“We’ve been talking, there was a lot of back-and-forth, and people had different perspectives, different opinions, different everything, but everybody wanted this to happen. We stayed at it, and we finally came together,” he said.

“What happened was unfortunate, it was disappointing not to have Joey there, but in the big picture it further elevated the contest, and you know, we’re very conscious of that all the time.”

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‘Superman’ Just Set A Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score Record

Published

1 hour ago

July 10, 2025

Paul Tassi

Superman

This article was published on 7/9 and republished on 7/10.

While critic reviews came pouring in yesterday for Superman, now it’s the audience’s turn, the one who will actually determine if the movie is a success or not (and with an estimated $200 million opening weekend, indications are that it will be).

Those audience scores have gone live and as of right now, Superman has set a new audience score record for live-action Superman films and is just under the critic record right now.

Superman currently has an 85% critic score and a sky-high 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. That 95% is above second place, Zack Snyder’s Justice League cut, which has a 92% and an army of Snyder superfans who were certainly going to score it high. Whether you want to consider Justice League a “Superman movie” is up for debate. That’s sort of like considering four Avengers movies “Thor movies” or “Iron Man movies,” and I’m not sure it counts, though it may be the case the audience score dips below that in the future.

I would be surprised if it went down to third place, the original Superman: The Movie starring Christopher Reeve. That’s the film that is currently beating out Superman by a single percent, as overnight Superman dropped from an 86% to an 85% with a few more reviews in. Here’s the overall list, sorted by audience score.

Superman

Superman (2025) – 85% critic, 95% audience
Justice League (Snyder, 2021) – 71% critic, 92% audience
Superman: The Movie (1978) – 86% critic, 86% audience
Superman II (1980) – 88% critic, 76% audience
Man of Steel (2013) – 57% critic, 75% audience
Justice League (Whedon, 2017) – 39% critic, 67% audience
Batman V Superman (2016) – 28% critic, 63% audience
Superman Returns (2005) – 72% critic, 60% audience
Superman III (1983) – 31% critic, 23% audience
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) – 14% critic, 16% audience

Superman has been a notoriously hard nut to crack, with a rival like Batman or even Wonder Woman generally getting more praise for their films. Even the original stretch of Superman movies ended with two terrible ones, Superman III and Superman IV, despite still starring the excellent Reeve.

As it stands, it’s possible that Superman could regain the critic score record or lose the audience score record as more reviews come in for each. Some critics may not have been invited to early screenings, so more will be coming in. And this is still very early for audiences, given that these are excited initial viewers. But we’ll see. Either way, so far, so good. Very good, in fact.

Update (7/10): Well, good news and bad news 24 hours later here. The critic score for Superman has fallen 1% down to an 84%. That doesn’t change its place among Superman movies, but it knocks it below The Batman and moves it further down James Gunn’s catalog.

The good news is that the audience score for Superman actually went up a percent and is now a 96%. That’s with more than double the ratings we saw yesterday, though yes, the film is not hitting its ultra-wide release until tonight. But it’s still significant that as more reviews rolled in, it’s actually still increasing.

Box office estimates continue to hover around $200 million for its opening weekend, and James Gunn’s statement that the movie didn’t need to hit $700 million to be a success seems like it won’t matter. My question is if it could hit a billion over the long run if word-of-mouth spreads. It’s overall budget was $200 million, so it’s going to hit that instantly, but it needs to also get past marketing and distribution. And there has been a ton of marketing for this movie.

Superman is going to be a big hit, that much is clear already. If audience scores stay anywhere near here, that’s a massive win for the DCU and Gunn, and a killer start to this new era for DC. Now, we will head toward Supergirl, where we will no doubt see a guest appearance from Superman at the very least. It’s not a Gunn production, but he’s been raving about it, so we’ll see how it goes.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy

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Dow, S&P 500 Futures Fall; Nasdaq Set to Open Up; Trump Tariff Fears; Nvidia, Broadcom, Kellogg, Delta, More Movers

Published

3 hours ago

July 10, 2025

Adam Clark

U.S. stock futures were mostly pointing to losses at the market open on Thursday, as President Donald Trump’s latest tariff announcements threatened to pour cold water on the previous day’s Nvidia-led rally.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 35 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures were falling less than 0.1% and Nasdaq 100 futures were edging up less than 0.1%.

Trump announced in a letter late Wednesday that the U.S. will charge a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods starting Aug. 1. It is the highest level announced so far among the raft of letters sent to various national governments, with the White House citing legal action against Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro and U.S. tech firms as justification.

The potential pullback also comes after the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite hit a record closing high on Wednesday. That was powered by chip maker Nvidia, which became the first company in history to reach a market value of $4 trillion, beating rivals Apple and Microsoft.

“For everything else that’s happening right now, from tariffs to fiscal fears, AI is the great hope for US exceptionalism to return. The rally also got a further boost as lower bond yields meant that fears eased about the fiscal situation,” wrote Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid in a research note.

The Treasury sold $39 billion of 10-year notes Wednesday afternoon with investors accepting a yield of 4.362%. That led to a rally in bonds, despite the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s June meeting suggesting officials were divided over when to start cutting interest rates.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note stood at 4.345% early on Thursday, broadly flat from the previous day.

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Helmut Marko breaks silence following Christian Horner sacking

Published

3 hours ago

July 10, 2025

Jake Nichol

Helmut Marko has released a statement following the sacking of Christian Horner from his position as Red Bull CEO and team principal.

Horner was relieved of his duties on Wednesday, 9th July, after 20 years at the helm of Red Bull and was promptly replaced by Racing Bulls boss Laurent Mekies.

The likes of Max Verstappen and Oliver Mintzlaff, Red Bull GmbH’s CEO of corporate projects, issued statements following Horner’s dismissal, but motorsport advisor Marko had not done so, despite working closely with Horner throughout his time with the team.

Tensions between the pair were known to be frought at times, but the veteran Austrian has broken his silence, over 24 hours on from Horner’s shock dismissal.

“Christian and I have worked together very successfully for over 20 years – both in Formula 1 and in Formula 3000,” began Marko’s statement.

“I would like to sincerely thank Christian for that. During this time, we were able to celebrate an incredible number of outstanding achievements.

“We helped develop two World Drivers’ Champions and several Grand Prix winners. That has always been – and still is – the Red Bull way.

“As for the current sporting situation: there are still 12 races to go, and we will continue to fight for the Drivers’ Championship as long as it’s mathematically possible.”

Verstappen finds himself 69 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri at the halfway mark of the season, almost three full grands prix worth of points, with 25 on offer at each race.

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