ENTERTAINMENT

How Would You Like to Take This Home?

Next year, you can. In an announcement that shook the film industry, Warner Bros., a subsidiary of AT&T's WarnerMedia, said it will release its 2021 movies on AT&T's streaming service, HBO Max, at the same time they debut in theaters. Those films include Dune, The Matrix 4, and In the Heights, and they won't cost HBO Max subscribers anything extra. 

• After 31 days on HBO Max, movies will be exclusive to theaters until they ship out to a Roku near you. 

Warner Bros. was already planning a hybrid release for Wonder Woman 1984 on Christmas Day. But with the pandemic getting worse and theater attendance looking sadder than a concession stand with nothing but Raisinets, the studio is cozying up to customers at home. 

• Warner Bros. tried a traditional release of Tenet this September, but this announcement tells you all you need to know about how that went.

The move is a boost for HBO Max, which launched this spring and is still waiting for its Baby Yoda moment. Until yesterday, "HBO Max didn't have a brand beyond 'HBO plus other random stuff.' Now it most definitely has a real brand that makes sense to real people: Big movies in your house, no waiting," Recode's Peter Kafka tweeted. 

Theaters are losing hope for a Christmas miracle

AMC stock fell 16% and Cinemark's 22% following the news, capping off a devastating nine-month streak for theater chains. 

But even before the pandemic, traditional theatrical releases faced pressure from streamers like Netflix. While WarnerMedia CEO Ann Sarnoff said this is a "unique one-year plan" because of Covid-19...some are convinced this direct-to-consumer model could signal a permanent change in film debuts.

• In April, the Trolls sequel pulled in $95 million from digital rentals in three weeks, beating out what the original earned in five months in theaters. 

The big question: Even after the pandemic is under control, will consumers want to return to theaters and play elbow hockey with strangers?

GOVERNMENT

BlackRocks the White House

Yesterday, President-elect Joe Biden named Brian Deese, head of sustainable investing at asset manager BlackRock, to helm the National Economic Council (NEC). Deese is the second Rocker to join Biden’s cabinet; on Tuesday, Wally Adeyemo, a former chief of staff to BlackRock’s CEO, was named Biden’s nominee for second-in-command at the Treasury. 

• Deese worked at the NEC under former President Obama, where he helped form the auto bailout of 2008. This time around, he’ll be tasked with getting the U.S. back into the Paris climate agreement. 

What it means: The clipboard crowd isn’t happy. Some environmental advocates accuse BlackRock of “financing environmental devastation.” But activist and arguably clipboarder-in-chief Bill McKibben defended Deese’s commitment to climate policy. 

The Brooks Brothers crowd is even more pleased. Biden's picks “can help assuage financial executives’ concerns. It sends a clear signal to the industry to breathe easier,” executive director of investor group Healthy Markets Association Tyler Gellasch told the WSJ. 

Bottom line: Losing execs to the White House reflects BlackRock’s growing influence. It’s the world’s largest asset manager, with $7.8 trillion in assets under management as of September. 

COVID-19

California, You’re Going Home

Yesterday, CA Gov. Gavin Newsom issued new limits on Californians’ daily activities in order to bring down the rising number of Covid-19 infections. That means curbs on community outings and in-person shopping for at least 21 days in certain regions where ICU capacity drops below 15%.

• Eleven counties in Southern California and 12 in the Central Valley could be subject to those restrictions as soon as today. 
• Personal service businesses such as campgrounds and nail salons in those counties will have to close up shop. Restaurants will have to return to takeout-only, and retail stores will be limited to 20% capacity. 

Zoom out: You can lead a horse to water, but it’s trickier to make it stay indoors—the growing infection numbers suggest Californians are getting weary of Covid-19 restrictions. Cities including Beverly Hills are even thinking about creating their own public health departments to push back on county orders. 

SPONSORED BY GATSBY

Stocks Are Boring

Surprise, surprise. I bet you thought we loved stocks. Well, not exactly. Stonks are 2020, but investing in the platform itself is a meta concept for unlocking the next wave of gains. 

Enter Gatsby, the options trading platform for a new generation of investors. The options market is growing right now, and investors are using Gatsby to leverage the powerful investment vehicle in a digestible, responsible way. The market has had over $14 trillion (with a T!) of options contracts traded in 2019—and 2020 is on pace to shatter that.

And now you can invest in this fintech revolution by investing in Gatsby directly. Since launching a year ago, more than 200k contracts have been traded on their platform—that’s more than $50m of transactions. 

Cash in on the people revolutionizing the options market and invest with Gatsby today. 

OIL

OPEC+ Strikes Oil

Yesterday afternoon, OPEC+ eked out an agreement to increase the output of its 23 members by 500,000 barrels/day come January. 

• What’s OPEC+? Not a streaming service, a group of oil-producing countries that accounts for about half of global production.

How we got here

Early March: Pandemic lockdowns crushed demand for fuel, sending oil prices down nearly a quarter. 

April: Oil futures hit negative territory for the first time, underscoring oversupply in the market. 

May: OPEC+ decided to cut output by 9.7 million barrels/day to prop up prices. 

August: The group eased cuts to 7.7 million/day.  

Now: Negotiations broke down earlier this week as some OPEC+ nations (including Saudi Arabia) tried extending cuts through Q1 and others pushed for greater compliance from members. 

• The compromise will keep the oil market in a deficit, helping producers burn through extra inventory.

Zoom in: Oil prices may feel abstract, but their 2020 tumble has very real consequences. Yesterday, Chevron shaved up to $6 billion off its budget. In all, big oil companies have written down ~$80 billion in assets this year, Reuters reports. 

QUIZ

Quiz Unwrapped

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew's Weekly News Quiz has been compared to drawing a perfect circle.

It’s that satisfying. Ace the quiz.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Ryanair put in an order for 75 Boeing 737 Max jets. It’s the first Max order since the plane was grounded in March 2019. 
• Christopher Waller, the research director at the St. Louis Fed, was confirmed as a Federal Reserve governor. Meanwhile, Judy Shelton’s nomination is looking dire.
• Dr. Fauci said that British regulators “rushed” through the process of approving Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine. 
• Mortgage rates continued their freefall, hitting a record low for the 14th time this year.
• The DOJ accused Facebook of discriminating against U.S. workers by favoring foreigners with special visas. 

SPONSORED BY FIDELITY FRESH INVEST

This investing thing is hard. Let’s talk it out. Fresh Invest is a limited podcast series created with our friends at Fidelity and hosted by our very own Alex Lieberman, CEO of Morning Brew. Each week, they’ll be answering some of the biggest questions on the minds of young investors today. In this week's episode, Alex sits down with Christin Haley from Fidelity to discuss the current moves millennials are making to suburbia, and what it means for your home buying plans and investment strategy. Tune in right here.

BREW'S BETS

Stay up-to-date: Carlos Watson, Emmy-winning journalist and CEO of OZY, has a fantastic new talk show that features everyone from Ava DuVernay to Bill Gates. Check it out on YouTube or listen to the podcast version.

It’s National Cookie Day: We put together the best cookie recipes on earth to help you celebrate. 

Follow Friday: 1) This Brew Crew Twitter list and 2) interior design inspiration from Charlotte Taylor, Nathan Riley, Nicole Wu, Studio Tmrw, House of Marble, Montana Labelle Design, MDFG, faringsohuset, and alxcstudio. 

Great spot: Master marketer Ryan Reynolds dropped a new ad for dating website Match, and there's even a Taylor Swift-related Easter egg. Give it a watch. 

GAMES

Friday Puzzle

We’ve got to run a chess puzzle at some point, right? Don’t worry—you don’t need to know how to actually play the game to solve this puzzle. You just need to put your brain to work.

The puzzle: Place five queens on the 5x5 chessboard below such that you leave the maximum number of spaces “unattacked”—meaning that none of the queens can get there in one turn. Queens can travel both diagonally or orthogonally (up/down and left/right). What is the max number of unattacked spaces? 

ANSWER

 The answer is 3 squares. They're marked by the blue circles below.

** A Note From Fidelity Fresh Invest

Morning Brew and Fidelity Investments are independent entities and are not legally affiliated.

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