Raphael Stevens

Moviegoers aren’t just returning to cinemas, theater operators say they are spending more on premium tickets and concessions.
With new blockbusters driving more people to theaters, the summer, box office season in the U.S. and Canada is down just 12% from the summer before the pandemic.
While there will be an expected lull in new movies between August and October, movie theater owners are optimistic about blockbuster titles due in cinemas before the end of the year.

Natalie Portman stars as the Mighty Thor, aka Dr. Jane Foster, alongside Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor Odinson, in Marvel’s “Thor: Love and Thunder.”

It’s becoming clearer that audiences are no longer satisfied just sitting on the couch to watch movies. Not only are they returning to movie theaters in droves, theater operators say they’re opting for pricier tickets and spending more on concessions.
Over the weekend, Disney’s newest Marvel Cinematic Universe film, “Thor: Love and Thunder,” opened to nearly $145 million in ticket sales domestically and drew around 10 million moviegoers out to cinemas.

With additional ticket sales from movies like Paramount and Skydance’s “Top Gun: Maverick,”  Universal’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru” and “Jurassic World: Dominion” as well as Pixar’s “Lightyear” and Warner Bros.′ “Elvis,” the weekend’s domestic box office raked in around $240 million.
That’s well above the $185 million for the same weekend in 2019, according to data from Comscore. At the time, Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home” topped the box office alongside Disney’s “Toy Story 4″ and “Aladdin,” Universal’s “Yesterday,” Warner Bros.′ “Annabelle Comes Home” and A24′s “Midsommar.”
“We were jumping up and down this weekend,” said Brock Bagby, executive vice president of B&B Theatres, a regional, Midwest-based theater chain with more than 50 locations. “Friday was our biggest day of the year and the biggest single day since ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ opened in December.”
With new blockbusters driving more people to theaters, the summer, box office season in the U.S. and Canada is down just 12% compared with the summer before the pandemic, according to data from Comscore. Between May 1 and July 10, the box office raked in $2.27 billion from tickets. That’s compared with $2.58 billion during the same period in 2019.
For the year so far, the domestic box office has collected more than $4.25 billion in ticket sales as of Sunday. That’s 30% below 2019 pre-pandemic levels.

“Since the beginning of the summer, and the release of ‘Doctor Strange,’ the studios have stacked up one excellent film after another,” said Jeffrey Kaufman, senior vice president of film and marketing at Malco Theatres. “This has energized moviegoers and they have responded to a string of fun, exciting and entertaining movies.”
Movie theater chains big and small are benefitting. AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest movie theater chain, reported it highest global attendance of the year this weekend, topping 5.9 million moviegoers. Its global admission revenue outpaced the same weekend in 2019 by 12%, it said Monday.
“The box office results week after week after week this summer have demonstrated what we at AMC have believed to be true all along: consumers want to experience their movies through the unrivaled experience of a movie theater, with its big screens, big sound and comfortable big seats,” Adam Aron, CEO of AMC, said in a statement.
Bagby of B&B Theatres also told CNBC that moviegoers have been opting for premium formats far more than before the pandemic. This includes IMAX, Dolby, 3D and other experiences that offer immersive seating or panoramic screens. He added that audiences have been spending much more on food and drinks, as well.
B&B Theatres predicts it will end the year with same-store sales down around 10%, based on the movies slated to come out over the next few months and an expected lull between August and October.
“I wish there was more product, but luckily the titles we have had, have been incredibly strong,” he said.
The overall number of movies with wide releases in 2022 is down more than 30% compared with 2019, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
Still, audiences will have a lot of content to choose from between now and the end of the year. Disney will release “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Warner Bros. and DC has “Black Adam” and “Shazam: Fury of the Gods.” Universal is set to release Jordan Peele’s “Nope,” and Sony has the hotly anticipated “Bullet Train.”
Capping off the year will be Disney’s “Avatar: The Way of Water,” the first planned sequel to the highest-grossing film of all time.
“Moviegoing is a habit,” Kaufman said. “Once people get into the habit, they always find films they want to see.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” “Jurassic World: Dominion,” “Nope,” and “Yesterday.”

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GameStop on Monday announced the long-awaited debut of its online marketplace for nonfungible tokens, or NFTs.
The platform, which is now open to the public for beta testing, allows users to connect their own digital asset wallets including the recently launched GameStop Wallet.
This is the latest push by the videogame retailer, now chaired by Chewy founder and activist investor Ryan Cohen, to invest in a digital future.

NurPhoto | NurPhoto | Getty Images

GameStop on Monday announced the long-awaited debut of its online marketplace for nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, in a bid to reinvent its business and cash in on consumer adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
The platform, which is now open to the public for beta testing, allows users to connect their own digital asset wallets, including the recently launched GameStop Wallet, the company said in a press release. They will then be able to buy, sell and trade NFTs of virtual goods. Over time, the marketplace will expand to offer other features such as Web3 gaming, GameStop said.

This is the latest push by the videogame retailer, now chaired by Chewy founder and activist investor Ryan Cohen, to invest in a digital future. GameStop is undergoing a turnaround following several years of financial struggles, burdened in part by its massive real estate footprint and the videogame industry’s rapid shift online.
Cohen, whose 2020 investment in GameStop helped to fuel a so-called meme frenzy, was tapped last year to lead those turnaround efforts. He brought in a fresh slate of corporate leaders, including current Chief Executive Officer Matt Furlong, formerly of Amazon. He also tapped another former Amazon exec, Mike Recupero, as chief financial officer.
The company is trying to win over investors who may have written GameStop off as a legacy retailer with too many storefronts in outdated shopping malls. GameStop operated a total of 4,573 stores, including 3,018 in the United States, as of Jan. 29, according to an annual filing. In addition to its namesake business, it also owns the EB Games and Micromania banners.
Now the company is tapping into buzzy areas like NFTs for growth. The unique digital assets have drawn both enthusiasm and skepticism. Some retail industry-watchers expect them to become a hot holiday gift. About half a million NFTs are expected to be purchased from retailers between November and December, translating to a total market value of $54 million, according to Salesforce.

A screenshot of GameStop’s NFT marketplace, where
Source: GameStop

Others, however, may see the marketplace as coming a little too late. Sales of digital artwork virtual and avatars could be cooling off from their pandemic-fueled highs. GameStop must also compete with other established NFT marketplaces, including the behemoth OpenSea.

And so far the company’s digital-first turnaround hasn’t been without its road bumps. Last week, GameStop fired Recupero and announced layoffs across departments. Recupero, who joined the retailer about a year ago, was “fired because he was not the right culture fit” and was “too hands off,” a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. He was pushed out by Cohen, the person said.
Recupero wasn’t immediately available to respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The videogame retailer has struggled to stem losses in recent years, even as its sales of hardware, software and collectibles grow.
In the three-month period ended April 30, GameStop reported a net loss of $157.9 million on revenue of $1.38 billion. A year earlier the company posted a $66 million net loss on $1.27 billion in revenue.
The company hasn’t provided a financial outlook since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, either. Furlong said in March that GameStop is making investments to drive customer loyalty and build up its brand, which has weighed on profitability.

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The Justice Department is investigating the PGA Tour for potentially anti-competitive behavior in its actions with LIV Golf.
The tour suspended 17 players for choosing to compete in the LIV Golf tournament in June.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the investigation, said the Justice Department is looking into the tour’s bylaws.

PGA Tour logo during the third round of the Travelers Championship on June 24, 2017, at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut.
Fred Kfoury | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

The Justice Department is investigating whether the PGA Tour’s actions regarding rival LIV Golf were anti-competitive, the tour confirmed Monday.
The investigation, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, comes after the tour last month indefinitely suspended 17 players, including major championship winners Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, after they chose to compete in the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournament.

The Department of Justice has reached out to players’ agents about the tour’s actions relating to LIV Golf as well as its bylaws regarding the ability of players to compete in other golf events, the Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the inquiries. The same bylaws were the subject of a 1994 investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, which was ultimately dropped.
“This was not unexpected,” a tour representative told CNBC on Monday. “We went through this in 1994 and we are confident in a similar outcome.”
A representative for the Justice Department declined to comment.
LIV Golf, which is primarily funded by  Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has offered record prize money to attract players to its league. Mickelson, whose deal with LIV is reportedly worth about $200 million, has been criticized for aligning with the new league despite the Saudi government’s history of human rights abuses, including its involvement in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
“They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates,” Mickelson said in February.

When the tour announced the suspension of the 17 players in a June memo to members, it said the players had made their choices “for their own financial-based reasons” but that they can’t demand the same membership benefits, opportunities and platform.
“That expectation disrespects you, our fans and our partners,” the memo said.
A representative for LIV Golf declined to comment. On its website, LIV Golf says its mission is to “modernize and supercharge” golf through “expanded opportunities for both players and fans alike.”
CNBC’s Jessica Golden contributed to this report.

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Texas’ grid operator is warning residents to conserve energy for the second time this year, as fears mount over potential rolling blackouts amid scorching temperatures this week.
The Texas regulator also projected a shortage in energy reserves on Monday “with no market solution available,” but said it does not expect systemwide outages.
Heat indexes reached over 110 degrees in the southeast part of the state on Sunday, prompting record-high power demand that has put pressure on the grid.

A transmission tower is seen on July 11, 2022 in Houston, Texas. ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) is urging Texans to voluntarily conserve power today, due to extreme heat potentially causing rolling blackouts.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images

Texas’ grid operator is warning residents to conserve energy for the second time this year, as fears mount over potential rolling blackouts amid scorching temperatures this week.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages about 90% of the state’s electricity load, said that residents and businesses should turn up thermostats by at least one degree Fahrenheit and not use any major appliances between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Central time on Monday.

The Texas regulator also projected a shortage in energy reserves on Monday “with no market solution available,” but said it does not expect systemwide outages. Less than 10% of wind power generation will be available on Monday, ERCOT said, further lowering the amount of available power in the state.
“The heat wave that has settled on Texas and much of the central United States is driving increased electric use,” ERCOT said in a statement. “While solar power is generally reaching near full generation capacity, wind generation is currently generating significantly less than what it historically generated in this time period.”

More from CNBC Climate:

Roughly 50 million people in the U.S. were under heat warnings or advisories over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service. Heat indexes reached over 110 degrees in southeast Texas on Sunday, leading to record high power demand that’s put pressure on the grid.
Record power usage caused by extreme weather has prompted concerns over the vulnerability of the state’s grid system, following a deadly winter storm in February 2021 that left millions of residents without power for days.
Climate change has triggered more frequent and intense disasters such as heat waves, drought and wildfires, which have forced more blackouts and overwhelmed some of the country’s infrastructure. Extreme weather has caused 67% more major power outages in the U.S. since 2000, according to an analysis by research group Climate Central.
ERCOT forecast that electricity demand in Texas will peak at 79,671 megawatts, slightly below the available 80,083 megawatts on Monday.

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Bloomberg reported that Rivian is planning to layoffs that could target about 5% of its roughly 14,000 employees.
The cuts won’t affect manufacturing, per the report.

Rivian electric pickup trucks sit in a parking lot at a Rivian service center on May 09, 2022 in South San Francisco, California. 
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Electric vehicle startup Rivian Automotive is planning layoffs that could trim its workforce by about 5% after the company grew too quickly in some areas, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
The hundreds of layoffs could be announced in the coming weeks, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. But the layoffs are still in the planning stage and no final decisions have been made, the report said.

The Irvine, California-based company has about 14,000 employees.
Rivian’s shares were down about 7% in mid-afternoon trading following the news.
Rivian has added thousands of new employees over the last year as it began production of its own electric trucks and SUVs as well as a delivery van for Amazon. Rivian”s shares surged amid intense investor interest shortly after it went public late last year, but have since fallen over 80% as the company has struggled to ramp up production amid global supply-chain disruptions.
A Rivian spokesperson declined to comment on the report.
Read the full report here.

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Americans are canceling deals to buy homes at the highest rate since the start of the Covid pandemic.
The share of sale agreements on existing homes canceled in June was just under 15% of all homes that went under contract, according to a new report from Redfin.
Homebuilders are also seeing higher cancelation rates.

A ‘for sale’ sign hangs in front of a home on June 21, 2022 in Miami, Florida. According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of existing homes dropped 3.4% to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 5.41 million units. Sales were 8.6% lower than in May 2021. As existing-home sales declined, the median price of a house sold in May was $407,600, an increase of 14.8% from May 2021.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Americans are canceling deals to buy homes at the highest rate since the start of the Covid pandemic.
The share of sale agreements on existing homes canceled in June was just under 15% of all homes that went under contract, according to a new report from Redfin. That is the highest share since early 2020, when homebuying paused immediately, albeit briefly. Cancelations were at about 11% one year ago.

Higher mortgage rates and surging inflation are causing many potential homebuyers to reconsider their purchases.
The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage started this year around 3% and then began rising steadily. It briefly shot above 6% in mid-June before settling in a narrow range around 5.75% now, according to Mortgage News Daily.
Higher mortgage rates have also caused some borrowers to no longer qualify for the loans they want. Lenders generally use a front-end debt-to-income ratio of about 28% as the ceiling for home loans. The costs of owning a median-priced home in the second quarter required 31.5% of the average U.S. wage, according to a report by Attom, a property data provider. That’s the highest percentage since 2007 and up from 24% the year before, marking the biggest jump in more than two decades.
Buyers are also seeing the once red-hot market turn around quickly and dramatically. They may no longer see the urgency in bidding for a home that they feel might depreciate in the coming year.
“The slowdown in housing-market competition is giving homebuyers room to negotiate, which is one reason more of them are backing out of deals,” said Taylor Marr, Redfin’s deputy chief economist. “Buyers are increasingly keeping rather than waiving inspection and appraisal contingencies. That gives them the flexibility to call the deal off if issues arise during the homebuying process.”

Homebuilders are also seeing higher cancelation rates. Even before the sharpest increase in rates in June, cancelations in May jumped to 9.3% in a survey of builders by John Burns Real Estate Consulting. That compares with 6.6% in May 2021.
“Buyer’s remorse and cancelations shortly after contract are increasing. Builders state buyers are nervous about a potential recession, struggling to get comfortable with higher payments, or expecting home prices to decline,” said Jody Kahn, senior vice president at JBREC. Kahn also noted that in her mid-June survey she continued to see cancelations on the rise.
Lennar, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, said in its most recent quarterly earnings report that its cancelation rate did increase sequentially to 11.8% but was below its long-term historical average. It also reported increasing its incentives to make up for falling demand, due to rising interest rates.
“It seems that these trends will harden as the Fed continues to tighten until inflation subsides. While we can choose to fight against the trend, the reality is that the market has been changing and we are getting ahead of it by making all necessary adjustments,” said Lennar Chairman Stuart Miller in the release.

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Whether you typically receive a tax refund or a bill, there’s still plenty of time to improve next year’s filing, experts say.
You may consider adjusting tax withholdings or boosting 401(k) plan contributions to trim your tax bill.
And Roth individual retirement account conversions or tax-loss harvesting may make sense while the stock market is down.

seksan Mongkhonkhamsao | Moment | Getty Images

1. Review tax withholdings

When starting a new job, you fill out Form W-4, covering how much your employer withholds from your paychecks for federal taxes. 
But you need to revisit those withholdings, especially for major life changes such as marriage, having children or starting a side business.

Top reasons to adjust your withholding:
1. Tax law changes
2. Lifestyle changes like marriage, divorce or children
3. New jobs, side gigs or unemployment
4. Tax deductions and credits shifts

You can use the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator to see if you’re on track, or run projections with an advisor for more complex situations. 
And if you’re expecting a shortfall, there’s ample time to adjust your tax withholding or make estimated payments for the third or fourth quarters, Guarino said.

2. Boost 401(k) contributions

If there’s wiggle room in your budget, you may consider boosting pretax retirement savings, which reduces your adjusted gross income. 
“If you can, now is a great time to increase 401(k) contributions,” said Christopher Lyman, a Newtown, Pennsylvania-based CFP with Allied Financial Advisors.
You can stash $20,500 into your 401(k) for 2022, with an extra $6,500 if you’re 50 or older. Regardless of your savings goal, it may be easier to reach by bumping up your deferrals now.

3. Weigh Roth IRA conversions

With the stock market down from the beginning of the year, there’s a chance to save on so-called Roth individual retirement account conversions.
Here’s how it works: After making nondeductible contributions to a pretax IRA, you can convert the funds to a Roth IRA. While the move jump-starts tax-free growth, the trade-off is paying upfront levies on contributions and earnings. 

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However, a down market may be a great time to pay taxes on the assets you want to convert, Lyman said.
For example, let’s say you invested $100,000 in a pretax IRA and now it’s worth $75,000. You can save on taxes since you’ll convert $75,000 rather than the original $100,000.
Of course, you’ll need a plan to cover those levies, and increasing income may have other tax consequences, like higher future Medicare Part B premiums. 

4. Consider tax-loss harvesting

Another opportunity when the stock market dips is tax-loss harvesting, or using losses to offset profits, said Devin Pope, a CFP and partner at Albion Financial Group in Salt Lake City.
“We are doing that for our clients right now,” he said.
You can sell declining assets from a brokerage account and use those losses to reduce other gains. And once losses exceed profits, you can subtract up to $3,000 per year from regular income.
However, you need to watch for the “wash sale rule,” which stops you from buying a “substantially identical” asset 30 days before or after the sale.

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