Raphael Stevens

Producer and entertainment executive Ben Silverman told CNBC on Monday he changed his mind about the future of movie theaters as the coronavirus pandemic dragged on.”I initially felt, in the beginning of this, that we would literally kill off the exhibition business and the traditional theatrical business,” Silverman, a former NBC Entertainment and Universal Movie Studios co-chairman, said on “Closing Bell.””But I’m watching people really want to go back into the real world. They want to be at concerts. They want to go to the movie theater. They want the communal experience,” added Silverman, who served as executive producer of “The Office” when the show won an Emmy in 2006. He’s now chairman and co-CEO of production company Propagate Content.Indoor movie theaters suffered mightily during the Covid crisis as public-health restrictions limited their ability to operate at all. Then, as they opened back up, release delays meant there was a dearth of blockbuster films to attract people to the theaters. In October, Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger said his movie theater company was like a grocery store that has “no food to sell.”Earlier this month, in a positive sign for theaters, “Godzilla vs. Kong” set a pandemic record by topping $60 million at the domestic box office. The release of the film was received positively by some on Wall Street. One equity analyst upgraded shares of AMC Entertainment shortly after the film’s release, citing “the industry’s projected resurgence” as one potential tailwind for the stock.Patrons watch a movie at AMC DINE-IN Thoroughbred 20 on August 20, 2020 in Franklin, Tennessee.Jason Kempin | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty ImagesDuring the pandemic, Comcast’s NBCUniversal struck deals with theater operators to shorten the theatrical release window, allowing films to become available on demand sooner. And in December, AT&T’s WarnerMedia said it planned to release its 2021 films on HBO Max concurrently with the movies hitting theaters.Both moves reflected the critical importance of direct-to-consumer streaming for the movie industry, and Silverman told CNBC he believes the Covid crisis further accelerated that shift. At the same time, he said, the pandemic also revealed why cinephiles want to return to the theater once they feel safe.”Human beings want to be together, and they want to share emotional moments together, and [there’s] no greater place to laugh, cry and love than inside a movie theater,” he said. “It’s still the best first date in the world.”The comments Monday came one day after the Oscars, which were considered by some, including Silverman, to be disappointing from a production standpoint. Viewership reached an all-time low, under 10 million, according to early fast national numbers released by Nielsen.One factor in the low ratings was likely the lack of people’s awareness of the movies up for the awards because of pandemic-related advertising changes, Silverman said.”The huge marketing pushes that have existed in the movie business every single launch to get people to go to a movie theater and take an action of buying a ticket also disappeared this year,” he said. “So, they didn’t have the same marketing push, therefore they didn’t have the same awareness, therefore they didn’t have the same power to penetrate culture.”— CNBC’s Sarah Whitten contributed to this report.Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. More

In this articleFBCNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday advised that retail investors ignore talk of a potential market top with the economy in recovery mode.”For all the hand-wringing about how this is as good as it gets for the market, today’s action said there’s no peak to be seen,” the “Mad Money” host said. “If you can’t imagine the economy getting much, much stronger than this, the problem is all in your imagination.”The comments come after the S&P 500 closed at a fresh record of 4,187.62, inching up 0.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.9% to 14,138.78 for its first record close in more than two months.The Dow Jones Industrial Average was the lone decliner of the major indexes, dropping about 0.2% to 33,981.57. The index is within 1% of its highs from more than a week ago.”You could see the money pouring out of the food, drug and packaged-goods stocks, going right into the cyclicals today,” Cramer said. “That tells you the market’s figured it out, refuting all of this peak talk.”Cramer noted that money managers would dump cyclical stocks, or names that outperform in expansionary periods, if the market was actually nearing a peak. However, Americans are expected to spend more on travel and entertainment as the country fully reopens and pulls away from the pandemic-induced downturn.That can explain gains in stocks of movie theater operator AMC, elevator company Otis Worldwide and steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs, whose shares on Monday climbed 13.2%, 7% and 5.3%, respectively, Cramer pointed out.”This is the start of a new cycle, not the end, one that can benefit all the automakers,” he said.DisclaimerQuestions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBCWant to take a deep dive into Cramer’s world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter – Jim Cramer Twitter – Facebook – InstagramQuestions, comments, suggestions for the “Mad Money” website? [email protected] More

Jeff Bezos and Elon MuskGetty ImagesJeff Bezos’ Blue Origin filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office against NASA on Monday, challenging the space agency’s award of a nearly $3 billion moon lander contract to Elon Musk’s SpaceX earlier this month.SpaceX, in a competition against Blue Origin and Leidos’ subsidiary Dynetics, was awarded $2.89 billion for NASA’s Human Landing System program. The HLS program is focused on building a lunar lander that can carry astronauts to the moon’s surface under NASA’s Artemis missions. For HLS, SpaceX bid a variation of its Starship rocket, prototypes of which the company has been testing at its facility in Texas.NASA was previously expected to choose two of the three teams to competitively build lunar landers, making the sole selection of SpaceX a surprise given the agency’s prior goals for the program to continue to be a competition.Blue Origin decried the award as “flawed” in a statement to CNBC, saying that NASA “moved the goalposts at the last minute.””In NASA’s own words, it has made a ‘high risk’ selection. Their decision eliminates opportunities for competition, significantly narrows the supply base, and not only delays, but also endangers America’s return to the Moon. Because of that, we’ve filed a protest with the GAO,” Blue Origin said.Blue Origin revealed that NASA evaluated the company’s HLS proposal to cost $5.99 billion, or roughly twice that of SpaceX. The company argued in its protest filing that NASA’s cost for funding both proposals would have been under $9 billion – or near how much the agency spent for SpaceX and Boeing to develop competing astronaut capsules under the Commercial Crew program.”In failing to maintain two sources … NASA’s selection decision creates a number of issues for the HLS program and puts all of NASA’s eggs in one basket,” Blue Origin wrote in the protest.The New York Times first reported Blue Origin’s GAO protest.Blue Origin’s protestBlue OriginBlue Origin based its protest around five objections. First, Bezos’ company said NASA did not give SpaceX’s competitors an opportunity to “meaningfully compete” after “the agency’s requirements changed due to its undisclosed, perceived shortfall of funding” for the HLS program.Second and third, Blue Origin said that NASA’s acquisition was flawed under the agency’s acquisition rules and its evaluation of the company’s proposal “unreasonable.” Fourth, the company asserted that NASA “improperly and disparately” evaluated SpaceX’s proposal. And finally, Blue Origin said that NASA’s evaluation of the proposals changed the weight it gave to key criteria, making price “the most important factor because of perceived funding limitations.”The company highlighted work done to develop its lunar lander, including an undisclosed amount of its own investment into the BE-7 rocket engine that it planned to use for the spacecraft.”Blue Origin’s substantial commercial investment in the BE-7 engine program is direct evidence of its corporate commitment in lunar exploration,” the company wrote in the GAO protest.NASA’s selection processStarship prototype rocket SN10 stands on the launchpad at the company’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas.SpaceXThe space agency announced the SpaceX contract on April 16, with a source selection document written by human spaceflight director Kathy Lueders outlining NASA’s reasons for its decision.NASA’s based its selection on three primary factors: Technical ability, price, and then management rating. SpaceX and Blue Origin both received “acceptable” technical ratings, with SpaceX’s price the lowest “by a wide margin” and its management rating was “outstanding” – while Blue Origin’s management was rated as “very good,” the same as Dynetics.Notably, NASA’s selection committee said it found “two instances of proposed advance payments within Blue Origin’s proposal.””I concur with the … assessment that these kickoff meeting-related payments are counter to the solicitation’s instructions and render Blue Origin’s proposal ineligible for award,” Lueders wrote.NASA requested $3.4 billion for the HLS program in fiscal year 2021, but Congress approved only $850 million. In light of that lower-than-expected funding, Lueders acknowledged that picking only one company’s proposal for the HLS program was “not NASA’s optimal outcome” but within the agency’s acquisition rules.Last week, Musk hailed the NASA selection as a “great honor” and said he thinks the agency’s goal of landing astronauts on the moon by 2024 is “actually doable.””It’s been now almost half a century since humans were last on the moon. That’s too long, we need to get back there and have a permanent base on the moon — again, like a big permanently occupied base on the moon,” Musk said. More

In this articleJNJA man receives a shot at the FEMA-supported COVID-19 vaccination site at Valencia State College on the first day the site resumed offering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine following the lifting of the pause ordered by the FDA and the CDC due to blood clot concerns.Paul Hennessey | LightRocket | Getty ImagesThe rate of Covid vaccinations in the U.S. continued to slide in recent days, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, as the seven-day average of daily shots reported administered fell to 2.7 million on Monday. That’s the lowest level since late March.Daily vaccinations rose for weeks, reaching an average of nearly 3.4 million on April 13, before falling.At the same time, daily U.S. case counts are declining. The seven-day average of daily new infections dropped below 60,000 on Friday for the first time since March 25.U.S. vaccine shots administeredThe United States is averaging 2.7 million reported shots per day over the past seven days, CDC data shows, a level that has been trending downward.U.S. health regulators on Friday lifted a pause on the use of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, and a third vaccine option may help boost the pace of the rollout.Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwardsThe J&J vaccine makes up less than 4% of the 231 million total doses administered in the U.S. to date, but has proven particularly useful in certain communities that have difficulty accessing vaccination sites multiple times. At peak levels in mid-April prior to the pause, the J&J vaccine was being used for an average of 425,000 reported shots per day.White House Covid data director Cyrus Shahpar said in a tweet Monday that it would take several days for the use of J&J shots to show up in CDC reports.U.S. share of the population vaccinatedMore than 40% of Americans have received at least one shot of a Covid vaccine, according to the CDC, and nearly 30% of the population is fully vaccinated.Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwardsOf those 65 and older, 82% are at least partially vaccinated and two-thirds are fully vaccinated.In eight states — New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island, Hawaii, and New Mexico — more than 50% of residents have received at least one shot.U.S. Covid casesThe U.S. is reporting an average of about 58,100 new infections per day over the past week, according to Johns Hopkins University data, down 14% from one week ago.Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwardsThough Michigan continues to see more daily cases per capita than any other state, there are signs of improvement. The state is averaging about 5,400 daily cases, down from the most recent peak of roughly 7,900 per day in mid-April.U.S. Covid deathsThe seven-day average of daily U.S. Covid deaths is 706 as of Sunday, according to Hopkins data. More than 572,000 deaths from the virus have been reported since the start of the pandemic.Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwardsCNBC’s Rich Mendez contributed reporting. More

In this articleTSLASpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk poses as he arrives on the red carpet for the Axel Springer Awards ceremony, in Berlin, on December 1, 2020.Britta Pedersen | AFP | Getty ImagesElon Musk hasn’t appeared on “Saturday Night Live” yet, but he is already getting panned by some of its cast members.SNL announced Saturday on Twitter that the business mogul will host the late-night show on May 8. Other big names in the corporate world that have hosted NBC’s popular late-night show include Donald Trump, before he was president, and Steve Forbes.Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has become known for his eclectic and often controversial remarkss. He has faced backlash over his comments about the Covid-19 pandemic. He has spoken out about national stay-at-home orders, comparing it in a tweet to “de facto house arrest.” He downplayed the risk of the novel coronavirus and said he would not get the vaccine for it in an interview with journalist Kara Swisher on an episode of “Sway,” a podcast from The New York Times.SNL’s decision to give Musk the stage drew skepticism and criticism on social media.Some of that criticism came from the show’s own cast. In an Instagram story, Bowen Yang responded to one of Musk’s tweets about his upcoming appearance. On Saturday, Musk had tweeted, saying “Let’s find out just how live Saturday Night Live really is.”Yang reacted at first with a frowning face. Then, he posted Musk’s tweet with a message above: “What the f— does that even mean?”Andrew Dismukes, another cast member, also gave his take in an Instagram story. Over a photo of SNL alumna Cheri Oteri, which looked like a magazine cover, Dismukes wrote “ONLY CEO I WANT TO DO A SKETCH WITH IS Cher-E Oteri.”A third cast member, Aidy Bryant, subtly criticized Musk, too. In an Instagram story, Bryant shared a tweet from former presidential candidate and Senator Bernie Sanders. In it, Sanders criticized the sharp wealth inequality in the country, noting that “the 50 wealthiest people in this country own more wealth than some 165 million Americans” and he called that “a moral obscenity.”Sudi Green, a writer for SNL, shared the same Sanders’ post, too.Musk is the second richest person in the country, after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.SNL cast members’ reactions were previously reported by Bustle and The Wrap. SNL wasn’t immediately available to comment.Disclosure: “Saturday Night Live” is a TV show of NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC. More

Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden delivers remarks in the parking lot outside the United Auto Workers Region 1 offices on September 09, 2020 in Warren, Michigan.Chip Somodevilla | Getty ImagesDETROIT – With President Joe Biden as an ally, the United Auto Workers union is preparing to organize electric vehicle start-up companies as it fights to retain, if not grow, its current membership during the industry’s expected transition to EVs.Electric vehicles, which Biden strongly supports, could usher in a new era of American manufacturing jobs for the UAW. But they also hurt the labor movement and undermine Biden’s goal of creating 1 million new jobs in the U.S. auto industry.The vehicles require far fewer parts than those with internal combustion engines, which means potentially fewer factory assembly jobs. A lot of the parts for EVs are made outside the U.S. as well as the vehicle assembly — where workers are paid far lower wages. Many emerging EV start-ups, including industry leader Tesla, also have not been openly supportive of their employees organizing.That’s led the UAW to push for a “more cautious approach” regarding EVs, while also planning to utilize its “seat at the table” with Biden in other ways such as organizing, according to UAW President Rory Gamble.”I’m advocating to everybody that we must take advantage of these times to fight for our members and fight for the American worker,” Gamble told CNBC in an interview. “American workers deserve more.”Gamble said the union is not trying to deter the adoption of EVs, but ensure the transition is fair to American workers, including its 250,000 autoworkers. A 2018 study by the union found that mass adoption of EVs could cost the UAW 35,000 jobs, however Gamble said the union believes that number could be less now.The UAW’s total membership of 397,000 has grown during the last decade as it diversified its membership outside of automotive to areas such as higher education and gaming. But it remains far below its peak of 1.5 million in the late 1970s.Organizing EV companiesThe UAW has been laying the groundwork to organize workers at companies with new U.S. plants, including Rivian, Lucid and even Tesla — an extremely difficult task. It’s one of the ways to potentially offset the need for fewer workers.”That’s a given. We are formulating plans to go out to all these start-ups to give these workers a voice,” Gamble said, declining to discuss the union’s specific plans. “In today’s world, you have to think out of the box in how you reach people. We really have to drive home the benefits of belonging to the union.”In recent years, the UAW has largely failed in organizing efforts at U.S. auto plants of foreign automakers, specifically Volkswagen.Outside of automotive, union organizing received a major setback earlier this month when Amazon workers at a warehouse in Alabama overwhelmingly rejected unionizing. The union leading the organizing last week filed objections with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing Amazon of interfering in its efforts.Nonunionized companies have largely not supported employees organizing because it can raise pay and benefits costs and mean set, long-term labor contracts. The NLRB recently ruled that Tesla violated labor laws when it fired a union activist as well as when CEO Elon Musk in 2018 tweeted discouraging remarks about paying union dues and giving up company stock options “for nothing?”Tesla, Rivian and Lucid declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.’Open-door policy’Having a “seat at the table” with Biden, who promised to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen,” has already paid dividends for the UAW, according to Gamble. The longtime union leader said he’s in regular contact with members of the administration and has participated in at least two meetings with Biden.The most recent meeting with Biden in late February included executives from several automakers, including Tesla’s Musk and Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley. Gamble described the conversation as “a very good open, honest, transparent discussion about American auto manufacturing.”UAW President Rory Gamble speaks during a press conference with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding a settlement with the union of a federal corruption probe on Dec. 14, 2020 in Detroit.Michael Wayland / CNBC”This open-door policy is a blessing for us to have,” Gamble said, adding it’s not something the UAW had under former President Donald Trump.Gamble said the union has received an increase in interest from workers to unionize during the coronavirus pandemic as the Detroit automakers instituted Covid-19 safety protocols and paid leaves that others weren’t receiving.”We gave them the best help we could, but we also told them you need to think about joining the union,” he said. “This is what it’s all about. It’s not just about paying dues. it’s about protecting your standard of living and, in some cases, like now, protecting your life.”Battery productionThe UAW also is battling for work at its current companies, specifically a U.S. joint venture for battery production between General Motors and LG Energy Solution.The joint venture, known as Ultium Cells, has announced $4.6 billion to build two new plants and create 2,400 jobs in Tennessee and Ohio.If unionized, which isn’t guaranteed because it’s a joint venture, those jobs would pay less under the UAW’s current contract than those at the automaker’s U.S. assembly plants. The batteries are considered components or supplier work compared with traditional assembly jobs.Gamble said he doesn’t think the union has any legal recourse, but it “can impress upon them their moral obligation to make sure these new workers are treated fairly.” He added the money GM is using to build the new plants is from vehicles made largely by its UAW members.GM CEO Mary Barra, when announcing the joint venture in December 2019, said it would be “up to the workforce” to decide whether to unionize. She said the work will follow its “components strategy,” which traditionally pays about half to $10 less than the UAW’s top hourly assembly wages of more than $32 per hour.Retirement?Gamble, however, may not be around to lead the union’s planned organizing efforts.The 65-year-old leader, whose term ends in June 2022, is contemplating retirement after guiding the union through what he describes as a “very dark chapter” in its history.Gamble was thrust into leading the union amid a federal corruption probe into the UAW in late 2019. The probe, which was settled for the union in December, led to the convictions of 15 people, including two past UAW presidents, three Fiat Chrysler executives and a former GM board member who was a union leader.”I’m looking at my options right now. But my biggest concern is not personal, it’s more about the organization and what’s best for the organization,” he said. “I’ll probably be making the decision very shortly on what the future’s going to look like.” More