The Black Widow & Why an Apple a Day Couldn't Keep Xiaomi away.
The Black Widow & Why an Apple a Day Couldn't Keep Xiaomi away.
Disney's Marvel Studio set a new pandemic-era record, bringing in $80 million at the domestic box office of black widow on its opening weekend.
Scarlet Johansson, the main character in Marvel Studio’s Black Widow movie, is probably the new face of movies in town, but this isn’t the first time. We know you’ve probably seen her from the Avengers movies, which is exactly what Walt Disney shares seemed to have decided to do to other entertainment companies last week on Wall Street.
Why was this a big deal, you may ask? Well, you see, bigger theatre and entertainment companies like AMC Entertainment and iMAX theatres only did a combined $80 million. At the same time, Disney announced that they had made $60 million on the debut of Black Widow via its streaming services Disney+ Premier access. While this is the first time Disney is actually giving reports of the performance of their streaming services, it clearly shows just what impact the company has gained over time in the grand opening/launch within the entertainment industry.
Disney might have well ruined it for the box office, creating a new line of launching movies, for if Black Widow didn’t have the Disney+ component, it was likely going to surpass the $100 million mark, with a reasonable 2.75 multiplier, it would/could have ended it’s run with approximate $275M-$300M at the domestic box office.
Walt Disney Shares
AMC Entertainment, the largest U.S. movie chain company chain, saw its shares fall nearly 8% during the session. Cinemark, Marcus, Imax and National CineMedia dropped, respectively, 6.6%%, 3.5%, 3%, and 4.4%.
Walt Disney shares, however, closed up 4.15% Monday. The hybrid release was clearly a benefit, but what remains to be seen as an impact on future downstream releases. Disney soared through the week but lost momentum late Wednesday, all through to Friday.
Off the Movies - Let’s talk about Financials.
During the week, major S&P 500 companies started sharing with investors their Q2 performance. The four largest U.S. consumer banks posted impressive 2Q2021 results to set the ball rolling after pandemic loan losses failed to materialize and the U.S. economy began recovery.
Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Wells Fargo & Co and Bank of America Corp had a combined $33 billion profits posted. The financials were backed by the release of $9 billion in reserves they had put aside last year to absorb feared pandemic losses.
All the major banks except Bank of America performed above analysts’ expectations, with Well Fargo & Co being one of the top performer’s top outliers.
Back Home.
On the local market front, on Wednesday, the Global Partnership for Ethiopia officially received the grant of the nationwide license to operate in Ethiopia. Guess which name they chose? - Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia PLC! The news drove Safaricom’s shares wild on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, posting a 3.27% gain week on week to end Friday at Kes.42.60 per share, up from Kes.41.25 registered the previous week.
The NSE All-Share Index (NASI) posted a weekly rise of 3.49 points or 1.96% week on week to close the week at 178.65 points. The NSE 20 and the NSE 25 share indices similarly posted gains; the 20 share index gained 20.92 points or 1.07%, and the 25 share index gained 37.01 points or 0.96% to close the week 1,972.33 points and 3,902.04 basis points, respectively. The NSE 20 and the NSE25 share indices have gained up to 5.56% and 14.25%, respectively, in the year to date performance.
Coffee Break….
Well, in the second quarter of 2021, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi was the second-largest smartphone maker, overtaking Apple. This was according to analyst firm Canalys.
According to the report, the Beijing-based smartphone brand accounted for 17% of the global market, trailing only Samsung Electronics, which now stands at 19%. Xiaomi pushed Apple to 3rd place with a 14% stand for 2Q2021.
Xiaomi has revamped its marketing, mainly in emerging markets. It now stands on to Apple to regain its market as Xiaomi heads to battle the top with Samsung Electronics.
What Cowries Are we collecting this week?
Zoom Video Communications - On Sunday, Zoom Video Communications Inc announced that it had entered a deal to buy cloud software provider Five9 Inc in an all-stock transaction valued at about $14.7 billion. Our cowry collectors will definitely be on the watch how zoom plays out during this transaction process.
Safaricom PLC - Kenya’s top telecommunications provider, is on our list of cowries. With the license to operate in Ethiopia, the company’s subsidiary in Ethiopia is likely to face challenges due to funding issues. On Thursday, the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) said that the acts of violence against civilians in Ethiopia’s Tigray region could affect the release of a $500 million loan (Sh53.97 billion) meant for Safaricom’s entry into Ethiopia.
Walt Disney & AMC - While “The black widow” is starting to cool off, we will be watching to just what levels the latest emerging rivals in the entertainment space will perform for the week. AMC, which has millions of investors under the “Wall Street bets AKA Reddit Bros” influence, is probably raising a match for their recent losses. Who will outdo the other, and who will stand up for Disney?
How about you? What are your cowries for the week?
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