Xbox Hits Reset Button on Business & Netflix Has a ‘Season 2’ Problem

Summary

Morning Brew Daily – July 7, 2026

Episode: Xbox Hits Reset Button on Business & Netflix Has a ‘Season 2’ Problem
Hosts: Neal Freyman & Toby Howell

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Neal and Toby break down two major stories: Microsoft’s dramatic overhaul of its Xbox gaming division and Netflix’s worsening “season 2 problem,” where viewers sharply drop off after the first season of original series. The hosts also touch on SpaceX’s entry into the NASDAQ 100, a global grocery tourism trend, the record-breaking Minions franchise, and the annual Running of the Bulls. Their witty banter keeps the complex business news lively and approachable.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. US Men’s National Team’s World Cup Exit

(01:03–02:12)

• The US men’s soccer team was eliminated by Belgium, losing 4–1.
• Neal asks who to root for now; Toby suggests England, Morocco, or Norway as compelling bandwagons—especially citing Norway's underdog status due to a 34-match unbeaten streak.
  • Quote: “They also feel like the last true underdog left. So maybe take your attention to Norway.” —Toby Howell (01:29)

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2. Microsoft’s Xbox Restructuring & Struggles

(02:52–07:35)

• Microsoft is cutting up to 20% of its Xbox workforce and spinning off/selling several game studios.
• Massive investments including the $69B Activision Blizzard acquisition (home of Call of Duty, Candy Crush).
• Despite building a vast gaming catalog, revenue declined by half a billion dollars in five years, losing $0.64 for every dollar invested.
• Executive memo candidly admits: “Our business today is not healthy.” —Xbox CEO Asha Sharma (04:12)
• Excessive management layers and the Game Pass subscription service failing to meet lofty user targets (“plateaued at roughly 30 million” vs. a 100 million ambition).
• New Xbox chief Asha Sharma, with zero gaming experience, is charged with the turnaround. The focus shifts to core strong titles (e.g., Minecraft, Candy Crush).
  • Quote: “History is full of companies that mistake longevity for inevitability. We will not be one of them.” —Asha Sharma, cited by Neal (06:25)
• AI infrastructure spend ($190B) contributes to resource reallocation away from gaming.
• Surging hardware costs due to memory chip shortages; Xbox increases console prices by $150.

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3. SpaceX Joins NASDAQ 100

(07:35–11:35)

• SpaceX’s massive IPO means many regular investors now own a piece through index funds (like Invesco QQQ).
• Nasdaq changed its eligibility rules to fast-track SpaceX due to its $2T valuation.
• Forced buying from funds stabilizes stock price, but Toby cautions: recent buzzy index inclusions (Palantir, Strategy) underperformed post-addition.
• Debate brewing among retail investors about how to avoid owning Elon Musk-run companies in their portfolios.
  • Quote: “There is a thriving community of people online who say...it’s kind of unfortunate that Space X and Tesla is now in these major indexes, because that’s not something that I want.” —Neal Freyman (09:57)
• Heavy retail and options trading points to continued bullishness despite recent price swings.

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4. Netflix’s ‘Season 2’ Problem

(12:02–15:32)

• Viewership for high-profile Netflix shows (“Avatar: The Last Airbender,” “The Four Seasons,” “Beef,” “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder”) plummeted 59–80% between first and second seasons.
  • Example: “Avatar” Season 2 lost nearly 60% of its viewership compared to Season 1.
• Netflix’s binge model leads to “flash in the pan” buzz; contrasts with HBO’s weekly release model, which sustains audience growth over time.
  • Quote: “Netflix does a binge release model…their shows are flash in the pan moments. They don’t sustain that buzz over time because they are not released weekly like say a House of Dragon on HBO.” —Toby Howell (13:19)
• Netflix has historically prioritized launching new season ones to attract new subscribers, often to the detriment of retaining engaged, long-term viewers.
• HBO cited as a positive comparison: “The Last of Us” and “White Lotus” actually grew their audiences between seasons.
• Netflix’s growth is stagnating (viewing time up <2% YoY, stock down 40% in 12 months).

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5. Toby’s Trends: Grocery Tourism

(18:18–23:01)

• “Grocery tourism” is trending—31% of US travelers plan to visit local supermarkets abroad in 2026 for a more authentic experience.
  • Quote: “Grocery stores offer the rarest thing in modern travel, the uncurated ordinary.” —Nicole James (cited by Neal, 19:36)
• Supermarkets give real insights into daily local life, food culture, and economics.
• Practical benefits: eating local and saving money, plus grocery tote bags are the new go-to souvenir.
• Neal notes regional supermarket culture within the US itself (Berkeley Bowl, H-E-B, Publix, Erewhon).
• American stores are unique for their size and variety, which can be astonishing to visitors.

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6. Quick Headlines & Industry Tidbits

(23:01–28:21)

• Versant Media Group buys golf simulator company Full Swing for $530M —a diversification move as cable TV declines, though Toby questions the tech’s quality.
  • Quote: “Full Swing is not that good of a golf simulator. Unfortunately, I have used it and it is not that accurate…So that’s always been frustrating.” —Toby Howell (23:54)
• Despicable Me/Minions Franchise becomes highest-grossing animated franchise ($5.6B), but latest film opens to a franchise-low domestically, suggesting “minion fatigue.”
• Running of the Bulls starts in Pamplona with its 100th Hemingway-anniversary edition. Toby shares that Americans are the largest group of foreign runners.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Xbox Acknowledgement:
  “Xbox execs absolutely torch their own business in this memo.” —Neal Freyman (04:28)
• On Gaming Industry Headwinds:
  “Everything is just more expensive right now. Everything is more difficult when it comes to the hardware portion of the business.” —Toby Howell (06:49)
• Netflix’s Dilemma:
  “They have been all about growth. They want to get new people in the ecosystem…and now they’re reaping what they sowed.” —Toby Howell (13:45)
• Grocery Store Wisdom:
  “Museums tell you what a country wants to remember. Restaurants tell you what it wants photographed. Supermarkets tell you what it eats at 6:14pm…” —Nicole James, cited by Neal (19:36)
• Cultural Perspective:
  “If you came from a foreign country and you saw spray cheese and pop tarts, that probably would be such an American experience.” —Toby Howell (21:44)

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Timestamps of Important Segments

• US World Cup Exit & Bandwagon Chat: 01:03–02:12
• Microsoft/Xbox Layoffs & Reset: 02:52–07:35
• SpaceX/Index Inclusion & Investor Reactions: 07:35–11:35
• Netflix and the Season 2 Problem: 12:02–15:32
• Toby’s Trends: Grocery Tourism: 18:18–23:01
• Versant Buys Full Swing (Golf Simulators): 23:01–24:54
• Minions Franchise Milestones & Fatigue: 24:57–25:44
• Running of the Bulls and Hemingway’s Legacy: 27:21–28:21

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Tone & Style

• Witty, conversational, and accessible: Neal and Toby balance clear business analysis with humor (“We are the groceries,” Toby on the Running of the Bulls).
• Frequent use of analogies and real-world comparisons to demystify business trends (e.g., video game business to GameStop spending sprees, binge TV to "flash in the pan" moments).

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Summary useful for:

• Those catching up on major business and tech headlines
• Understanding deeper strategic challenges at Microsoft and Netflix
• Spotting fun trends in travel and pop culture
• Enjoying an engaging, insightful take on today’s business news.

Transcript

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[Kayla Lopez]

Foreign.

[Neal Freyman]

Daily Show I'm Neal Freyman.

[Toby Howell]

And I'm Toby Howell.

[Neal Freyman]

Today, Netflix has a problem. People aren't sticking around for the second season.

[Toby Howell]

Then Xbox is on the struggle bus and is laying off Thousands. It's Tuesday, July 7th. Let's ride.

[Kyle Hagee]

Foreign

[Neal Freyman]

Last night at the World cup, the US men's national team got shellacked by Belgium 4 to 1. An abrupt and frankly embarrassing end to what had been a promising tournament run. Tensions were high leading up to the game after America's star striker Fuller and Baligan was allowed to play after FIFA rescinded his one match ban. But once the teams got on the pitch, it was all Belgium for 90 minutes and a familiar sinking feeling for USA fans. And so the World cup rolls on without the stars and stripes. But Toby, I'm a free agent. Who should I root for? Who is my new team?

[Toby Howell]

I can't believe these words are coming out of my mouth, but maybe England. They had such a gutsy performance against Mexico that they won me over. Morocco is also a very solid bandwagon to get on. They have not lost an official match in regular extra time since late 2023. 34 matches unbeaten. And finally, you got to love the Norwegians. Yes, they play England next round, but Holland is an absolute terror. I'm all in on the rowing after games. They also feel like the last true underdog left. So maybe take your attention to Norway if you want to kind of ride the underdog.

[Neal Freyman]

It is very frustrating because I think Norway and England are my top two and they're playing against each other. So I guess whoever wins that game, I'll ride or die with them. And now a word from our sponsor, Ultra Running. Toby, are you a shoe man?

[Toby Howell]

I like to think I have a certain theatrical nature about me.

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[Neal Freyman]

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[Toby Howell]

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[Neal Freyman]

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[Toby Howell]

Use promo code Morning Brew 10 for 10% off your first pair of ultra running shoes at ultrarunning.com/morning brew that's a LTRA running.com/morning brew remember the red ring of death from your Xbox 360? It was a sign of your console's imminent demise. Right now the entire Xbox division looks ringed in red after Microsoft announced it was cutting up to 20% of its workforce is also selling or spinning off four to five game studios that acquired within the past decade the gaming division Inside Microsoft had been spending money like a 13 year old in GameStop for the first time in 2023, it bought Activision Blizzard home to Call of Duty in Candy Crush for $69 billion, the largest gaming acquisition ever. Microsoft followed that up by buying the studio behind Fallout and Skyrim for 8.1 billion. The idea was to assemble a great catalog of games so they could sell a bunch of Xboxes and and a bunch of subscriptions to Game Pass, Microsoft's online game store. But instead of becoming the Netflix of gaming, some boss levels rolled around. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said Xbox ended up losing 64 cents for every $1 invested into its game studios. Our business today is not healthy, she wrote in a memo to employees. But perhaps the final boss was AI. Microsoft is spending roughly $190 billion this year on AI infrastructure. So some resources are being redirected away from slower growing businesses like gaming. Neil Microsoft has been in the gaming business for a quarter century at this point, but right now might be its lowest moment ever.

[Neal Freyman]

Xbox execs absolutely torch their own business in this memo. I mean they went seems like they went a little above and beyond saying some hard truths about what's going on at Xbox. In this memo, they wrote, excluding Activision Blizzard King over the past five years we have spent over $20 billion on ongoing investments in our content platform and hardware subsidy. But our annual revenue has declined nearly half a billion during that time. Going forward, this cannot continue. And previously Microsoft Satya Nadella, the CEO, said that Xbox gamers streaming, they're playing on YouTube. We're making more money off the games than Microsoft did. So they absolutely lit into their own business. But it seems like in a dire enough place where they needed to share these hard truths.

[Toby Howell]

Yeah, the original strategy was let's these studios, let's make this massive exclusive gaming library so we can sell more Xbox consoles. If you want to play this game, you need to buy an Xbox. That was the idea, at least. But for some reason, everything just got a little bit too bloated. There's too many layers of management. That was another big theme of this memo, is that, hey, we have 14 layers, sometimes between top management to the bottom employees. We need to compress that organization. It's something we've been seeing across tech. But then also, the Game Pass bet just really has not paid off whatsoever. They wanted 77 million subscribers. Actually, they wanted 100 million subscribers to Game Pass by the end of 2030. Right now, it's plateaued at roughly $30 million. So that subscription business has not picked up the slack that they thought it would because they needed to justify these massive outlays on these gaming studios.

[Neal Freyman]

So what's the turnaround plan? Well, Asha Sharma is in charge. She joined Xbox five months ago. She was a former Instacart executive. Zero experience in gaming, but the responsibility is hers now. She wrote that. She wrote a rallying cry. History is full of companies that mistake longevity for inevitability. We will not be one of them. So they're going to shed five of these game studios. They're going to. They already reduced the price of Game Pass and they're going to lean into some of their more popular titles like Minecraft, Candy Crush, and Fallout, and kind of just put more resources to wherever, wherever the momentum is, at least in their gaming industry. It's only concentrated in just a few of those games.

[Toby Howell]

I feel bad for the gaming industry because they have just gotten hit after hit, mostly in the hardware business, because I mentioned AI has kind of eaten into some of the spend that may have gone to the gaming division. But the memory chip squeeze that we've talked about a lot on this show is making component costs soar for the hardware business. Microsoft has jacked UP Xbox prices $150 in August already after having already raised prices twice in the last year. So everything is just more expensive right now. Everything is more difficult when it comes to the hardware portion of the business. And Xbox feels iconic, but maybe it's not as iconic as we think. And it could be, you know, entering a slow death spiral right now if things don't change.

[Neal Freyman]

As Sharma said, nothing is inevitable. All right, moving on. Congratulations, or I'm sorry, you are in all likelihood the new owner of some SpaceX stock. That's because today Elon Musk's rocket and AI giant is joining the NASDAQ 100 prompting mutual funds and ETFs that track the index owning $800 billion in collective assets to buy in. It wouldn't be a surprise to see one of those funds say Invesco QQQ in your retirement portfolio, meaning you soon will have a stake, a small one in the company. Space X didn't follow the typical process to join the Nasdaq, but it also wasn't a typical IPO. Last month SpaceX went public in the biggest IPO of all time, instantly making it one of the most valuable companies in the world, worth over $2 trillion today. In the lead up, the company lobbied indexes to bend their rules to allow it fast track status and the Nasdaq complied. It established new criteria for so called mega initial public offerings that grant eligibility on the stock's 15th trading day rather than the usual three month seasoning period. For Space X, that moment arrives this morning. A basket of 100 non financial stocks with a tech the Nasdaq isn't the behemoth that is the S&P 500, which has received 16 trillion in investments from the mutual funds and ETFs that track it. Still, inclusion in the Nasdaq essentially provides automatic demand for SpaceX stock, which could support it in its early volatile days as a public company.

[Toby Howell]

Yeah, it sounds good. Forced buying always seems to stabilize these stocks when they join a major index. But index inclusion isn't always as bullish as it may appear on on the surface. If you just go back through recent history, some buzzy names to have joined indexes haven't performed that well. Palantir George joined the NASDAQ 100 back in December of 2024. Shares fell roughly 25% over the following weeks. Same thing happened for Strategy, which is the Bitcoin holding company. They joined the NASDAQ 100 in December 2024. It has declined roughly 80% from that high. Again, there's some other business implications that may have contributed to that, but some people think that a lot of the good news is already priced in. Where Space X is unique though, is that it's been trading for such a short period of time. How much of that news can be priced in? It also has a very low float of actual tradable shares out there. So it is just a wild card in every sense. But recent history has suggested that maybe it's not this big bullish signal that many expect it to be.

[Neal Freyman]

And an interesting wrinkle of this is that, you know, as SpaceX becomes a part of the NASDAQ, 100. And Tesla is already a big part of, of the NASDAQ 100 and the S&P 500. More people are saying, I don't really want to own any shares in an Elon Musk led company due to his involvement in politics. And so if you go on Reddit or TikTok, you're going to find all of these videos of people saying, here's how you go about not having a share or a stake in an Elon Musk company. And there's a couple of different ways to do this, but one of them, offered by platforms like Elvis, is called direct indexing. And that's where you buy a basket of individual stocks that mirror an index, but it allows you the flexibility to exclude shares of companies that you don't necessarily want in your portfolio. So there is a thriving community of people online who say, well, you know, it's kind of unfortunate that Space X and Tesla is now in these major indexes, because that's not something that I want, because Elon's a lightning round.

[Toby Howell]

Still, there is remarkable bullish trading activity around Space X. If you follow the flow, if you follow the options contract traded in the last week. The 10 most heavily traded options contract on Monday were all call options, which is a bullish bet on the future of that stock price. The single most popular contract was a $450 strike call expiring July 17. For buyers to just break even on that, SpaceX would need to rally roughly 180% in less than two weeks. So clearly there's still a large wave of enthusiasm around this company, despite some people positioning themselves as trying to get away from Elon in these major indexes.

[Neal Freyman]

Yeah, the retail demand for this has been insane. Okay, so you said it needs to hit a $450 per share price. Well, let's see what SpaceX stock has been doing over the past few weeks. Well, it opened at $150 per share, and then in the next few days had this remarkable run up to $225 a share. And then it's back. It's come back down to earth, so to speak, to about $160. So it's a little higher than, than where it opened, but it still has a long way to go for these most bullish SpaceX investors to make their money back. Up next, Netflix viewers are bailing after a show's first season and it's causing major problems for the company. Just look at the live action Avatar the Last Airbender, a huge hit from 2024, whose second season came out last month. As Variety points out, the new season earned just 8.7 million views in its first four days, a 59% plunge from season one. It is not the exception. Tina Fey's comedy the Four Seasons suffered a 63% drop in viewership between the first and second seasons. Beef second season dropped 58%. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder collapsed 80%. While Netflix historically sees a dip in viewers from one season to the next, this tanking is on another level. So much so that it's become a major source of concern for the company, according to Bloomberg. And it couldn't have come at a worse time because investors are already souring on Netflix. It's still the clear leader in the streaming clubhouse. The but when deciding between Netflix and Chill, more people are deciding Chill or YouTube or HBO. Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw reported that the amount of time customers spent watching Netflix last year was almost stagnant, growing less than 2% as a result. Netflix stock has fallen 40% over the past 12 months and 17% this year alone. Toby it seems people have zero loyalty to Netflix shows. What's going on?

[Toby Howell]

Part of it is just self inflicted because Netflix does a binge release model. They release the entire season in one day. If you want to watch the entire season of Beef Season two in one sitting, you can do that. So that means that their shows are flash in the pan moments. They don't sustain that buzz over time because they are not released weekly like say a House of Dragon on hbo. They have stuck to a weekly release cycle which extends that buzz for a longer period of time. So maybe that is one reason. The other reason is that Netflix in their recent history doesn't really care about if you watch the second season of a show because first seasons are the ones that bring in new subscribers. They have been all about growth. They want to get new people in the ecosystem and the easiest way to do that is constantly jangle the keys of a new season one in front of them. By the time that they're in the ecosystem, they were not focusing so much on those existing customers engagement in the platform. Now we might be seeing some cracks in that strategy, but season one has always been more important than season two to them and now they're seeing they're kind of reaping what they sowed.

[Neal Freyman]

Yeah, because it's like 50, 60, 70, 80% drops. I mean it's pretty astonishing. I think a good comp here is HBO to show that this Netflix tanking after the first and second season is truly an outlier. So let's look at the Last of us that gained 600,000 viewers between season despite being off air for two years. And that was maybe one of the one things that people pointed to for Netflix and said, well, look, people are obviously going to drop off because you're waiting two, three, four years in between seasons. We saw Stranger Things Goes went on for like a generation. But you're seeing HBO here rolled out the Last of us after two years and it gained 600,000 viewers. The White Lotus is another example of a show that grew from season one to season two, up 63% and then from season two to season three up 57%. Mentioned the house of the Dragon that fell between seasons two and season three by 8%. So that's a small drop. There was quite a multi year span there, but it's nothing like what we're seeing at Netflix. So it seems like that's a problem that they need to diagnose and it looks like they are.

[Toby Howell]

And it also looks like some of those breakout hits that were bringing in subscribers are not popping up as frequently as they were before. Netflix's biggest viewing week in April and May belong to the Roast of Kevin Hart, which is not exactly a flagship scripted series that you can Release a Season 2 of. So a lot of cracks emerging in this business model right now. Obviously the caveat is it's still doing very well. It's already dominating streaming. It is the biggest fish in the pond. But when they're looking for growth channels, maybe keeping people around for more seasons and keeping them more engaged is the path that they need to go down rather than just always looking ahead to the newest thing. All right, we're going to take a quick break and come back with Toby's Trends right after this.

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[Neal Freyman]

starting the workday at 5am, how much energy do you have left at the end of the day to figure out dinner? Toby, wake up.

[Toby Howell]

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[Neal Freyman]

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[Toby Howell]

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[Neal Freyman]

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[Toby Howell]

No. This new thing is happening where if I drink two to six beers I don't feel good.

[Neal Freyman]

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[Toby Howell]

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[Neal Freyman]

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[Toby Howell]

A new trend is sweeping the tourism industry. Rather than visiting the Isle of Man, travelers are opting for the aisle of grocery stores. Conde Nastraveler called grocery tourism a hot trend of 2026. 31% of US travelers plan to explore local supermarkets while traveling in 2026, according to Sky Scanner. So let's talk about it on today's edition of Toby's Trends. When you visit a foreign country, you don't necessarily want to do touristy stuff. Yes, the major sites are fun, but to really get an authentic look at how people in that country live their life, it's tough to beat the grocery store. Not only do you get a wonderful cross section of the type of food that place eats, from immaculately assembled convenience store sandwiches in Japan and salted fish skin snacks in Singapore to fermented herring in Sweden and licorice in the Netherlands, you also get a wonderful cross section of the people themselves. What do people snack on? What comfort foods do they eat? What products occupy the most shelf space? Supermarkets reveal real life. The substacker Nicole James described her time working in grocery stores as anthropology in a polyester apron. Neil, I love this. Don't buy magnets or trinkets. Buy mayonnaise and tartar sauce. Feels like a great way to authentically experience a place.

[Neal Freyman]

If they let you bring it through customs. Absolutely. I'm glad I'm not alone because this is one of my favorite things to do on vacation. I thought James really encapsulated the trend really well. In her p she writes, grocery stores offer the rarest thing in modern travel, the uncurated ordinary. The supermarket is the one place travel cannot fully manicure itself. Museums tell you what a country wants to remember. Restaurants tell you what it wants photographed supermarkets tell you what it eats at 6:14pm when everyone is tired and dinner has become a hostage negotiation. They disclose the private life of a destination complete with its anxieties and emergency snacks. They reveal the daily economic choices of consumers, which is why myself and I think a lot of other people, according to Conde Nastravel and all of these Hilton Trent New Trend reports saying more people to get a slice of daily life are going to the grocery store.

[Toby Howell]

It also helps you save money too because eating out in a place, eating out anywhere is usually more expensive than going to a grocery store. So if you go and buy the local fresh bread, you buy the local cheeses that can substitute a meal that you would otherwise pay a lot of money for. The other part of this trend, the sub niche, sub trend to this trend is reusable. Bags have become souvenirs as well. So just like, you know, the Trader Joe totes are big in America. When you go to another country, you want that version of the Trader Joe's tote to bring home. So it is kind of becoming the de facto souvenir that people want as well. And I think that is a great one. Coming back with a sweet tote bag is cooler than coming back again with a magnet or a trinket or something like that.

[Neal Freyman]

Now I'm going to go back home and see my refrigerator full of magnets and just tear them down. Toby doesn't think they're cool. I will say you don't even have to leave the United States to do this because each region has their own grocery store that says a lot about that particular region. So if I go to Berkeley, California I'm absolutely going to go to the Berkeley bowl which is known for its produce. If I go to Texas, definitely going to stop by HB Publix in Florida. If I go to Los Angeles, probably will stop by an ERA one which I actually haven't been to. There's seems to be quite a bit of buzz around that particular place. I don't know if I'll buy anything because I can't afford it, but I'll definitely stop by. But you can do this in the United States too, and see what each region has to offer.

[Toby Howell]

I was thinking that, man, US Grocery stores are so lame because I was reading through, like, what foreign grocery stores have, and there's very cool stuff. Obviously Japan seems like the coolest. They have melon soft drinks. They have a ton of different flavors of KitKat and whatnot. But I think we're just numb to it because we live in the States. But if you came from a foreign country and you saw spray cheese and pop Tarts, that probably would be such an American experience. And it would be so. I mean, it's something we've seen across the World cup. As European visitors and foreign visitors have come to the States, they do marvel at things that we think are mundane. But spray cheese would blow my mind if I was from a country like Netherlands. That definitely doesn't have.

[Neal Freyman]

I think the thing about American grocery stores is just the abundance of options, just the scale of the thing. If you just go to a supermarket in the suburbs, any supermarket, you know, I think if you're coming, at least this was a famous thing from the Soviet Union to the United States. You would just be astonished by the sheer number of options available to you. So, yeah, this is a cool trend. I love it. Next time I go abroad or to another part of the country, I'll absolutely visit the grocery store. And one of the best parts about it is seeing, you know, some of the brands that you're familiar with, but in a new light or just a much better version because often other countries have better candy than us. They have, you know, Italy as Nutella, but without the added sugar. So it's kind of fun.

[Toby Howell]

Where's the fun of that?

[Neal Freyman]

Well, I mean, if you knew how much sugar is in Nutella, you'd probably go for that. Okay, let's sprint to the finish with some final headlines. The parent company of CNBC is buying a golf simulator. Yep. Versant Media Group, the owner of channels including CNBC, Ms. now and Golf Channel, said it was buying the golf simulator company Full Swing for a mountain of cash. $530 million. The Tiger woods backed Full Swing makes golf and baseball simulators for consumers and sports venues and provides the technology behind TGL, the indoor golf league founded by Tiger and Rory McIlroy. So what does the owner of cable stations want with Toby's favorite activity on a rainy day? Diversification spun out of Comcast earlier this year. Versant knows its cable channels are on life support, so it's been scooping up non TV businesses like The AI stock platform stock story, and now golf simulators for new pathways to growth. Toby, you like the move?

[Toby Howell]

I kind of like it. And the reason why I have that kind of precursor in front of liking it is the fact that Full Swing is not that good of a. Of a golf simulator simulator. Unfortunately, I have used it and it is not that accurate, like in terms of the top of the line models, the competitors that it's going against. So that's always been frustrating. It's been frustrating in tgl, which it's supposed to be. You know, this big showcase of this technology just doesn't really work sometimes. So that's one reason why I think they may have overpaid for this business. But I do like the bigger industry trend of media companies trying to find new business lines. If you think about the New York Times, it's obviously a big media organization, but its biggest moneymaker is its games division at this point. So they have games to support its news. Walt Disney company, it has a parks business to support, you know, its other entertainment endeavors. So the fact that Versant is building around golf I do think is a smart plan. Did they get the right asset? That is what remains to be seen.

[Neal Freyman]

Maybe they should have bought Maptap.

[Toby Howell]

Maptap?

[Kayla Lopez]

What?

[Toby Howell]

Someone's got to buy Maptap. That is one of the Morning Brew Daily's favorite games. Moving on. The Minions may be yellow, but they are still printing green. Over the July 4th weekend, Minions and Monsters pushed the Despicable Me slash Minions franchise past $5.6 billion at the global box office, officially making it the highest grossing animated franchise ever. But beneath that milestone is a yellow warning sign. The latest installment opened to a franchise low $62 million domestically, suggesting that after seven movies in 16 years, audiences may finally be showing signs of a minion fatigue. The film should still turn a nice profit, thanks to a modest $85 million budget and strong international sales. But for the first time, the Minions look mortal.

[Neal Freyman]

Neil, can you do that again in minion knees, please. I didn't understand a word you were saying. What's ironic about this is that this is the highest league, highest critically reviewed installment in the Minions franchise and has all these odes to old movies like King Kong, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, all these Easter eggs to things like the Matrix and E.T. so critics loved it. It's apparently a great movie. But yeah, it didn't bring in even close to remotely close to what had been a peak of $123 million for minions. The rise of GRU in 2022, it was facing a lot of competition this weekend. I mean, the July 4th, there's a lot of other stuff going on. There was the World Cup. The July 4th itself was on a Saturday. So there's just a lot of, you know, other things potentially to do. You also have Toy Story 5 in theaters, which is probably taking some tickets away. And then things don't get any easier this upcoming weekend if you're the Despicable Me franchise, because that's when the live action Moana comes. And so Disney is muscling in with Toy Story 5 and now Moana into Minions turf. Finally, your most reckless friends might be in Pamplona, Spain, where the annual running of the bulls began this morning in a tradition dating back to the 16th century. For the next seven days, huge fighting bulls will be released down the streets of the city's old Quarter as hundreds of daredevils try to outrun them. Already today, five people were injured, not too seriously, and 16 people have died since 1924. The event, officially known as the Festival of San Fermin, draws many visitors from around the world, and over 12,000 people were on hand to watch the festivities begin this morning. Toby this is like the complete opposite of grocery tourism.

[Toby Howell]

This is a much more dangerous version of that. We are the groceries. But this year is especially noteworthy because it's the 100th anniversary of Ernest Hemingway's the Sun Also Rises, which is widely credited with transforming this from a local Spanish tradition into an international event. And it really has become an international event. Roughly 15% of the festival's attendees come from abroad, and 16% of those foreign bull runners were American. So we are by far the largest international group that is more than four times as much that come over from France, which is its neighbor. So we love running with the bulls. And it partly is traced back to this Hemingway novel.

[Neal Freyman]

I know some people who went. I know, I know.

[Toby Howell]

Really?

[Neal Freyman]

Yeah. A couple of years ago. And they came back friends with. Yeah. And this frat, they. They went and they came back alive. I didn't see any goring or anything. But this does happen. I mean, for the next seven days, you will open up any news website and you'll see, like, six people gored at the running of the bulls. Eight people gored at the running of the bulls. It seems.

[Toby Howell]

Not for me.

[Neal Freyman]

It seems like an insane thing to do, but maybe they should have a leg of the Tour de France that you said it started in Barcelona. Just go through it. Yeah. I mean, I think they could. You know, they seem like a little safer. They could probably outcycle the Bulls. Okay, that is all the time we have. Thanks so much for starting your morning with us. Have a wonderful Tuesday. And I have a request. Go to your calendar and check what you're doing Thursday, July 30th. If you have an opening that evening and live near New York, you should definitely come out to a trivia show we're putting on with our Morning Brew coworker, Max and Nomics. The concept Beat the Morning Brew Daily hosts. Instead of our typical trivia nights where we ask you questions, you'll play against me and Toby to win prizes and just have an overall great time. Check out the link in the show notes for details and we can't wait to see you there.

[Toby Howell]

If you ever thought that, man, I'm smarter than these two jamboks. This is the night for you, so it should be fun, a very competitive atmosphere. So definitely come out to caveat and have a good night with us.

[Neal Freyman]

To share your thoughts on the episode or anything else, send an email to Morning Brew Daily at Morning Broadcom or DM us on Instagram at me Daily show let's roll the credits. Emily Milian is our supervising producer. Raymond Lu is our senior producer. Our producer is Olivia Graham and our associate producer is Olivia Lake. Technical direction by Nina Miller. Hair and makeup bailed after our first season. Devin Emery is our president, and our show is a production of Morning Brew.

[Toby Howell]

Great show today, Neil. Let's run it back tomorrow.

[Kyle Hagee]

Let's face it, modern work life is complicated.

[Kayla Lopez]

But good news. We're here for you. I'm Kayla Lopez.

[Kyle Hagee]

And I'm Kyle Hagee, and together we've

[Kayla Lopez]

helped thousands of Morning Brew subscribers grow in their careers.

[Kyle Hagee]

And now, as the co host of Per My Last Email, we're bringing that advice straight to you each week with hot takes and tactics on how to succeed in every area of work, whether

[Kayla Lopez]

that's figuring out if you're being underpaid

[Kyle Hagee]

or how to stand out in a remote work environment.

[Kayla Lopez]

So join us each week on Per My Last Email on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.