3. Media's brutal year
No matter where media companies looked this year, there was bad news. Netflix actually lost subscribers for the first time in years, while Disney acknowledged that its subscriber growth goals were too ambitious. Paramount struggled, too, despite having the year’s hottest movie (“Top Gun: Maverick”) and the biggest television franchise (“Yellowstone”). Warner Media merged with Discovery to create the debt-loaded Warner Bros. Discovery, which cut costs (and jobs) at a rapid clip. A shriveling ad market weighed on the TV business across the board, despite a boost from midterm campaign political spending, and cord cutting picked up at pay TV providers. Guess what? 2023 doesn’t look so hot, either. Read more from CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo.
4. 'Avatar' catches a wave
Speaking of Disney, its big year-end release is indeed delivering at the box office. James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” spooked some investors when it opened two weeks ago with a less-than-expected $134 million in North America. Since then, the movie’s performance has resembled that of its predecessor, 2009′s “Avatar,” which steadily piled up cash on its way to become the highest-grossing movie of all time. “The Way of Water” is off to an even better start, making more than $1 billion in 14 days, five days ahead of the pace of the original. But the sequel will likely not match the first movie’s haul, largely due to China. The market was instrumental to the 2009 movie’s success, but this time, Covid is rampaging through the country, filling up hospitals and keeping theaters largely empty.
5. Russia bombards Ukraine
Russia on Thursday morning launched more than 100 missiles at Ukraine, hitting capital Kyiv and other cities, according to Reuters. Authorities cut power in the Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions as Ukraine looks to avoid further damage to its energy infrastructure. The latest Russian barrage came as Vladimir Putin’s government rejected a peace proposal from Ukraine. Moscow wants Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government to recognize the regions of the country Russia has illegally annexed, but that’s a non-starter for Ukraine.
— CNBC’s Mike Calia wrote this newsletter. Sarah Min, Lora Kolodny, Lillian Rizzo and Sarah Whitten contributed to this report.
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