Hollywood’s biggest night became the property of New York after Anora, a movie filmed on location in NYC with the backing of an indie studio based there, took home five Academy Awards. The trophies—for best picture, director, actress, editing, and original screenplay—cemented the film as the clear winner of a frenetic Oscars race that displayed the movie biz’s current challenges.

Best picture = meh box office

Sean Fennessey, co-host of The Big Picture podcast, reported that from 1997 to 2004, every best picture winner grossed at least $100 million at the domestic box office. In the 20 years since then, only five films have made that much.

Anora earned $15.6 million domestically (~$38 million globally) on a budget of $6 million. That speaks to how going to the movies is no longer central to Americans’ lives—and how fringe some of the Academy’s choices have become.

While accepting the award for best director, Anora’s Sean Baker delivered a “battle cry” for the film industry to save movie theaters. He highlighted how the pandemic forced over 1,000 screens to close down.

• He said, “Watching a film in a theater with an audience is an experience…and in a time in which the world can feel very divided, this is more important than ever.”

Fun fact: Baker became the first person to win four Oscars for the same film, claiming the prizes for best original screenplay, best editing, best directing, and best picture.

Bad publicity may actually be bad: Emilia Pérez, which started the Oscars campaign strong but fell out of favor when its star became the center of an old-tweets controversy, took home just two awards. The Brutalist won three of the 10 awards it was nominated for following a PR skirmish over the film’s use of AI.

Here’s a full list of Oscars winners, as well as a recap of first-time host Conan O’Brien’s performance.—HVL

For the first time, a private lunar lander sticks the landing on the moon. Firefly Aerospace, a 10-year-old startup based in Texas, became the first private company to get a lunar lander on the moon without it tipping over or crashing, the Associated Press reported. The craft, named Blue Ghost, is carrying 10 experiments for NASA, which paid it $101 million for the feat. A lander from a competing Texas startup, Intuitive Machines, is expected to land on Thursday, and Japanese company ispace plans to join the party in June—both of whom will be attempting landings for a second time. The Firefly endeavor is one of NASA’s investments under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services, which is hoping to encourage private companies to heat up the lunar economy with autonomous vehicles before astronauts land again (around 2027).

Possible new tariffs on Canadian lumber frazzle homebuilders. On Saturday, President Trump directed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to investigate whether the US’ trade position on Canadian softwood lumber poses a national security threat. If that proves to be the case, Trump could put more tariffs on those imports, which are already subject to a 14.5% duty the Biden administration set in 2024 and the 25% blanket tariffs that are supposed to go into effect on Canadian imports this week. Why is wood a potential cause for concern? The US military needs a lot of it for construction, and even though the US has plenty of its own, a significant amount is imported from Canada, which can endanger the US economy. In January, the National Association of Homebuilders said, “Tariffs on lumber and other building materials increase the cost of construction and discourage new development, and consumers end up paying for the tariffs in the form of higher home prices.”

Treasury Secretary says economic deal with Ukraine is off the table for now. Scott Bessent went on Face the Nation yesterday and said it was “impossible” for the US and Ukraine to “have an economic deal without a peace deal.” The Treasury secretary authored the economic agreement that Zelensky was supposed to sign at the White House on Friday before his Oval Office meeting with President Trump and Vice President Vance went off the rails over security guarantees for Ukraine. Bessent also said the mineral rights deal was supposed to be an important building block toward a peace deal and that “President Zelensky has thrown off the sequencing.” Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona was also interviewed on Face the Nation about the situation. While Kelly said that Zelensky’s negotiations should not be “done in public in front of cameras,” he said that the Ukrainian president “was cornered and he was bullied in the Oval Office.” Peace negotiations to end the war are reportedly not underway.—HVL

President Donald Trump offered more clarity on a US Crypto Reserve yesterday, saying in a post to Truth Social that his administration is moving forward with the plan and the stash will include bitcoin, ethereum, and the smaller tokens solana, XRP, and cardano.

The news sent crypto prices soaring, with bitcoin climbing above $90,000 after falling below that milestone last week. Solana, XRP, and cardano jumped between 20% and 60% after the announcement.

Trump initially floated the idea of a bitcoin stockpile while campaigning at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference, then signed an executive order in January to support “the responsible growth and use of digital assets, blockchain technology, and related technologies across all sectors of the economy,” expanding the stockpile concept beyond bitcoin without naming specific tokens.

States first? On Friday, Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, who sponsored a bill calling for a national bitcoin reserve, said she believes a state will have a reserve before the federal government does. However, lawmakers in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming have nixed bills to establish crypto reserves in their states over the last month.

What’s next: With yesterday’s proclamation, the stage is set for the White House’s first-ever crypto summit, which is taking place on Friday. It will include prominent founders, CEOs, and investors from the crypto industry and will offer a regulatory blueprint for crypto investors in the most important gathering of bros since the Council of Elrond.—DL

Donald Trump will address Congress tomorrow night: While it sounds like a State of the Union, it won’t officially be considered one because Trump has only been back in office a short time, and the SOTU is reserved as an annual check-in during a presidency. As for what Trump may discuss, NPR expects him to “revel in his shakeup of Washington” and lay out plans for the next year. The AP believes Trump won’t sound anything like he did in a similar address in 2017 when he declared support for NATO and called for the government to do more for civil rights.

It’s time for a gut check on the economy: The jobs report is out Friday and expected to show a slight bump in hiring, and unemployment holding steady at 4%. Earnings reports from multiple retailers, including Target tomorrow and Costco on Thursday, will also offer insight into how Americans are spending with consumer confidence on the decline.

Tariffs against Canada, Mexico, and China set to begin tomorrow: Barring a last-minute change of heart, the US will impose 25% tariffs on most imports from its North American neighbors but a smaller 10% tariff on energy products from Canada. Universal tariffs on imports from China will increase another 10% on top of the existing 10% surcharge. Trump said on Thursday that illicit drugs are still coming into the US and the additional taxes will force these countries to crack down on the trafficking.

Everything else…

• Companies will unveil their latest phones and laptops when the Mobile World Congress gets underway today in Barcelona.
• Mardi Gras is on Tuesday, followed by Ash Wednesday.
• Thursday marks two holidays that have been at odds for years—National Dentist’s Day and National Oreo Day.
• SXSW starts on Friday.
• On Sunday, daylight saving time begins. Welcome back, extremely late sunsets.

The world’s biggest food-and-drink chain is not McDonald’s or Starbucks—it’s Mixue Ice Cream and Tea, which has 45,000 locations, primarily in China and Australia. The China-based company raised $444 million in an IPO and saw its shares jump over 40% in trading in Hong Kong today.

Mixue, whose mascot looks like the Pillsbury Doughboy on a sugar high, sells ice cream and sweet drinks for ~83 cents and has more than doubled its number of locations over the past two years, according to research firm Technomic. The inexpensive treats have resonated in China, where an economic downturn has customers limiting spending and seeking out cost-effective products.—DL