Prepandemic

It's becoming clearer that audiences are no longer satisfied just sitting on the couch to watch movies. Not only are they returning to movie theaters in droves, theater operators say they're opting for pricier tickets and spending more on concessions.Over the weekend, Disney's newest Marvel Cinematic Universe film, "Thor: Love and Thunder," opened to nearly $145 million in ticket sales domestically and drew around 10 million moviegoers out to cinemas.With additional ticket sales from movies like Paramount and Skydance's…

New applications for unemployment benefits rose last week above their prepandemic average for the first time since January, adding to signs the hot labor market could be starting to cool a little. Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, increased by 27,000 to 229,000 last week from the previous week’s revised level of 202,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. Claims had been at or below the 2019 average of 218,000 since late January. The four-week average of new…

Delta Air Lines expects its revenue to return to 2019 levels this quarter thanks to a surge in travel demand and higher fares that helped it cover a jump in fuel costs, the carrier said in a filing Wednesday.The Atlanta-based airline updated its forecast less than a week after announcing it would trim its schedule to try and stem flight disruptions that impacted tens of thousands of passengers last month. The airline had been more conservative about expanding its schedule compared with competitors.Still, hundreds of…

WeWork Inc.’s first-quarter loss narrowed sharply as gross desk sales reached prepandemic levels with the gradual return of employees in the U.S. to in-person work. The shared-office company said Thursday its top line rose 28% from a year ago, with 166,000 desks sold, the highest level since the first quarter of 2020. Revenue was higher than WeWork’s forecast for the period and the company raised the low end of its revenue outlook for the year. The results are the latest…