Morning Wire - Record Black Friday, Biden Eases Venezuela Sanctions & Disney Box Office Struggles | 11.28.22

Episode Date: November 28, 2022

The Holiday shopping season kicked off this past weekend with record numbers in sales following Black Friday, the Biden administration eases Venezuelan oil sanctions, and Disney’s newest feature film falters at the box-office. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The holiday shopping season kicked off this past weekend with record numbers in sales following Black Friday. How much did people spend? And did it live up to economists' projections? I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howell. It's Monday, November 28th, and this is Morning Wire. The Biden administration is loosening its grip on Venezuelan sanctions and is being blasted by critics for the move. We could easily be providing all of the energy that these countries need if we were due. here at home. What are the terms of the eased sanctions and what reason is the administration giving for the controversial move?

And Disney's newest feature bombs big at the box office. What drove the disappointing attendance? And will it shape Disney's creative direction going forward? Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. The Daily Wire Plus Cyberweek sale is on and right now everything in our shop is 40% off.

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who wants to give us extra money, don't wait. Go to DailyWire.com slash shop today and get our best deals of the year on all the gifts worth giving. This year, despite inflation driving costs higher than ever, black Friday sales set new record highs. surprising economists and exceeding the projections set by cautious business owners.

Here to discuss what we learned this Black Friday is Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips. So Cabot, a big weekend for retailers. What do we need to know? Well, last we talked, the big question was how inflation and the poor state of the economy was going to factor into this year's holiday shopping. There were a number of concerning polls showing Americans on track to buy far fewer gifts this holiday season and refrain from Black Friday shopping because money was tight. But it appears those concerns.

were a bit overstated. On Friday, online sales alone exceeded $9.3 billion, which is not only up from last year, but marks an all-time high in Black Friday spending. Now, it is worth noting because of inflation, the cost of virtually everything is at least 10% higher than last year. So even though total spending on Black Friday is up about 7% this year, the actual amount of goods purchased is likely down. But regardless, this was a pleasant surprise to say the least. You know, to the inflation point, how has it impacted holiday shopping so far? Yeah, make no mistake about it. Inflation still played a major role. And you can tell in a few ways. First, we saw a 78% jump in the number of people using buy now, pay later plans. Economists say that that's a sign folks might have

less than savings for gifts than they did last year, especially given that people typically only in the past use those types of plans for higher priced goods. And this year, they were used for a lot of lower priced goods as well as those bigger ones. It's also concerning because the these sorts of payment plans do impact your credit score in a negative manner and often include incredibly high interest rates for those who default. So be careful. We also saw a growing number of Americans resort to using credit cards for their Black Friday spending this year, which, again, is concerning given that credit card debt is currently at an all-time high with Americans owning nearly a trillion dollars on that front. All right. What was the biggest change this Black Friday

from last? Well, the biggest shift was the continuation of a trend we've seen over the last few years, and that's the move towards online shopping. And it's interesting, many did it on their phones. This year, a record 48% of online purchases took place on a mobile device. Last year, it was 44%. Now, we're still waiting for final numbers on in-person shopping totals, but from what we've seen so far, brick-and-mortar stores saw another drop in the number of customers this year, which isn't all that surprising when you remember that in-store traffic was also down 28% last Black Friday,

so a trend that's been coming now for a few years. It's also worth noting some stores are less. worried about the trend because many are struggling to find workers right now with the tight labor market and their profit margins are actually higher when people shop online. Got it. And on the consumer side, customers are more accustomed to going online after COVID lockdown. So there's an increased comfort level. But also, many businesses are intentionally offering their best deals online.

It's just a new age of Black Friday shopping. Yeah, indeed it is. So what were the most popular products sold? What were people buying this year? As you might imagine, electronics and toys led the way this Black Friday. Friday. On the electronics front, the most popular items this year have been smart home devices and audio equipment like headphones and Bluetooth speakers. And for toys and games, the bestsellers were predominantly video games like FIFA 23, MBA 2K23, and Pokemon and Fortnite games.

Pokemon's still a thing, huh? Apparently so, John. Sounds like there's at least some good news to kick off the holiday season. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Anytime. That's Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips. Coming up, the Biden administration eases sanctions on Venezuela. Inflation right now, it's kind of a big deal. You see it at the pump and in the grocery store. But rest assured, one place you won't see it is right here at Daily Wire Plus. Because through the end of today, you can get 50% off new Daily Wire Plus memberships and gift memberships when you use code DW50 at checkout.

This will make a fantastic gift for your family member, friend, or even yourself as well. There's never been a better time to get a subscription. to DailyWire Plus. Use code DW50 at checkout to get 50% off your new DailyWire Plus membership today at dailywire.com slash subscribe. The Biden administration offered a carrot to the Maduro regime in Venezuela on Saturday. The U.S. Treasury eased sanctions and will allow California-based Chevron to pump oil in the South American country.

In return, Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro must commit $3 billion in unfrozen state assets to humanitarian programs. Here to talk about the Biden administration's efforts to court the Maduro regime as Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. Tim, a lot of people are talking about the timing of this agreement in the middle of a global energy shortage. But the Biden administration says gas prices don't have anything to do with this deal. Why? That's right. An anonymous Biden administration official who briefed reporters on the sanctions agreement on Saturday said this deal was about restoring democracy in Venezuela. The U.S. Treasury said in a statement that it's taking

steps to normalize relations in the hopes that Maduro and the Venezuelan government will eventually restore free and fair elections. Okay, so promoting democracy, that's the administration's claim. What are the critics saying? Well, President Biden has recently tried to browbeat oil companies into higher domestic energy production and blamed corporate greed for high energy prices. The White House has also seemingly walked back tough language on Saudi Arabia's human rights record and tried to get greater oil production out of OPEC. Critics see this agreement with Venezuela is just the latest attempt to increase global energy supplies while keeping Biden's environmental agenda alive in the U.S.

Stephen Moore, an economic advisor in the White House under former President Trump, says that the agreement makes no sense, given the United States vast energy supplies. Here's a bit of what he said on Fox News Sunday. This is the same administration, well, that won't allow us to drilling here in the United States, not in Texas, not in Oklahoma, not in Alaska, not in West Virginia,

but we can pump oil from Venezuela. It makes absolutely no sense. It's put America last energy policy. Will, it's very simple. The United States has more oil, gas, and coal than virtually any other country in the world. By the way, we also have, well, don't forget the cleanest, call the cleanest oil and gas in the world. So if you're worried about the environment, why would you want to get oil and gas from Venezuela, which has some of the dirtiest energy and not from the United States?

So we have to become the energy powerhouse that we were. We have the capability of doing it. Hearts have some strong criticism there. Can Americans expect lower energy prices from this deal? Well, the White House and Chevron say that's unlikely, at least in the short term. The administration stressed that the agreement is limited. It approves Chevron to resume its partnership with Venezuela's state-owned oil company for six months. During that time, Chevron won't be able to expand its operations beyond its current holdings,

and all profits will go toward paying down Chevron's debts. So Maduro's government shouldn't make any money off the agreement. On top of that, Chevron will have to cope with poor infrastructure and corruption that just comes with conducting business in Venezuela. The company says it could take months or years to ramp up production to the point that Americans begin to feel relief at the pump. All right, so years to see if this pays off at all for Americans. Tim, thanks for joining us.

That was DailyWire's Tim Pierce. In the midst of a shake-up at the top, Disney's animated division continues to struggle at the box office. Its big-budget Thanksgiving release, Strange World, earned only about $18 million over the long Thanksgiving weekend, a historically poor performance for the company. Here to explain why Strange World may have flopped and what it means for Disney is Daily Wire Culture Reporter, Megan Basham. So, Megan, Disney had another devastating debut. The film earned about 18 million its opening weekend. Put that in context for us. Well, you know, the context is the company spent about 180 million on this movie, and that was just on the production, not including marketing

costs. Now, you also have to keep in mind the timing here. We haven't seen any big new animated movies in theater since July, and this movie released over the long five-day Thanksgiving weekend, which, you know, is typically a pretty big movie-going period, for families. So Disney was clearly expecting the audience to turn out because the film opened in more than 4,000 theaters, and that's about the maximum reach you can get. So there's really just zero way to spin this. Strange World is, you have to say, a flop of epic proportions. Right now, estimates are it's going to lose about $100 million. Okay, so the obvious question is, what happened? Well, there's a lot of speculation about that out in the Hollywood trades. Many are pointing to the

fact that Wakanda forever is still going strong and maybe it's sucking up all the oxygen. Now, on the other hand, others are pointing to the fact that it's a sci-fi-themed film, and they're suggesting that maybe the crowd that shows up for the more traditional Disney princess movies isn't that interested in a story about outer space. But again, that is a tough sell, given that it was the only game in town for younger audiences in a time frame that typically plays very big with young families. So I could see something of a middling performance in that case, I don't see an outright disaster like this.

So what's your theory about why this flopped? You know, I'm looking at the content of the film, and that is something that very few legacy outlets are pointing to as the explanation. And I think the reason for that probably goes to political correctness. As we know, Disney promised early this year that they were going to work harder to include LGBTQ characters in their storylines and in their content generally. Lightyear, for example, featured a same-sex romance earlier in the summer, and so now does Strange World. One of the film's main characters is a teen boy with a crush on another boy,

and that reportedly plays a prominent role in the story and was also celebrated pretty widely in a lot of media coverage leading up to the film's release. So I think maybe parents' annoyance with that seems to be showing up in the audience scores. One parent review that exemplified quite a number of others on Rotten Tomatoes said this, and I'm quoting, If I want to teach my children about sex and or sexual preferences at seven or eight, I would do it in my home. I don't need a Disney movie to help me out with it. So the film has also been criticized for leaning into some other PC tropes.

To give you another example, there's some toxic masculinity, and the central conflict of the film is a pretty overt parent. against the use of fossil fuels. And then on top of that, some critics have said that the writing is just weaker than the typical Disney production. So right now, it's got a B rating from audiences on Cinema Score. And if that holds, Strange World will actually become the first animated Disney movie to score below the A range ever. So you can't help but look at that and put it into the context of Light Ear, a movie that was

supposed to be huge for Disney-owned Pixar. In that case, Lightyear also had the advantage of being part of the most profitable franchise in Pixar's history, Toy Story, and it released in a typically big time frame for families, early summer. So it also, like Strange World, had some pretty positive critical reviews. They weren't the best, but they weren't bad. But again, a lot of publicity surrounded a lesbian kiss in that film, and whether that was the reason it didn't do well is hard to pin down. but what we do know is that audiences stayed away. Well, it'll be interesting to see how Disney reacts to this audience feedback. Megan, thanks for reporting.

My pleasure. That was Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham. Another story we're tracking this week. Large protests erupted in China over the weekend, with demonstrators calling for the resignation of Chinese President Xi Jinping over draconian antivirus measures imposed on cities across the country. Police drove away protesters with pepper spray on sun. Sunday, only to have demonstrators rallying in the same spot hours later.

That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know. Hey guys, producer Colton here. In an economy as volatile as this one, it's important to have control when you're making a big purchase, like a new car. That's where Morning Wire's new partners over at Carzing come into play. Carzing is an online shopping website with millions of listed vehicles. By partnering with credit agencies, lenders, and dealerships, Carzing provides you with everything you need before stepping foot into a dealership. Their innovative technology and financial tools lay you instantly pre-qualify online without affecting your credit score. Once you find your dream car at your ideal budget, all you have to do

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