Finance
Burlington's stock has surged after the off-price retailer significantly outperformed expectations in its fourth-quarter results.
March 8, 2025
As awards season heats up, Letterboxd’s 17 million movie enthusiasts are in full swing, curating their top picks for the year’s cinematic gems. From fiery debates to meticulous reviews, the platform has become the ultimate stage for film buffs to champion their 2024 favorites ahead of the Oscars. Whether it’s logging every indie darling or dissecting blockbuster hits, the Letterboxd community is making sure no masterpiece goes unnoticed.
As the 2025 Oscar nominations dropped, movie lovers flocked to review platforms to dissect the winners, losers, and jaw-dropping snubs (looking at you, Better Man). Once the go-to for film critiques, IMDb now faces a challenge from Letterboxd, the once-niche film social network that’s skyrocketed to mainstream fame.
Launched in 2011, Letterboxd gained traction as a cinephile’s paradise but exploded in popularity post-pandemic, now boasting over 17 million users—a staggering leap from just 1.8 million four years ago. In 2024 alone, the platform saw 96.4 million reviews, fueled by Gen Z’s love for meme-worthy content, celebrity account leaks, and viral “Four Favorites” lists.
While IMDb remains the self-proclaimed “most authoritative source” for movie content, Letterboxd’s social edge and viral culture have redefined how film fans engage. Whether it’s sandworms, shipwrecked robots, or hundreds of beavers that top this year’s Oscars chatter, one thing is clear: the reign of the armchair critic is stronger—and funnier—than ever.
Presented by Turn Therapeutics
When faced with a deadly infection boasting a 70% fatality rate and no existing cure, Bradley Burnam did what most wouldn’t dare—he created the solution himself. Enter Hexagen: a groundbreaking formula that Burnam personally shepherded through the FDA clearance process for just $24,000. But he didn’t stop there. Building on this success, Burnam expanded the technology, secured two additional FDA clearances, and founded a company that’s rewriting the rules on self-made medical innovation: Turn Therapeutics.
Hexagen isn’t just breaking barriers; it’s healing them. Cleared for acute wound care and atopic dermatitis, this powerhouse formula is now on the brink of a bigger leap. Turn, the company behind Hexagen, is paving the way to expand its applications, proving there’s much more to its potential than meets the eye.
Turn just locked in a game-changing commitment—up to $75M in investment from GEM Global Yield Fund. This private equity boost is tied to the company’s plans to go public, setting the stage for Turn to make bold moves in the market spotlight..2
Turn is rolling out institutional, accredited, and unaccredited investors to participate in their current crowdfunding campaign — but only until January 2025.3
Electronic Arts (EA) isn’t leveling up with investors this season. The company’s stock dropped sharply after slashing its annual bookings forecast, citing underwhelming performance from Dragon Age and EA SPORTS FC 25, the rebranded successor to its iconic FIFA series. Once a crown jewel, EA’s soccer franchise seems to be losing its spark.
The numbers paint a concerning picture: EA now expects full-year bookings between $7 billion and $7.15 billion—well below the previous $7.5 billion to $7.8 billion estimate. For a company that built a gaming empire on FIFA’s global appeal, this signals that the magic might be fading.
For decades, FIFA and EA were an unstoppable duo. From FIFA 11 to FIFA 23, the series raked in over $20 billion, even making “FIFA” synonymous with the game rather than the governing body of soccer. But after FIFA demanded a $300 million annual payout, EA ended the partnership, launching EA FC 24 to initial success. However, its follow-up, EA FC 25, has fans crying foul, with Reddit users declaring it the “worst game in history.”
This slump hits more than game sales. EA’s financial backbone now lies in its Live Services segment—think in-game purchases, subscriptions, and bonus content—which made up 70% of its 2024 revenue. Fewer EA FC sales mean fewer players spending on digital extras, leaving EA with more than just a PR problem—it’s a business one.
For EA, the game isn’t over, but the grind to reclaim its former glory is looking steeper than ever.
If your social feeds last year looked like a highlight reel of cherry blossoms, ramen bowls, and neon-lit cityscapes, you’re not alone. Japan smashed its tourism record in 2024, hosting a staggering 36.87 million visitors—a 15% jump from its pre-pandemic peak in 2019.
This provisional figure, revealed by Japan’s tourism board, puts the country well on track to surpass its ambitious goal of 60 million annual visitors by 2030—a target set in 2016, long before the pandemic grounded global travel. While government officials cheer the milestone, not everyone is thrilled. Local residents have voiced concerns over overcrowded trains, packed eateries, and the strain on infrastructure that comes with the influx of tourists.
The record-breaking year has sparked a conversation about balancing economic benefits with quality of life for locals, making it clear that Japan’s tourism success is a double-edged katana.
The AI scene lit up this week with the release of DeepSeek R1, a free, locally downloadable "reasoning" model from China-based DeepSeek. It’s making waves for outperforming OpenAI’s o1 reasoning models—despite being free and open-source—on numerous benchmarks. Developers celebrated the arrival of a cutting-edge tool they could tailor to their needs without cost.
DeepSeek R1 is built on Meta’s open-source Llama 3.3 but fine-tuned with unique datasets, which has sparked controversy. While the hosted version of DeepSeek is openly censored to align with Chinese government policies, the locally run version displayed a similar tendency. Questions about Tiananmen Square, Taiwan's pro-democracy movement, or the treatment of Uyghurs elicited responses that aligned closely with official Chinese narratives, downplaying or omitting well-documented human rights issues.
This raises serious concerns about the ability of model creators to define "truth." As countries develop "sovereign AI" systems to sidestep reliance on foreign tech, there’s a risk of embedding censorship and propaganda into these tools. DeepSeek R1 showcases the double-edged nature of AI innovation: it offers unparalleled accessibility and power but comes with embedded biases that may shape perspectives in potentially dangerous ways.
Presented by Gray Scale
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Advertiser's disclosures:
¹ The rankings are based on submitted applications and public company database research, with winners selected based on their fiscal-year revenue growth percentage over a three-year period.
² Mode Mobile recently received their ticker reservation with Nasdaq ($MODE), indicating an intent to IPO in the next 24 months. An intent to IPO is no guarantee that an actual IPO will occur.
³ December 23, 2024 will be the last day to invest and be considered a shareholder in 2024. Any investments made after this date will only be considered shareholders starting in 2025.
⁴ Please read the offering circular and related risk at invest.modemobile.com. This is a paid advertisement for Mode Mobile’s Regulation A+ Offering.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investing in private company securities is not suitable for all investors because it is highly speculative and involves a high degree of risk. It should only be considered a long-term investment. You must be prepared to withstand a total loss of your investment. Private company securities are also highly illiquid, and there is no guarantee that a market will develop for such securities.
DealMaker Securities LLC, a registered broker-dealer, and member of FINRA | SIPC, located at 105 Maxess Road, Suite 124, Melville, NY 11747, is the Intermediary for this offering and is not an affiliate of or connected with the Issuer. Please check our background on FINRA's BrokerCheck.
