Hi, we've got 3 charts for you today:
The box office in the US, and globally, is limping along.
On average the US box office has taken about ~$250m a month this year, way down on what would be considered "normal". Back in 2019 an average month would routinely see takings of $900m-$1bn, if not more (data from Box Office Mojo).
Disney's big bet
The 2021 numbers may not be stellar, but they clearly haven't put off industry giant Disney, which recently announced its decision to release the rest of its 2021 schedule in theaters first, before sending them to its streaming platform Disney+.
The ScarJo effect?
Disney might just be confident that moviegoing is going to make a comeback, but they might also be wary of lawsuits, and the perils of releasing movies simultaneously on streaming services and in theaters. Earlier this year Disney found itself being sued by one of its top stars — Scarlett Johansson — who alleged that Disney had broken her contract by releasing Black Widow on Disney's streaming service. That likely diminished the box office receipts for the movie — which were directly tied to her pay packet.
Disney's announcement will turn heads at its competition too — as Disney has dominated the box office for much of the last 5 years, thanks to enormous hauls from its Marvel, Star Wars and animated franchises.
The chart above plots the US box office take for the top 10 movies in each of the last 5 years (and 2021 so far). Of those 60 movies, Disney made 25 of them, taking the top two spots in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. If Disney is betting on the box office, over streaming, others are likely to sit up and take note.
Elsewhere, Broadway is back. Tuesday saw Hamilton, The Lion King and Wicked all return to the stage for the first time since the start of the pandemic. That's great news for live theater, which couldn't exactly move online in the same way that the rest of the entertainment industry did.
A matter of measurement
It seems a safe bet that the number of Americans living in poverty would have gone up in 2020, considering all that happened, but the latest data from the US Census Bureau reveals that it's not actually that clear.
The official poverty rate, the threshold of which is about $13,000 in income per individual, did rise last year, to 11.4%. But that measure doesn't account for potential income from various government programs, including stimulus checks (and food and housing assistance). Once those are included, in what's known as the Supplemental Poverty Measure, the rate actually fell last year, to 9.1%.
Optimists and pessimists can probably spin these numbers any way they want. The good news is the stimulus last year seemed to help. The bad news is that the relief stimulus won't last forever.
The global situation is even more sobering, with years of progress in the reduction of extreme poverty likely to have reversed last year.
1) Electric carmaker Rivian has officially produced its very first vehicle, an electric pickup truck. Despite only just producing its first vehicle, the company is reportedly shooting for an ~$80bn valuation in its upcoming IPO.
2) A NASA astronaut, Mark Vande Hei, is set to stay in space until March. That will bring his total mission time to 353 days, breaking the record for the longest single spaceflight.
3) Apple's latest event saw the company unveil a host of new products including a new iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and iPad Mini. Gone are the days of Steve Jobs and a turtleneck, but the event still gets plenty of hype — even if the latest iPhone looks pretty similar to the last one (and the one before that).
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5) Mailchimp, which we use to send you this newsletter, has just been acquired for $12bn by Intuit — meaning a huge payday for its founders who reportedly own half the business each, after never taking outside investment.
6) More evidence of subscription overload? Taco Bell wants to sell you a monthly Taco Lover's Pass which for $5-10 a month will reportedly get you one taco per day.
7) Internal Facebook research from 2020 found that 32% of teenage girls surveyed said when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse.
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