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The United Auto Workers union President Shawn Fain drew a hard line ahead of contract negotiations with Ford, GM and Stellantis later this year.
UAW leaders publicly laid out their top bargaining issues Wednesday night including reinstatement of a cost-of-living-adjustment, stronger job security and the end of a grow-in, or tiered, pay system.
Union officers, led by Fain, are largely newly elected leaders that ran on platforms of standing up to companies and reforming the organization following a years-long federal corruption scandal.

United Auto Workers members on strike picket outside General Motors’ Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant on Sept. 25, 2019 with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (far left) in Detroit.
Michael Wayland | CNBC

DETROIT – The United Auto Workers union appears ready to take a hard line when it comes to national negotiations this year with the Detroit automakers, warning of strikes or work stoppages, if needed.
UAW leaders publicly laid out their top bargaining issues Wednesday night, including reinstatement of a cost-of-living-adjustment that was eliminated during the Great Recession; stronger job security; and the end of a grow-in, or tiered, pay system that has members earning different wages and benefits.

UAW President Shawn Fain said the “union will not accept any concessions” from General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis – a lofty mission in such negotiations.
Contract talks between the union and automakers usually begin in earnest in July ahead of mid-September expirations of the previous four-year agreements. Typically, one of the three automakers is the lead, or target, company that the union selects to negotiate with first and the others extend their deadlines. However, Fain has said this year may be different, without going into specific details.
Union leaders, led by Fain, are largely newly elected officers that ran on platforms of standing up to companies and reforming the organization following a years-long federal corruption scandal that partially involved prior negotiations.
UAW leaders also discussed the record profits of the Detroit automakers, collectively known as the Big Three, in recent years, while laying out the possibility of a strike if their demands are not met.
GM and Stellantis declined to comment on the town hall. Ford did not immediately respond.

UAW President Shawn Fain chairs the 2023 Special Elections Collective Bargaining Convention in Detroit, March 27, 2023.
Rebecca Cook | Reuters

“I want to be clear on this, and I know this might sound crazy, but the choice of whether or not we go on strike is up to the Big Three,” said UAW Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock during a virtual union town hall that was broadcast online. “We are clear about what we want.”
Labor strikes can be costly and deplete vehicle inventories. A 40-day strike against GM during the last round of negotiations four years ago cost GM about $3.6 billion in 2019, including $2.6 billion in earnings before interest and taxes during the fourth quarter of that year.
Strikes could take several forms: a national strike, where all workers under the contract cease working, or targeted work stoppages at certain plants over local contract issues.
The firm demands, strike rhetoric and town hall – titled “Back in the fight: Our generation’s defining moment at the Big Three” – buck historical union practices. Past union leaders have delivered similar messaging but not typically as confrontationally or publicly ahead of the talks.
“Here’s what you can expect from us: No more bargaining in total secrecy behind closed doors,” Fain said Wednesday. “We’re going to be organizing national days of action in plants all around the country … showing the companies that we’re not playing around, that we mean business.”
Wall Street analysts have noted the possibility of a strike as well as increased labor costs as headwinds this year for the Detroit automakers.

The transition to EVs was another main point of discussion Wednesday night, specifically around job security (the vehicles are expected to require less labor) and around organizing critical U.S. battery plants that are in early production or under construction.
Fain also called out the White House without specifically naming President Joe Biden. The union last month said it would withhold a reendorsement of Biden until the UAW’s concerns about the auto industry’s transition to EVs are addressed.
“We need to let everyone know – from the White House to the statehouse to our local labor council – that if you stand with us, we will stand with you,” Fain said Wednesday. “Our fight is everyone’s fight.”

Speaking in front of a backdrop of American-made vehicles and a UAW sign, President Joe Biden speaks about new proposals to protect U.S. jobs during a campaign stop in Warren, Michigan, September 9, 2020.
Leah Millis | Reuters More

Nordstrom topped fiscal first-quarter sales expectations, even as it reported a drop in spending across most categories.
The retailer reaffirmed its full-year outlook.
Shares rose in after-hours trading.

Shoppers walk into a Nordstrom department store in Austin, Texas, March 3, 2023.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images

Nordstrom’s fiscal first-quarter sales topped Wall Street’s expectations on Wednesday, even as the retailer reported a spending drop and predicted slower sales in the coming months.
The higher-end department store also reiterated its outlook for the full year. Nordstrom expects revenue to fall 4% to 6% and adjusted earnings per share to range between $1.80 and $2.20 for the fiscal year, excluding the impact of winding down its stores and online business in Canada.

Yet despite declining sales, Nordstrom stressed its progress with managing inventory, cutting costs and drawing shoppers, especially to the off-price brand Nordstrom Rack. Sales at both banners, but primarily Nordstrom Rack, improved in April after a “decent” start to February and then a slowdown in March, the company said on an earnings call. That momentum continued into May across both banners but most of the strength was at Nordstrom Rack, the company said.
“We’re encouraged by our momentum, especially given the uncertain macroeconomic environment,” CEO Erik Nordstrom said in the company’s earnings release.
The company’s shares rose about 7% in after-hours trading.
Here’s what the company reported for the three-month period ended April 29 compared with what analysts were anticipating, based on Refinitiv estimates:

Earnings per share: 7 cents adjusted vs. a loss of 8 cents a share expected
Revenue: $3.18 billion vs. $3.12 billion expected

In the fiscal first quarter, Nordstrom’s net loss was $205 million, or $1.27 per share, compared with a net income of $20 million, or 13 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.

Excluding the costs related to winding down Canadian operations, Nordstrom’s adjusted earnings per share were 7 cents.
Nordstrom is looking for growth after it struggled with stagnant sales and largely missed out on the stimulus-fueled spending boom that benefited other retailers during the Covid pandemic. In the most recent fiscal year, which ended in January, the company’s total revenue was $15.5 billion. The figure was flat compared with the total revenue that it reported in the fiscal year that ended just prior to the start of the pandemic.
Its lagging sales drew interest and scrutiny from activist investor Ryan Cohen, founder of Chewy and chairman of GameStop, who bought a stake of the company earlier this year.
Nordstrom’s sales continued to sag in the most recent three-month period. The company’s total revenue, including credit card sales, fell about 11% from $3.57 billion in the year-ago quarter, but surpassed Wall Street’s expectations.
Sales in most categories in the U.S. declined in the first quarter year over year, the company said in a news release. Nordstrom attributed some of that to difficult comparisons. In the year-earlier period, shoppers flocked to stores for designer shoes, dresses and wardrobe refreshes to attend weddings, reunions and other social gatherings as the world reopened after the pandemic.
Net sales at Nordstrom’s namesake stores decreased 11.4% year over year, while net sales for Nordstrom Rack dropped 11.9%.
Activewear performed best for Nordstrom in the first quarter. Beauty and men’s apparel also did better than average, the company said.
The company noted it isn’t seeing signs of customers trading down and the spend-per-trip measure is up because it’s holding the line on promotions.
Still, even high-end customers are seen to be “cautious” amid a worsening macroeconomic environment, which is a trend Nordstrom said it has seen across the board.
Nordstrom joined Kohl’s and Gap in reporting a surprise profit and better margins in the fiscal first quarter. Nordstrom and Gap posted profits on an adjusted basis. All three companies have struggled with lagging sales, the buildup of unsold inventory, higher markdowns, steeper costs of freight and more.
Declining inventory levels and business costs could be a silver lining for Nordstrom and other retailers in the coming quarters as they face slowing sales.
Inventory for Nordstrom at the end of the three-month period fell nearly 8% year over year. The company said it’s still working to improve its designer inventory, adding that excluding those items, inventory is down 11% year over year.
As the retailer chases a turnaround, it has shuttered parts of its business. It wound down personal styling service Trunk Club last year, and announced the end of Canadian operations earlier this year.
Digital sales fell 17.4% year over year, partially due to Trunk Club’s closure.
In the coming year, Nordstrom is looking to its off-price chain to drive growth. The retailer plans to open 20 Nordstrom Rack locations this fiscal year, with plans to open more in the longer term.
In an interview with CNBC, Chief Stores Officer Jamie Nordstrom said the stores, which offer brand names at lower prices, are the company’s “single-largest vehicle for new customer acquisition” and could resonate during an inflationary time.
Shares of Nordstrom have fallen about 5% this year, lagging behind the S&P 500’s 9% gain. The company’s stock closed at $15.30 on Wednesday, bringing the company’s market value to $2.47 billion.
Read the full earnings release here. More

Luxury EV maker Lucid said that it’s raising about $3 billion via a new stock offering.
About $1.8 billion of that will come from a private placement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which owns about 60% of the automaker.

In an aerial view, a sign is posted on the exterior of Lucid headquarters on March 29, 2023 in Newark, California. Electric vehicle maker Lucid announced plans to lay off 1,300 workers, 18 percent of its workforce, as part of a restructuring plan. 
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Lucid Group said on Wednesday that it is raising about $3 billion through a new equity offering, with the majority coming from the Saudi fund that controls the luxury electric-vehicle maker.
Shares of the company fell more than 6% after hours.

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Lucid said that about $1.8 billion of the total will come from a private placement of stock with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). The remainder will be raised through a public offering of new shares that commenced Wednesday, the company said.
The PIF owns about 60.5% of Lucid. The new funding round is structured to keep its stake at the same level.
Lucid said it will use the new cash for “general corporate purposes,” including capital expenditures and working capital.
Lucid had about $3.4 billion in cash and about $700 million in available credit lines as of March 31, according to its most recent report. More

By Rotation, a U.K.-based clothing rental app, expanded to the United States in May.
The inventory on By Rotation’s app comes from individual users’ closets and is not owned by the company.
U.S. users have already listed more than 1,800 items across at least 15 different states, according to the company’s CEO and founder Eshita Kabra-Davies.

By Rotation, a U.K.-based clothing rental app, hopes to eliminate the need for fast fashion by making peer-to-peer clothing rental mainstream in the United States.
The startup expanded to the United States in May. By Rotation aims to grow usage in New York City this year before expanding to two other major U.S. cities next year.

By Rotation may sound like another rental service such as Rent the Runway, Armoire or Nuuly, but its founder and CEO Eshita Kabra-Davies is quick to point out that its peer-to-peer structure more closely resembles sharing-economy companies such as Airbnb and Uber.
By Rotation has taken a social media-style approach to building its community of lenders and renters by encouraging dialogue and giving users the option of receiving notifications when their favorite lenders list new items.
Individual users decide if they are willing to ship their items to users in other states. Some will offer only hyperlocal pickup rentals.
“The vision is really to be able to walk three streets down and pick up a rental, even last minute, because you have a few lenders in your neighborhood that are the same size as you, and we’ve already seen that happen in London,” Kabra-Davies said.

By Rotation founder & CEO Eshita Kabra-Davies
Source: By Rotation

The digital fashion rental market is expected to more than double in value from $1.3 billion in 2021 to $2.8 billion by 2030, according to data from Verified Market Research. Meanwhile, online resale is expected to reach $38 billion by 2027, according to ThredUp’s 2023 Resale Report. 

Despite the expected growth, online fashion rental and resale has proven to be a difficult business, especially on Wall Street. The challenges have come partly because many in the space hold a lot of inventory and spend a lot of money to do so. 
Shares of Rent the Runway, ThredUp and The RealReal are all down about 90% since the companies went public. All three companies have yet to become profitable.
By Rotation does not own a single item listed on its platform, making it a standout among the other major rental and resale players in the U.S. Instead, the inventory and listings come from the people using the app. Kabra-Davies describes it as a “very cost-efficient business model” that is “completely different to what the incumbent players are doing in the U.S.”
“No one is doing what we’re doing,” according to Kabra-Davies. “We don’t need to sell. We don’t need to tell people, like, please list your items, we will give you money for it; nor do we need to buy any items to build up that supply.”
In the U.K., By Rotation has more than 330,000 registered users with more than 68,000 listings. U.S. users have already listed more than 1,800 items across at least 15 states, according to Kabra-Davies.
The growth is happening organically, she said. The startup plans to start marketing in the U.S. this summer.
As the app grows, the startup is taking steps to ensure renters are trustworthy and lenders’ items are protected from damage. For example, a new user cannot rent an item that has a retail value above $1,000 through the app until they have completed several other lower-priced rentals and have been reviewed and rated for those rentals.
By Rotation uses smart pricing to help lenders determine listing fees. It recommends that each item’s daily rental fee be about 3%-5% of the item’s retail value, Kabra-Davies said.
By Rotation has not publicly shared its valuation, but it is actively seeking new investors for its third round of funding. The company raised $3.8 million in prior rounds, according to Kabra-Davies. 
Despite being early in its fundraising, the company is on track to be profitable by spring 2025, according to Kabra-Davies.
Randi Wood, a renter from the Los Angeles area who is using By Rotation to lend out items from her small business, Entre Nous Showroom, recently rented a dress from By Rotation for a trip to Mexico. She described her experience as “really great” and said she appreciates how the user-run app drives interactions.
“The person that I was renting the dress from, she was very communicative, and it was like, right away, we were having a back-and-forth conversation,” Wood said.

‘Racist and broken’ system

The desire to create something different led Kabra-Davies toward her business in the first place. The idea for By Rotation first came to her in late 2018, while she was planning her honeymoon to Rajasthan, the state in northern India where she was born and from where she emigrated.
“I wanted to wear nice clothes on my holiday and I thought about renting but there was no sort of digital fashion rental player here in the U.K. or even Europe,” she said. “I started thinking about how I actually just wanted to reach out to all these women that we see on social media, who seem to wear one outfit once and never repeat them ever again.” 

Arrows pointing outwards

Source: By Rotation

Kabra-Davies admits the concept of reaching out to someone unsolicited to borrow their clothes is a bit weird, so she did what many people do. She purchased some new outfits to wear while on vacation.
But those outfits took on a new meaning once she arrived in India a few months later.
“There was a lot of textile waste. And I just couldn’t help but feel that I was probably part of this problem. I had bought new clothes for this holiday, and I wasn’t sure that I loved what I was wearing,” she said.
Kabra-Davies was deeply concerned about how one of her passions was hurting people in the country where she was born. In fact, a new report from the European Environment Agency found that 90% of used clothes and textile waste from Europe ends up in Africa and Asia.
“It just kind of felt racist and broken,” she said. “I was investing in all these nice clothes. It was actually very problematic to the entire world in terms of climate crisis.”
Shortly after returning from her trip, while still working in investor relations at Marathon Asset Management in London, she decided she wanted to merge her corporate business experience with her lifelong love of fashion and her newfound concerns about the unintended consequences of fast fashion. So she began By Rotation as a side hustle.
The app officially launched in the U.K. in October 2019, about six months after By Rotation was incorporated, and Kabra-Davies transitioned to running her new company full-time.

A lean business model

As By Rotation moves into the U.S. market, Kabra-Davies hopes the low-cost business model can give it more room to grow — and give the startup an edge over its established competitors.
Martha Petrocheilos, a lender based in New York, said she uses By Rotation because it has “the latest and greatest of fashion.” In the past, she said, she has tried Rent the Runway but found that it had “really old inventory,” which she attributes to the company “[holding] inventory as opposed to individual lenders.”
The lack of inventory also makes By Rotation more sustainable and helps prevent the apparel from ending up in landfills.

Esther Gross holds one of her dresses listed to rent on By Rotation.
Source: Esther Gross

Esther Gross is still setting up her By Rotation closet in New York but has experience using the app from when she previously lived in the U.K. She compares renting out items from her wardrobe to “a new investment asset class.”
Gross started a spreadsheet to keep track of the retail cost and rental revenue of each item in her digital closet. “There were four items that I made the full price back on in the U.K., and then there was another seven that I made over 50% of the price back,” she said.
Over time this revenue became her shopping budget, and she “was never buying more than what I was making on By Rotation.” 
It’s By Rotation’s lean business model that is helping attract attention from competitors.
The startup has “essentially no cost of acquisition,” said Kabra-Davies, who also said she’s been approached by at least two public companies in the rental and resale space.
One of the companies has “looked at our app and also our documents,” she said. Kabra-Davies has met with the other at least once.
When asked if she was open to selling her company, she said, “There’s a price for everything, but I’d love to see the ticker ‘BYRO.'” More

Chewy posted earnings of 5 cents a share, a strong beat compared with analyst estimates of a loss of 4 cents per share.
The pet retailer, known for its convenient autoship policies, saw $2.78 billion in sales, up 14.7% year over year.
Net sales per active customer and sales from autoship customers reached record highs in the quarter, Chewy said in a press release.

A dog sits in front of the New York Stock Exchange during Chewy Inc.’s initial public offering, June 14, 2019.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Shares of Chewy surged more than 13% in extended trading Wednesday after the pet retailer posted earnings that beat Wall Street’s estimates.
Here’s how the digital retailer did in its fiscal first quarter compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

Earnings per share: 5 cents, versus a loss of 4 cents a share expected
Revenue: $2.78 billion, versus $2.73 billion expected

The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended April 30 was $22.18 million, or 5 cents a share, compared with $18.47 million, or 4 cents a share, a year earlier.
Sales rose to $2.78 billion, up 14.7% from $2.43 billion a year earlier.
Net sales per active customer and sales from autoship customers reached record highs in the quarter, Chewy said in a press release.
Gross margins were up about 1 percentage point.
The earnings beat comes after the retailer posted its first annual profit at the close of fiscal 2022 earlier this year, but noted the pet industry was seeing softness in discretionary and hard goods categories, which carry higher margins than consumables such as pet food. More

A proposal asking Dollar General’s board to commission an independent, third-party audit that would examine the company’s policies and practices and how it affects worker safety was passed by shareholders during the company’s annual meeting.
Dollar General is facing mounting pressure from regulators, activists and employees to improve working conditions.
The company is currently facing more than $21 million in fines from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration for safety hazards.

The exterior of a Dollar General convenience store is seen in Austin, Texas, March 16, 2023.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images

Dollar General shareholders passed a resolution Wednesday to create an independent audit into worker safety, as the retailer faces mounting pressure to improve conditions. 
The proposal, brought by Domini Impact Investments, asked Dollar General’s board to commission an independent, third-party audit that would examine the company’s policies and practices and how they affect the safety and well-being of workers. 

It recommended the audit include an evaluation of practices that contribute to an unsafe or violent environment, such as staffing capacity. It also recommends the analysis include discussions with workers and customers to inform solutions, as well as recommendations for actions to take and regular reporting about progress made on those efforts. 
It is not clear if the proposal is binding.
Dollar General’s board recommended shareholders vote against the measure. The company didn’t answer when asked if it plans to conduct the audit.
“We are awaiting the final report and will report the final results in a Form 8-K within the required period,” a company spokesperson said.
“We strive to create a work environment where employees are able to grow their careers, serve their local communities and feel valued and heard, and we encourage employees to share their feedback through the many company-provided channels so that we can listen and work together to address concerns and challenges, as well as to celebrate successes,” the spokesperson added.

The company is the fastest-growing retailer in the country by store count. It employs more than 170,000 full- and part-time employees across more than 19,000 stores in 47 states and Mexico as of March, according to a securities filing. It plans to open an additional 1,050 stores in fiscal 2023 and announced more store openings than any other retailer in 2022, according to Coresight Research, a retail-focused advisory firm.
As Dollar General expanded its footprint across America, it has racked up more than $21 million in fines from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration for a slew of safety hazards, including blocked fire exits, blocked electrical outlets and dangerous levels of clutter. 
During the shareholder meeting at Dollar General’s corporate headquarters in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, company stocker David Williams expressed the dire need for the audit as activists rallied outside the building. 
“I’m one of the hundreds of thousands of Dollar General employees that come into work every day scared for our safety. We’re scared because we know that the leaders of Dollar General are not looking out for the safety of workers,” Williams said in his address to shareholders. “The company has expanded so fast and so recklessly, that on any given day, I might have to deal with a rat infestation, a door that won’t lock or someone pointing their gun at me with no security to protect me.” 
Williams pointed to the financial implications of Dollar General’s safety issues. 
“Violations include aisles, emergency exits, fire extinguishers and electrical panels blocked by boxes of merchandise stacked up to six feet high. This could lead to fires where workers and customers aren’t able to get out of the store or boxes falling on workers or customers when they navigate the aisles trying to squeeze around them,” said Williams, citing findings from OSHA and personal experience.
“This is all made worse by the serious level of understaffing. It is not uncommon for a worker to be alone in a store at night in areas where robberies commonly occur,” he added.
The repeated OSHA violations have led the agency to label Dollar General a “severe violator,” a title reserved for companies that continuously fail to rectify safety concerns. 
″[It’s] a program for the worst safety violators in the nation. It is totally rare for a large employer with many work sites to be in the severe violator program. Most companies in their program are small construction companies,” Debbie Berkowitz, a former chief of staff and senior policy advisor at OSHA, said previously. 
Beyond fire hazards and dangerous levels of clutter, Dollar General has become a hot spot for gun violence. Since 2014, 49 people have been killed and 172 people have been injured at Dollar General stores by gun violence, according to data from Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit. More

Disney’s live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” had a solid opening weekend, but the film’s longevity at the box office will depend on word of mouth.
Disney has carved out a solid theatrical business for live-action remakes of its litany of classic animated features, generating nearly $9 billion in global ticket sales from these films since 2010.
Box office experts will be looking at “The Little Mermaid’s” second weekend in domestic theaters for an indication of the film’s longevity at the box office.

Halle Bailey stars as Ariel in Disney’s “The Little Mermaid.”

Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” hooked nearly $96 million over its first three days in North American theaters. That opening is on par with the $91 million “Aladdin” secured in 2019 on its way to more than $1 billion at the global box office.
However, it doesn’t guarantee the company’s latest live-action remake will see the same success. The film will sink or swim on word of mouth.

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Audience buzz has become an increasingly important factor in box office success in the wake of the pandemic. With so many entertainment options, even franchise films can have trouble luring in moviegoers. Those that skip out on seeing a film during its opening weekend can be enticed to cinemas by positive chatter, helping to bolster the film’s overall box office.
Disney has seen firsthand what happens when audiences don’t connect with titles. The studio, which is known for its animated content, saw two of its recent releases — “Lightyear” and “Strange World” — flounder at the box office. Neither film was too well-received by critics, and previous releases going straight to Disney+ confused consumers about where to see the films.
Meanwhile, Disney has carved out a solid theatrical business for live-action remakes of its litany of classic animated features, generating nearly $9 billion in global ticket sales from these films since 2010.
The company’s success has inspired other studios to recreate popular animated features as live-action flicks. Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation is currently developing a live-action version of its widely successful animated trilogy “How to Train Your Dragon.” The film is due in theaters March 14, 2025.
Although there were two live-action films based on “101 Dalmatians” in 1996 and 2000, Disney didn’t start producing these remakes in earnest until 2010’s “Alice in Wonderland.” That film was the first of the batch to generate more than $1 billion at the global box office, sparking the production of nearly a dozen other titles including: “Maleficent,” “Cinderella,” “The Jungle Book” and “Dumbo.”

And there are more on the way. Disney recently announced plans to bring “Moana” and “Lilo and Stitch” to the real world. With Disney already looking to tap into newer animated favorites, Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com thinks it’s only a matter of time before the company looks to tap into recent hits like “Frozen” or even “Encanto.”

These adaptations have had variable success over the last decade in a half, with some like “The Lion King” and “Beauty and the Beast” generating more than $1 billion each at the global box office, and others like “Dumbo” and “Alice Through the Looking Glass” each reaping under $350 million in receipts worldwide.
“The long game for Disney must include a plan beyond the formidable triumvirate of Lucasfilm, Marvel and Pixar,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “Disney, having gone all-in on live action remakes of some of their most iconic titles featuring beloved characters to varying degrees of box office success.”
The initial box office showing for “The Little Mermaid” should give Disney a “boost of confidence,” he added, since it shows that its live-action strategy is a viable one.

Is it in theaters?

However, for many viewers, Disney’s release strategy has become muddled in the wake of the pandemic. While the live-action version of “Lady and the Tramp” was made available to subscribers when the Disney+ streaming service first launched in late 2019, most consumers had come to expect these new adaptations to arrive on the big screen.
When the pandemic shuttered theaters, Disney was forced to move 2020’s “Mulan” to Disney+ for a $30 rental fee and later release 2021’s “Cruella” in theaters and on streaming at the same time.
The company didn’t release another live-action remake until late 2022, when the Tom Hanks-starring “Pinocchio” arrived on Disney+. The film was widely panned by critics and audiences, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
“Peter Pan and Wendy,” which hit Disney+ in late April, also had middling reviews from critics (62% Fresh) and was overwhelmingly disliked by audiences, who gave it 11%.

With only a few exceptions, audiences have been receptive to Disney’s classic animation remakes, often scoring them higher than critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
“The degrees of success for Disney’s remakes can be seen pretty clearly in that it’s been the 1990s animation renaissance resonating the most again,” Robbins said. “That’s a result of those original stories being so beloved and the timely, generational hand-me-down tradition playing a role.”

On the horizon

Box office experts will be looking at “The Little Mermaid’s” second weekend in domestic theaters for an indication of the film’s longevity at the box office.
For most films, a 50% to 70% drop is the norm. Major tentpole features often see box-office ticket sales fall in this range after reaching sky-high opening weekend numbers. While those kinds of films can continue on toward billion-dollar theatrical runs, this metric can indicate whether word-of-mouth is bringing new audiences to theaters or whether interest is waning.
The live-action “Aladdin,” which also opened over Memorial Day Weekend, saw a 53% drop in ticket sales from its first week to its second. It continued to see ticket sales drops of 40% or less until August of that year.

Upcoming live-action Disney remakes

“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” — March 22, 2024
“Mufasa: The Lion King” — July 5, 2024
“Lilo & Stitch” — in development
“Moana” — in development
“Hercules” — in development
“The Hunchback of Notre Dame” — in development
“Robin Hood” — in development
“The Aristocats” — in development
“The Sword In The Stone” — in development
“Bambi” — in development
“Cruella” sequel — in development
“The Jungle Book” sequel — in development

If “The Little Mermaid” can mimic those drops and remain in the cultural zeitgeist through the summer, box office analysts foresee a sold domestic, and ultimately global, box office haul for the feature.
That could be difficult, as the film is about to have some steep competition from Sony’s “Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse,” which hits theaters Friday, as well as a number of upcoming family-friendly features. Paramount’s “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” arrives June 9, Disney and Pixar’s “Elemental” as well as Warner Bros.’ “The Flash” debut June 16, and Universal’s “Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken” opens June 30.
“Despite some of the backlash and lesser box office returns certain films have had, the Disney vault has shown how it continues to transcend and appeal to all ages,” said Robbins. “Some argue it has come at the expense of original movies, though. Ultimately, I think audiences want both. Fresh content and nostalgia-driven material both have their place.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal owns Rotten Tomatoes. More

Bally Sports San Diego said it would air its final Padres game Tuesday after bankrupt owner Diamond Sports opted to no longer make its rights payments.
MLB announced it would take over the broadcast of Padres local games beginning Wednesday, a move it said would increase the team’s reach by more than two million homes.
Diamond Sports said it would not make the rights payments after it couldn’t reach a deal with MLB on direct-to-consumer streaming rights for the Padres.

Daniel Camarena of the San Diego Padres hits a grand slam during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals at Petco Park in San Diego, July 8, 2021.
Denis Poroy | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

The San Diego Padres have a new home base on TV.
Major League Baseball will broadcast and produce the team’s local games beginning Wednesday, after the owner of Bally Sports San Diego, its regional sports network for local in-market games, dropped the team.

Diamond Sports, which filed for bankruptcy in March, said its Bally Sports San Diego would air its last Padres game Tuesday after it opted not to make further rights payments to the team. The move comes as Diamond pushes for the direct-to-consumer streaming rights for all MLB teams that air on its regional sports networks.
“MLB has forced our hand by its continued refusal to negotiate direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming rights for all teams in our portfolio despite our proposal to pay every team in full in exchange for those rights,” a Diamond spokesperson said in a statement. The company has noted it has significant liquidity and is still able to make rights payments and air other MLB teams in its portfolio.
MLB announced it would take over beginning with the Padres game against the Miami Marlins on Wednesday. Fans in the Padres’ market will be able to watch games on cable TV or through the league’s MLB.TV streaming app for $19.99 a month or $74.99 for the rest of the season.
“As Commissioner Manfred previously stated, Major League Baseball is ready to produce and distribute Padres games to fans throughout Padres territory,” said Noah Garden, MLB chief revenue officer, in a release. “While we’re disappointed that Diamond Sports Group failed to live up to their contractual agreement with the Club, we are taking this opportunity to reimagine the distribution model, remove blackouts on local games, improve the telecast, and expand the reach of Padres games by more than 2 million homes.”
The MLB takeover means local Padres games will no longer be subject to a blackout on MLB.TV, as is the case for other local teams. MLB added it would make games free through June 4 with a MLB login at MLB.com, Padres.com or in MLB apps.

On cable TV, Padres games will be available through four providers: Charter Communications’ Spectrum, Cox Communications, DirecTV and AT&T U-verse. MLB said it would increase the reach of local Padres games from about 1.13 million homes to roughly 3.3 million homes.
Bally Sports San Diego is backed by a joint ownership between Diamond and the team. The Padres signed a 20-year, $1.2 billion contract with Fox Sports in 2012.
When Disney acquired assets from Fox, it had to offload the Fox Sports networks. Disney sold the networks, later rebranded as Bally Sports, to Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2019 for $10.6 billion, which included roughly $8 billion in debt.
The debt load has hobbled the networks since then. Diamond is now an unconsolidated and independently run subsidiary of Sinclair.
Streaming rights for MLB teams have been a particular sticking point between Diamond and the league for some time now. While Diamond had obtained streaming rights for all NBA and NHL teams it airs on its regional sports networks, it had been working on a team-by-team basis in the MLB.
In earlier months, Diamond had skipped payments for other MLB teams, including the Arizona Diamondbacks, in a push to obtain the streaming rights. Diamond owns 19 regional sports networks under the Bally Sports brand.
Diamond was forced earlier in the bankruptcy case to make partial payments to the teams it had stopped paying. More