May 10, 2018 - Economy & Business

New MoviePass competitor arrives in America

A Regal box office. Photo: Jeff Greenberg/UIG via Getty Images

Sinemia, a movie theater subscription service, is starting to gain steam in the United States as its primary competitor, MoviePass, enters uncertain financial waters thanks to its cash-hemorrhaging model that offers one movie per day for $10 a month, per Wired.

The big picture, from Axios' Sara Fischer: Shares for MoviePass' parent company Helios and Matheson plunged yesterday after the company basically conceded that MoviePass' structure is forcing it to burn through cash. And the service's spending might continue to balloon: MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe told Axios earlier this year that he expects the subscriber growth for the company to continue — at a rate of 80,000 to 120,000 new subscribers a week.

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Margaret Harding McGill

9 mins ago - Technology

Big Tech marshals a right-leaning army of allies for antitrust fight

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

As tech's giants prepare to face off with antitrust enforcers this summer, they will draw support from an array of predominantly right-leaning defenders ranging from influential former government officials to well-connected think tanks.

The big picture: The Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission and the states have multiple investigations of monopolistic behavior underway targeting Facebook and Google, with other giants like Amazon and Apple also facing rising scrutiny. Many observers expect a lawsuit against Google to land this summer.

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Sam Baker

1 hour ago - Politics & Policy

John Roberts' long game

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is not the revolutionary that conservative activists want him to be.

He moves slower than they want, sides with liberals more than they want, and trims his sails in ways they find maddening. But he is still deeply and unmistakably conservative, pulling the law to the right — at his own pace and in his own image.

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Caitlin Owens

1 hour ago - Health

The U.S.' new default coronavirus strategy: herd immunity

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

By letting the coronavirus surge through the population with only minimal social distancing measures in place, the U.S. has accidentally become the world’s largest experiment in herd immunity.

Why it matters: Letting the virus spread while minimizing human loss is doable, in theory. But it requires very strict protections for vulnerable people, almost none of which the U.S. has established.