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The Street
The Street
Rebecca Mezistrano

Barbie, Oppenheimer, Taylor Swift drive a return to the movies, but box office still lags 2019

TheStreet's J.D. Durkin brings the latest business headlines from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as markets open for trading Wednesday, January 3.

Full Video Transcript Below:

J.D. DURKIN: I’m J.D. Durkin - reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. Here’s what we’re watching on TheStreet today.

Stocks are off to a rocky start in 2024 after the Nasdaq notched its steepest daily decline in nearly 3 months. The tech heavy index took a hit after analysts downgraded Apple on concerns of slowing iPhone demand. Other big tech companies are also losing some steam… Meta, Tesla, and Nvidia all started the day in the red.

Separately, investors are looking ahead to Fed meeting minutes out today and the December jobs report out Friday.

In other news - the U.S. box office had its best year since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Comscore, the 2023 domestic box office brought in more than $9 billion. That is a whopping 300 percent jump from ticket sales in 2020.

Leading the way was the Barbenheimer phenomenon that hit theaters over the summer. Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” brought in $636 million, while Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” accounted for another $326 million. AMC says the blockbuster combo gave the company its best single-week admissions revenue in its 124-year history.

And we cannot forget about Taylor Swift, who’s “Eras Tour” concert film saw just shy of $180 million in domestic sales.

Now, while this is all good news for the movie industry, domestic sales are still about 20 percent less than 2019, when the box office raked in more than $11 billion. Putting the lack of a pandemic aside, that year saw the release of “Avengers: Endgame,” which brought in $858 million in U.S. ticket sales.

That’ll do it for your daily briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I’m J.D. Durkin with TheStreet.

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