Raphael Stevens

Liberty Media chairman and “cable cowboy” John Malone weighed in on the state of streaming in an interview with CNBC’s David Faber.
He laid out ideas for potential streaming bundles, such as pairing Disney+ with Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max.
Malone also said Big Tech competition for sports programming has put more pressure on legacy media.

In the early days of streaming, Netflix and Hulu promised an on-demand viewing experience with an ever-growing library of movies and TV shows, presenting an alternative to the traditional cable bundle.
Today, consumers are cutting the cable cord, but also juggling streaming services, creating a fragmented and confusing experience — and perhaps generating a need for a streaming bundle.

“It could certainly happen if one was focused on one type of demographic and the other, another type of demographic,” Liberty Media Chairman John Malone told CNBC’s David Faber in an interview that aired Thursday. “A Disney+ together with Max might be a pretty decent combination. You might also see sports-related or focused bundles.”
Malone, known in the industry as the “cable cowboy,” is on the board of Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of Max. He has previously talked about a future of streaming bundles. But the idea has taken on more urgency of late as media companies try to reach profitability with their direct-to-consumer offerings.
Sports streaming, as Malone noted, is a major piece of the puzzle. Streaming platforms such as YouTube TV, NBCUniversal’s Peacock and Amazon Prime have made the jump and paid the price to stream big-name sports, such as NFL Football. But, exclusive deals keep certain games walled off from those who don’t subscribe to the right streaming service.
For example, Amazon secured exclusive rights to NFL’s “Thursday Night Football” in 2021 for $1 billion a year until 2033. Last year, YouTube TV secured rights for NFL Sunday Ticket for $2 billion annually. Those who don’t subscribe to one or both of these services could be out of luck when trying to view games streamed under these exclusive deals.
“Broadcast continues to survive, but is under real pressure as Big Tech competes for sports,” Malone told CNBC. “The anomaly is that network neutrality creates this world in which Amazon can go buy ‘Thursday Night Football’ for multiples of what the industry has been paying — essentially choking the networks and forcing the distribution companies to spend a lot of money on expanding capacity rapidly.”

This month, Disney announced its plans to buy Comcast’s remaining one-third stake in Hulu. And next month, Disney will launch a combined app that will bundle Disney+ and Hulu content. Disney already offers a three-way bundle plan of Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+, which Disney owns.
The company expects to roll out its direct-to-consumer ESPN offering, essentially the full channel available as a streaming option, in 2025, according to Disney CEO Bob Iger. “We obviously are planning to take ESPN out on a direct-to-consumer basis,” Iger told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin on Wednesday. “We feel great about that.”
Malone also touched on the potential for more cable-streaming bundles, reflecting the resolution of Disney’s spat with Spectrum parent Charter Communications. The companies’ agreement included ad-supported Disney+ and ESPN+ plans in some Spectrum offerings.
“The streaming version with ads will be part of the cable bundle,” Malone, a former Charter board member, told CNBC. “You could buy the stream of ESPN if you want, but why would you pay for it twice? I would much rather see the cable companies be distributors of streaming in bundles and packages, because the two are kind of tied to the hip.”
Warner Bros. Discovery declined to comment. Disney didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC. More

McDonald’s and Krispy Kreme are discussing expanding their partnership to more restaurants beyond Kentucky.
The two restaurant companies started working together more than a year ago to serve Krispy Kreme doughnuts at McDonald’s restaurants.
Shares of the doughnut chain were down 10% in morning trading after the company’s third-quarter earnings and revenue fell short of Wall Street’s estimates.

Doughnuts are sold at a Krispy Kreme store on May 05, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. The doughnut chain reported yesterday that it plans to take the company public again.
Scott Olson | Getty Images

Krispy Kreme said Thursday it’s in talks to expand its partnership with McDonald’s.
The two restaurant companies began testing Big Mac eaters’ appetites for doughnuts more than a year ago at a handful of McDonald’s Kentucky locations. By March, the pilot had expanded to roughly 160 restaurants across Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky. The bigger test was meant to assess customer demand and to understand how a larger-scale launch would affect restaurant operations.

McDonald’s has been leaning into coffee — a common pairing with doughnuts — to encourage diners to visit more frequently. At the same time, the burger chain has been cutting back on its bakery items, like cinnamon rolls and blueberry muffins. And Krispy Kreme has been able to raise prices without hurting its sales because consumers are willing to splurge on affordable treats, such as fresh doughnuts.
The discussions with McDonald’s have touched on Krispy Kreme’s ability to deliver its doughnuts fresh and on time, what scale is needed to expand beyond Kentucky, and the commercial viability of the partnership, incoming Krispy Kreme CEO Josh Charlesworth said on the company’s conference call Thursday.
He added that the company has learned consumers at fast-food restaurants behave similarly to those at Krispy Kreme’s other retail locations.
“We’ve seen that both the loose doughnuts and the pre-packed doughnuts are well received,” Charlesworth told analysts, adding that those sales bolster the overall Krispy Kreme brand.
Krispy Kreme uses a “hub and spoke” model that lets it make and distribute its treats efficiently. Production hubs, which are either stores or doughnut factories, send off freshly made doughnuts every day to retail locations such as grocery stores and gas stations.

Shares of the doughnut chain were down nearly 7% in afternoon trading as the company’s third-quarter earnings and revenue fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. Including Thursday’s tumble, the company’s stock has risen more than 20% this year, giving it a market cap of $2.10 billion.
Krispy Kreme also owns the late-night cookie chain Insomnia Cookies, although it announced in October that it’s exploring strategic alternatives for that business.
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The SAG-AFTRA actors’ union reached a tentative agreement with studios Wednesday night.
Disney shrugged off the strike’s impact on its business.
But the effects will linger for several other big companies, such as Sony and AMC Entertainment.

SAG-AFTRA members and supporters chant outside Paramount Studios on day 118 of their strike against the Hollywood studios on November 8, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. 
Mario Tama | Getty Images

Before the actors’ union reached a labor deal with studios Wednesday night, Disney CEO Bob Iger told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin that the strike’s impact on the business had so far “been negligible.”
He also said that a resolution sooner rather than later would help preserve next year’s summer box-office calendar – so the tentative agreement does just that.

But media and entertainment companies are feeling different impacts.
Because of the actors’ strike, Sony cut its movie unit’s fiscal year operating profit forecast to 115 billion yen ($762 million) from 120 billion yen.
“Due to delays in production and constraints in promotion activities, we are seeing negative impact such as a delay in the release of certain motion pictures and a delay in the delivery of television productions,” Sony executives said on Thursday morning’s earnings call. “We have incorporated the impact that can be assumed at the present time into our forecast for the fiscal year.”
In July, while Hollywood actors and writers were both on strike, Sony postponed the release of Marvel Studios collaboration “Kraven the Hunter” to next year and delayed its next “Spider-Verse” movie, both potential blockbusters.
Sony executives also cautioned about potential ripple effects from the labor stoppages.

“Even after the strike ends, it will take time for business activities to normalize due to the concentration of productions and theatrical releases, so we expect this to have a negative impact on next fiscal year’s results,” they said. “However, we plan to engage in cost control and other measures to try to reduce the impact.”
Before the deal was announced Wednesday night, AMC Entertainment earlier in the day implored the two sides to reach an agreement.

Members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild walk the picket line outside of Fox Studios in Los Angeles, California, on August 9, 2023. Film and TV production ground to a halt 100 days ago when writers downed their pens, only to be joined on the picket lines in mid-July by actors. 
Alexi Rosenfeld | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

“There has been and will be much collateral damage from these lengthy work stoppages,” said the company, which reported earnings after the bell. AMC shares fell more than 10% Thursday morning after the results and the company announced its plan to sell more shares through a secondary offering.
“The short-term impacts of the Writer’s and Actor’s strikes will cause additional and needless challenges for AMC in 2024,” CEO Adam Aron said.
For the fourth quarter, the saving graces for AMC, though, could be Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. Swift’s concert film has delivered big grosses, while Beyoncé’s is due in December.
“With the writers and actors’ strikes, there were some movies that were going to move out of the fourth quarter. So there were some holes in the calendar in the fourth quarter,” Aron said on a call with analysts. “It was a pleasant thing for movie theater operators that rolled over to have an unanticipated gift of a Taylor Swift concert film and a Beyoncé Knowles-Carter concert film added to the calendar for the fourth quarter, just added just literally a month or two in advance of the quarter commencing.”
Then there’s Warner Bros. Discovery, whose shares tanked Wednesday after the media giant reported earnings.
CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said on the earnings call that the Hollywood strikes weighed on its studios’ performance – particularly on the TV front. He noted the strikes hurt “production and delivery of TV content as TV revenues declined significantly, offsetting strong films and games performance.”
He also cautioned that there is “a real risk at this point that some negative financial impact of the strike will extend into 2024 to some extent.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is a member of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
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The founders of struggling space company Astra have offered to take the company private at a value of about $30 million, according to a securities filing Thursday.
Chris Kemp, chairman and CEO, and Adam London, chief technology officer, delivered a proposal to the Astra board of directors on Wednesday to acquire all the company’s outstanding stock at $1.50 a share.
Astra’s rocket-launching business has been on hiatus since a June 2022 mission failure, and the company is running out of cash.

Astra tests a rocket at its headquarters on the San Francisco Bay in Alameda, California.

The founders of struggling space company Astra have offered to take the company private at a value of about $30 million, according to a securities filing Thursday.
Chris Kemp, chairman and CEO, and Adam London, chief technology officer, delivered a proposal to the Astra board of directors Wednesday to acquire all the company’s outstanding stock at $1.50 a share.

That price is a 103% premium to Wednesday’s closing price of 74 cents a share, which represents a market value of about $16 million.
“We believe that Astra’s strategic objectives and business prospects will be best served as a private company. Taking the company private while delivering a meaningful premium to current shareholders allows for the best interests of shareholders as well as the Company, its employees and its customers to be met,” Kemp and London wrote in a letter to the board.
The founders anticipate raising $60 million to $65 million in capital to fund the take-private move, given the purchase price as well as transaction expenses and bridge financing. Kemp and London are also “open to certain accredited investor stockholders of the Company rolling their equity into the transaction.”

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Astra’s rocket-launching business has been on hiatus since a June 2022 mission failure. The company is running out of cash, with its acquired spacecraft propulsion business yet to drive meaningful quarterly revenue. Astra cut 25% of its workforce in early August to shift focus from its rocket development to its spacecraft engine production.
Last month, Astra’s cash reserve slipped below $10.5 million and it defaulted on a debt raise, it disclosed Friday. The company then on Monday raised financing from a pair of investors to pay off that outstanding debt.

Astra went public via a SPAC merger at a $2.6 billion valuation in February 2021. The company aimed to cheaply and rapidly produce small rockets. While Astra reached orbit twice successfully, the company suffered three launch failures after going public.
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Initial predictions saw “The Marvels” opening to between $75 million and $80 million domestically, but those figures have shrunk to a range between $60 million and $65 million in recent weeks.
The only MCU films that have opened lower than $60 million have been 2015’s “Ant-Man” and 2008’s “Incredible Hulk.”
Disney and Marvel Studios have struggled to reconnect with audiences in the post-“Endgame” era.

Brie Larson stars as Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel in Disney and Marvel’s “The Marvels.”

It was always going to be tough to top “Avengers: Endgame,” but what has spilled out from Disney and Marvel Studios in the wake of that epic has left fans discouraged about the franchise.
There was hope that “The Marvels,” which arrives in theaters Friday, might build on the box office success of “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3” earlier this year. But there’s a strong chance it could have one of the lowest opening weekends in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Initial predictions saw the film opening to between $75 million and $80 million domestically, but those figures have shrunk to a range between $60 million and $65 million in recent weeks. No MCU film has opened in that range since 2011, according to data from Comscore.
The only films that have opened lower than $60 million have been 2015’s “Ant-Man,” which debuted with $57 million in 2015, and 2008’s “Incredible Hulk,” which opened with $55 million.
Read more: Disney beefs up cost-cutting plan by $2 billion
“The Marvel track record at the box office is virtually unrivaled in terms of the depth and breadth of titles, the staggering number of records broken, fan appreciation and sheer revenue generating power over the decades,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
“Unfortunately, countless spinoffs, sequels and universes in both big screen and small screen iterations, and an at times unclear marketing message have resulted in mixed critical and fan reaction and thus resulted in disappointing box office results for some of Marvel’s recent big screen offerings,” he added.

Is Marvel too much homework now?

While it’s clear that Marvel has lost out on actor promotion for the film due to the SAG-AFTRA strike (which finally has an apparent resolution), there are many other factors behind the soft expectations for “The Marvels.”
For one, “Endgame” marked the culmination of nearly a decade of interconnected storytelling and overperformed expectations. It wrapped up a number of character storylines and opened the door for new adventures.
However, in Disney’s exuberance to pad its fledgling streaming service Disney+ during the pandemic, it saturated the market with hit-or-miss television series. It introduced dozens of new heroes and villains as well as fundamentally altered the universe in which previous films had been set. For many casual fans, the inundation of content began to feel more like homework than entertainment.
Additionally, the content itself, both on the big and small screen, hasn’t been up to par for audiences.

Tom Hiddleston stars as Loki in the Disney+ series “Loki.”

While shows like “Loki,” “Ms. Marvel” and “Moon Knight” scored well with critics and general viewers, “Secret Invasion” flopped. Similarly, on the theatrical side, “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Guardians 3” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” won over audiences MCU, while “The Eternals,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “Thor: Love and Thunder” made them question the direction of the franchise.
So far, “The Marvels” has a soft score on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics particularly ripped the film’s script, calling it “paper thin,” “charmless” and “pandering in all the wrong places.”
“If you thought ‘Eternals’ and ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ were low points for the limping Marvel Cinematic Universe, strap in for the ride to abject misery that is ‘The Marvels,'” wrote Johnny Oleksinski in his review for the New York Post.
Yet, Iman Vellani, who portrays the plucky, newly minted superhero Ms. Marvel, seems to be a bright spot in the feature, with many critics praising her performance.
Box office analysts aren’t ready to wave the white flag on superhero content, suggesting that audiences aren’t lukewarm on superheroes, they are just sick of bad stories. After all, look at the success of Amazon Prime Video’s “The Boys” and “Gen V,” as well as the animated series “Invincible.” There’s also Max’s “Peacemaker.”
“This is not a fatigue of Marvel or superheroes, but a fatigue of creative and studio missteps that are not unique to any one film or franchise,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com. “It just so happens that because it’s Marvel, everything is more magnified and scrutinized whether things are going right or wrong.”

What does the MCU’s future look like?

Box office analysts have pointed to Marvel’s film promotion as another issue for the studio. When “The Marvels” was first teased to audiences it was billed as a female-led comedy, with its heroines swapping powers at random while they learn how to become a team.
In its most recent trailer release, Marvel sets “The Marvels” up as a generic action movie in which the villain is destroying the fabric of the universe with a magical MacGuffin. The trailer also features a significant number of shots from previous Marvel movies featuring characters like Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Steve Rogers (Captain America), who are no longer part of the franchise.
“The fact that marketing spots for this particular movie are leaning on nostalgia and clips from ‘Endgame’ represents a red flag in and of itself,” Robbins said.
In the past, deceptive marketing was part of the appeal of Marvel’s trailers. Altered footage or purposefully edited clips and shots were done to conceal spoilers or entice fans. For example, in trailers for “Avengers: Infinity War” clips that show Thanos’ gauntlet featured fewer infinity stones as to not spoil that he had collected more during the film.

Paul Rudd is Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man, alongside Johnathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror in “Ant-Man and the Wasp in Quantumania.”

The stark contrast in how “The Marvels” was first advertised versus its final trailer suggests that Disney was worried about lackluster presales and wanted to lure in fans with hints of nostalgia to previous projects.
If “The Marvels” does flop at the box office, it could push Disney to more aggressively look for a reset. Especially, since it’s already facing an uphill battle with actor Jonathan Majors, who it chose to take on the role of Kang, the next big bad in the MCU. Majors is embroiled in legal troubles stemming from allegations of assault and abuse.
“At the time the pandemic hit, we were leaning into a huge increase in how much we were making,” CEO Bob Iger said during Disney’s earnings call Wednesday. “And I’ve always felt that quantity can be actually a negative when it comes to quality, and I think that’s exactly what happened.  We lost some focus.”
Iger said that the company is looking to consolidate the number of films it makes going forward and focus more on quality.
“There aren’t any easy answers for the big picture state of Marvel’s challenges right now, but if there’s an upside it’s that plenty of moviegoers and fans do still care,” said Robbins. “They want to see a course correction sooner rather than later.”
There’s still some good news at least, said Comscore’s Dergarabedian. “The Marvels” isn’t competing against “Dune: Part Two,” which left the calendar in favor of a 2024 release, and will have plenty of premium movie screens to play in. Those showings, which typically cost more than traditional screenings, could pad the film’s box office.
“It would be wise to temper opening weekend expectations given the uneven performances of some of the recent releases from the brand and look more at the ultimate box office result as the true measure of success for this latest Marvel release,” he said.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal owns Rotten Tomatoes. More