This week's winners, losers and newsmakers.

Winners

Family movie night: Thanks to the latest addition to the Minions franchise, “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” family movie night is back. The prequel set box office records over the holiday weekend, generating an estimated $125 million over the four-day period. The flick may have also gotten a boost from a new “Gentleminions” TikTok trend which finds young men donning formal suits to attend the movie in theaters. 

Early back-to-school shopping:  Ahead of Amazon Prime Day next week, other retailers rolled out the red carpet of deals inviting consumers to get a head start on back-to-school shopping. Target is offering deep discounts for college students and teachers. DSW kicked off its own deals on brands such as Crocs and New Balance, and debuted a campaign with the family of singer/songwriter Jessie James Decker and former pro football player Eric Decker. A quarter of consumers have already started their back-to-school shopping this year as higher prices and out-of-stock items are expected, according to a recent analysis from the National Retail Federation.

Just Eat Takeaway: The Dutch online food delivery company saw shares spike after Amazon said it would take a stake in Grubhub, the U.S. restaurant delivery service it bought in 2021. As part of the deal, Amazon Prime members in the U.S. will receive a one-year membership to Grubhub.

Losers

NBCUniversal's Olympics Channel: The TV network plans to pull the plug on its Olympics channel by Sept. 30. The five-year-old channel had featured year-round content on U.S. Olympics athletes. An NBCUniversal spokeswoman told Variety that the company is “reevaluating” its programming distribution and will announce new plans for the fall. Late last year, NBCUniversal also axed NBCSN, another sports network.

Wells Fargo: The bank said it would undergo another round of job cuts, this time in the Des Moines, Iowa, area, where its home mortgage division is based, as the downturn in the housing market continues. The new layoffs number 107, Wells Fargo said. Since April, the company has laid off nearly 200 staffers. As interest rates rise, fewer consumers are applying for mortgages.

Dallas Cowboys: The football team is facing backlash over a decision to partner with Black Rifle Coffee, a company that has built its brand around guns, on a recent giveaway deal. The promotion, which gave a Cowboys fan a yearlong subscription to Black Rifle Coffee, a seller of products such as “AK-47 Espresso Blend,” was announced the day after a shooter in Highland Park, Illinois killed seven people and injured dozens more at a July 4th parade, and weeks after 21 people were killed by a shooter at a Uvalde, Texas, school. Many took to Twitter to voice their outrage.

Tweet of the week

Quote of the week

“Amazon, part of their messaging especially this year to consumers is that there’s going to be great deals on Prime Day, and they have to really prove that this year because people don’t want to spend money.” –Kiri Masters, founder and CEO of digital agency Bobsled Marketing, about how Amazon is encouraging brands to participate in its annual summer shopping event.

Number of the week

7%: The purchase intent rate of Gen Z shoppers buying online across categories in the first quarter of 2022, according to e-commerce marketing and analytics platform MikMak, which found the group is 1.3x more likely to buy online than the generational average.

On the move

Crown Media Family Networks promoted Jodi Harvey to VP, advertising sales, from ad sales director. It also promoted Lauren Shaw to director, ad sales brand marketing, from distribution sales coordinator.

Jenny Craig named Dan Hofmeister chief marketing officer. He was most recently senior VP and general manager at Bumble Bee Foods.