Latest news with #Zabka
Reuters
21-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Polish retailer Zabka's quarterly adjusted EBITDA seen at 984 million zlotys
GDANSK, March 21 (Reuters) - Polish convenience store chain Zabka ( opens new tab is expected to report an 18% increase in fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA at 984 million zlotys ($254.20 million), a Reuters poll showed on Friday. Zabka is expected to report revenues of 5.95 billion zlotys, an increase from 5.04 billion zlotys a year ago, driven by organic growth and the expansion of its store network. here. Analysts from five banks and brokerages on average expect Zabka to report fourth-quarter net profit of 262 million zlotys, up from 209 million zlotys in the same period last year. Preliminary figures published by the company on January 17 showed like-for-like (LFL) sales growth for 2024 was 8.3%, driven by higher volumes and basket value throughout the year. Full-year results are due on March 24. The group made its debut on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in October 2024 with a 6.45-billion-zloty IPO, and following the trading session on March 21, joined Poland's blue-chip index, the WIG20. The following table summarises analysts' forecasts for Zabka for the fourth quarter of 2024: (Figures in millions of zlotys unless stated otherwise) NET PROFIT REVENUE EBIT Average 262 984 5945 514 Median 243 985 5943 514 Lowest 187 979 5908 508 Highest 366 988 6001 520 No. of forecasts 5 4 5 4 Q4 2023 209 836 5035 418 Q3 2024 319 1119 6578 664 Forecasts provided by: Trigon, Pekao, mBank, Santander Bank, BDM ($1 = 3.8709 zlotys)
USA Today
13-02-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Ralph Macchio and William Zabka were 'Karate Kid' rivals. Then 'Cobra Kai' made them pals.
Ralph Macchio and William Zabka were 'Karate Kid' rivals. Then 'Cobra Kai' made them pals. Show Caption Hide Caption Ralph Macchio reflects on Pat Morita, 'Cobra Kai,' 'Karate Kid' Ralph Macchio opens up to USA TODAY's Brian Truitt about playing Daniel LaRusso in "Cobra Kai" and the legacy of "The Karate Kid." Even wise Mr. Miyagi couldn't have seen the surprising path taken by 'The Karate Kid' stars Ralph Macchio and William Zabka. The first day of filming the 1984 movie found Macchio face down in a face full of sand on a Southern California beach when his New Jersey transplant Daniel LaRusso is beaten up by Cobra Kai teen bad boy Johnny Lawrence (Zabka) and his goons. Cut to 41 years later on the last day of filming the Netflix spinoff series 'Cobra Kai' and another beach scene, where Macchio and Zabka are running and playing in the surf, grinning mightily. Macchio, 63, calls it a 'full circle' moment for a pair of martial arts rivals. 'There's a silent conversation we're able to have by having gone through all this together, both as actors and as characters,' he says. Join our Watch Party! Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox. The original film ended with Daniel crane-kicking bully Johnny in the face and winning the All Valley Karate Tournament. Six seasons of 'Cobra Kai' have centered on Johnny's redemption story, becoming co-sensei with frenemy Daniel at his Miyagi-Do dojo and teaching karate to a new generation of youngsters. The final five episodes (streaming now on Netflix) find the duo more together than ever when, in the wake of tragedy, they lead their pupils into the finals of the international Sekai Taikai tourney. 'Iron sharpens iron and these two individual, unique characters from opposite sides of the country need each other,' Zabka says. 'And throughout the show, they better each other. They bump heads, but they always come back to the middle.' William Zabka finds a 'Wicked' redemption story for his 'Cobra Kai' antihero Zabka, 59, sees 'Cobra Kai' as like 'Wicked' in a way, though instead of the Wicked Witch of the West enjoying a fresh perspective it's a seminal '80s movie villain. Zabka became known for playing teen antagonists back in the day, but he recalls deciding to play Johnny because he saw 'the heart in him.' It's glimpsed just at the end of Daniel's win in the original "Karate Kid," when Johnny hands his opponent the championship trophy and tells him, 'You're all right, LaRusso.' 'That little spark of redemption possibilities in him is the seed that grew this tree,' Zabka says of 'Cobra Kai,' though at the beginning of the show, he still worried that Johnny would 'be the biggest douche of all time at the end of this thing.' Instead, Johnny has become the best version of himself, a needed father figure for Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) and a better dad for his own son Robby (Tanner Buchanan), yet still very much himself (and still loving Coors beer and '80s hair metal). 'There are second chances and there's a great human story in there,' Zabka says. Ralph Macchio is a 'lucky guy' to still be playing Daniel LaRusso Daniel has also needed to evolve. He used his local sports stardom to launch a successful auto dealership, yet he has had issues. Daniel has had a hard time juggling being dad and teacher to karate wunderkind daughter Sam (Mary Mouser). And at the same time, he's a sensei forced to deal with old foes and soapy martial arts drama as well as mysterious new information about his beloved Mr. Miyagi (played by Pat Morita, who died in 2005). 'He is trying to honor his mentor, his own family values and put positivity forward,' Macchio says. 'He's learned to navigate things better. He'll still be the knee-jerk LaRusso, who acts first, thinks second, because those flaws make for interesting storytelling.' The actor points to one dream sequence near the end of the series that throws back to 'Karate Kid,' in which Daniel has an emotional conversation with Miyagi (resurrected via Hollywood magic) while 'coming to grips with his own internal struggles." Daniel's new clarity comes through in "those moments that he hands down to the next generation (and) pays that legacy forward.' Macchio says he's 'really proud and happy' with where Daniel lands at the close of 'Cobra Kai,' though he's not hanging up the gi yet: He stars in the upcoming movie 'Karate Kid: Legends' (in theaters May 30), where Daniel and Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) team up to teach a kung fu prodigy (Ben Wang). 'It's a new story on the big screen, kind of where I started,' Macchio says. Roles are 'few and far between with the impact that Daniel LaRusso has had in pop culture, cinema and television, and I'm the lucky guy who got to play the part.' 'Karate Kid' foes have grown to be 'the best of friends' The OG 'Karate Kid' star frequently jokes about how at the end of filming the '84 movie, he walked away from Zabka thinking, 'Well, thank God I never have to see that guy again.' 'It kind of hurt getting my ass kicked,' Macchio says with a laugh. 'And here we are on this day, the best of friends. He's my brother in arms. I never would've imagined that.' Zabka concurs. They've grown close after filming several "Cobra Kai" seasons, and Zabka was on hand to honor his buddy when Macchio received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in November. There's a lot of art imitating life, too, with Daniel learning from Johnny's aggressive style and Johnny getting a crash course in Daniel's balance and defense. 'They both stay true to themselves and find their way together at the end,' Zabka says. 'There's a common ground. That gives us all a little bit of hope.'
The Guardian
13-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Cobra Kai finale review – an emotional farewell to the Karate Kid gang
Cobra Kai is an underdog story. It has been since 1984, when the movie The Karate Kid introduced Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), a weedy teenager in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County, who took up karate to combat bullies and ended up defeating his nemesis Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) in the district under-18 final. Then the franchise and its actors became the victorious underdogs. Macchio and Zabka had gappy CVs in the three decades after The Karate Kid and its so-so sequels, only to become stars again from nowhere in 2018 with a TV revival. Even that succeeded against the odds, starting as a YouTube original before transferring to Netflix on the back of a growing cult following. That unusual backstory has created an extremely unusual show. It's shot like a daytime soap and is often acted like one, having chosen not to recast any of the original characters: as well as Macchio and Zabka, numerous journeymen who failed to land any big gigs after The Karate Kid have been faithfully retained in the supporting cast, and whatever performance level they have managed is what the series has gone with. The result is a drama that is hard to read. Is it earnest or camp? The serious dramatic moments often come off as unintentionally funny, but then there are comic sequences that are definitely funny on purpose. The premise, meanwhile, has grown ever more absurd. At first, it was all about teens taking local karate competitions weirdly seriously, to the point where rival dojos regularly engaged in bone-crunching violence that jarred with the general vibe of ordinary Americans dealing with minor travails at school, home and work. Six-and-a-half seasons in – these five new episodes bring Cobra Kai to an end – the stakes have escalated to the point where, despite none of the cast being at all convincing as martial artists, the San Fernando Valley has become the epicentre of global under-18s karate. Last time we saw them, the gang was in Barcelona, competing in a world championship that was abandoned when a competitor was accidentally knifed to death during a brawl. So now everyone's disillusioned and ready to hang up their black belts – until, of course, they reconsider and the tournament is rescheduled to take place right here in the All Valley Sports Arena. As well as Daniel and Johnny – once rival senseis, now friends collaborating to turn their own kids into champions – we are still in the presence of the films' antagonists. John Kreese (Martin Kove), the scarred Vietnam vet who was Johnny's evil sensei in the original Karate Kid, is now remorseful and no longer evil; Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), the even more evil sensei from The Karate Kid Part III, is still very evil, as indicated by his ponytail, luxury yacht and monochrome business-casual outfits. Silver is the man behind the Iron Dragons, a dodgy dojo whose highly trained fighters are willing to break the rules and their opponents' legs. We are set up for a festival of David v Goliath encounters, in which a California teen who looks like they took up karate yesterday faces a chiselled killing machine who has been ordered to not just beat them, but physically break them – à la Johnny in 1984 against a hobbling Daniel, being told by a growling Kreese to 'sweep the leg'. With slo-mo montages and a hair-rock soundtrack, the LA lads and lasses either win the bout implausibly, or lose but then decide that they won really because they tried, and because they're better people who love their friends and family. They all also really love 'the Valley', despite its strip malls, high schools, family cars and generously proportioned living rooms appearing to outsiders as unremarkable suburbia. Get over your British embarrassment at the idea of being intensely proud of where you come from, to the point where you believe that maladroit local sixth-formers can kick the ass of world-class karate experts, and the appeal of Cobra Kai is less of a mystery. The other key to it is one you'll have come to quicker if you've ever spent wet Sunday mornings on the touchline of a youth football match: really, this is a show about dads with unresolved issues living through their kids' hobby, and the closing episodes are all about Daniel, Johnny, Kreese and Silver ironing out their mid- or late-life crises, one way or another. Over time, Johnny has become the show's main character, despite the likable Zabka's technical limitations: the unambiguously serious scene where Johnny confronts his former father figure Kreese about the damage he did is, objectively, not brilliantly written or acted, but is delivered with a raw emotional courage that makes it suddenly devastating. In unlikely fashion, Cobra Kai wins again. Cobra Kai is on Netflix now.
