| |  | TOGETHER WITH |  | | | Good morning.
Here is a good news/bad news story. A Texas woman bought a 2,000-year-old Roman relic for $34.99 at a Goodwill shop in San Antonio. The good news is that she is entitled to a small finder’s fee, which will likely more than cover her cash outlay.
The bad news is she will not be permitted to sell it, as the bust of a male figure dating to the first century BC, once owned by the Bavarian King Ludwig I, was likely stolen during or after the 1944-45 Allied bombings of Germany. Art for art’s sake, right? | | | • | | ‘Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness’ rocked the weekend box office. | | • | | One of the biggest digital mental health startups has been subpoenaed by the DOJ amid overprescription concerns. | | • | | Canada is suing to block a $16 billion telecoms merger to lance back at the country’s Rocky Mountain-high cell phone bills. | | | | |  | Hollywood | Latest Marvel Movie Kickstarts Summer Blockbuster Season With Massive Debut |  | | It’s the type of comeback story Hollywood simply adores. The big, bad villain has suffered an unexpected blow (that would be film industry mega-disruptor Netflix and its dire recent earnings results). Now, an old-school hero — the traditional movie-theater business — has a chance to prove there’s still some gas left in the tank.
This weekend, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, the latest installment in Disney and Marvel’s long-running, uber-successful costumed Avengers franchise, scored one of the biggest domestic box-office debuts of all time. This could be the beginning of a rollicking, sequels-and-superheroes-fueled summer movie season. | Dr. Strange Love (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Return to Theaters) | | The Doctor Strange sequel is the 28th installment in Disney’s big-screen superhero universe. In one weekend, it proved the House of Mouse remains more than capable of drawing audiences away from streaming content on their laptops and mancaves for the thrill of the big screen. The film's $185 million domestic draw was the biggest opening of the year (besting The Batman’s $135 million domestic debut), and the second-largest opening of the pandemic era (behind fellow Marvel superhero flick Spider-Man: No Way Home). It was also the eleventh biggest opening weekend in Hollywood history, a titanic achievement (in the 1997 sense, not the 1912 one).
Disney's enormous haul suggests there's a strong summer movie season on the way, with tentpole releases like Top Gun: Maverick (a big movie sequel), Jurassic World: Dominion (a big franchise sequel), and Thor: Love and Thunder (yet another Marvel sequel). The amount of recycled IP, however, raises one major concern — non-franchise and independent films are struggling: | • | | The Northman, a well-received Viking-themed revenge tale with a reported $90 million budget, has earned just $50 million worldwide since its April 22 release. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, a Nicolas Cage vehicle that was released the same day to similarly positive reviews, has earned just $20 million worldwide so far. | | • | | Doctor Strange 2 opened in 4,545 theaters, the highest count of the post-pandemic era and the fifth-highest of all time. In one extreme example, AMC’s Times Square location hosted 70 screenings on its opening day — taking valuable screen real estate from other films. | | | | Hollywood may be celebrating, but cinephiles and moviegoers sick of spandex-clad celebrities may be happier sticking to their streaming services at home. | | | | | | Healthcare | Digital Health Startup Cerebra Gets Subpoenaed Over ADHD Prescriptions | | When it comes to the health of their ADHD patients, US regulators are concerned online telehealth companies aren’t paying enough attention.
On Saturday, mental health startup Cerebral disclosed that it has been served with a subpoena by federal prosecutors investigating possible violations of the Controlled Substances Act. The company was already under scrutiny for allegedly being way too quick to sign off on amphetamine prescriptions. | Too Much of a Good Thing | | Digital startups have piled into the mental health space, making care available in as many clicks as it takes to summon an Uber. Cerebral, which runs a subscription platform that connects people in all 50 states to a network of some 2,000 clinicians, has registered over 200,000 patients since it was founded in 2020. With backing from SoftBank, it notched a $4.8 billion valuation in December 2021.
Making mental health services more accessible is unquestionably a good thing. The question now is whether it’s been too much of a good thing. Earlier this year, clinicians who work with Cerebral said they felt pressured to prescribe patients stimulants to treat ADHD after half-hour-long evaluations that were too short to make a diagnosis. Then, last month brought a blistering lawsuit from a former executive: | • | | “When Cerebral determined that patients who were prescribed stimulants were more likely to remain Cerebral customers, the CEO directed Cerebral employees to find ways to prescribe stimulants to more ADHD patients to increase retention,” alleges a suit filed by former VP Matthew Truebe, who also claims the company’s “goal was to prescribe stimulants to 100% of Cerebral’s ADHD patients.” | | • | | Truebe also alleges he found 2,000 duplicate shipping addresses, meaning some users could be trying to fraudulently obtain extra drugs, and that the company failed to address the issue when he raised it. Cerebral denies all of his claims. | | | | Red Flags: Cerebral plans to “pause” new prescriptions for ADHD drugs like Adderall and Ritalin beginning today. Many in the pharmaceutical industry had actually been quietly concerned for months. Some Walmart and CVS pharmacies blocked and delayed Adderall prescriptions from Cerebral and digital health rival Done, according to sources who spoke to the WSJ. Earlier this month, Truepill, Cerebral’s online pharmacy of choice, stopped filling ADHD prescriptions out of an “abundance of caution.” | | | | | | SPONSORED BY magic mind | The Better Beverage To Dominate Today | Java, energy drinks, and the like can give you that jolt or buzz to get going. Fast forward to 3 pm and you’ve already downed your 3rd cup of the day or worse…dreaded afternoon fatigue sets in. To tackle the day all the way through, it’s time for a more complete energy ritual. Enter Magic Mind. They’ve whipped up the world’s first productivity drink, combining real and scientifically-proven ingredients like matcha green tea, honey, cordyceps mushrooms, and bacopa monnieri to improve energy and alertness, while leaving the jitters and crash behind. Giving you 7+ hours of creative flow-state in a bottle, Magic Mind is the result of years of research and the meticulous review of a scientific advisory board of doctors and medical researchers. Get more out of your day and ditch the negative effects of over-caffeination. See how Magic Mind can improve your routine and productivity today. | | | | | | Telecommunications | Canada Moves to Block $16 Billion Telecoms Merger in World’s Priciest Market | | Spring may finally be here, and the snow has melted away, but regulators in Canada want to put a blockbuster merger on dry ice.
On Saturday, Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications, two of Canada’s major telecommunications companies, announced the country’s Competition Bureau will sue to block their proposed $16 billion merger. If you have ever been a cell phone customer in Canada, you know why. | We Stand on Guard for Three | | If asked about the most expensive place in the world to have a mobile phone plan, you’d probably never guess it was The Great White North. That’s right — mobile data consultancy Rewheel has repeatedly found Canada to be the world leader in smartphone bills, and by a significant margin.
Analysts and academics have pointed to a blindingly obvious reason for this: lack of telecom competition. Three companies — Rogers, Bell, and Telus — represent almost 90% of mobile phone revenues in Canada, which critics have termed an effective oligopoly. If Rogers were to acquire Shaw, a smaller competitor active in the western part of the country, regulators fear a bad situation could get worse: | • | | Rewheel’s latest study, from October 2021, found the minimum cost of a 4G monthly mobile phone plan with at least 100 gigabytes of data included was $123 in Canada. That is miles more expensive than second-place South Africa, at $90. In the US, that number is about $75. Having a cell phone plan in Canada costs roughly 13 times more than it does in France. So much for the Canadians’ right to liberté from an unhealthily uncompetitive environment. | | • | | Critics allege the effective oligopoly has not only driven up prices, but also disincentivized the big firms (which engage in “likely restrictive and anti-competitive” network sharing, according to Rewheel) from spending on innovation or upgrades. Earlier this year, PwC ranked Canada 14th among 25 countries for broadband speeds, and criticized Canada’s slow 5G rollout. | | | | Anticipating pushback from regulators, when announcing merger plans last year, Rogers and Shaw promised to spend $2 billion on 5G networks, $800 million on rural high-speed internet, and $2.3 billion to maintain existing networks — but only after the merger is completed. It wasn’t good enough, and now they will face the wrath of the Competition Bureau in court.
That’s Amore: An investigation found that loading an hour of Netflix using a Canadian mobile-data plan costs $12.55 on average. In Italy, not only is the weather better, but that same hour of Netflix costs… 43 cents. | | | | | | Extra Upside | • | | More like the old normal: Lyft wants you to carpool again. | | • | | Federal labor officials accuse Starbucks of ugly union-busting tactics. | | • | | “ A bottle of white…A bottle of red…” A fine wine isn’t just the ideal way to kick off dinner or a timeless Billy Joel anthem. It’s also proven a precious investment opportunity, returning 10.6% annually over the last 30 years. And Vinovest is helping investors get in on the bottle-popping returns with curated vintages, insider pricing, and hassle-free authentication and storage. Diversify your portfolio with fine wine in minutes with Vinovest.* *Partner | | | | | | |  | Just For Fun | | | | | Written by Sean Craig and Brian Boyle. | | No longer want to receive these emails? Unsubscribe here. Copyright © 2022 The Daily Upside, LLC., All rights reserved. 1230 York Avenue, Box 154, New York, NY 10065 | | | | |
