The Best One Yet - 🎥 “It’s huuuuge” — IMAX’s Oppenheimer moment. Skims’ $4B undies. Microsoft’s AI championship.

Episode Date: July 20, 2023

“Oppenheimer” debuts tonight on IMAX, so we’re looking at IMAX’s business model — Because it’s a case study flexibility. Kim Kardashian’s shapewear brand hit a $4B valuation and wants to IPO — Because Skims filled the Victoria’s Secret vacuum. And Microsoft finally priced the Office AI assistant that you’ll be using soon — And that’s why Microsoft’s stock just hit an all-time high. $IMAX $VSCO $MSFT Want merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.com Follow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypod And now watch us on Youtube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, July 20th, and today's pod is just the best one yet. It is a T-boy, Jack. Before we go any further, Yetis, I should inform you, you're in the presence, and I am, too, of a hero. Nick, tell us about the lizard that you rescued yesterday. I'm at the fairy building at our recording studio, and I walked out and said people noticed there was a six-inch-long lizard that needed some help. Everyone was concerned about this lizard who was missing its tail.

by the way. Yeah. And nobody did anything until Nick stepped in. Well, Jack, after the CPR in the mouth-to-mouth didn't work, I picked up that lizard and brought it over to get a takeout tray. I put it in a takeout tray and then I took it home. And you brought it to the Presidio, right? I brought it to home and then Molly did not want it at home. So then I brought it to the Presidio. Yet is Nick is the former parent of three lizards he raised when he was a kid. So he knew what he was doing. A scaly waily, beardy, weirdy, and slimy-timey. I nursed it back to health And now it's free in the wild, Jack

You deserve a key to the city Cold-blooded animals, warm hearts, Jack, warm hearts First story, what have we got on the show? If you're going to see Oppenheimer, the director wants you to see it on IMAX Because Yeti's IMAX is a publicly traded stock And IMAX has a wild story For our second story, Microsoft

Just put a price tag on their office AI assistant. How much we're talking, Jack? 30 bucks per month per worker. So Jack and I calculated how much money Microsoft is going to make off everyone. And our third and final story is Kim Kardashian. Her skim's brand just hit a $4 billion valuation. And now Kim K wants to IPO her underwear. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix.

It's like a wild mix today. Like no one's expecting that mix of stories, Jack. Not even scaly-wally. Yeties, to quote our buddy T. Payne. What do we got? I'm on a boat. Get this, Yeties. The newest feature from Uber isn't a new.

new type of car or a new type of wheels or a new type of bike. No, no, no, no, no. The newest feature from Uber is a boat. That's right. Uber now lets you book a boat. Get your swim trunks and your flippy floppies. Jack, I'm on a boat. Open up your phone and hail a boat.

Ladies, when you order an Uber boat, you're not getting a camera. You're getting a catamaran. Now to VW, a commercial vessel. You'll walk into a Prius. You'll walk up to the plank. Now, this service launches first in Mekanos Greece. So you can go island hopping in an Uber on the water. And this means you don't need a sugar daddy to get yourself over to Santorini.

All you need, Jack, is a half-decent Uber rating and a signal. That's right. And if you want to get five stars, you should bring your own life fest and definitely bring your own waterways. Yeah, zero stars if you can't swim. That's going to be a problem. You need to do the backstroke. If you know CPR, you get six stars. Hey, Lyft, your move on this one.

Yeah, Lyft. Can we get like a jet ski service? Miami would love that. Because Yeties, it is hot yacht summer. Oh, Captain, my captain. Can you please drop us off at the next corner, please? Landho, let's hit our three stories. I said, booie.

Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50% that's a fat tip. Tea Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, because we're ready to go.

We can't wait no more, so just start the show. Start the show. For our first story, up and a show. The movie opens tonight in theaters, but Jack and I want to talk about the screen. One particular screen, actually. And that screen is IMAX. Because the story of IMAX is a lesson in flexibility. IMAX big word.

Yet he's IMAX is the only brand that managed to be associated with a reel of film. It's also not lowercase eye. It's not an Apple product, you know? No. They went all capital letters on this thing, didn't you Jack? Yeah, they did. They went all caps. If you sit in the front row of an IMAX movie, you're going to lose a retina.

They type in their name. They're like, I think you're all caps are on. They're like, we know. You're finished an IMAX movie? You got second degree vertigo. Yet is Oppenheimer is going to play at all 1,700 IMAX theaters in the world. But we should point out one thing, shouldn't we, Jack? 19 of the theaters are like special theaters that offer crazy high quality 70 millimeter format.

But it's only 19 of those theaters. Well, because IMAX is so powerful, Christopher Nolan, the director of Oppenheimer, calls is it the best film format ever invented. So he filmed Batman, Inception, and Oppenheimer in this very unique, top-of-the-line 70-millimeter format. Here's the funny thing. You assume film is digital, because most films these days are digital, right, Jack? But not IMAX, not the 70-millimeter. IMAX is not only physical.

It's an extremely physical film, isn't it? The 70-millimeter film is so narrow, it requires a really long wheel of physical. physical film to do the movie. Yeties, the movie Oppenheimer is 600 pounds of film at every single theater. When the three-hour movie is over, 11 miles of film have gone through the projector. Oppenheimer is the same length of film as a half marathon. But yet,ies, it's not just a bigger high-resolution screen. IMAX audio means that there's no bad seat in the house.

If you think about IMAX, it's really a tech company. A $1 billion publicly traded tech company. whose stock is up 14% this year. Now, yet he's, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. IMAX may actually be the best performing part of the entire entertainment industry right now. IMAX is only 1% of the screens worldwide that play movies. And yet, IMAX makes up 11% of all ticket sales. How could it have only 1% of the screens, but 11% of the ticket sales?

Jack and I were so curious, we had to jump in T-boy style and what did we discover, Jack? We found two reasons. First, tickets are priced higher for IMAX. Yeah, you're going to pay a premium for that giant screen that's going to ensconce your entire surroundings. The second reason, people just prefer IMAX. When you look at the speed of ticket sales, IMAX always sells out before every other regular screen. Sorry AMC. Those are the two reasons IMAX makes more money. And we see it in the results.

Like, look at Spider-Man. What happened over there opening weekend? Okay, Spider-Man opening weekend went into IMAX in regular theaters. And for regular theaters, they made $19,000 per a screen. For IMAX theaters, they made $34,000 per screen on opening weekend. Spider-Man was making twice as much money on the IMAX screens as the regular old AMC screens. IMAX, emphasis on the max. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies over at IMAX? IMAX is a case study for business model flexibility.

All right, yeties, get this. IMAX was actually founded back in 1967 by four Canadians, high school. friends who wanted a more immersive theater experience. And they created that with IMAX. But for 25 years, IMAX only existed within museums, like the Boston Museum of Science. They could only get funding from like the science community. So all they did was like nature documentaries and dinosaurs and trees and bear movies on IMAX. Now look, an IMAX movie about dinosaurs is pretty thrilling.

We'll watch that any day. But you can't build a sustainable business just on dinosaur movies. That's why in 1994, IMAX made a pivot. They saw a business opportunity in the surge of 1990s big blockbuster movies. But then IMAX faced a chicken and egg problem because it cost $5 million to install an IMAX in a theater. Theaters were nervous. They didn't install it, so movies weren't made in that format. Which meant that IMAX had to pivot their business model again a few years later. IMAX decided they'll pay the installation. They'll pay the $5 million to put IMAX at movie theaters.

And here's the key. In return, IMAX would get a cut of every single. ticket sale. And here's the best part. Since IMAX tickets are more expensive, IMAX could take a 20% cut and everybody wins. The theater could still make a profit. It took nearly 60 years, but IMAX finally found its business model. The product worked right away, but the business model, it took some flexibility. For our second story, Microsoft stock just hit an all-time high as it becomes the first company to put a price tag on artificial intelligence. Because Microsoft owns the American office and the American worker. Because that's who we are and that's who we care about.

Because that's who I am, but that's who I care about. That's who I care about. Yeah, good job. Yeah, and here's the thing with AI. Everyone's working on an AI right now. And frankly, we already knew Microsoft was working on an AI. They told us its name. Yeah, we knew they were calling it co-pilot, too.

But here's what we didn't know and what we just discovered yesterday. How much it will cost? The price tag. Here it is, $30. Per month per worker at your company to have an artificial intelligence Amigo at your side. Microsoft just unveiled Microsoft 365 co-pilot at 30 bucks per month per worker. Here's what this product is. It's the Microsoft Office that you know and probably don't love.

Yeah, like Word and PowerPoint and Excel. But with an AI assistant chilling in every window and every document you have open. Yeah, it's browsing your files, reading your emails, learning about your work, helping you do work. And since this co-pilot knows so much about. your work, it can do stuff for you. Like, tell it to write a call report and it will do it. I need a TPS report for Lumberg by 3 p.m. And Microsoft is selling this AI assistant copilot as an add-on to Microsoft Office for 30 extra bucks per month per worker. And that adds up, doesn't it, Jack?

Yes, it does, Nick. For each 10% of current Microsoft Office customers who upgrade to this copilot, we're doing the math for you. Microsoft will make an additional $10 billion of annual revenue. This one feature is worth $10 billion a year. For every 10% of customers who upgrade. And that is why Microsoft stock hit an all-time high yesterday. Now, we've always said that new technology, it tends to get its first start in the workplace. Well, Jack, what's the most clear use case for AI right now?

It's in the office, Nick. And that sounds like a place for a takeaway. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Microsoft? Microsoft owns the American office. Hey, Eddie, is you want to know the reason Microsoft is worth $2.6 trillion right now? It's most ever? Because it owns the American office. Yeah, sure, lots of companies run on Google's Gmail, Google Docs, and Google's sheets right now.

That's true. They've made inroads on Microsoft. But even more companies run on Microsoft and Microsoft Office. And those companies are paying Microsoft thousands of dollars every month, month after month, year after year, and they still are. In fact, Nick, Microsoft Office has been around 40 years. It's 40 years old and it's still growing like a freak. Get this, Yet this, Yeti's last quarter, Microsoft Office grew 14%.

14% and it's a 40-year-old product. Yeties, AI could have been a threat to Microsoft, challenging its office dominance. So instead, it turned that threat into a strength by investing in chat GPT. Now Microsoft is a leader in AI and still the leader of the American office. And that is why Microsoft stock just hit an all-time high. For our third and final story, Kim Kardashian Skims just hit a, get this, $4 billion dollar valuation. That's a huge valuation.

That's a huge valuation. That's more than a lift, Jack. Next up for Skims is an IPO because fortune favors the fast. Fortune favors the fast. But yet is before we kick off this story, some trivia for Thursday the New Friday. How much money does Kim Kardashian make on every season of her TV show? Just Kim, not the other Kardashians, right? Just Kim, how much is Kim pulling in, Jack?

Well, what's she on, like, season 8 right now? Like round up, probably 50. She makes $10 million per season of her show. $10 million per season. Now, here's the thing. Kim's making more money off of her startup skims. Way more money, because Skims has become the Spanx for Gen Z. Yeah, Skims, her shapewear brand.

We think it's the biggest celebrity brand since Air Jordan. Kim still owns 35% of Skims, but the day-to-day business is run by the CEO who happens to be a Swedish dude. It happens to be named Mattson. He's actually not named Madison. But yet here's the news. Kim Skims just raised $270 million to hit a $4 billion valuation in this economy. In this economy. That is a higher valuation than the gap, then Abercrombie and Fitch, than Victoria's Secrets. And Skims, by the way, it's profitable right now. Skims is on track for $750 million of sales this year, which is up 50% from last.

Next up, this digital brand is going physical. They're opening actual stores in New York and LA. And then they plan to IPO to bring their business from Beverly Hills over to Wall Street. And yeties, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. A key part of the surge, it's the vacuum. They are filling the vacuum. Specifically, they're filling the Victoria's Secret vacuum. Because Victoria's Secret was the top-selling women's undergarment brand for the last 20 years.

It had a booming swimsuit business too. But when Victoria's Secret crumbled five years ago, there was a gold rush to fill the void, the vacuum that Victoria left. And nobody filled that void better than Skims has. To fill all that demand, Skims is putting up wild numbers. They got 11 million people on their wait lists who want the product. That's how much in demand their product is. In fact, when they do product drops, they're selling $2 million a product in just 10 minutes. If you check out their website, like half of the stuff is sold out. Yeah, that kind of speed, that's vacuum speed. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our budget?

Everybody Kim over its skims. Fortune favors the fast. Fortune favors the fast. Or another way to say it, Yeti's, speed kills. That's a quote from our college coaches, Jack and Football, Me, and LaCross. In business school, our professors had a different term for the same idea. They call it product velocity. And Jack and I, we have our own term for that idea.

And what's that, Jack? Abel. Always be launching everything. Well, if you think about it, Yeties, those are all different terms for the same idea. Launching quickly. moving the business forward quickly keeps you ahead of the competition. Skim's secret is speed. They don't wait for fashion seasons.

They do drops year round all the time. Skims is only four years old, but they've moved beyond their original product shapewear to loungewear and swimwear and general clothing too. And they're expanding to men wear coming this fall. And today, the original shapewear business is a minority of total sale. Because speed kills product velocity, A-B-B-L-E. Skims blew past her fashion competition because fortune favors the fast.

Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for the new Friday? IMAX is the native habitat for Christopher Nolan's physics-defying movies like Oppenheimer. And IMAX, the company, is a case study in business model flexibility. For our second story, Microsoft's $30 a month price tag for Office AI sent the stock to an all-time high. Because Microsoft still owns the American office. And our third and final story is Skims. now a $4 billion company headed for IPO next year. Kim's staying ahead of the competition because fortune favors the fast. But Yetis, we're not done yet. Here's what else you need to know today.

First, Tesla's revenue jumped 46% last quarter and they just produced their very first cyber truck. When you see your first cyber truck on the road, take a picture of that thing and send it our way. We want to see that yeties. And second story, Goldman Sachs just said its profit fell 58% from last year. Goldman Sachs is the only bank on Wall Street not living its best life right now. And finally, Netflix. They just reported an 8% jump in subscriptions. People were pretty surprised. Everyone who subscribed last quarter got kicked off their mom's account because the password cracked down. It was a whole bunch of moochas, including me. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Karina Theson from lovely Toluca, Mexico. Turns out the buying and selling of human bones is actually legal in the United States.

Apparently there is like no federal regulation of trading human bones online or offline. It's kind of just a thing that can happen. A tibia here, a fibula there. We're not saying you should do it, but you won't be arrested for doing it. That's all I have to say about that. That's all we got to say about that. Yeties, you looked fantastic today. the way, if you want to check out some T-Boy videos, you got to check out our Instagram account

at T-Boy Pot. Yeah. We're actually going to put up a picture of the lizard whose life Nick saved yesterday. Yes. It's in a go container. That's how he carried it into safety. It lost his tail. It didn't save its life.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It lost his tail. It didn't lose its life. I'm not asking for credit, Jack. Just asking for crickets. Before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti, Brittany, Brittany Cooper, down the Street in San Francisco, who was wearing her T-boy hat with her buddy, Alex Silva.

Congratulations to Timothy Harton for turning 24 and getting a new job in Charlotte, North Carolina. And how about Alon B, who's also turning 24 down in New Jersey? Happy birthday to Roheat in Vancouver, Canada. And Nate Cryer, happy birthday in Murray, Utah. Happy birthday to Carrie Myers in Wilson, Vail, Oregon, who's celebrating with her puppy, Hank. P-U-P-B-Y. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a day.

T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Netflix and Volkswagen. The Knicks of my favorite movie is The Dark Night, Batman. Gailie Whaley, beardy and slimy timing.