Business

Disney and Charter reached a deal that would put an end to their cable blackout fight.
News of the agreement came hours before “Monday Night Football” is set to air on Disney’s ESPN.
The deal will see ad-supported apps Disney+ and ESPN+ included in packages for some of Charter’s Spectrum customers.

The blackout fight between cable giant Charter Communications and Disney is over.
Hours ahead of “Monday Night Football,” which airs on Disney’s ESPN, the companies reached a deal that would allow millions of Charter cable customers to watch the game.

The deal will see Disney’s ad-supported streaming apps Disney+ and ESPN+ included in packages for some of Charter’s Spectrum pay TV customers. Disney will receive an increase on the subscriber fees it receives from Charter.
Earlier on Monday CNBC’s David Faber reported a deal between the two companies was nearing and would include a discount on pricing for Disney streaming services for Charter customers.
The news release for the agreement said it includes:

The Disney+ basic ad-supported offering will be provided to customers who buy the Spectrum TV Select package.
ESPN+ will be provided to subscribers to Spectrum TV Select Plus subscribers.
The highly anticipated ESPN streaming service will be made available to Spectrum TV Select subscribers when it launches.

Charter’s and Disney’s stocks, as well as media peers including Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global traded higher Monday afternoon.
Earlier this summer, Charter announced it would soon offer a sports-lite package to customers, primarily nixing regional sports networks and creating a cheaper option for consumers who don’t watch the networks.

Customers on the Spectrum TV Select Plus plan – which includes the regional sports networks – will receive ESPN+ subscriptions as part of their package.
The plans are set to roll out during the third quarter.
Meanwhile, Disney+’s ad-supported option will be provided to customers who select the Spectrum TV Select package. When ESPN launches its direct-to-consumer streaming option, these customers will also receive access to it. (The new ESPN app will be a streaming version of the cable channel, unlike the ESPN+ app, which doesn’t include all programming.)
The inclusion of Disney’s ad-supported streaming apps for Charter’s customers had appeared to be a sticking point in the negotiations that stalled and led to a blackout. While this deal doesn’t appear to give all Charter pay TV customers access to all of Disney’s apps – which also include Hulu – it is a step in that direction as cord cutting ramps up for pay TV distributors.
The dispute between Charter and Disney had been ongoing since late August when carriage renewal negotiations broke down between the two companies and left millions of customers without Disney TV channels, including ESPN, FX and Disney Channel.
At the time of the blackout, Charter had about 14.7 million customers across 41 states, with New York being one of its top TV markets. The dispute dragged on past the NFL season kickoff Thursday, but ended just in time for the “Monday Night Football” matchup between the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills.
As a result, Charter saw some of its Spectrum pay TV customers cut its bundle in favor of internet TV options like Disney’s Hulu + Live TV or Google’s YouTube TV. In the days after the blackout — which occurred amid the U.S. Open tennis tournament and beginning of the college football season, both of which are featured on ESPN — Disney said Hulu + Live TV sign-ups were more than 60% higher than expected.
While sign ups for internet TV bundles like Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV are often higher at this time of year due to the NFL and college football, there was a spike in signups recorded by data provider Antenna. While Hulu + Live TV was up more than 60%, YouTube TV – this season’s carrier of the NFL’s “Sunday Ticket” package of out-of-market games – was up about 115%.
The NFL is often the key source of leverage network owners like Disney have in negotiations. Media companies, including Disney, collectively paid more than $100 billion to air NFL games over an 11-year period.
Disney owns broadcaster ABC, which airs some “Monday Night Football” games. ESPN+ has an exclusive “Monday Night Football” game this season, too. Disney agreed to pay around $2.7 billion annually for these rights, CNBC previously reported.

Broadband vs. cable

Carriage disputes and blackouts are a common occurrence. But Charter billed the moment Disney’s networks went dark as a more pivotal moment, as the company proclaimed that the pay TV model was broken.
Satellite TV provider DirecTV and broadcast station owner Nexstar Media Group have been in a similar dispute since earlier in the summer. It has continued past the start of the NFL season. Broadcast networks including CBS and Fox air local NFL games on Sundays.
Hours after the blackout began, Charter executives held an investor call pushing for a revamped deal with Disney that would give Spectrum pay TV customers free access to Disney’s ad-supported streaming apps Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu.

This point in particular seemed to be the sticking point in negotiations.
Disney had responded that its streaming and TV networks weren’t equal due to the original content that premieres exclusively on live TV and its multibillion investments in exclusive streaming content.
The public tussle has highlighted the issues facing media companies. Cord cutting has been rampant and consumers are switching to streaming services at a fast clip. Media companies are using content from their pay TV channels for their streaming services, arguably accelerating the transition.
Yet, the fees generated from pay TV providers like Charter for carrying the live networks are still robust — even if they are decreasing with fewer customers in the bundle — and propping up media companies’ cash flow and profitability. Media companies like Disney are still working to make streaming a profitable business.
ESPN is considered to receive some of the highest fees, even before the Monday deal with Charter. The network receives $9.42 per subscriber a month, while other Disney networks like ESPN2, FX and Disney Channel get $1.21, 93 cents and $1.25, respectively, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. A Disney representative hasn’t commented on the fees. The media giant has more than 20 networks.
While providing pay TV services has long been part of Charter, broadband has usurped it as the cornerstone of its profitability and business. Even as consumers cut the TV cord, they remain as broadband customers.
Charter CEO Chris Winfrey had said the company planned to push for similar terms in upcoming negotiations with other content companies.
In the days following the blackout, Winfrey spoke at an investor conference where he said those discussions with other media content companies were already beginning to take place.
He also reiterated the company’s position that the pay TV model was broken and at an inflection point.
Disclosure: Comcast, which owns CNBC parent NBCUniversal, is a co-owner of Hulu. More

Charter customers will be able to watch “Monday Night Football” as ESPN and other Disney networks are restored.
Charter secured the ability to offer Disney+ and ESPN+ for free to select consumers of certain cable bundle packages.
While getting access to some of Disney’s streaming services is significant, it’s far from the transformational event that Charter hinted at.

Devin Singletary #26 of the Buffalo Bills runs the ball against the New York Jets at Highmark Stadium on December 11, 2022 in Orchard Park, New York.
Timothy T Ludwig | Getty Images

Charter and Disney have reached a rights deal, and the media industry was duped.
The Wall Street Journal ran a story Friday with the headline: “Disney Fight Marks Cable TV’s Last Stand.” Slate’s headline the same day honed in further: “Disney Is in a Fight That Might Change TV Forever.” Analysts appearing on CNBC weighed in on the future of the cable bundle.

“Mutually assured destruction is a good way of thinking about it,” said Michael Morris, Guggenheim Securities entertainment and media analyst, about how both Disney and Charter would be at existential risk if they didn’t reach a carriage deal for networks including ESPN and owned ABC television stations.
For the past 10 days, Charter Chief Executive Chris Winfrey has been putting the business on notice, telling reporters and investors that its decision to drop Disney’s networks wasn’t a normal carriage fight. After decades of agreeing to programming increases which have caused tens of millions of Americans to cancel cable, seeing it as a too-expensive, bloated product, a pay-TV operator had reached its “No Mas” point.
“We had to say, enough is enough,” Winfrey said Thursday at a Goldman Sachs investor conference.
But the details of Charter’s pact with Disney, announced in a press release Monday, don’t really suggest enough was enough. Disney will receive a higher programming fee increase as part of the deal, CNBC’s David Faber first reported. Charter will be able to include ad-supported Disney+ and ESPN+ for no additional charge to certain consumers of its cable TV programming, as part of a wholesale agreement with Disney.
That’s kind of it. Including Disney’s streaming packages for cable subscribers is a significant and unprecedented give. But this is not a groundbreaking deal. It’s an incremental deal suggestive of a slow-moving landscape where media companies aren’t yet ready to let go of cable, a declining multibillion dollar cash generating behemoth.

The sides got a deal done in time for cable customers to watch “Monday Night Football” on ESPN for Week 1, which has always been the primary deadline on carriage deals for decades. Charter customers didn’t get to watch the U.S. Open tennis finals this weekend. But, in the end, Charter wouldn’t risk losing millions of customers if it didn’t offer “Monday Night Football” — especially to New York area fans, as the New York Jets (and new quarterback Aaron Rodgers) play the Buffalo Bills — and Disney wouldn’t risk the revenue losses of blacking out football.
Instead, media executive rhetoric won the day. Carriage disputes between pay-TV providers and networks are old hat. It’s become standard procedure for executives of pay-TV companies and programmers to rage at each other in strongly worded statements where distributors talk about the rising cost of cable and media companies counter with the importance of their content. In recent years, media journalists have largely caught on and haven’t taken the bait.
This deal was different because Winfrey said it was different. He held an investor call the day after Charter and Disney didn’t reach a deal, an unusual move signaling that maybe Charter was content to start moving away from the linear cable TV business – something that then-Cablevision CEO Jim Dolan talked about as a possibility 10 years ago.
But there’s a reason why Dolan discussed this concept a decade ago and still linear cable TV exists. Charter still makes money by offering linear cable TV. Comcast, the largest U.S. cable TV provider, owns a slew of cable networks. DirecTV and Dish don’t have robust broadband businesses so both companies are reliant on staying in the business, no matter how dominant streaming becomes.
It’s a happy ending for cable consumers, who get to watch what they’re already paying for. But it’s not a transformative deal — and the media should remember this conflict’s resolution when the inevitable next channel blackout occurs.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC.
WATCH: Disney and Charter reach carriage agreement. More

Elon Musk’s SpaceX signed a hefty deal with satellite operator Telesat.
The Lightspeed missions will fly on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
Telesat still has a 2019 agreement in place with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.

A rendering of Telesat’s low earth orbit broadband constellation.

PARIS – Competitors or not, SpaceX continues to be willing to launch for other satellite internet companies.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX signed a hefty deal with satellite operator Telesat, the companies announced Monday. The agreement covers 14 launches of the Canadian venture’s Lightspeed internet satellites.

Telesat will utilize SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, with missions beginning in 2026. Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg heralded Falcon 9 as a “great value proposition.” 
“It’s affordable, it’s reliable … they can launch multiple satellites a week. It’s phenomenal,” Goldberg told CNBC.
SpaceX has used its rockets to launch communications satellites for companies that compete directly or indirectly with its global Starlink internet network. Recent examples include satellites for OneWeb, Viasat, and EchoStar. These deals come as an Amazon shareholder alleges the company snubbed SpaceX for launch contracts of the tech giant’s Kuiper internet satellites.

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Financial terms for Telesat’s deal with SpaceX were not disclosed. SpaceX advertises Falcon 9 launches for $67 million each, which would put Telesat’s purchase around $900 million at that pricing.
Telesat’s purchase comes as an answer to needing dependable rides to orbit in short order. Despite Telesat’s 2019 agreement with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to use its New Glenn rocket, delays in New Glenn’s development mean that rocket has yet to launch for the first time.

Goldberg told CNBC on Monday that the agreement with Blue Origin is still in place. He cited non-disclosure agreements for why he can’t disclose the number of New Glenn launches that Telesat has lined up, but noted Blue Origin gives his company future “optionality” and believes New Glenn will “in the fullness of time be a great launch vehicle.”
Goldberg has previously emphasized to CNBC that Lightspeed is not intended to compete in direct-to-consumer markets against SpaceX’s Starlink or Amazon’s Kuiper. Instead, it will maintain Telesat’s existing focus on enterprise customers — government and commercial markets, however, that Starlink has expanded into over the past year.
Earlier this summer Telesat announced a swap in the manufacturer of its Lightspeed satellites, with Canadian space company MDA taking the place of French-Italian manufacturer Thales Alenia Space. That deal saves Telesat about $2 billion in launching its network of 198 satellites.
“It was a home run,” Goldberg said Monday of the MDA contract. More

Pratt & Whitney’s parent said an engine manufacturing issue will hit its pretax results by $3 billion this quarter.
RTX disclosed the issue in July.
The problem stems from a flaw in powder metal used to make some of the engine parts.

Model of a Pratt & Whitney GTF engine is displayed at the 54th International Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France, June 20, 2023. 
Benoit Tessier | Reuters

RTX said Monday that an engine manufacturing flaw forcing accelerated inspections will hit its pretax results this quarter by $3 billion, sending shares lower in premarket trading.
The problem stems from flaws with powder metal used to make some of the popular Pratt & Whitney GTF engines. That issue is forcing inspections on hundreds of engines ahead of schedule, depriving airlines of some aircraft during a travel rebound in the pandemic’s wake.

RTX said that about 600 to 700 engines beyond the company’s early forecast will have to be removed for shop visits through 2026.
The engines power many of the popular Airbus A320neo planes and others.
RTX, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, reaffirmed its adjusted earnings estimates of $4.95 to $5.05 a share for 2023. But it said it expects a $1.5 billion hit to cash flow in 2025, bringing that estimate to $7.5 billion from an earlier estimate of $9 billion.
The company said it expects the issue to cost up to $7 billion. Pratt & Whitney has a 51% share in the GTF PW1000 engine program and the cost will be shared. More

Smucker has agreed to pay $34.25 per share, or roughly $5.6 billion, to acquire Hostess Brands.
Hostess saw demand for its Twinkies slip after raising prices, sparking investor concern and takeover interest from larger rivals.
The deal is expected to close in Smucker’s fiscal third quarter, which ends in January.

Hostess Twinkies and CupCakes are displayed on a store shelf on May 17, 2021 in San Anselmo, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Jelly maker J.M. Smucker is buying Twinkie owner Hostess Brands for $5.6 billion, or $34.25 a share.
Hostess shareholders will receive $30 in cash and .03002 shares of Smucker’s stock for each share of Hostess that they owned. Smucker has also agreed to assume Hostess’s debt of roughly $900 million. The deal is expected to close in Smucker’s fiscal third quarter, which ends in January.

Smucker’s purchase is the latest in a flurry of deals by Big Food, which is hunting for growth as pandemic gains slip away. Campbell’s Soup recently announced its acquisition of Rao’s pasta sauce owner Sovos Bands for $2.7 billion. M&M’s owner Mars bought Kevin’s Natural Foods in July. And Unilever snapped up frozen yogurt brand Yasso in June.
Shares of Hostess climbed 18% in premarket trading Monday on the announcement. Smucker’s stock fell 7.5%.
As of Friday’s close, shares of Hostess stock have risen 25% this year, giving the company a market value of $3.73 billion. But the company’s shares had already received a significant boost after Reuters reported in late August that it was considering a sale after fielding interest from large food companies, including PepsiCo and Oreo maker Mondelez International.
Hostess saw demand for its Twinkies and Ding Dongs slip after raising prices to mitigate higher commodity costs, sparking investor concern and takeover interest from larger rivals. For the full year, the company is anticipating that its volume will decline. Executives paused price hikes.
Its sale to Smucker ends Hostess’s seven-year streak as an independent, publicly traded company. Hostess went public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company in 2016.
Just three years earlier, Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co. resurrected the company, ending a monthslong Twinkie drought, after acquiring the assets of the company formerly known as Interstate Bakeries. More

The Export-Import Bank of the United States, or EXIM, is no stranger to financing space projects and is working through a $5 billion pipeline of applications.
“In our pipeline related to this industry, about $1.3 billion are likely to come to fruition within a year and another $4 billion that we’re looking at are a little less further along,” EXIM Vice Chair Judith Pryor said on Monday.
Pryor emphasized that EXIM is increasingly seeing applications from companies building low Earth orbit satellite networks, also known as LEO constellations, for services such as communications and imagery.

A Falcon Heavy rocket launches the Viasat-3 “Americas” satellite on May 1, 2023.

PARIS – The U.S. export credit agency is working through a $5 billion pipeline of applications related to the space industry, as companies look to fund projects in orbit in a tighter capital market.
The Export-Import Bank of the United States, or EXIM, is no stranger to financing space projects such as satellite and rocket products. EXIM generally sees more applications during tougher economic times, as the previous bulk of its financing for the space sector came between 2010 and 2015.

“In our pipeline related to this industry, about $1.3 billion are likely to come to fruition within a year and another $4 billion that we’re looking at are a little less further along,” Judith Pryor, EXIM’s first vice president and vice chair of the board of directors, said on Monday at the 2023 World Satellite Business Week conference.

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EXIM has helped U.S. space companies win contracts for foreign entities, especially to give an extra edge when they are competing with China.
Pryor said EXIM is increasingly seeing applications from companies building low Earth orbit satellite networks, also known as LEO constellations, for services such as communications and imagery. The bank acts as an alternative lender to support U.S. companies and examines “each individual transaction on its own merits” rather than focus on specific areas of the space industry, Pryor said.
“We don’t discriminate. We don’t pick winners or losers,” Pryor said. More

Theaters are no stranger to screening taped concerts, plays and musicals to guests, but Taylor Swift could usher in a new era of event cinema.
The Eras Tour concert movie is slated to open Oct. 13 in major movie theater chains such as AMC and Cinemark.
Interest in unique cinematic experiences and communal events is growing after Barbenheimer, and Swift’s concert film could bring it to a new level.

Taylor Swift pauses between songs during her first sold-out concert of three nights at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in March.
Fort Worth Star-telegram | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

LOS ANGELES – Taylor Swift changed the music industry. Now she’s coming for the movies.
The cinema industry is in a state of flux. Audience tastes have shifted and dual Hollywood strikes have only acerbated pandemic-related production delays that left the movie calendar sparse.

With would-be blockbusters fleeing the fall and winter slate, a direct result of strike rules that prevent top talent from promoting upcoming films, movie theater chains like AMC, Regal and Cinemark are desperately seeking unique offerings. Even IMAX, which started as place to screen documentaries and educational programming, stands to benefit from alternative theatrical content.
“The need has been there for many years, becoming more apparent during the early pandemic recovery era when audiences began coming back but there wasn’t enough big screen content ready for release on a weekly basis,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com.
Enter Swift.
Despite placing her previous documentaries and concert films on streaming services in the past, the iconic pop star opted to deliver her Eras Tour film directly to cinemagoers this October. The filmed concert is already breaking records for movie theaters and is expected to top $100 million during its opening weekend.
Swift is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, but she was granted a waiver by the unions because the Eras Tour filmed concert is unscripted and does has no actors or writers associated with it.

The Taylor Swift effect

The theater industry is no stranger to alternative content. Cinemas often show taped concerts, plays and musicals, as well as live sports from organizations like the National Football League and Ultimate Fighting Championship. Then there are showings of classic films, anime screenings and live-broadcast Dungeons and Dragons games.
But none of these have ever come close to generating the fervor circling Swift’s upcoming release.
The excitement, which has led movie theaters to design specialty popcorn buckets, create boutique cocktails and even set up friendship bracelet-making tables, illustrates there’s a hunger for making something bigger and more memorable out of a trip to the movies.
Just recently, audiences were drawn en masse to see big-budgeted superhero flicks on opening weekend. The urgency was driven by a need to see what happens next in the giant tapestry of storytelling and a worry that not seeing it as soon as possible would risk spoiler reveals.
Sony and Marvel’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” released in late 2021, is one such film. However, few superhero movies that followed drummed up that same enthusiasm, likely because there was a glut of content, much of which was considered lackluster. Disney and Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” and DC’s “The Flash” and “Blue Beetle” all underwhelmed at the box office this year.
Then came Barbenheimer.
Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” and Universal’s “Oppenheimer,” two films on the opposite spectrum of cinematic experiences, opened on the same weekend in July. The combination of the releases thrilled audiences, bringing millions out to cinemas to see double features. Clad in pink or donning fedoras, audiences drove the two films to set attendance records. They’re still making big money, too. “Barbie” has cleared $600 million at the domestic box office, while historical drama “Oppenheimer” has garnered more than $300 million.
Following the early days of the pandemic, consumers have gravitated more toward experiences out of the house. With so many streaming options, audiences need a reason to leave their couches beyond just content. Because of this, communal experiences that can only be experienced outside the home are more important than ever to the theatrical industry.

It’s why when Swift first unveiled that her concert film was coming to the three major theaters — AMC, Regal and Cinemark — on Oct. 13, dozens of smaller theater chains sought to also showcase the film. It’s also why Universal opted to remove “Exorcist: Believer” from the same release date and move it to Oct. 6, killing the short-lived hope for a Barbenheimer-type Exorswift double feature event.
“True nationwide releases can have a meaningful impact,” Robbins said. “Even if Taylor Swift may prove to set a very high bar, it’s not hard to imagine the potential success of more concert events with superstars like Beyonce or Adele, major sporting events screened in premium formats, synergistic promotional campaigns, and numerous other specialty release ideas.”
In a rare move, Swift opted to distribute the film through AMC, not a traditional studio partner. It is expected that the 43% of ticket proceeds will remain with theaters and 57% will be split between Swift and AMC. Swift will likely keep a large chunk of that share, according to industry insiders.
Of course, the theater company will generate significantly more than that in concession sales, perhaps the real upside to Swift’s film release. The theater chair is already promoting collectible popcorn tubs for $14.99 and cups for $11.99.
AMC, in particular, needs this kind of revenue, as the company continues to spend more on film licensing costs and theater rentals than it makes in ticket and concession sales. In fact, the company only recently posted a profit during its second quarter this year, having generated net income of just $8.6 million.
Ultimately, box office analysts foresee the film snatching around $400 million during its run. Only “Barbie” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” have grossed more than that domestically this year.

A new era for concert films?

The theater industry hopes Swift reinvigorates the concert genre, which blossomed in the 1960s and 1970s with films like “Monterey Pop,” “Woodstock” and “The Last Waltz.” And while movies can’t fully replicate the experience of attending a concert, cinema tickets are a lot cheaper.
Tickets for Swift’s Eras Tour were priced at $49 to $450, with VIP packages starting at $199 and reaching $899. However, at the secondary market many tickets sold for thousands of dollars each. Tickets for her filmed concert start at $19.89 for adults and $13.13 for kids. Tickets for premium format screens like IMAX and Dolby come at a higher cost.
For comparison, average adult ticket prices for regular film releases in 2023 have ranged from $11 to $14 a piece for standard formats.
“Concert films have seen outstanding results over the years, and now based on massive pre-sales across the country, it’s clear that The Eras Tour will break new ground for the genre,” said Michael O’Leary, CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners. “We hope this will lead to even more concert films in theaters in the years to come.”
For the most part, filmed concerts have had extremely limited runs in theater — typically, one night or just one weekend. And most appeared in less than 1,000 locations, according to Comscore data. For comparison, a wide release is considered more than 2,000 locations during opening weekend. Most blockbuster features are released in more than 4,000.
“In the modern era, the traditionally released concert film that plays for up to a few weeks in theaters has taken a back seat to the very popular event cinema model of a very limited availability of just a few days or even a single night on the big screen,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “Taylor Swift, being a cultural powerhouse and shaper of new business models, may have a hand in bringing back the old-school style concert film.”
Swift’s concert film seems destined to overtake the current record holder for a theatrical concert film. Miley Cyrus’ “Best of Both Worlds” concert film tallied $31.1 million during its opening weekend back in 2008, appearing in around 680 locations. It ultimately snared $70 million globally during a 15 week run, according to Comscore data.

Taylor Swift performs in Cincinnati, Ohio, June 30, 2023, during her Eras tour.
Taylor Hill/tas23 | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

The total number of theaters offering Swift’s Eras Tour will not be available until about a week before the film is set for release. However, box office analysts expect it will be considered a wide release and could have as many locations as a blockbuster feature.
And there’s precedent for such a large number of theaters and the eight-week long run. Notably, Justin Bieber’s “Never Say Never” tour film launched in 3,000 cinemas in early 2011 and ran for 13 weeks. It tallied $99 million globally. Similarly, the Michael Jackson documentary and concert film “This Is It” was released in 3,400 theaters in 2009 and generated $263.5 million globally during its five week run.
“We’ve screened Metallica and it sold out super quick,” said Michael Kustermann, CEO of Alamo Drafthouse. “We’ve obviously done a ton of K-Pop things in the past and they’ve sold out super quick. I think what Taylor Swift is going to do is kind of open up the question of, well, should these be more than one night one weekend?”
Of course, most concede that Swift is an outlier in the industry and her success at the box office may not be easily replicated.
“Lest anyone think this is an easily replicable feat, you must first understand that Swift is operating a unique universe of her own and that this makes future successes for other artists in this realm a more elusive goal than one may think,” Dergarabedian said.
Still, interest in unique cinematic experiences and communal events is growing and Swift’s concert film could be just the beginning.
“I’ve always said, and I’ve been in this business for over 40 years, that Hollywood is a copycat industry,” said Ray Nutt, CEO of Fathom Events.
Fathom has long brought entertainment events like shows from the Metropolitan Opera, comedy shows and sports to cinemas. It also schedules screenings of films around release anniversaries as well as genre-based showings for faith-based audiences, anime fans and horror junkies.
The company is set to bring a filmed version of Sara Bareilles’ Broadway hit “Waitress” to cinemas in December.
“People are looking for different things to go to theaters for,” Nutt said.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal distributed “Oppenheimer.” More

Patients taking diabetes and weight loss drugs say they’ve also noticed changes in their cravings for alcohol, nicotine, opioids and some compulsive behaviors, such as online shopping and gambling.
These anecdotal reports add to the growing list of potential benefits of GLP-1s like Ozempic and Wegovy beyond shedding unwanted pounds.
Several studies in animals back up those reports, but more research needs to be done in humans to prove that those treatments can curb addiction.

An Ozempic (semaglutide) injection pen is seen on a kitchen table in Riga, Latvia on 06 August, 2023. 
Jaap Arriens | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Heather Le Biller shed 9 pounds within the first week of taking Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic – and then even more as she continued treatment. 
Le Biller, a flight attendant who lives in France, noticed her appetite quiet down while taking the weekly injection. But so did her cravings for wine, a drink she called “almost customary to pair with every dinner” in France. 

“When I was on Ozempic, it made me not want that as much anymore,” Le Biller told CNBC. “I could have a few sips of wine and just be satisfied and move on. I didn’t need multiple glasses a night, so it definitely seems to help with that.” 
Le Biller is among several patients who took diabetes and weight loss drugs and also noticed an effect on their cravings for alcohol, nicotine, opioids or even some compulsive behaviors, such as online shopping and gambling.
Those drugs – including Ozempic and its weight loss counterpart from Novo Nordisk, Wegovy – are called GLP-1 agonists, which mimic a hormone produced in the gut to suppress a person’s appetite. 
These anecdotal reports add to the growing list of potential benefits of GLP-1s beyond shedding unwanted pounds. Dramatic weight loss is the primary reason why those drugs have skyrocketed in popularity in the U.S., despite the fact that they can cost around $1,000 a month and some health insurers have stopped covering them altogether. 
“We’re prescribing these drugs and seeing this effect as a secondary benefit in patients. One of my patients even said they’re not doing as much online shopping, which is helping their wallet,” said Dr. Angela Fitch, an obesity medicine physician and president of the Obesity Medicine Association. That group is the largest organization of physicians, nurse practitioners and other health-care providers dedicated to treating obesity. 

A customer drinks a glass of wine at the It’s Italian Cucina restaurant on April 05, 2023 in Austin, Texas. A new analysis of more than 40 years of accumulated research has found that moderate drinking has no health benefits. 
Brandon Bell | Getty Images

This striking effect of GLP-1s isn’t a new idea. Several studies have demonstrated that certain GLP-1s curb alcohol intake in rodents and monkeys. More research needs to be done, particularly on humans, to prove that the drugs have that effect. That means it could take years before the Food and Drug Administration and other regulators worldwide approve drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy as addiction treatments. 
Manufacturers like Novo Nordisk said they aren’t pursuing that research.
“Pharma has this general lack of interest in investing in the addiction field” due to a perfect storm of factors, including the high stigma around addiction disorders among doctors, physicians and even patients, according to Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, clinical director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, or NIDA.
Leggio and other scientists are working to fill the gap – and have already made strides toward confirming the potential of GLP-1s as addiction treatments.

What do we know so far?

Scientists have published nearly a dozen studies showing how GLP-1s stop binge drinking in rats and mice, reduce their desire for alcohol, prevent relapse in addicted animals and decrease alcohol consumption overall. 
Earlier studies have examined older, less potent GLP-1s such as exenatide, a drug approved for diabetes under the names Byetta and Bydureon. 
But more recent studies on semaglutide – the generic name for Ozempic and Wegovy – and another drug from Eli Lilly called dulaglutide “are the most promising” because they reduced alcohol intake in animals by 60% to 80%, according to pharmacologist Elisabet Jerlhag. 
Studies have also shown that rats that stop taking dulaglutide, which is approved for diabetes under the name Trulicity, “take weeks before they start drinking again,” she said.
Jerlhag and her colleagues at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden have studied the effect of GLP-1s on addictive behaviors for more than a decade. 

Boxes of the drug trulicity, made by Eli Lilly and Company, sit on a counter at a pharmacy in Provo, Utah, January 9, 2020.
George Frey | Reuters

Other studies on animals have also found that GLP-1 drugs reduce the consumption of nicotine, cocaine, heroin and amphetamines. 
Few studies have been done on humans, but six clinical trials are now underway investigating how semaglutide may alter people’s drinking and smoking habits. 
The reason behind this anti-addiction effect of GLP-1s is that those drugs also affect the brain, not just the gut, according to NIDA’s Leggio. 
“The mechanism in the brain that regulates overeating is important in regulating addictive behaviors as well,” Leggio told CNBC. “There is a clear shared overlap. So it’s possible that the medications may help people with addiction by acting on that specific mechanism.”
GLP-1s specifically decrease the amount of dopamine the brain releases after people indulge in behaviors like drinking, smoking or even eating a sweet dessert, according to Dr. Steven Batash, a gastroenterologist who provides nonsurgical weight loss procedures in Queens, New York. 
Batash said dopamine is a neurotransmitter that “reinforces the pleasure” of doing those activities. When GLP-1s take away that pleasure, they also eliminate the motivation to do those activities. 

What needs more research?

Still, NIDA’s Leggio advises against using GLP-1s off-label to reduce addictive behaviors, “simply because there’s not enough evidence in humans that they work.” 
“The animal studies are very promising and what people are reporting is very, very important, but as a scientist, I will also tell you that that’s not enough,” he told CNBC. 
Leggio said scientists need to conduct more double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled studies on humans – or trials where both participants and researchers don’t know who is getting randomly selected to receive a placebo or an actual drug. Those types of studies are “the gold standard” for proving whether a treatment achieves a certain effect or not, he added
But even if those trials confirm that GLP-1s can reduce addictive behaviors in humans, “it will most likely work for some patients and not others,” according to Leggio. 
“We already know, as a matter of fact, that these medications and any drug overall do not work for everybody,” he said. 

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For example, the only clinical study in this area investigated whether exenatide could treat alcohol use disorder in people, as compared with cognitive behavioral therapy.
But that 2022 study found that exenatide reduced drinking in a subgroup of participants who had obesity, while the drug actually increased drinking in people who didn’t. 
The reason may be that “leaner patients” treated with exenatide experienced a larger decrease in blood sugar, which might be associated with increased cravings for alcohol, the researchers wrote in the study.
But even that conclusion needs to be confirmed with further research. 
It’s also unclear how long the anti-addiction effect of GLP-1s will last. That’s already one complaint patients have when it comes to weight loss: People who lose weight after taking Ozempic or Wegovy tend to gain most of it – or even more – back within a few years. 
“It’s possible that some people will relapse and go back to heavy drinking if they stopped taking the medication,” Leggio said. He added that some patients will need constant treatment because addiction is a chronic disease. 
However, Leggio said there’s “nothing wrong” with a patient seeking GLP-1s to treat diabetes or obesity, in addition to an addiction disorder. 
“If you want to see whether Ozempic will help you better control the sugar in your blood but also help you with your drinking, that’s wonderful. Killing two birds with one stone,” Leggio said. “But if the only reason you want to take the drug is because of your alcohol or smoking, then you should wait for more evidence.” 
It may take years, but scientists and other health experts hope that a new class of treatments for alcohol use disorder, smoking and other addictive behaviors is on the horizon. 
“It may be that three, four or five years from now, you and I are going to say that GLP-1 agonists are wonderful for treating mild diabetes, wonderful for weight loss, and perhaps we will also say that they are wonderful for curbing addictive behaviors,” Batash told CNBC.
But even if GLP-1s get approved to treat addiction, it’s unclear how many people would take them. Uptake of existing medications for addiction is already low. About 14 million American adults had alcohol use disorder – a disease associated with uncontrolled drinking – as of 2019. But only 1.6% used any of the three FDA-approved drugs for the condition.  More