You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
4 ballistic missiles
North Korea launched four ballistic missiles early on Monday, prompting quick condemnations from South Korea and Japan. The missiles traveled nearly 620 miles before falling into the Sea of Japan. [CNN]
14 states
Number of states that require students to reach proficiency in cursive writing, which seems dumb and vestigial. Still, that number is on the rise. Realistically, kids need to learn cursive only because people still write in cursive — we’d teach them Teeline if speed was really the goal. In any case, I think proficiency is a bit too far; maybe require students to reach the “able to sign things” level of capability and leave it at that. [Associated Press]
25 movies
Licensed toys — that is, toys tied to a movie or some other major piece of intellectual property — are a massive chunk of the roughly $20 billion toy business, representing about 30 percent of it in a given year. And this year, the licensed toy market should be huge: About 25 films will have toy tie-ins in 2017, compared to seven or eight in a typical year. [Bloomberg]
1,564 screens
Best-picture winner “Moonlight” enjoyed its widest theatrical release yet over the weekend, appearing on 1,564 screens and hauling in $2.5 million. The film has made a total of $25.3 million domestically so far. (It cost just $1.5 million to make.) [The Associated Press]
2.85 million viewers
Viewers of “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” since Jan. 20, compared to 2.96 million for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Colbert has been winning this battle, in part, because his viewer base has jumped since President Trump’s inauguration. But Fallon’s viewership has been fallen off too. [TV By The Numbers]
$237.8 million
“Logan,” Hugh Jackman and Sir Patrick Stewart’s R-rated farewell to the X-Men franchise, had an incredible opening weekend at the box office, hauling in $237.8 million globally. [Variety]
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