Raphael Stevens

Disney’s domestic theme parks have already begun to transition from Halloween decorations to Christmas colors.
The effort is planned over the course of 12 months and involves a number of different departments from the horticulture team and tech services to crane operators, truck drivers, aerial lift drivers and even culinary experts.
October and December are two of the company’s most popular travel months for the parks, according to Gavin Doyle, founder of MickeyVisit.com.

A staple of Disney’s theme park’s celebrations, the giant Mickey pumpkin statue towers over guests on Main Street.

It’s time for Disney parks to swap pumpkins for poinsettias.
In the thick of its busiest season, Disney’s domestic theme parks have already begun to transition from Halloween decorations to Christmas colors. The transformation starts to take shape practically overnight, with warm autumn banners traded out for festive green garlands. The full metamorphosis takes about six weeks.

About two weeks before Halloween, Disney’s crew begins installing “inconspicuous” elements for the holiday season, such as lighting rigs. The effort is planned over the course of 12 months and involves a number of different departments, from the horticulture team and tech services to crane operators, truck drivers, aerial lift drivers and even culinary experts.
Most of the installation is completed during overnight hours when the park is closed.
“While every day is special at a Disney theme park, Halloween and the holidays are two very magical seasons, and our guests keep coming back year after year for both continued traditions and new surprises,” said Disneyland Resort President Ken Potrock. “These only-Disney-can-do experiences happen because of our passionate cast members, who make magic while most of us are sleeping — delivering seamless and wildly creative transformations of our parks throughout the year.”

Mickey Mouse poses during Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party.

Starting Nov. 8 at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and Nov. 15 at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, Disney’s slate of winter holiday offerings will be in full swing — from sparkling ornamented trees and glitzy character costumes to limited-time food and beverage options and exclusive merchandise.
For Disney, these holidays are big business, drumming up significant revenue and traffic.

October and December are two of the company’s most popular travel months for the parks, according to Gavin Doyle, founder of MickeyVisit.com.
“Traditionally, it would have been summer, but it’s actually evolved to be these two months where there’s additional layers of offerings and it’s something unique on top of that,” Doyle said. “It kind of fits into that Disney vault strategy. … This is something that comes out, and then people are really excited about it for a limited time.”

Festive food options arrive just in time for the holidays at Disney’s theme parks. 

Disney’s experiences division — composed of parks, cruises, hotels and consumer products — generated $9.13 billion in revenue during the period from October through December 2023. In other quarters of 2023 and 2024, the division generated anywhere between $7 billion and $8.3 billion.
This year, Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween party kicked off Aug. 9 in Florida and Oogie Boogie Bash, a big trick-or-treating event, started Aug. 25 in California — extending the Halloween crowds into the company’s summer quarter. Both events ran through Oct. 31.
The end of the year also brings a lot of repeat visitation, especially from local parkgoers, he said. In building the infrastructure to accommodate these decorations and limited-time specials, Disney has created a tradition for its guests, who bake it into their yearly plans.
The annual changes to character costumes, food and drink options, merchandise and other ambiance updates give attendees something new to explore.

The holiday overlay of Disney’s Haunted Mansion attraction features Jack Skellington from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

With Halloween now over, Disney has turned its attention to the winter holiday season. That includes special holiday changes to rides and attractions as well as Christmastime parades and fireworks.
At Disneyland, holiday overlays for Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, It’s a Small World and Haunted Mansion will debut Nov. 15. Seasonal parades, fireworks and festivals will also launch, and Santa Claus will take up residence at the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail.
At the Walt Disney World resort, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party launches Nov. 8 and Jollywood Nights start Nov. 9. At the same time, the Florida park will debut its Christmastime fireworks, parade and themed character meet-and-greets. Space Mountain will be getting a holiday overlay, as will the Jungle Cruise ride, which will temporarily become Jingle Cruise, and other attractions.

Mickey and Minnie Mouse pose during Jollywood Nights. More

Apple committed about $1.5 billion to satellite communications company Globalstar to fund the expansion of iPhone services.
The tech giant has already been spending hundreds of millions for Globalstar services, which enabled the 2022 rollout of iPhone emergency satellite texting.
The new funds will allow Globalstar to purchase new satellites and expand its ground infrastructure.

Sofia Pitt, CNBC

Apple committed about $1.5 billion to satellite communications company Globalstar to fund the expansion of iPhone services, the companies disclosed in a securities filing on Friday.
The tech giant’s deal with Globalstar includes $1.1 billion in cash, of which $232 million will go toward the satellite company’s current debt, and a 20% equity stake. The deal is expected to close on Tuesday.

Apple has already been spending hundreds of millions for Globlastar services, which enabled the 2022 rollout of iPhone emergency satellite texting.
It is one of several efforts in the direct-to-device, or D2D, satellite connectivity market — which provides service to unmodified devices such as smartphones directly from space — with other projects underway from SpaceX, AST SpaceMobile, Iridium, Lynk and EchoStar.
Globalstar stock jumped 31.4% in Friday trading to close at $1.38 a share.

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In the filing, Globalstar noted that it will continue to allocate about 85% of its network capacity to Apple.
The new funds will allow Globalstar to purchase new satellites and expand its ground infrastructure. Globalstar currently operates 31 satellites and has already ordered as many as 26 satellites to replenish and upgrade its constellation in low Earth orbit.

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An outage or loss of GPS satellites is estimated to cost the U.S. military and economy upward of $1 billion a day.
Pentagon leaders believe that estimate is conservative, leading the U.S. Space Force to kick off a new roughly $2 billion satellite program to build a backup GPS.
For startup Astranis, one of the four companies selected for R-GPS, the program marks an expansion beyond satellite internet, as it announced its new line of Nexus satellites.

A depiction of Nexus satellites in a medium Earth orbit constellation.

The U.S. Air Force began deploying the Global Positioning System — more commonly known as GPS — nearly 50 years ago, satellites which have become critical infrastructure for both the military and the economy.
Since then, GPS is estimated to have generated more than $1.4 trillion in economic benefits, according to a Commerce Department study. But the agency warned that an “outage could potentially have an economic impact of $1 billion a day.” 

Pentagon leaders believe those losses are a conservative estimate, leading the U.S. Space Force to kick off a roughly $2 billion satellite program known as the Resilient Global Positioning System. Called R-GPS for short, the program is intended to provide an alternative, backup network for the current satellite system.
“[GPS is] vitally important to everything we do day-to-day, from the stock market, for timing of every transaction, to the crops we field,” Lt. Col. Justin Deifel, leader of R-GPS at the Space Force’s Space Systems Command, told CNBC.
“It’s like water and electricity. … It’s a utility of the economy and a utility of a warfighter that we need to make sure is available,” Deifel added.

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The importance of the existing 31 GPS satellites in orbit, as well as the potential threat in space from U.S. adversaries like Russia and China, has led the Pentagon to prioritize building the alternative R-GPS network — and the Space Force has turned to the commercial space industry to do so.
Last month, the branch awarded four companies with contracts for R-GPS design concepts: Astranis, Axient, L3 Harris and Sierra Space.

Astranis branches out

A rendering of a Nexus satellite in assembly.

For startup Astranis, which launched its first “MicroGEO” spacecraft last year, the R-GPS program marks an expansion beyond satellite internet into the market for positioning, navigation and timing, or PNT, services.
“We’ve started to see a huge push towards proliferation in higher orbits by the U.S. national security community,” Astranis CEO John Gedmark told CNBC. “Now the Department of Defense has recognized all of the fantastic things that we can do in high orbits with a next-generation small satellite approach.”
As it expands as a company, Astranis is announcing its new Nexus product line of PNT satellites, its answer for the R-GPS program. Gedmark noted they use the same type of spacecraft as the company’s broadband satellites.

A rendering of a Nexus satellite in orbit above the U.S.

Additionally, as R-GPS satellites will operate in medium Earth orbit, like the current GPS constellation, the Nexus product line marks a widening of where Astranis plans to deploy and operate its spacecraft.
The company, having raised $750 million since its founding in 2015, has announced deals for 12 of its internet satellites, 10 of which are expected to launch to geosynchronous orbit by the end of next year.
“We knew pretty early on that this platform that we developed could be used for other missions than broadband telecommunications and the Resilient GPS program has just come along as a perfect example of that,” Gedmark said.
Gedmark sees R-GPS as “a multi-billion dollar opportunity,” given that Space Force wants to build a full constellation of at least two dozen satellites.

The R-GPS plan

Space Force used a novel Pentagon funding authority, called “Quick Start,” to get the R-GPS program going.
In less than six months, the program got approval from the deputy secretary of defense, conducted market research, hosted companies for an industry day, solicited bids and awarded initial contracts — a process the military notes often takes as long as three years for space programs.
“The speed with which they’ve moved on this program is unprecedented. … We’ve never seen the Department of Defense move that fast before,” Gedmark said.

A rendering of a Nexus satellite in orbit.

R-GPS handed out $40 million total to fund the design studies. The companies will have an eight-month “phase zero” period to start their work that ends in spring, SSC’s Deifel explained.
“The total current budget, when you think of just recurring engineering costs: We’re looking at $50 [million] to $80 million per satellite and procuring upwards of 24 satellites. So the quick math is $1.2 [billion] to $1.9 billion for 24 satellites, over the course of the next five to six years,” Deifel said.
While the budget doesn’t currently include “non-recurring engineering costs,” Deifel said he expects those expenses will be significantly less than the design costs.
Space Systems Command wants to buy and deploy the R-GPS satellites in batches of eight, with the first set launching as soon as 2028.
As the design reviews wrap up, SSC plans to select one or more of the companies to move forward with the program into the construction stages.
While Astranis’ first satellite malfunctioned last year due to a third-party issue with its solar arrays, the company’s experience operating in the distant geosynchronous orbit has Gedmark confident about its chances in the R-GPS program.
“We are the only company that has proven on orbit a spacecraft of this class — a low cost, [radiation]-hardened satellite for high orbits,” Gedmark said. More

Greek media company the Antenna Group has begun talks to acquire fellow media company Time from Marc Benioff.
No deal is assured and the discussions are still early.
Benioff acquired Time for $190 million in 2018.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff attends the TIME100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York on April 26, 2023.
Dimitrios Kambouris | Getty Images

Greek media company the Antenna Group is in talks to acquire fellow media company Time from Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff, according to people familiar with the matter.
No deal is assured and the talks are still early, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private.

“There is no agreement to sell Time,” said a Time spokesperson, who declined to comment on the talks with Antenna. An Antenna Group spokesperson didn’t respond for comment.
Benioff acquired Time in 2018 for $190 million. Early talks with Antenna have centered around a price of $150 million, one of the people said.
The talks come at a particularly turbulent time for legacy media companies, which are trying to stay afloat as digital-first assets amid competition with free services such as YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.
Comcast announced Thursday it is considering a spinoff of its cable network group. The Washington Post, owned by fellow tech billionaire Jeff Bezos, has lost more than 10% of its subscribers in recent days after deciding it wouldn’t endorse a candidate in the U.S. presidential election, according to NPR.
Benioff and his wife, Lynne, bought Time from Meredith Corp., which owned the magazine for less than a year.

“The Benioffs emerged as the best fit, willing to put journalistic integrity ahead of corporate gains,” Alan Murray, chief content officer of the Time Inc. brands at Meredith, said at the time.
The Antenna Group nearly acquired Vice Media in 2022 before the company declared bankruptcy. Most of its investments have been Europe-centric, though it has invested in Arianna Huffington’s technology company Thrive Global.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.
Correction: This article has been updated to correct the name of media company Time.

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Attorneys and advisors to family offices and high-net-worth families said they’re seeing strong demand from clients looking for second passports or long-term residencies abroad.
The American rich have been increasingly interested in leaving the U.S. since Covid-19, and wealth advisors said this time many of their wealthy clients are taking action.

Ferragudo, Portugal.
Gonzalo Azumendi | Stone | Getty Images

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
A growing number of wealthy Americans are making plans to leave the country in the run-up to Tuesday’s election, with many fearing political and social unrest regardless of who wins, according to immigration attorneys.

Attorneys and advisors to family offices and high-net-worth families said they’re seeing record demand from clients looking for second passports or long-term residencies abroad. While talk of moving overseas after an election is common, wealth advisors said this time many of the wealthy are already taking action.
“We’ve never seen demand like we see now,” said Dominic Volek, group head of private clients at Henley & Partners, which advises the wealthy on international migration.
Volek said that for the first time, wealthy Americans are far and away the company’s largest client base, accounting for 20% of its business, or more than any other nationality. He said the number of Americans making plans to move abroad is up at least 30% over last year.
David Lesperance, managing partner of Lesperance and Associates, the international tax and immigration firm, said the number of Americans hiring him for possible moves overseas has roughly tripled over last year.
A survey by Arton Capital, which advises the wealthy on immigration programs, found that 53% of American millionaires say they’re more likely to leave the U.S. after the election, no matter who wins. Younger millionaires were the most likely to leave, with 64% of millionaires between 18 and 29 saying they were “very interested” in seeking so-called golden visas through a residency-by-investment program overseas.

Granted, the interest in second passports or residencies has been rising steadily among the American rich since Covid-19. Whether it’s retiring to a warmer, cheaper country or being closer to family abroad, the wealthy have plenty of nonpolitical reasons to want to venture overseas.
The ultra-wealthy also increasingly see citizenship in one country as a concentrated personal and financial risk. Just as they diversify their investments, they’re now creating “passport portfolios” to hedge their country risk. Others want a non-U.S. passport in case they’re traveling to dangerous countries or regions hostile to the U.S.

Yet the elections and the political climate have accelerated and added to the push by wealthy Americans to consider a Plan B abroad. Lesperance said that for more than three decades, his American clients were mainly interested in moving overseas for tax reasons. Now, it’s politics and fear of violence, with next week’s election turbocharging those fears.
“For some of them, the primary thing is ‘I don’t want to live in a MAGA America,'” Lesperance said. Others are worried about violence if Donald Trump loses, or Vice President Kamala Harris’ plan to tax unrealized capital gains for those worth more than $100 million. While tax analysts say the unrealized gains plan has little chance of passing Congress, even with a Democratic majority, Lesperance said it’s still a risk.
“Even if there is only a 3% chance that it happens, you still want to take out insurance,” he said.

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Attorneys say the wealthy also cite mass school shootings, the potential for political violence, antisemitism, Islamophobia and the government’s soaring debts as reasons to leave.
When it comes to destinations, Americans are looking mainly to Europe. According to Henley, the top countries for Americans looking for residency or second citizenships include Portugal, Malta, Greece, Spain and Antigua. Italy has also become popular for Americans.
“The love affair between Americans and Europe has been going on for very long time,” said Armand Arton, of Arton Capital. “It comes with a price, and they are totally fine investing couple hundred thousand dollars or a half million into a property or a fund.”
The rules and costs, however, are changing fast. While mass immigration has become a hot-button political issue across the world, some politicians in Europe have started to push back against golden visas that give the wealthy citizenship or residency purely based on investments.
Portugal, for instance, faced a backlash after a flood of foreigners poured in the Algarve and bought beach properties as part of the golden visa program. With property prices soaring by 15%, the government changed the rules, increasing minimum investment thresholds and removing residential property as an investment category.
Italy this summer doubled its flat tax on the overseas incomes of wealthy foreigners who transfer their tax residency to Italy, to 200,000 euros ($217,000). The change followed a wave of wealthy new migrants who came for the program and drove up Milan property prices.

For now, Malta remains the go-to second passport for the American rich. While expensive, at about $1 million to $1.2 million all-in, Malta’s investment citizenship program offers citizenship and unrestricted travel and residency in Malta and by extension the European Union, according to immigration attorneys. The EU has been challenging the Malta program in court, but most immigration attorneys expect the country to prevail.
The Caribbean is increasingly popular for Americans who simply want a second passport. Buying an approved piece of real estate in Antigua and Barbuda for more than $300,000 puts you on a path for citizenship, which allows freedom to travel to Hong Kong, Russia, Singapore, the U.K. and Europe, among other countries. St. Lucia is also increasingly popular, attorneys say.
Americans with ancestry in Ireland, Italy and dozens of other countries can apply for so-called lineage citizenship, which is typically far cheaper than an investment visa. Some countries, like Portugal, also offer retirement visas, which allow entry and a path to citizenship.
Don’t expect to get any citizenship or residencies right away. With attorneys and countries inundated with so many applications, and so many different background checks and approvals required, the process can take months or even a year or more. And that waiting list could grow longer depending on the election results.
“It’s getting crowded,” Lesperance said. “And I’m sure I’m going to get a bunch more on Nov. 6 or 7.”

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Starbucks is facing challenges in its China market, as same-store sales in the country plummeted 14% in the company’s fourth quarter.
It’s running up against a low-cost model led by local upstarts and money-conscious consumers, but it has some advantages.

People seen around the Starbucks coffee store in Shenzhen, China.
Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images

On Starbucks’ fourth-quarter earnings call, newly installed CEO Brian Niccol told investors he needed to spend more time in China to understand the challenges.
The company’s same-store sales in the country plummeted 14% as foot traffic and the average spend per customer fell. Niccol told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin that he plans to visit the country the first or second week of December to better understand the business.

Here’s what he might see when he visits.

A low-cost model led by Chinese upstarts

Chinese upstarts have been growing in popularity in the coffee space, competing with more than 7,300 Starbucks stores in the country.

A Starbucks store is being seen in Shanghai, China, on June 18, 2024. 
Costfoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

The formerly Nasdaq-listed Luckin Coffee ran into accounting issues and went through a de-listing. But despite that, the Chinese coffee chain has been growing fast in China, with more than 20,000 stores by the end of third quarter.
And it is far from the only one. Other local rivals include Cotti Coffee, Manner, M Stand, Seesaw and Nowwa.
Luckin, Cotti, and Manner are the most aggressive on pricing.

For example, in Beijing, a small latte that costs $4.22 at Starbucks goes for $2.25 at Luckin, $1.75 at Cotti, and $2.11 at Manner. And that’s without the regular steep discounts. One recent day, for example, saw Luckin offering a promotion selling most drinks at 90 cents.

Read more news about Starbucks

Many of these Chinese chains have stores that can be cramped and run with maybe two — or in Manner’s case oftentimes only one — barista. Food menus are limited, and seating is little more than a couple of folding chairs. However, the drinks generally consistently undercut Starbucks by half.
Starbucks has an express version of its coffee stores in China called Starbucks Now, where most patrons order drinks on the app for pick up. The interiors are more basic. Even so, there are no special discounts compared to traditional Starbucks.

Money-conscious consumers holding onto aspirations 

Price is an important consideration for Chinese consumers because of the slowing economy. At the same time, many want to maintain similar lifestyles, which means consumers are looking to save wherever they can without compromising too much on quality.
For the coffee competition, the Chinese chains keep their brews interesting by switching up the menu often and experimenting with combos that go well beyond the traditional cappuccino.
Coffees are mixed with fruit juice, scented with flowers, and thickened with rice and even cheese. Chinese-brand Manner boasts that it only uses locally sourced beans and trains its baristas to work semi-automatic coffee machines.

A young barista works on the cold brew bar in Shanghai Starbucks Reserve Roastery. 
Zhang Peng | Lightrocket | Getty Images

M Stand and Seesaw compete on the higher-end of the market with more luxurious concoctions such as an all-time M Stand hit — a latte in an edible oatmeal cookie cup.
For the most part though, with so many choices readily available, coffee drinkers can find something that suits their taste as well as their wallet.

Competition from everywhere

On top of the Chinese coffee rivals, Starbucks is competing with a host of other local chains on tea.
Tea specialty shops like ChaPanda, Auntea Jenny and Mixue Bingcheng sell similar fruit and milk teas to Starbucks for roughly 60% less. In addition to low-cost tea drinks, Auntea Jenny sells lattes for $2.67. Mixue’s version is 56 cents.
With more and more Chinese wanting a daily java fix, grab-and-go coffee is becoming widely available at tea chains and convenient marts.
Starbucks also faces international challengers such as Tim Hortons, Costa Coffee, McDonald’s and KFC.

A Starbucks edge   

Despite the fierce Chinese competition, Starbucks still has its fans.
A major selling point for Starbucks in China remains that it is viewed as a go-to place to hang out with friends or catch up with business contacts.
Unlike many other establishments in the country, Starbucks stores win out as important meeting points with their uniform experience: pleasant interiors, comfortable seating, cleanliness and friendly staff. Starbucks retains its status as a high profile aspirational brand. More

Universal’s “Wicked,” Paramount’s “Gladiator II” and Disney’s “Moana 2” will face off at the Thanksgiving box office, each vying for time on theaters’ biggest screens.
There are currently more than 950 theaters in North America that have these PLF screens, a 33.7% jump from just five years ago.
These screens account for 9.1% of the domestic box office, around $600 million in 2024.

Wicked, Gladiator II, and Moana 2 Movie Posters.
Sources: Universal (L), Paramount (C) and Disney (R)

Three heavyweight Hollywood blockbusters will face off at the box office in November, each vying for audience attention, ticket sales and time on theaters’ biggest screens.
Universal’s “Wicked,” Paramount’s “Gladiator II” and Disney’s “Moana 2” arrive in cinemas within five days of each other, right around the Thanksgiving holiday. All three titles are expected to thrive at the box office, both during their openings and as they run through the rest of the year.

However, at a time when moviegoers are more discerning about how they spend their money and what films they are going to leave the couch to see, box office analysts wonder which blockbuster will benefit most from premium ticket sales.

Going premium

Premium large format screens, often referred to as PLFs, are elevated viewing experiences — like IMAX, Dolby, Screen X and 4DX — that come with a higher ticket price. The physical screens are often bigger than traditional movie screens or have auditoriums that feature higher-quality sound systems or seating options.
“Audiences are gravitating toward the biggest, best and most immersive auditoriums,” said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics for Fandango’s movie division and founder and owner of Box Office Theory. “They are the first to sell out for high-demand movies, and opening day sales often slow down or spill into future days as those screens and their best seats fill up rather than carry over into non-premium, traditional auditoriums which are less attractive to most modern moviegoers.”

General atmosphere during the Imax private screening for the movie “First Man” at an Imax AMC Theater in New York City on Oct. 10, 2018.
Lars Niki | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

There are currently more than 950 theaters in North America that have these PLF screens, a 33.7% jump from just five years ago, according to data from Comscore. These screens account for 9.1% of the domestic box office, around $600 million in 2024.
“The importance of the growth of PLFs as a percentage of the annual box office over the past few years cannot be overstated,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “Notably, coming out of the pandemic, moviegoers have been gravitating toward these higher-cost movie theater options.”

Currently, premium ticket prices average around $16.71 a piece, according to Steve Buck of movie data firm EntTelligence, an 8% increase since 2021, when the company first started reporting these figures. Standard tickets, meanwhile, are around $11.82 each, a 7.4% jump from 2021 prices.
“Premium format is a significant draw for a moviegoer seeking the best immersive experience possible often representing over one-third of the foot traffic on a tentpole’s opening weekend,” Buck said.
Recognizing the growing importance of these types of theaters, the National Association of Theatre Owners revealed in September that the eight largest theater chains in North America would invest more than $2.2 billion to modernize and upgrade cinema locations. This investment will be spread out among updates to laser projectors, immersive sound systems and seating updates, as well as enhancing concession offerings and adding family entertainment options like bowling and arcades.
PLF receipts still represent a small portion of the overall box office, with most audiences seeing films on traditional digital screens. However, it’s no small feat that PLF box office has grown 33% in just five years.

Blockbusters on the biggest screen

The films that benefit the most from PLF ticket sales have been Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters.
Audiences want to see explosive action movies and dazzling spectacles in the most state-of-the-art locations. It’s why films like Universal’s “Oppenheimer,” Disney’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” and Warner Bros.’ “Dune” and “Dune: Part Two” captured a significant portion of the PLF box office during their runs.
Those films were even shot with specialty cameras with the express purpose of being seen on premium large format screens. In fact, both “Oppenheimer” and “Dune: Part Two” saw fans waiting days and even weeks to watch the film in sold-out IMAX locations.

Oppenheimer film billboard in Times Square, NYC on July 29th, 2023.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC

So studios are betting big on franchise films. Partially, this is because audiences have come out in droves for existing intellectual property in the wake of the pandemic — just look at “Deadpool & Wolverine,” “Inside Out 2,” “Despicable Me 4,” “Dune: Part Two,” “Twisters,” and “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” capturing top box office receipts in 2024.
It’s one reason why next year will see between 50% and 70% of the movies from the six major studios — Universal, Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, Sony and Lionsgate — tied to existing IP.
It’s also why the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday could be tricky. “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” debut first on Nov. 22 and will likely split the available PLF locations evenly. The two films opted out of the Thanksgiving fray in the months after “Moana 2” set its Nov. 27 date.
However, as “Moana 2” enters, those premium screen divisions will change. Studios and movie theater operators strike deals when films are released designating how many theaters a movie will show in, how often and on what kinds of screens. As new movies debut, those arrangements shift. It’s unclear how the PLF screens will be split once all three movies are in theaters at the same time.
“There are periods on the calendar when a release slate is slower than others, allowing one or two films to dominate premium screen ownership, but successful or potentially successful movies can be cannibalized at the box office in times of heavy competition for those top-tier screens,” Robbins said. “That’s what occurred during the ‘Barbenheimer’ craze last year when Oppenheimer notably controlled IMAX screens for a contracted time frame before Barbie was eventually able to expand into that format weeks after its release.”
Many have wondered if “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” could have the potential to repeat the box office highs of 2023’s “Barbenheimer” — the dual release of Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” and Universal’s “Oppenheimer” on the same weekend.
At present, box office analysts have a wide-ranging read on what “Wicked” could do during its domestic opening weekend. On the conservative end is an $85 million haul, predicted by leading entertainment and technology research firm NRG. Meanwhile, others speculate that the first film in a planned duology could top $100 million and capture as much as $150 million during its first three days in theaters.
The divergence of expectations comes as Hollywood has struggled to market and make a profit on movie musicals in recent years, but has also seen fan-favorite IP-driven titles overperform. With “Wicked” being based on one of Broadway’s most popular musicals, box office analysts are finding it tricky to predict where it will land.
Meanwhile, “Gladiator II” is expected to tally between $60 million and $80 million during the same weekend. “Moana 2,” which is already seeing record ticket pre-sales for an animated feature in 2024, is expected to snare more than $100 million for its full five-day domestic debut.
“Word of mouth on a movie itself can still ultimately be the driver in consumer choice to spend their money on movie tickets and popcorn, though,” Robbins said. “After an initial burst of strong reception and a premium screen footprint at release, certain movies transcend format preference and some casual audiences will be convinced to buy a ticket regardless of format.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “Wicked,” “Oppenheimer,” “Despicable Me 4,” and “Twisters” and owns Fandango. More