Hello! Lebron James and our writing team have now combined for a whopping 38,390 NBA points, after the 38-year-old broke the scoring record. Today we're exploring:
State of the union's wallet
Last night, President Biden held the annual State of the Union, addressing the country on what is often dubbed the biggest night of the year in Washington. A big theme from the 72-minute speech, Biden’s longest of his presidency so far, was the economy. After touting the low rate of unemployment, the 46th president threatened to veto any proposal that would cut spending on Social Security and Medicare while also imploring Congress to raise the debt ceiling.
I O U $1.4 trillion
We’ve visualized the latest budget from the US Treasury, which reveals that in fiscal year 2022, the federal government collected nearly $5tn in revenue, with more than 50% of that coming from individual income taxes. However, the US government spent even more, leading to a nearly $1.4tn deficit. That’s a hard-to-comprehend-number, but is substantially lower than the $3tn+ deficit recorded in 2020 during the depths of the pandemic.
To make up the difference the US government does what everyone who overspends their budget does — they borrow. This then adds to its already enormous tab (AKA the national debt), which currently sits at the $31.4tn debt ceiling limit, a topic which received a fair amount of audience participation when brought up in Biden’s speech.
With a debt pile that big, the interest payments aren’t small. Indeed, last year the US government spent ~$480bn on net interest payments, just shy of Ireland, Norway or Nigeria’s annual GDP.
Cameron’s way
James Cameron’s second installment in the Avatar franchise has got moviegoers donning their blue and red lensed specs like it’s the heady days of 2009-10 again, with 3D screenings accounting for more than 56% of the sequel’s domestic box office sales.
The Way Of Water isn’t faring too badly overseas either, having overtaken another Cameron effort, Titanic, to become the third-highest grossing movie ever at the international box office.
3D pt. 2?
The first coming of 3D-mania, which really peaked when the original Avatar was released in 2009, promised a new era for moviemaking. It never really materialized. In 2019, 3D releases made up $6.5 billion in global box office revenue, or some 15%. While it’s difficult to compare recent box office figures with pre-pandemic earnings directly, on a relative basis 3D movies in 2021 made up less than half of the 2019 share, with a mere ~7% of total takings.
However, with 3D screenings costing more than standard showings, Avatar may prove that audiences are willing to cough up more for the right movie, seeing a trip to the cinema as a less-frequent, but more premium, experience. Luckily, America’s largest cinema chain, AMC, recently announced a ticketing initiative that’ll make the booking experience feel a little more like the live theater world. Moviegoers will be able to choose their seats, with more dynamic pricing depending on whether the seats have a good view, or if you’ll be craning your neck in the front row.
Unrewarding
You may want to start redeeming stars if you’re deep into Starbucks’s market-leading reward scheme — some menu items will double in price from next Monday.
Some people have accused the chain of “greedflation” with customers now needing to spend twice as much in-store to get their hands on a complementary tea, coffee or snack in a clear sign that even “free” products aren’t immune to Starbucks price hikes.
Frothy sales
Free drinks, queue-skipping privileges, bonus days and even a birthday treat have kept the Starbucks Rewards members engaged, as it's grown into one of the largest loyalty programs in the country.
Indeed, since Starbucks started rewarding dollars spent in 2016 (rather than visits accrued) membership for the Starbucks Rewards program has rocketed. The coffee giant now counts some 30.4 million active members for the program in the US, meaning that ~12%, or nearly one-in-eight, American adults are loyal members of the club.
Starbucks loyalists may be particularly aggrieved by the changes considering that last quarter they netted the chain billions — a whopping 56% of total sales in US-operated stores came from Starbucks Rewards members last quarter. Now, with prices set to rise, their loyalty will really be tested.
• From the color of the Gatorade and the number of hot dogs being sold to the possibility of a power outage — explore all the strange bets being made at this year's Super Bowl.
• Getty Images is suing AI art generator, Stability AI, for allegedly copying 12 million of its images to train a new AI model.
• Why does one of the songs on Beyoncé’s new album have 24 listed songwriters? Interesting exploration of the long credit lists on modern pop songs.
• 95% of Super Bowl advertising inventory was sold by September last year, with a 30-second slot going for between $6-7 million.
• What we search explains a lot, including what jobs people aspire to most.
• How massive the NFL is, in 4 fascinating charts.
Off the charts: A senior Samsung exec said he wouldn't give his daughter a smartphone until she turned 11 years old, but what ages do most American parents think is appropriate? [Answer below].
