Raphael Stevens

Universal’s “Wicked” and Paramount’s “Gladiator II” arrive ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday and are expected to tally more than $200 million in combined ticket sales this weekend.
“Wicked” has already tallied $19.2 million at the domestic box office from advance screenings held during the week. Box-office analysts project a domestic opening weekend of between $120 million and $140 million.
Meanwhile, “Gladiator II” took in $6.5 million from Thursday previews and is expected to add between $60 million and $80 million to the domestic weekend tally.

Posters for Wicked and Gladiator II
Sources: Universal (L), Paramount (R)

The box office this weekend will be painted pink and green, with a splash of red.
Universal’s “Wicked” and Paramount’s “Gladiator II” arrive ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday and are expected to tally more than $200 million in combined ticket sales this weekend.

“‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator II’ are the kind of counter-programming duo punch movie theaters and audiences have been eagerly anticipating,” said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. “This fall’s box office has seen its share of ups and downs as usual, but these two films are on course to kickstart a potentially historic holiday corridor with ‘Moana 2’ also ready to deliver big results during Thanksgiving next week.”
“Wicked” has already tallied $19.2 million at the domestic box office from advance screenings held during the week. Amazon Prime members doled out $2.5 million at 750 theaters in the U.S. on Monday, and another $5.7 million was collected from around 2,000 theaters on Wednesday in the U.S. and Canada. “Wicked” snared an additional $11 million from standard Thursday night preview screenings at around 3,300 theaters.
Tracking projections for “Wicked” started around $80 million in late October, but have since risen to a range of $120 million to $140 million, with some projecting an even higher three-day total for the film’s debut weekend.
Hollywood has struggled to market and make a profit on movie musicals in recent years. However, the industry has also seen fan-favorite IP-driven titles outperform. 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.
Heading into its opening, “Wicked” held a 92% “Fresh” rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes from more than 160 critics. Its popcornmeter, a metric the site uses to calculate what percentage of verified movie ticket holders rated the film at 3.5 stars or higher, stands at 99% with more than 2,500 ratings.

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande star as Elphaba and Glinda in Universal’s “Wicked.”

Whatever it hauls in for the weekend, “Wicked” should debut as the highest-opening Broadway adaptation in cinematic history. The current record holder is Disney’s “Into the Woods,” which secured $31 million during its first three days in theaters in 2014, according to data from Comscore.
Meanwhile, “Gladiator II” took in $6.5 million from Thursday previews and is expected to add between $60 million and $80 million to the domestic weekend tally. The film, which arrives 24 years after the original, has secured a 73% “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes from more than 200 reviews. For comparison, “Gladiator” snared $34.8 million during its opening weekend back in May 2000.

The power of ‘Glicked’

“The so-called ‘Glicked’ movie mashup is reminiscent of the ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon and is creating a cultural buzz,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “And though not quite at that level, has certainly raised the profile of both films and that combined with overwhelming positive reviews has positioned these two very different movies for opening weekend glory and more importantly long-term playability through the holidays.”
Between “Wicked,” “Gladiator II” and previously released films still in theaters, box-office analysts foresee a weekend of ticket sales between $200 million and $250 million. While impressive, that would still fall outside of the top 20 highest-grossing weekends of all time, according to data from Comscore.
The “Barbenheimer” weekend of July 21, 2023, topped $311 million, the fourth-highest weekend haul of all time.
“It’s not all about the first hours or days, though,” Robbins noted. “These films can and probably will play well for weeks to come, especially if word of mouth mirrors that of critics’ reactions.”
This weekend’s tally will help bolster the overall annual box office, which lags 11% behind 2023 levels during the same period. And the moviegoers coming to theaters will be treated to advertisements for other films coming in December and later in 2025.
“Our job is to maximize what’s coming in that door,” said Greg Marcus, CEO of Marcus Corp., owner of Marcus Theatres and Marcus Hotels & Resorts. “Take care of our customers. Give the customers that show up a great experience. Make sure that lines are moving as quickly as we can, so that we can serve them, literally and figuratively, and show them what a great time it is to go to the movies and enjoy something with other people.”
Marcus Theatres alongside dozens of other cinema chains, big and small, are offering guests drink and food specials, themed popcorn buckets and beverage containers as well as other movie merchandise at their locations.
Cinemark has a “Gladiator II” popcorn bucket shaped like the Colosseum and a gladiator helmet that fits over its drink cups to hold popcorn. Regal has a witch hat-shaped cup. AMC’s menu features pink and green candy-coated popcorn as well as a collection of themed drinks like green apple ICEE, Sprite variants called Ozdust Punch and Emerald Elixir and alcoholic beverages named Popular Pink and Gravity Green.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, CNBC, Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “Wicked.”

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Caitlin Clark has joined an ownership group looking to create a National Women’s Soccer League team in Cincinnati, Ohio.
NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman announced on Friday that Cincinnati is one of three remaining cities in the running to become the 16th NWSL franchise, up against Cleveland and Denver.
The league currently has 14 teams, with Boston-based BOS Nation Football Club set to join for the 2026 season.

Caitlin Clark, #22 of the Indiana Fever, brings the ball up the court against the Dallas Wings at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Sept. 15, 2024.
Justin Casterline | Getty Images

Caitlin Clark has joined an ownership group looking to create a National Women’s Soccer League team in Cincinnati, Ohio.
NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman announced on Friday that Cincinnati is one of three remaining cities in the running to become the 16th NWSL franchise, up against Cleveland and Denver.

“The NWSL Cincinnati bid team is thrilled that Caitlin Clark has joined our ownership group in pursuit of bringing a women’s professional soccer team to our city,” the NWSL Cincinnati bid team wrote in a statement.
“Her passion for the sport, commitment to elevating women’s sports in and around the Greater Cincinnati region, and influence as an athlete and role model for women and girls around the world, make her a vital part of our compelling bid to become the 16th team in the NWSL,” the statement continued.
The league currently has 14 teams, with Boston-based BOS Nation Football Club set to join for the 2026 season.
Bay FC, which played its first season this year, spent $53 million to cover the NWSL expansion fee. The club’s majority owner, investment firm Sixth Street, agreed to invest $125 million into the team all together.
Cleveland is likely Cincinnati’s biggest competition for the 16th spot in the league, as the Cleveland Soccer Group has reportedly purchased 13.6 acres of state land in downtown Cleveland to build a 12,500-seat stadium that is estimated to cost around $150 million.

A breakout star at the University of Iowa, Clark has continued her ascent in the Women’s National Basketball Association, contributing to the league’s most-viewed season on TV in history. Clark took home the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year award after the Indiana Fever guard closed out a monstrous year, setting numerous WNBA records including most assists in a season, with 337, and most three pointers made by a rookie, with 122.
The NWSL earlier Friday declined to comment on Clark’s involvement with Cincinnati’s ownership group.
— CNBC’s Jessica Golden contributed to this report.

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Thirteen percent of billionaires are women, according to the Altrata Billionaire Census.
Women are more likely to emphasize a philanthropic focus on nonprofit and social organizations.

Alice Walton speaks onstage during the Getty Medal Dinner 2022 at Getty Center on October 03, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
Stefanie Keenan | Getty Images Entertainment | 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.
As women grow their share of global wealth, they’re also becoming a larger share of the billionaire class, with a new set of goals and philanthropy, according to a new report.

Of the 3,323 billionaires in the world, 13% (or 431) of them are women, according to the Altrata Billionaire Census. While that may seem small, their numbers and share have been growing gradually over the past 10 years.
According to the report, “growth in female entrepreneurship, slowly changing cultural attitudes, and the rising frequency of substantial inter-generational wealth transfers” will continue add to the feminization of the three-comma club.
Inheritances have been the most powerful driver. Of the 431 female billionaires today, three-quarters inherited a portion of their wealth, according to the report. Fully 38% inherited all their wealth, including the three of the richest women in the world, Alice Walton ($104 billion), Julia Flesher Koch and family ($76 billion) and Françoise Bettencourt Meyers ($73 billion), Altrata said. By contrast, only 5% of male billionaires inherited their fortunes.
A quarter of women billionaires are self-made, compared to 66% for men. Those inheritances may become even more common. According to a report from Cerulli Associates, women are expected to inherit up to $30 trillion in the coming decade as part of the Great Wealth Transfer.

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Male and female billionaires also give and spend differently. Women, for instance, put a greater focus on nonprofit and social organizations, according to the report.

Nearly one in five female billionaires spend most of their professional time in nonprofits, compared with 5% of men. The report said the prevalence of inheritances among women is the main reason for the charitable focus, since they tend to have “fewer commercial commitments” and “there tends to be a strong link between inherited wealth and earlier engagement in philanthropy, welfare and social justice.”
Billionaire women also have slightly different financial portfolios. Since they often inherit private companies, they have more of their wealth in private holdings (35% versus 28% for men) and more liquid assets and cash (39% versus 30%). Billionaire men have far more stocks, with men having 40% of their wealth in stocks compared with 22% for women — due largely to the tech-focused billionaires who launched public companies, the report said.
Female billionaires are far more likely to own luxury real estate and art. They are 1.5 times more likely, for instance, to own real estate worth more than $10 million. Billionaire men, on the other hand, are more likely to enjoy their “toys,” such as private jets, yachts and pricey cars. Billionaire men are 3.8 times more likely that billionaire women to own a car worth more than $1 million. And they are more than twice as likely to own a yacht.
The gender divide over hobbies is even greater. For female billionaires, philanthropy was the most cited hobby, at 71%. For men, sports was the top hobby, at 71%. More women also cited art, education and travel as hobbies, while men were more interested in aviation, the outdoors and politics. More

At least 50 of the largest U.S. retailers boosted interest rates on their store credit cards in the months before the Federal Reserve began cutting rates, in moves that protected their profit margins.
Big Lots, Gap, Petco, Macy’s and Nordstrom are among those that increased the APRs on their store cards between September 2023 and September 2024.
“If you get offered one of these this holiday season, really take a breath. I would just say ‘no’ if you’re going to carry a balance,” said Bankrate analyst Ted Rossman.

Tommy | Digitalvision Vectors | Getty Images

Dozens of the largest U.S. retailers and their bank partners jacked up interest rates on their store-branded cards to record highs in the months before the Federal Reserve began cutting rates, as the companies looked to pad profits during a stretch of sluggish sales.
At least 50 companies — including Big Lots, Gap, Petco, Burlington, Macy’s and TJX Companies — increased the APRs on their credit cards between September 2023 and September 2024, according to a review of data gathered by Bankrate.com that examined the nation’s 100 largest retailers. 

Bankrupt home goods chain Big Lots raised its APR by 6 percentage points from 29.99% to 35.99% — the largest increase out of the retailers reviewed by Bankrate. Gap made the second largest increase, a 5 percentage point hike on its Banana Republic, Athleta, Old Navy and namesake cards. Petco came in third with a 4.5 percentage point increase. 

Big Lots, Academy Sports, Burlington, Michael’s and Petco are tied for having the highest APR among the companies Bankrate tracked, at a staggering 35.99% as of September. 
“Up until this rate hiking cycle that we saw from the Fed in 2022 and 2023, 30% was a threshold that few credit cards dared to cross,” Ted Rossman, Bankrate’s senior industry analyst, told CNBC. “But they’ve gone from high to higher these past few years because the Fed pushed rates higher by five and a quarter points and all of a sudden, 29.99% was not the high end anymore. Now we see it’s very common for these store cards to charge over 30%.”
However, it’s not just monetary policy pushing APRs higher. Just before the Fed began its rate-cutting cycle in September, many retailers and their bank partners raised interest rates on their store cards to protect their profits when the federal funds rate — which determines their own interest rates — came down.
Now, the average interest rate on a store card is at an all-time high just ahead of the holiday shopping season, which is when most consumers sign up for store cards. As credit card debt reaches new highs and delinquencies hit levels not seen since 2011, Rossman warned consumers to think twice before signing up.

“If you get offered one of these this holiday season, really take a breath. I would just say no if you’re going to carry a balance,” said Rossman. “If you pay it off right away and you get the rewards, well, then, that works for you. But we hear many times people sign up for these cards and they don’t even realize what they’re getting into.” 
That’s what happened to Jasmine Matheney, a 35-year-old small business owner in Michigan, when she signed up for her first retail credit card at Nordstrom just before Christmas when she was 18. She was given a $5,000 limit and soon maxed it out, splurging on flashy gifts for her loved ones and new clothes for herself. 
“I went crazy. I bought everything. I had no idea, like, oh, you got to pay this back, honey, and it’s gonna charge you some fees. So ultimately, I end up defaulting on that account,” Matheney recalled in an interview. “It caused me a whirlwind of problems.” 
Matheney’s debt at Nordstrom ended up going into collections, and it took her years to rebuild her credit as a result. 
“It goes to show you know how their greed is affecting them,” Matheney said of the record high rates. “They reel you in, and they say you can save 40% off by getting this card, and then what happens when you do end up carrying a balance? Well, you’ve just paid that 40% back and then some.” 

Profit padding and hedged bets

Most credit cards are indexed to the prime rate, which shifts based on the Federal Reserve’s rate. Generally, if the central bank’s federal funds rate decreases, so does the amount of interest a retailer’s bank partner can charge customers. Rather than see that profit fall after planned rate cuts from the Federal Reserve, many card issuers preemptively raised their rates instead. 
Typically, the retailers and their banking partners share the revenue when a shopper pays interest or a late fee on a branded card.
All of the retailers reviewed by CNBC increased their rates before the Federal Reserve enacted its first interest rate cut in four years on Sept. 18. The companies hiked rates at a time when the prime rate didn’t change and the market was increasingly certain that the Fed would begin easing monetary policy at its September meeting. 
On average, the APRs on retail credit cards rose by 1.52 percentage points between September 2023 and September 2024, while the average traditional credit card rate increased by 0.08 percentage points — indicating the rapid increase in rates is unique to store cards, Bankrate data show.
Further, the average APR on a store card grew by 2.21 percentage points between Nov. 4, 2022, and September 2023. When the Fed’s 1.5-point increase implemented during that time is subtracted, retailers raised rates by an additional 0.71 points. That was less than half of the interest rate increase for store cards seen from September 2023 to September 2024, when the federal funds rate didn’t budge. 
When asked why they increased the APR on their store cards, the companies that returned CNBC’s request for comment pointed vaguely to industry standards and the current economic environment. 
“We work closely with our banking partner, Comenity Bank, to ensure APR adjustments are made responsibly and in line with overall industry standards. Our goal remains to empower our customers to purchase what they need and pay over time, ensuring they have access to essential items without financial strain,” a spokesperson for Big Lots told CNBC.
The representative referred CNBC to Comenity for further comment. The bank said, “Interest rate increases going into effect previously this year across the financial services industry are due to several factors including historical federal rate increases, rising credit losses and regulatory pressures.”

A spokeswoman for Nordstrom pointed to the benefits that come with its credit card program and said “we continually strive to simplify our credit card pricing structure.” 
“Our pricing structure follows a variable rate model indexed to the prime rate,” the spokeswoman said. “This adjustment ensures that we remain aligned with the current economic environment and continue to offer competitive rates compared to other retail card programs. Despite the increase, our rates remain aligned to similarly situated co-brand cards.”
However, the timing and scope of the interest rate increases on store cards indicates a clearer reason for the changes: profits. 
“Store cards are big business,” said Bankrate’s Rossman. “They can also be profit centers.”
He pointed to a 2023 report by Citi analyst Paul Lejuez, who found 49% of Macy’s operating profits in 2022 came from its credit card program.
Higher interest rates appear to have boosted Macy’s financial performance this year, as well.
In May, the company raised its full-year outlook for credit card revenues “due to better-than-expected profit share resulting from higher balances within the portfolio,” finance chief Adrian Mitchell said on a call with analysts. In August, Mitchell said that consumers were keeping credit card balances for longer, which boosted revenue “a little bit better than our expectations.” 
Some retailers, such as Macy’s, Nordstrom and TJX, have since passed on the 0.5 percentage point cut that the Federal Reserve implemented in September to cardholders. Still, their APRs are at record highs, sitting between 2 and 2.25 percentage points higher than they were a year ago. 
While that may be bad for consumers, it’s welcome news on Wall Street. Store cards just aren’t as popular as they once were, which means retailers need to make more off the customers they still have.
New account openings for private label cards have fallen in seven of the past eight years, according to Equifax. Many shoppers, especially those who are younger, are opting for services such as buy now, pay later instead. 
Considering that credit card delinquencies are at their highest levels since 2011, it makes sense that interest rates are increasing on cards that are typically pretty easy to get. But as of the end of July, only 14% of private label cards were issued to consumers with subprime credit. Further, more than half of new accounts belonged to people with credit scores over 700, according to an October Equifax report. 
Plus, retailers didn’t selectively raise interest rates on customers with bad credit. Even those with strong credit scores, such as Macy’s customer Brian Robin, were saddled with higher rates. 
“Considering that I’ve never missed a payment on their card, and I always pay more than the minimum on it, this just absolutely came out of left field, and it was completely unwarranted,” Robin, a 59-year-old public relations professional in Southern California, said of Macy’s decision to increase its APR.
“My credit score is 744, so it’s not like I’m a default risk or anything … It makes me less interested in shopping at Macy’s. I mean, think about it for a second. Why would you want to shop at a place that’s charging you loan shark rates?”
— Additional reporting by CNBC’s Stephanie Landsman. More

Gap raised its guidance ahead of the holiday shopping season as it touted a “strong start” to the all-important fourth quarter.
The apparel giant behind Old Navy, Banana Republic, Athleta and its eponymous banner blew past Wall Street’s earnings estimates despite a tough quarter affected by unseasonably warm weather and hurricanes.
Gap is in the midst of a turnaround under CEO Richard Dickson and is leaning into better marketing to drive cultural relevance.

People walk past an Old Navy store on Fulton Street on April 11, 2024 in Downtown Brooklyn in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

Hurricanes and unseasonably warm weather hit sales at Gap during its fiscal third quarter, but the apparel company still posted better-than-expected results, leading it to raise its annual guidance for a third time this year. 
Gap, which runs Old Navy, Banana Republic, Athleta and its namesake banner, is now expecting fiscal 2024 sales to be up between 1.5% and 2%, compared with previous guidance of “up slightly.” That’s ahead of the 0.4% growth that LSEG analysts had expected, and bodes well for the all-important holiday shopping season, which is now underway. 

The company is also anticipating gross margins and operating income will grow more than it previously expected.
Shares surged about 13% in extended trading.
Here’s how the nation’s largest specialty apparel retailer performed compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: 72 cents vs. 58 cents expected
Revenue: $3.83 billion vs. $3.81 billion expected

Gap’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended Nov. 2 was $274 million, or 72 cents per share, compared with $218 million, or 58 cents per share, a year earlier. 
Sales rose to $3.83 billion, up about 2% from $3.78 billion a year earlier.

Across Gap’s business, unseasonably warm weather affected sales by about 1 percentage point during the quarter, while storms and hurricanes led overall store sales to fall by 2%, CEO Richard Dickson told CNBC in an interview. 
“We had unusual circumstances, hurricanes, storms that led to almost 180 closures at the peak of the impact,” said Dickson, adding the storms affected Old Navy, Gap’s largest brand by revenue, the most. 
As soon as the weather turned around, sales “rebounded” and the holiday shopping season is off to a “strong start” so far, said Dickson. 
“We are energized about the holiday. Our teams are really focused on executing our plans. If we compare ourselves to where we were last year, our brands are in a much more pronounced place than they were last year,” he said. “We’ve got stronger brand identities and we’re more practiced in our playbook that we talk a lot about, driving better product, better pricing, more relevance, better consumer experience and excellence in execution.” 
Since Dickson took the helm of Gap a little over a year ago, he’s worked to turn around the business after years of declines. Under his direction, the company has leaned into nostalgic marketing and celebrity partnerships to reclaim cultural relevance. Sales have grown for the last four quarters in a row, but the company is still smaller than it once was, and critics say it needs to do more to fix its product assortment and drive full-price selling.
Here’s a closer look at each brand’s performance: 
Old Navy: Gap said sales at its largest brand grew 1% to $2.2 billion, while comparable sales were flat, shy of the 0.9% growth that analysts had expected, according to StreetAccount. Old Navy’s kids category was particularly affected by the warmer weather, said Dickson. 
Gap: Gap’s eponymous banner grew 1% to $899 million during the quarter, while comparable sales were up 3% — better than the 2.3% growth Wall Street expected, according to StreetAccount. The brand has seen four straight quarters of positive comparable sales and is benefiting from better marketing and product, the company said. 
Banana Republic: The trendy workwear line grew sales 2% to $469 million while comparable sales fell 1%, a bit worse than the 0.8% drop that StreetAccount had expected. The brand has worked to turn around its men’s business, which drove results during the quarter. Overall, it is still focused “on fixing the fundamentals,” the company said. 
Athleta: The athleisure arm of Gap’s empire grew sales by 4% to $290 million while comparable sales were up 5%. The results weren’t comparable to estimates. In the year-ago period, comparable sales were down 19% at Athleta. Under its new CEO, former Alo Yoga boss Chris Blakeslee, the brand has managed to turn things around. More