Axios

Don't roll the credits quite yet — movie theaters haven't reached the end. The blockbuster opening for "Top Gun: Maverick" during Memorial Day Weekend signals that there's still hope for movie theaters like AMC and Cinemark.

Why it matters: The filmgoing experience was looking so dire for a while during the pandemic that AMC warned it might go out of business and, later on, went so far as investing in a gold mine to diversify its operations.

The Star Wars franchise defended "Obi-Wan Kenobi" star Moses Ingram after she received a slew of racist messages and social media comments.

Driving the news: "If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist," the official Star Wars Twitter account tweeted. "

Taco Bell said it is not getting rid of its Mexican Pizza, but it is experiencing supply shortages.

Driving the news: Two weeks after bringing back the fan favorite, the fast-food chain said demand for the pizza was seven times higher than when it was last on menus in 2020.

Ahead of a rare meeting with the chairman of the Federal Reserve, President Biden said on Tuesday that the White House's fight against inflation starts with respecting the Fed's political independence.

Why it matters: It's the latest sign the Biden administration is putting the Fed at the center of the battle to tame the decades-high inflation that's tanked Americans' view of the economy.

DAOs may be a revolutionary new way of organizing an enterprise, but they still have to get payroll out. Utopia Labs, which just raised $23 million in a Series A fundraising round, is looking to provide back-office support.

Why it matters: Utopia's proposition — payroll and payments for crypto-native organizations, to start — is to centralize operations for these decentralized organizations.

No companies or SPACs went public on U.S. exchanges last week, which Renaissance Capital reports is the first such week in more than two years. There's also nothing on the calendar for this week.

The big picture: There's usually a burst of IPO activity between Memorial Day and July 4, and plenty of issuers have paperwork on file, but hopes for 2022 fireworks are fading fast.

The baby formula industry is in crisis, as supply chain logjams and regulatory recalls have emptied U.S. shelves and panicked parents. Some top makers also are facing the added, and voluntary, complication of merger talks.

Driving the news: Reckitt Benckiser last month kicked off a sale process for what remains of the baby formula business it acquired five years ago via the purchase of Mead Johnson.

Gold Fields of South Africa agreed to buy Canada's Yamana Gold for US$6.7 billion in stock.

Why it matters: This creates the world's fourth-largest gold miner, and comes as gold prices (and gold miner stocks) have faded after a brief surge when Russia first attacked Ukraine.

Dotdash Meredith plans to possibly add more print titles to some of its flagship brands, CEO Neil Vogel told me in an interview at SABEW's annual conference for business journalism. Moving forward, print brands will be "smaller in circulation and much more luxury."

Why it matters: For years, Meredith operated print businesses that weren't necessarily growing, Vogel explained.

The blank check company that's looking to take Forbes public has until end of business today (May 31) to file paperwork with the SEC to close its merger.

Why it matters: If no paperwork is filed, either party can walk away from the deal. Given the current state of the SPAC market, that looks likely.

The Jonas Brothers are helping to launch a new subscription media company called Scriber that allows celebrities to charge their biggest fans for exclusive content via text messages.

Why it matters: The goal is to bring the subscription economy to Hollywood without using Big Tech platforms as intermediaries.

Once dubbed the best manager of the 20th century, former General Electric chief executive Jack Welch takes the blame for much of what's wrong with businesses in the 21st, in a new book by New York Times business reporter David Gelles released today.

Why it matters: Welch retired from GE in 2001 and died in 2020, but his style of leadership lives on at some of the biggest companies in the U.S., Gelles explains in "The Man Who Broke Capitalism."

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered the "largest cache of 150 bronze statues" and 250 coffins containing mummies that date back 2,500 years, officials announced Monday.

The big picture: Officials hope the sarcophagi and other treasures at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara, south of Cairo, will create jobs and boost Egypt's tourism industry, which has been hit by the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, per the Washington Post. Both countries are usually significant sources of tourism for Egypt.

European Union leaders agreed Monday to block most Russian oil imports due to the invasion of Ukraine.

Why it matters: "This immediately covers more than 2/3 of oil imports from Russia, cutting a huge source of financing for its war machine," European Council president Charles Michel tweeted. "Maximum pressure on Russia to end the war," he added.