Paramount's latest "Mission: Impossible" took the domestic box office crown this weekend, but fell shy of expectations.
The seventh installment of the Tom Cruise-led franchise brought in just over $56 million from moviegoers in the U.S. and Canada over the weekend, and a total of about $80 million since its Wednesday wide release.
Analysts were projecting at least $85 million over its first five days.
The big picture: "The spectacular (and perhaps unrealistic) result that Hollywood expected did not materialize, extending concern about the movie capital’s overreliance on aging franchises," Brooks Barnes at NYT notes.
🎬 Hope's review: Without giving too much away, the threat of AI looms large over the film. That, unfortunately, invoked enough fear to take me out of my seat a bit and into my head.
Dairy ice cream consumption is likely getting squeezed by all the new competition in snacking.
The average American spooned just 12 pounds of the cold stuff into their body in 2021, down from over 18 pounds nearly 50 years ago, according to USDA data.
The big picture: Changing taste preferences and shrinking packages have also played a role in dairy ice cream's decline, CNN reports.
Dairy Queen is the most dominant ice cream chain in 74% of U.S. counties, according to an Axios data team analysis of Yelp data.
Driving the news: PepsiCo's Frito-Lay North America snacks business, which includes Doritos and Cheetos, saw a 14% increase in revenue last quarter over the same period last year, the company reported last week.
And it wasn't just higher prices. Sales volume in the snacks unit rose, whereas volumes for the company's Quaker Foods and beverages brands — which also saw revenue gains — both fell.
Separately, Conagra reported grocery and snacks grew by 3.6%, which was more than expected.
Zoom out: Salty snacks — pretzels, chips, popcorn and the like — topped the list of best-selling specialty foods last year for the first time, according to the Specialty Food Association (SFA).
In 2022, the chips, pretzels and snacks category topped $6 billion — the first category to ever achieve this, per the SFA's State of the Specialty Food Industry report.
What they're saying: A "return to more social events and entertaining is driving sales" of this category, the SFA said in a trends report.
Plus, "personal indulgence has proven to be pandemic- and inflation-proof."
The intrigue: The uptick in industry and consumer interest comes as venture investors have lost their appetite for food tech.
VC deal count and deal value in the space dropped from last year, per PitchBook.
Among the factors: Product development is capital intensive and faces heavy regulation.
China's post-pandemic reopening isn't going so well. But the economic implications for the rest of the world, and especially the United States, are more limited — and two-sided — than they may seem.
Why it matters: The challenges facing the Chinese economy are real. But they appear less likely to spill over into major economies and financial markets than the nation's size and geopolitical importance might imply.
Paradigm, the investment firm known for throwing money behind many of the crypto industry's mainstays, hired Alex Grieve as its government relations lead.
Why it matters: The shop appears to be continuing its effort to shape U.S. crypto policy, as Congress considers multiple bills aimed at ironing out rules around stablecoins and market structure.
Why it matters: The F-series truck is the best-selling vehicle in the country — and the F-150 Lightning version is among the first EV pickups on the market.
Earnings seasonkicked off Friday — but investors haven't seemed to care much about corporate fundamentals lately.
The big picture: The S&P 500 is up big this year. But importantly, it's not really because people think corporations will bag far fatter profits in the immediate future.
Put a nickel in,and take out a slice of pie from the windowed compartment in the modular vending machine — such was the format of the automat, a restaurant style made popular in the U.S. by Horn & Hardart, a Philadelphia-based chain.
Now comes the Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, a small but growing chain that's trying to revive the idea — with a modern twist.
