Walmart’s Cinema Sale

PRESENTED BY QUINCE

Welcome back from the long weekend, Future Party! We’re betting you were one of the 30 million people who headed to the cinema over the past five days, because the Thanksgiving box office hit an all-time high of $420 million. That’s what happens when there’s something in theaters for everyone — Moana 2 (which had the biggest five-day debut ever), Wicked, Gladiator II, and Heretic. Considering that the box office still hasn’t fully recovered since COVID, we’re sure Hollywood and theater owners are feeling very thankful right now.

DAILY TOP TRENDS

Walmart Debuts A Shoppable Movie

Walmart has partnered with Roku to make a holiday movie, Jingle Bell Love, that’s shoppable, allowing people to buy products featured in the film.

The Big Picture: Shoppable programming has steadily risen over the past couple of years during live programming on Peacock, Prime Video, and Paramount+. Walmart and Roku’s production seems to be the first tied to a feature-length movie, which could launch a new type of product placement.

Behind the Scenes: Although this isn’t Walmart’s first foray into shoppable programming — that would be last year’s episodic show, Add to Heart — the retailer has made some changes for the rollout of Jingle Bell Love.

• Instead of making the movie in-house, it partnered with Roku on the production. The movie is already playing on the FAST platform as a Roku Original movie.

• That makes sense when 78% of Roku’s audience are Walmart shoppers, yet 70% of viewers were new shoppers to Walmart.com in recent years. That’s a lot of new people who converted to ecommerce.

• When it comes to the movie, Walmart decided to take a less-is-more approach. Instead of filling the film with wall-to-wall product integrations, it simply has two “shoppable moments” of products relevant to the scene playing.

• Customers can purchase the products by linking their Roku and Walmart accounts beforehand, allowing the shoppable moments to be completed with a single click during the movie with their remote.

Closing Credits: Jingle Bell Love follows a widower who “visits his late wife's hometown for Christmas and gets more than he bargained for when his 10-year-old daughter matches him up with a local shop owner.” That’s about as Hallmark Movie as you can get — cozy and aspirational. Brands love that. If Walmart’s movie successfully converts viewers into buyers, expect Hallmark, Lifetime, and Great American Family to get romanced by retailers like Target or Costco for a collaboration.

Together with Quince

Save Up To 40% On Luxury Gifts (Ends Today)

Need a gift that speaks for itself?

Shop the Cyber Monday sale from Quince and save up to 40% on luxury gifts for everyone on your list.

Hurry and snag yours before these curated items sell out:

• For Women: Cashmere, silk, fine jewelry, loungewear

• For Men: Coats, pullovers, activewear

• For All: Cookware, home decor, bedding, bags

Don’t forget about Quince’s free shipping and 365-day return policy (talk about white glove service).

Shop the Cyber Monday Sale and save up to 40% on upscale gifts through 12/2.

Midsize Shows Are A No Show

Concertgoers are, by and large, choosing to either splurge on major, superstar events or check out small, local acts on a dime… leaving the middle-class acts with inflated ticket prices struggling to fill venues.

Why It Hurts: The downturn in attendance for mid-tier artists is causing tour cancellations and decreasing earnings for once-stable acts. Meanwhile, the biggest musicians are commanding record-breaking tour revenue and soaking up all the media and social media attention.

Between the Sets: Artists you expect to be doing well on the road are struggling to fill venues that they sold out on their last tours.

• Ticket resale company Automatiq found that ticket prices in the $50 to $200 range — the cost to see most midsize artists — slid 23% while they were on sale, and 37% ended up selling for below their listings.

• Meanwhile, 40% of US concert tickets on StubHub are selling for less than $50, while 80% go for less than $100.

• That means people were lowering prices to get more people in the door. Case in point: you can find tickets on SeatGeek to see Kacey Musgraves in Texas for $33 or Justin Timberlake in Arkansas for just $10. Those are bargain-bin prices for those artists.

• But sometimes, ticket sales are so low that there’s no way the tour can recoup costs (which have gone up in recent years)… so they scrap it entirely. That’s recently happened to Jennifer Lopez, The Black Keys, and Animal Collective.

Encore: So, what does all this data illuminate about concertgoers? Concertgoers are only dropping the big bucks for their “bucket-list” shows, says Stubhub Head of Global Customer Service Operations Joseph Bocanegra. That’s because tickets are so high, and concerts so plentiful, that it takes a real standout cultural moment to get people to leave the house — a similar thing is happening in Hollywood and Broadway. While that’s a pain point for most artists, it may lead to a revival in clubs and amphitheaters booking bigger acts than in recent years.

Together with The Rundown AI

Learn how to make AI work for you

AI won’t take your job, but a person using AI might. That’s why 800,000+ professionals read The Rundown AI – the free newsletter that keeps you updated on the latest AI news and teaches you how to use it in just 5 minutes a day.

Sign up to start learning.

DEEP DIVES

• Listen: Rapid Response chats with Guy Kawasaki, the chief evangelist at Canva (yes, that’s his real title), about why he thinks AI is god (yes, really).

• Read: Platformer digs into Bluesky’s soaring growth as an X alternative as people crave the simpler days of Twitter.

• Learn: TikTok Creator Manager Norissa Samuels lays out her 10 tips for crafting successful, long-form TikTok videos.

76.3% of you voted No in Wednesday’s poll: Have you seen Wicked?

“But I do have tickets for Wicked’s touring production in February. I’m hoping to catch the movie version on the plane when I fly to Europe in May.”

“Team Gladiator here!!”

“I’m not paying movie ticket prices to see only Part 1. I’ll watch it on streaming.”

“I already bought a Wicked bath bomb from Lush, and even gals in my running group were chatting about the movie. I hope to see it at some point, though I don’t know if it’ll be in theaters or streaming.”

“It’s the first time in years I’ve seen people (myself included) come out of a theater filled with joy and excited to talk about it.”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

QUICK HITS

→ Entertainment / Media

🦃 NBCUniversal reports that this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade hit a record 31.3 million viewers across linear and digital platforms.

🎤 Travis Scott’s “Circus Maximus” tour is now the highest-grossing tour of a solo rapper, racking up $200 million in ticket sales.

🎞️ Lionsgate has officially filed with the SEC to split its movie and TV studio and Starz streaming service into two publicly traded companies.

→ Technology

₿ The Trump Administration is allegedly polling crypto firms about who should run the Securities and Exchange Commission.

📡 Starlink’s satellite-to-cell service is the first to be approved by the FTC.

🤖 A group of early testers of OpenAI’s Sora leaked the video-generating tool in protest.

→ Creator Economy

👄 TikTok will restrict beauty filters for users under the age of 18 after the release of a study on how the filters affect teens’ mental health.

🎓 Creator commerce platform Kajabi has recruited five of its top creators to teach lessons on entrepreneurship.

✏️ Originality AI found that 54% of long LinkedIn posts from English-speaking thought leaders are AI-generated.