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  AP Finance

  With ‘Barbie,’ Greta Gerwig breaks a box office record for female directors

  “Barbie” didn’t just break the opening weekend record for 2023; It also shattered the first weekend record for a film directed by a woman. With $162 million in ticket sales from North American theaters, according to studio totals Monday, “Barbie” catapulted past both “Captain Marvel,” which was co-directed by Anna Boden and opened to $153.4 million in 2019, and “Wonder Woman,” Patty Jenkins ’ 2017 film that debuted to $103.3 million. Boasting a reported price tag of $145 million, “Barbie” also cost less to produce than “Captain Marvel” ($152 million) and “Wonder Woman” ($200 million).

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  Reuters

  'Barbie' buzz likely just a flash in the pan for toymaker Mattel

  (Reuters) -The fanfare around Margot Robbie-starrer "Barbie" could jolt the iconic Mattel doll's sales out of a year-long slump, but Wall Street thinks the party in pink will be short-lived. While Mattel will report second-quarter results on Wednesday, days after the theatrical release of the movie, analysts say the boost for Barbie sales will be most pronounced in the quarter ending Sept. 29 before tapering off. The company will likely get a small cut of the movie's box-office innings, though the biggest benefit is expected to come from toy sales following the marketing blitz around its release.

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  The Wall Street Journal

  Mattel Stock Rises After 'Barbie' Blowout

  Barbie reigned supreme at the box office over the weekend, lifting shares of toy company Mattel on Monday. Mattel shares stood 2% higher in afternoon trading, adding to a 17% rally over the past month. Analysts attribute the stock’s rise to euphoria surrounding the “Barbie” movie, which debuted in theaters on Friday and [grossed $155 million in the U.S. and Canada](https://www.wsj.com/articles/barbenheimer-poised-to-deliver-blowout-weekend-at-the-box-office-9feef168?mod=hp_lead_pos5) by Sunday.

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  AP Finance

  'Barbie' takes the box office crown and 'Oppenheimer' soars in a historic weekend

  “ Barbenheimer ” didn’t just work – it spun box office gold. The social media-fueled fusion of Greta Gerwig’s “ Barbie ” and Christopher Nolan’s “ Oppenheimer ” brought moviegoers back to the theaters in record numbers this weekend, vastly outperforming projections and giving a glimmer of hope to the lagging exhibition business, amid the sobering backdrop of strikes. Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” claimed the top spot with a massive $155 million in ticket sales from North American theaters from 4,243 locations, surpassing “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (as well as every Marvel movie this year) as the biggest opening of the year and breaking the first weekend record for a film directed by a woman.

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  Barrons.com

  Movie Stocks Are Making Gains. 'Barbenheimer' Is Only Part of the Story.

  AMC Entertainment stock was rising 31% after the movie-theater chain filed a [revised stock conversion proposal](https://www.barrons.com/articles/amc-stock-price-ape-meme-news-dd11b8a0?mod=hp_LEAD_5%2Carticle_inline) after a judge blocked the company’s plan to convert its so-called APE shares into common stock.

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  Barrons.com

  ‘Barbenheimer’ Smashes Weekend Expectations

  The simultaneous release of Barbie and Oppenheimer drew larger than expected crowds to the theater this weekend, driving overall box office sales over $300 million, according to Comscore.

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  The Wall Street Journal

  Twitter, Facebook, Google: See the Companies That Rebranded Themselves

  Elon Musk has added Twitter to the long list of companies that cast aside their original branding in an attempt to reinvent themselves. Twitter replaced its bird logo with an X symbol on its website Monday, after changing its corporate name to X Corp. in April. The social-media company joins other established companies like Facebook Google and Dunkin’ Donuts that no longer wanted to be known by their famous names.

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  AP Finance

  How David Bowie, long thought ambivalent to country music, became a writer on a Chris Young song

  Country star Chris Young's latest single, “Young Love & Saturday Nights,” is a vivid love letter to summertime weekends, old trucks, dive bar bands, and crushes. Bowie is credited posthumously as a songwriter on the track, making it one of the genre-melding icon's few forays into country music — noteworthy, because Bowie himself was not quite a fan of the genre. “I think the only music I didn’t listen to was country and western, and that holds to this day,” Bowie told NPR's Terry Gross in 2002.

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  Bloomberg

  ‘Barbenheimer’ Debut Lifts Weekend Box Office to Four-Year High

  (Bloomberg) -- Cinemas finally have something to celebrate. Most Read from BloombergThe Bear Market Has Nearly Been Erased, Fewer Than 20 Months After It BeganPutin Warns Poland Over ‘Aggression’ Against Ally BelarusUS Recession Becomes Closer Call as Economists Rethink ForecastsWhy South Africa Is on the Brink of ChaosOil Trader Vitol Doubled Average Pay on Record $15.1 Billion ProfitBarbie, a comedy about the famous fashion doll, and Oppenheimer, a biography of the inventor of the atomic bomb,

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  TipRanks

  Cathie Wood Loads Up on These 2 ‘Strong Buy’ Stocks Under $10

  Since hitting bottom last October, the S&P 500 has bounced back strongly – in fact, it’s up approximately 27% from that trough. A rally of that magnitude meets the definition of a bull market, and some economists are saying we’re experiencing just that. Among the bulls is Cathie Wood, who believes that a big shift is taking place. “The market is starting to look to the other side of the interest rate increase and they’re starting to look at inflation which is crumbling,” she noted. The Fed will

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  The Wall Street Journal

  A Retirement Tax Break That Ends the Fear of Outliving Your 401(k)

  Millions of Americans have good reason to worry they will outlive their retirement savings. Starting this year, Americans can use up to $200,000 of their retirement accounts to purchase qualified longevity annuity contracts, or QLACs. QLACs have existed for a decade and offer significantly more income for life than a typical immediate annuity, since the payments don’t start until later in life, at, say, age 80 or 85.