The Super Mario Bros. Movie led ticket sales for the fourth straight weekend in U.S. and Canadian theaters with $40 million as the global haul for the Universal Pictures release surpassed $1 billion, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The Nintendo videogame adaptation dominated the month of April in theaters, smashing records along the way. Over the weekend, it faced little new competition, though that will change next week when Marvels Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 kicks off the summer movie calendar and is expected to move Mario to the side. Studios spent the last week at CinemaCon in Las Vegas promoting coming blockbusters and promising big returns at the summer box office.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie was estimated to easily cross $1 billion in worldwide box office Sunday, making it the 10th animated film to reach that milestone and the first since 2019. With a domestic total thus far of $490 million, international sales are even stronger. The Illumination-animated release took in $68.3 million overseas over the weekend, pushing its international haul to $532.5 million.

Second place went to Evil Dead Rise. The horror sequel from Warner Bros. held well in its second week, especially for a horror film, dipping 50% with $12.2 million.

Among the weekends newcomers, the Judy Blume adaptation Are You There God? Its Me, Margaret fared the best. The Lionsgate release grossed $6.8 million in 3,343 locations, a decent start for the $30 million-budgeted coming-of age tale written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig (The Edge of Seventeen).

As expected, Are You There God? Its Me, Margaret, about an 11-year-old (Abby Ryder Fortson) going through puberty, drew an overwhelming female audience. With stellar reviews (99% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and strong audience scores (an A CinemaScore), Are You There God? Its Me Margaret, should play well through Mothers Day.

Lionsgate also released the Finnish action movie Sisu in 1,006 locations. The film, about a prospector (Jorma Tommila) whose gold is stolen by Nazis, grossed an estimated $3.3 million. That was a solid result for the rare international film to receive a nationwide opening. Reviews have been good (93% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) for writer-director Jalmari Helanders film.

Sisu managed to surpass the weekends most heavyweight new release: Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World. The film, from Sonys Christian production company Affirm Films, gives a faith-based twist to the sports biopic. But after getting dinged by bad review, it didnt punch very hard, with $3 million in 3,054 theaters.

Nida Manzoors Polite Society, about a British-Pakistani high-schooler (Priya Kansara) with dreams of becoming a stuntwoman, debuted with $800,000 in 927 theaters. The Focus Features film, one of the standouts of Januarys Sundance Film Festival, blends kung-fu with Jane Austen in a story about London sisters.

One of the weekends biggest successes was a familiar box-office force. The Walt Disney Co.s rerelease of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi grossed $4.7 million in just 475 theaters. Disney put Jedi (the 1997 special edition version) back into theaters to commemorate the 1983 films 40th anniversary.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. The Super Mario Bros. Movie, $40 million.

2. Evil Dead Rise, $12.2 million.

3. Are You There, God? Its Me, Margaret, $6.8 million.

4. John Wick: Chapter 4, $5 million.

5. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, $4.7 million.

6. Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, $4.1 million.

7. Air, $4 million.

8. Ponniyin Selvan: Part Two, $3.6 million.

9. The Covenant, $3.6 million.

10. Sisu, $3.3 million.

Bitcoin is set to climb for the fourth month in a row after eking out an April gain, the best such stretch since a six-month advance through March 2021. In the past decade, four-month winning runs foreshadowed an average Bitcoin surge of 260% over the subsequent year, data compiled by Bloomberg shows.

A jump of that magnitude would take the largest digital asset to a record $105,000 from about $30,000 currently, the zone where its 77% rebound in 2023 from last years punishing crypto rout has stalled somewhat. 

Bitcoin has changed narrative garb like a chameleon during the revival, drawing succor from bets on a Federal Reserve pivot to looser monetary policy, the perceived blow to fiat currency from the US banking crisis and a planned reduction in the supply of new tokens a so-called halving due next year.

The biggest thing for crypto is that its a lightning rod for liquidity, Christopher Forbes, head of CMC Invest Singapore, said on Bloomberg Television. And as liquidity returns to the market, and it is and were seeing that, I think crypto will continue to trade well.

In recent days, Standard Chartered Bank, BCA Research and Bloomberg Intelligence have all flagged possible paths to at least $100,000 for Bitcoin.

Scarce Asset

The recent banking-sector crisis has helped to re-establish Bitcoins core use case as a decentralized, trustless and scarce digital asset, Geoff Kendrick, head of crypto and EM FX West research at Standard Chartered, wrote in a note.

BCAs Associate Vice President Juan Correa-Ossa said its possible for Bitcoin in the long-term to partially usurp gold as a store of value in a digitalizing world. If the token approached 25% of the market capitalization of the yellow metal, that would put Bitcoins price at $160,000, Correa-Ossa wrote in a note.

Bloomberg Intelligences Jamie Douglas Coutts said if 1% of global bond-market value moved toward Bitcoin, that would take the price to $185,000.

US Crackdown

None of the analysts are saying such trajectories are inevitable but the fact they are being evaluated shows the changed mood compared with 2022, when digital assets crashed and the FTX exchange headlined a spate of blowups.

Bitcoin and the wider crypto world remain exposed to a variety of risks, not least the crackdown on the sector in the US. A shorter term threat is if traders pare back expectations of friendlier Fed policy, according to BCAs Correa-Ossa.

The various crosscurrents, amid a period of pronounced economic uncertainty, make the outlooks for real and virtual assets hard to parse. Bitcoin remains about $40,000 below its 2021 all-time high of almost $69,000.

Crypto markets have cycles, too, only these in the past have been driven mainly by crypto-specific factors, wrote Noelle Acheson, author of the Crypto Is Macro Now newsletter. Not any more now the crypto market has multiple drivers, making the narratives more complex while opening up the market to new investing cohorts.

With assistance from Sidhartha Shukla.

With inflation as high as 9% in the past year, Powells colleagues were all-in on the fight to curb price pressures, with another 25 basis-point hike expected Wednesday that might be the concluding increase. Yet that consensus is already showing signs of splintering, amid inflation that remains too high while Fed staff and many private economists see a recession in coming months.

Since Covid-19 threatened the US economy in early 2020, Powell has secured more than 98% of the Federal Open Market Committees votes in favor of his actions, first to stimulate growth during the recession and then to fight inflation in the past year. Rising dissents are more likely as the choices of battling inflation or much higher unemployment become more troubling. 

This could be a pivotal meeting, said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG LLP. We are getting close to the hardest mile for the Fed in this marathon the part where backlash to rate hikes will intensify, in ways no one on the Fed has had to weather. 

Fed officials have signaled that the FOMC will hike rates another quarter point at its May 2-3 meeting to a range of 5% to 5.25%, the highest since 2007 and part of the most aggressive tightening campaign since Paul Volcker took on double-digit inflation four decades ago.

The economy is also being buffeted by tighter credit in the wake of the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Thats equivalent to another half-point hike or more in the Feds target rate, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg, resulting in tighter conditions across loan categories and especially for commercial real estate, where significant losses are expected.

Another big uncertainty is the looming US debt ceiling.

With the Fed staff and two-thirds of economists predicting a recession, that puts FOMC voters in an uncomfortable position of deciding whether to continue the inflation fight or try to cushion a slowing economy.

Powell will have a harder time keeping the group together, said Vincent Reinhart, chief economist at Dreyfus and Mellon who previously spent a quarter century working at the Fed. It was easy last year when inflation was so far above goal because that dominated their sense of purpose. There are internal differences in opinion that are a feature of the diversity of the committee.

The forward guidance at the May meeting could be a subject of intense debate given the conflicting views of the need to hike more.

The Feds forecasts in March show seven of 18 FOMC participants favored at least one more hike beyond the expected move to 5-5.25%, with one official looking for rates as high as 6%. The divisions are even greater for next year, with more than 2 percentage points of difference in the upper and lower forecasts for rates.

The committee may want to tweak its language from March that it anticipates some additional policy firming, but it might be hard to appease both policy hawks and doves. Officials may also be wary of investors loosening financial conditions in a way that would boost inflation.

They have a problem here, said Ethan Harris, head of global economics research at Bank of America Corp. The outcome for the economy going forward is getting more uncertain. So they need to express some flexibility, but they dont want to encourage the bond market to price in immediate rate cuts.

Among the hawks, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, who doesnt vote this year, has urged pushing rates up to a 5.5%-5.75% range, arguing the economy is resilient and banking woes wont be too costly. Some of that sentiment has been echoed by Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, a voter, and by Fed Governor Christopher Waller. 

Among the doves, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee, a voter, has called for prudence and patience in assessing the impact of the banking stress on the economy, and the Philadelphia Feds Patrick Harker, another voter, has warned the Fed could move too much and cause an accident.

At this point, I dont see why we would just continue to go up, up, up and then go, whoops! he said April 11. And then go down, down, down very quickly. Lets sit there.

The FOMC is forecasting unemployment will rise to 4.5% at years end from 3.5% in March, an increase that some say would indicate a recession is under way. With the 2024 presidential election campaign already heating up, the Fed will be under more pressure over its choices. In the 1980s, Volcker endured protests from farmers and homebuilders, with the latter sending lumber to the chairman to register their displeasure.

How would you explain your view that they need to lose their jobs? Senator Elizabeth Warren asked Powell in a Senate hearing in March.

Powell has insisted that the Fed wont prematurely loosen and wont end the inflation fight until the Fed is sure price rises are headed back to the central banks 2% target, even as unemployment rises some.  Hes said the path could be bumpy which could reinforce the view of the hawks that more hikes are needed.

It is a difficult decision point for the Fed as it weighs whether its done too little or too much, former Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren told a Tufts University EconoFact roundtable last week. If the unemployment rate were to go up too quickly, that would be more challenging.

With assistance from Alex Tanzi.

Providing an instant answer, Willie Nelson, wearing a cowboy hat and red-white-and-blue guitar strap, slowly strolled on to the stage on his 90th birthday, bringing the crowd of more than 17,000 to its feet.

Nelson sat in a chair one of the few onstage concessions hes made to age and joined Young for the rest of their 1985 duet, Are There Any More Real Cowboys?

I want to thank all the artists who came out tonight to help celebrate whatever it is were celebrating, said Nelson, feigning senility and getting a laugh.

The moment came three hours into the first of a two-night celebration of the country legend at the open-air Los Angeles amphitheater, where generations of stars sang his songs in tribute.

As a kid growing up in Texas, it seemed like there was nothing bigger than Willie Nelson, said Owen Wilson, one of the evenings emcees along with Helen Mirren, Ethan Hawke and Jennifer Garner. And looking out at the Hollywood Bowl tonight, it still feels like theres nothing bigger than Willie Nelson.

After Young, Nelson brought out George Strait, a country superstar of the following generation, for their self-referential duet, Sing One With Willie, followed by the Willie perennial, Pancho and Lefty, with Strait singing the part once played by the late Merle Haggard.

Nelson then shouted, Come out and roll one with me Snoop!

Strutting out came rapper Snoop Dogg, sitting next to Nelson as they launched into their stoner anthem, Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die. Perhaps fittingly, each seemed to forget the words at times. The two friends looked too happy to care.

Somebody make some noise for the legend Mr. Willie Nelson! Snoop shouted mid-song.

The parade of partners illustrated one of the nights themes: Willie brings people together.

All of the sudden, it didnt matter if you were a hillbilly or a hippie, everyone was a Willie Nelson fan, Wilson said of Nelsons late-blooming emergence as a singing superstar when he left Nashville, Tennessee, and returned to his native Texas in the 1970s. Even the Dalai Lama is a Willie Nelson fan. Its true.

The crowd, which ranged from small children to seniors, illustrated the point. The stands were dotted with cowboy hats while hippies danced in the aisles and weed smoke wafted in the air.

Miranda Lambert thrilled them with a rousing, sing-along version of Mammas Dont Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys, Nelsons 1978 hit with Waylon Jennings. The Chicks blazed through 1970s Bloody Mary Morning at the same break-neck pace that Willie and his Family Band played it live in their prime.

Nelson has outlived nearly every member of that band, which backed him for decades of constant touring and recording. His little sister and piano player, Bobbie Nelson, died last year. She got her own tribute from Norah Jones, who banged the keys through the younger Nelsons saloon-style solo song, Down Yonder, from Willie Nelsons definitive 1975 album, Red Headed Stranger.

While many of the women who took the stage played rousing rockers, most of the men went in for quiet emotion.

Chris Stapleton kept his guitar at his side through a soft, reflective rendition of Always on My Mind, Nelsons biggest solo hit of the 1980s. Nelsons son Lukas sang Angel Flying Too Close to The Ground alone with his acoustic guitar, his voice a dead ringer for his dads.

Another surviving member of the Family Band, harmonica master Mickey Raphael, was part of the weekends house band, led by Don Was, which backed almost everyone.

Nelson also has outlived most of his classic collaborators. But an essential one, his 86-year-old Highwaymen bandmate Kris Kristofferson, made it to the stage to join Rosanne Cash, the daughter of another Highwayman: Johnny Cash.

Rosanne Cash was singing Nelsons Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything Ill Ever Do Again) when Kristofferson, who wrote the song, came out and harmonized with her on the choruses.

Nelsons musical diversity was another evening theme.

He blends and bends genres, Mirren said from the stage. His timing and categories are his own.

Leon Bridges Night Life showed off Nelsons affinity for the blues, as did Jones jazzy trip through Funny How Time Slips Away from 1961, when Nelson was known primarily as a songwriter of hits for others.

Ziggy Marley sang Still Is Still Moving To Me, which Nelson recorded in 1993 and later sang with Toots and the Maytals in one of his occasional forays into reggae. Marley shouted Wee-lay! in his Jamaican accent during the song.

Sundays night show will feature a whole different range of acts including Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow and Emmylou Harris.

Young first took the stage with his early collaborator Stephen Stills. The pair played a revved up version of For What Its Worth, swapping guitar solos on the classic hit they made as members of Buffalo Springfield in 1966.

Nelson brought out all the evenings artists to join him for the Carter Familys 1935 song, Will the Circle Be Unbroken? a longtime live favorite of his and the classic closing song for all of country music.

It was clearly intended to be the end, as Hawke took the mic and started to thank everyone for coming.

But the 90-year-old wasnt ready to stop. He interrupted and broke into Mac Davis Its Hard to Be Humble, which Nelson and his sons recorded in 2019.

It was a funny choice for a final song, but its chorus was a perfect comic coda for a man who had been drowned in adoration all night:

To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, its hard to be humble. But Im doing the best that I can.