It has long been said that an organisation’s greatest asset is its people. Employees are the driving force behind innovation, customer engagement, revenue growth, and company culture. In an era where political, social, and economic climates are in constant flux, particularly with ongoing debates surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), it is more critical than ever for organisations to recognise the value of an inclusive workforce. There is a well-known saying: “When America sneezes, the rest of Europe catches a cold.” (often attributed to Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, a French diplomat from the 18th and 19th centuries). It rings particularly true today, as shifts in political and social climates challenge the notion of diversity programmes. This is evident in the recent ruling by the UK Supreme Court that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex. However, history has shown that political regimes and societal norms can change rapidly. Regardless of where one stands on these issues, the reality remains that for an organisation to thrive, its people must feel valued, supported, and included. Despite the growing focus on DEI programmes since 2020, many past initiatives have not been as effective as hoped. To move forward, the DEI industry and DEI professionals must conduct a rigorous retrospective analysis: What has worked? What hasn’t been effective? How can we improve? Without tangible metrics and data-driven insights, it becomes difficult to measure the success and impact of these initiatives, and this lack of clear outcomes may have contributed to what some define as the “backlash against DEI.” A common challenge has been the prioritisation of diversity over inclusion, leaving organisations ill-prepared to integrate diverse talent effectively. This has often resulted in short-term disruption - what change management refers to as the "storming" phase of team development - which in turn has led to team friction, a lack of belonging, and ultimately higher turnover rates among underrepresented employees. Organisations have not allowed enough time for teams to progress to the "norming" and "performing" periods in the face of high pressure to deliver results. To counter this, organisations must shift their mindset to focus on inclusion and belonging first. When a workplace fosters an inclusive culture, diverse talent is naturally welcomed, supported, and empowered to succeed. Rather than viewing differences as an obstacle, businesses must embrace them as strengths that drive innovation and growth. I often advocate for culture “add” rather than culture “fit”. As a former project and programme manager who transitioned into HR, I have witnessed firsthand the value of applying change management principles to DEI efforts. A successful change programme requires clearly defined goals, strong leadership buy-in, stakeholder engagement, a structured delivery methodology, and measurable outcomes. When these elements are absent, initiatives tend to falter. By adopting a structured, results-oriented, and data-driven approach, organisations can embed true inclusion into their core business strategy rather than treating it as a secondary initiative or a “nice to have”. It’s also important to regularly assess and reflect on what has worked, what hasn’t, and adapt and improve accordingly. In agile methodology, we call these retrospectives. Inclusion is key to successful DEI initiatives. In the past, these efforts may have created exclusion by failing to involve those who do not identify with the Equality Act's nine protected characteristics (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation). This has led to defensiveness and fear instead of an understanding of historical inequity. When you are accustomed to privilege, equality can feel like oppression or exclusion and so we need to focus on how we can reframe inclusion work as being beneficial to all rather than to a few. Using storytelling, education, and relatability helps onboard more allies, understanding that equity is crucial to achieve equality. Inclusion means widening opportunities for everyone rather than limiting them to a select few. A wealth of research underscores the positive impact of inclusivity on business success. According to CIPD, 70% of employees report that a strong DEI culture positively impacts their job satisfaction. Forbes also discovered that 88% of consumers are more likely to be loyal to a company that supports social and environmental causes. Additionally, employees working in inclusive environments are 50% more likely to stay with their current employer for more than three years. Just over half of UK consumers (53%) say a brand's diversity and inclusion efforts, influence their purchase decisions. In fact, brands failing to act on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion risk losing out on £102bn annual spend from marginalised groups. Boston Consulting Group’s research demonstrates that organizations with diverse leadership see 19% higher innovation revenues. Beyond traditional meritocratic arguments, one principle is clear: inclusivity must be at the heart of every business strategy. Organisations where employees feel seen, heard, and valued naturally attract a broader, more diverse talent pool. Such employees tend to be more engaged, loyal, and productive, further strengthening the organisation's overall success and their bottom line. The UK tech industry is poised for continued growth and innovation, with a focus on emerging technologies like AI and quantum computing, however there is also a need to address challenges like talent shortages and international competition to maintain its position as a global leader.  Almost 95% of employers looking for tech talent have encountered a skills shortage in 2022, according to HR and recruitment firm Hays. In today’s job market, competitive salaries alone are not enough to attract and retain top talent. Employees now prioritise benefits, flexible working arrangements, career growth opportunities, and a sense of belonging. Organisations that prioritise inclusion, equal opportunities, and adaptability will be better positioned to navigate the evolving talent landscape and sustain long-term success. Ultimately, fostering an inclusive workplace is not merely a moral obligation; it is a business imperative. Companies that prioritise inclusion are more likely to attract top diverse talent, enhance employee engagement, and drive sustainable growth. Companies that fail to create inclusive environments are setting themselves up for failure. We are seeing more and more cases of sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination cases with high price tags. So, whether through loss of business, bad publicity or legal consequences, the price tag on exclusion can be staggering. Inclusion should not be seen as a separate HR initiative but as an integral part of an organisation’s DNA with all leaders owning an inclusion goal as part of their performance management. What gets measured, gets done! However, this can only happen if leaders and managers understand what inclusion truly means and they recognise that a diversity of voices, experiences and opinions will benefit their teams rather than hinder them. The future of work is about more than just employment—it is about providing opportunities for people to live, support their families, and achieve personal and professional growth. A poll, conducted by Ipsos for PA Mediapoint, indicates widespread support among the British public for key workplace DEI drives, including flexible working (71%), gender pay gap reporting (65%), and inclusivity training (64%). People care about wellbeing, inclusion and culture, which is why it is so important that organisations create workplaces where everyone is valued, empowered, and given the chance to succeed. True prosperity comes from ensuring that every individual, regardless of background and differences, can flourish. So, Inclusion does matter, particularly if you value creating a positive work environment that benefits employees, impacts the bottom line, and ensures everyone feels included rather than excluded. Read more about DEI in tech A lack of work-life balance and discrimination are among the biggest challenges for women in tech, finds Lorien When asked their opinions on the growing use of AI, girls expressed concerns about possible biases it will perpetuate, while boys were worried about cyber security

House of the Future | 1956 Photograph Exhibited at the 1956 Ideal Home Exhibition in London, the House of the Future by Alison and Peter Smithson is a visionary prototype that challenges conventions of domesticity. Set within the context of post-war Britain, a period marked by austerity and emerging optimism, the project explored the intersection of technology, material innovation, and evolving social dynamics. The Smithsons, already recognized for their theoretical rigor and critical stance toward mainstream modernism, sought to push the boundaries of domestic architecture. In the House of the Future, they offered not merely a dwelling but a speculative environment that engaged with the promise and anxieties of the atomic age. House of the Future Technical Information Architects: Alison and Peter Smithson Location: Ideal Home Exhibition, London, United Kingdom Client: Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition  Gross Area: 90 m2 | 970 Sq. Ft. Construction Year: 1956 Photographs: Canadian Centre for Architecture and Unknown Photographer The House of the Future should be a serious attempt to visualize the future of our daily living in the light of modern knowledge and available materials. – Alison and Peter Smithson 1 House of the Future Photographs 1956 Photograph © Klaas Vermaas | 1956 Photograph 1956 Photograph 1956 Photograph 1956 Photograph 1956 Photograph 1956 Photograph 1956 Photograph Design Intent and Spatial Organization At the heart of the House of the Future lies a radical rethinking of spatial organization. Departing from conventional room hierarchies, the design promotes an open, fluid environment. Walls dissolve into curved partitions and adjustable elements, allowing for flexible reinterpretation of domestic spaces. Sleeping, dining, and social areas are loosely demarcated, creating a dynamic continuity that anticipates the contemporary concept of adaptable, multi-functional living. Circulation is conceived as an experiential sequence rather than a rigid path. Visitors enter through an air-lock-like vestibule, an explicit nod to the futuristic theme, and are drawn into an environment that eschews right angles and conventional thresholds. The Smithsons’ emphasis on flexibility and continuous movement within the house reflects their belief that domestic architecture must accommodate the evolving rhythms of life. Materiality, Technology, and the Future Materiality in the House of the Future embodies the optimism of the era. Plastics and synthetic finishes dominate the interior, forming seamless surfaces that evoke a sense of sterility and futility. Often associated with industrial production, these materials signaled a departure from traditional domestic textures. The smooth, malleable surfaces of the house reinforce the Smithsons’ embrace of prefabrication and modularity. Technological integration is a key theme. The design includes built-in appliances and concealed mechanical systems, hinting at a utopian and disquieting automated lifestyle. Bathrooms, kitchens, and sleeping pods are incorporated as interchangeable modules, underscoring the house as a system rather than a static structure. In doing so, the Smithsons prefigured later discourses on the “smart home” and the seamless integration of technology into daily life. This material and technological strategy reflects a critical understanding of domestic labor and convenience. The house’s self-contained gadgets and synthetic surfaces suggest a future in which maintenance and domestic chores are minimized, freeing inhabitants to engage with broader cultural and social pursuits. Legacy and Influence The House of the Future’s influence resonates far beyond its exhibition. It prefigured the radical experimentation of groups like Archigram and the metabolist visions of the 1960s. Its modular approach and embrace of technology also foreshadowed the high-tech movement’s fascination with flexibility and systems thinking. While the project was ephemeral, a temporary installation at a trade fair, its theoretical provocations endure. It questioned how architecture could not only house but also anticipate and shape new living forms. Moreover, it crystallized the Smithsons’ ongoing interrogation of architecture’s social role, from their later brutalist housing schemes to urban design theories. In retrospect, the House of the Future is less of a resolved design proposal and more of an architectural manifesto. It embodies a critical tension: the optimism of technological progress and the need for architecture to respond to human adaptability and social evolution. As we confront contemporary challenges like climate crisis, digital living, and shifting social paradigms, the Smithsons’ speculative experiment remains an evocative reminder that the architecture of tomorrow must be as thoughtful and provocative as the House of the Future. House of the Future Plans Axonometric View | © Alison and Peter Smithson via CCA Floor Plan | © Alison and Peter Smithson, via CCA Floor Plan | © Alison and Peter Smithson, via CCA Section | © Alison and Peter Smithson, via CCA Section | © Alison and Peter Smithson, via CCA Section | © Alison and Peter Smithson, via CCA Section | © Alison and Peter Smithson, via CCA Section | © Alison and Peter Smithson, via CCA House of the Future Image Gallery About Alison and Peter Smithson Alison and Peter Smithson were British architects and influential thinkers who emerged in the mid-20th century, celebrated for their critical reimagining of modern architecture. Their work, including projects like the House of the Future, the Robin Hood Gardens housing complex, and the Upper Lawn Solar Pavilion, consistently challenged conventional notions of domesticity, urbanism, and materiality. Central to their practice was a belief in architecture’s capacity to shape social life, emphasizing adaptability, flexibility, and the dynamic interactions between buildings and their users. They were pivotal in bridging the gap between post-war modernism and the experimental architectural movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Credits and Additional Notes Banham, Reyner. Theory and Design in the First Machine Age. MIT Press, 1960. Forty, Adrian. Words and Buildings: A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture. Thames & Hudson, 2000. Smithson, Alison, and Peter Smithson. The Charged Void: Architecture. Monacelli Press, 2001. OASE Journal. “Houses of the Future: 1956 and Beyond.” OASE 75, 2007. Vidler, Anthony. Histories of the Immediate Present: Inventing Architectural Modernism. MIT Press, 2008. Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA). “House of the Future.”

On June 5, after years of rumors and anticipation, Nintendo will finally launch the Nintendo Switch 2 worldwide. Preorders are already mostly sold out with millions of gamers anxiously awaiting Mario Kart World Tour and new on-the-go ports of Street Fighter 6 and Cyberpunk 2077. Of course Nintendo is no stranger to the hardware business, launching more than a dozen consoles and portables since the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). And there have been many ups and downs over the last four decades. When considering which Nintendo system actually had the best launch, we looked at the quality and quantity of games at release, price, as well as the overall impressiveness of the hardware at launch. This retrospective also considers only the North American launches of each system. With that in mind, this is the definitive ranking of all of Nintendo’s console and portable launches since the NES gave the world a red-capped Italian plumber!  13. Virtual Boy Since entering the video game market in the 1970s, Nintendo has rarely encountered a massive failure, but it’s hard to see the Virtual Boy as anything but a colossal misstep, albeit an ambitious one. A home VR system in the mid-‘90s was literally decades ahead of its time, but nothing about it was really consumer friendly. Despite being marketed as a Game Boy successor, the Virtual Boy wasn’t really portable, and at home, it required a table to play. And while the black and white monochrome screen was fine for the original Game Boy, the Virtual Boy’s red and black monochrome display was known to just cause headaches. As for the launch games, they were aggressively… okay? Mario’s Tennis is a perfectly competent, if barebones, tennis game. Meanwhile Teleroboxer was an interesting, just not terribly compelling Punch-Out!! successor. But even if the games were decent, the controller, a god-awful monstrosity mixing the worst aspects of the SNES and N64 controllers, didn’t do these titles any favors. The launch price, equivalent to around $370 USD in 2025 dollars, was the final nail in the Virtual Boy’s coffin, and Nintendo quietly discontinued the console a year after release. 12. Wii U The Wii U is Nintendo’s worst selling console by a large margin, and the problems really were evident from the beginning. The tablet controller was an interesting idea but just not as engaging or innovative as the Wii’s motion controls. Nintendo really banked on Nintendo Land showcasing what the system could do and banked on it being their next Wii Sports, but it ended up just showing how limited the new console really was. And while Mario games have historically been system sellers, New Super Mario Bros. U was largely a rehash of its Wii predecessor, just with HD graphics. It’s a fine platformer, but a surprisingly average Mario game. Beyond that, the launch lineup was largely made up of third party ports, some of which had been available on other consoles for years at that point. It’s easy to see why so many people were confused about whether the Wii U was a new console or an upgrade of the Wii, and why so many of those who understood what it was ended up skipping it, even if the $300 launch price was competitive. 11. Game Boy Color If we were looking at the entire history of Nintendo consoles, the Game Boy Color would certainly rank higher, but Nintendo just didn’t put much effort into its launch, likely because Nintendo absolutely dominated the handheld gaming market at the time. They didn’t have to work very hard to sell this thing. They knew the players would show up. The highlight of the Game Boy Color’s launch in 1998 was Game & Watch Gallery 2, a color collection of the old handheld titles Nintendo made in the ‘80s. It actually was a very good showcase of the GBC’s better color graphics, but it wasn’t the type of game that had much staying power. The other launch titles, Pocket Bomberman, Centipede, and Tetris DX, a colorized version of the original Game Boy’s Tetris launch title, were similarly serviceable but largely forgettable, because seriously, who was dying to play a colorized version of Game Boy Tetris at that point? But at $79.95, the launch price was right, and the GBC quickly built an impressive library of exclusives. 10. Nintendo 3DS When the 3DS was first revealed in 2010, its glasses-free stereoscopic 3D generated an immense amount of buzz. Sadly, a botched launch promptly killed a lot of that momentum. Nintendo’s first party offerings were all oddly disappointing. Pilotwings had been a solid launch series in the past, but Pilotwings Resort lacked a lot of content compared to its predecessors. Steel Diver was an interesting submarine sim that just didn’t quite click. And Nintendogs + Cats, well… it was more Nintendogs for whatever that’s worth. The launch lineup wasn’t all disappointments, however. Street Fighter IV 3D Edition and Rayman 3D were excellent ports of console games, and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars remains an underrated gem of a tactics game. But arguably the biggest knock against the 3DS was its price. The handheld launched at $250, a price that many gamers balked at. Nintendo was forced to cut the price to $170 just a few months later. Early adopters were compensated with a collection of 20 NES and GBA games, but so many unnecessary missteps left a bad taste in the mouths of many Nintendo fans, and it seems like the 3DS never quite reached its full potential. 9. Nintendo 64 I remember first playing Super Mario 64 in a Toys ‘R Us in 1996 before the U.S. launch and being absolutely blown away. I had never used an analog controller before that let me control how fast or slow my character on screen moved. There had been plenty of 3D platformers prior to that point, but Mario’s first 3D outing truly felt like a giant leap forward for gaming thanks to its silky smooth controls and innovative open world gameplay. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! The problem with N64’s launch is that there just wasn’t much else to it. It only launched in the U.S. with Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64, which was another excellent showcase for what the console could do, but once you played through those games, new releases were sparse, and expensive, an issue that would continue to plague the console for its entire lifespan. The N64 certainly had quality games, it just could never get much quantity. And while the $250 launch price was reasonable, it was only $50 cheaper than a PlayStation at the time, and given that the PS1 had a much larger library, and its games tended to be cheaper, it’s easy to see why Sony’s console outsold Nintendo’s by a large margin in the late ‘90s. 8. Nintendo DS Nintendo didn’t really seem to know what the DS was supposed to be at first. Seemingly rushed to market in late 2004 to get ahead of the imminent Sony PSP launch, the DS was initially marketed as a “third pillar” system that would sit on shelves alongside the GameCube and Game Boy Advance, though it quickly elbowed the GBA out of the handheld space.  That wasn’t exactly thanks to a great launch lineup though. Super Mario 64 DSFeel the Magic: XY/XX was a weird and wonderful minigame showcase of the handheld’s new features, but it had little mass market appeal. And while games like Madden NFL 2005, Spider-Man 2, and Urbz: Sims in the City were all perfectly serviceable, none of them were on par with their console counterparts. But at $150, the DS was $100 cheaper than the PSP, and that easily helped it become a bestseller.  7. Nintendo Switch  In 2025 the Switch is an undisputed massive success, but its launch in 2017 was very much a mixed bag. First the good: the hardware, though underpowered compared to competitors, is fantastic. Being able to seamlessly switch between playing games on a TV and on the go is a wonderful innovation. The Switch feels great in your hands, and the Joy-Cons still offer some of the best feedback of any controller on the market. It was clear that the system had massive potential from the start, and the $300 launch price undercut both Sony and Microsoft. But the launch lineup was the definition of a one trick pony. Yes, The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild was an instant classic and absolutely deserves to be in the conversation of the greatest games of all time. But beyond that, how many people even remember the Switch’s other launch games? 1-2 Switch is a lame minigame collection. Super Bomberman R had potential as a launch exclusive, but turned out to be a middling entry in the long running franchise. And ports of Just Dance 2017 and Skylanders: Imaginators weren’t exactly moving systems. Still, the success of the Nintendo Switch makes a really good case that all a console needs to be successful is a great design and one killer app. 6. Game Boy When it launched in 1989, the Game Boy was woefully underpowered and lacked the color screen of competitors like the Sega Game Gear and Atari Lynx. It didn’t really matter though. First Nintendo understood that less power meant longer battery life, which is still about the most important feature for portable gaming. More importantly, the Game Boy had a secret weapon: Tetris.  The classic puzzler was a pack-in title for the Game Boy at launch, the equivalent of giving the first hit away for free to get gamers hooked. At $89.99, the launch bundle was an absolute steal. Along with Tetris, Super Mario Land was a quirky and unique take on the Mario series that was well worth checking out, while ports of Tennis and Baseball from the NES library kept people hooked as the Game Boy gained momentum.  5. GameCube The GameCube launch is both better and worse than you remember it. While the console was kind of knocked for not having any truly great exclusives at launch, the exclusives that were released have actually aged rather well. This was a system where you could pick up Luigi’s Mansion, Wave Race: Blue Storm, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, and Super Monkey Ball at launch, all fantastic titles that weren’t available anywhere else. And while it launched three days after the original Xbox, it was also $100 cheaper. Admittedly, the third-party offerings were a bit slim, but Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3Crazy Taxi with the all important arcade soundtrack that’d been missing from more recent releases. But those ports also showed off the GameCube’s biggest weakness: there was really nothing different about these versions if you already owned them elsewhere. It’s not surprising then that after this generation, Nintendo started looking toward new gimmicks to sell consoles instead of just pushing graphics technology to its limits. 4. SNES The SNES didn’t launch with a ton of games, but there wasn’t a stinker in the bunch. Of course there was Super Mario World, still arguably the best Mario game ever made. Not only is the design of that game timeless, but the huge graphical upgrade over anything the NES could do quickly justified the upgrade to a new console. Pilotwings and F-Zero, with their revolutionary use of Mode 7 further showed off the power of the system. The $199 launch price (equivalent to around $460 today) was high for the time, but the launch lineup was so good, the price was kind of justified. Even the two games pulling up the rear, Gradius III and an SNES-exclusive version of SimCity were excellent titles worth picking up. But what’s really underrated about the SNES is how much of an improvement the controller was. It was much more ergonomic than the hard rectangle shape of the NES controller, and the addition of X and Y and shoulder buttons made it clear from the get-go that this console was going to open up a lot of new gameplay styles. 3. Game Boy Advance The Game Boy Advance had an all too brief time as Nintendo’s premiere handheld before the DS took the spotlight, but it built an impressive library during its time starting with the launch. The $100 launch price is quite possibly the best of any piece of Nintendo hardware. And the portable had a solid one, two punch out of the gate with F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, an excellent successor to the SNES title, and Super Mario Advance, a full-fledged remake of Super Mario Bros. 2 that remains the best way to experience this classic.  The 15 other titles available at launch included solid ports of games like Rayman and ChuChuRocket!, with the portability of the GBA version arguably making it more preferable to play than its bigger brother on Dreamcast. But for many, the real star of the launch was Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, a technically impressive port that somehow managed to squeeze all of the gameplay of the console version into an isometric view. Before release, many were touting that the GBA was the equivalent of a handheld SNES. These early games showed that it could actually be even better than that. 2. NES By the mid-1980s, console gaming was essentially dead in North America. Atari had killed the market, flooding it with low quality games. It would take an impressive new console, genius marketing, and just a little bit of luck to bring home gaming back from the brink. The NES succeeded at a tough time for video games by trying not to be just another console. It was more of a toy, or “entertainment system,” sold alongside a Zapper light gun and R.O.B., a robot accessory. Gimmicky? Sure, but that was just the opening salvo in Nintendo’s strategy, the Trojan horse to bring consoles back into the living room. Of course, the games needed to be good for the NES to succeed, and Nintendo had that down pat, launching with 17 titles, including Super Mario Bros., Excitebike, Duck Hunt, and Ice Climbers, titles that are iconic to this day. Other titles like Baseball, Tennis, and Pinball were more perfunctory, but good enough to gain the public’s attention and prove that video games weren’t just a fad. Admittedly, the $200 launch price (equivalent to nearly $600 in today’s dollars) was high, though historically similar to many other launch prices for new consoles, and that price point clearly didn’t do much to dissuade prospective buyers. 1. Wii  Twenty years after the NES brought consoles back from the brink, Nintendo’s home console business found itself in a tough spot. Despite good reviews and a respectable library of games, the GameCube had just taken third place in a three-way fight. Clearly, just trying to build the most powerful console wasn’t the key to success. So as Sony and Microsoft turned to HD gaming, Nintendo released a console just slightly more powerful than its predecessor, but with the benefit of motion controls thanks to the Wii-mote. It sounded kinda nuts. Then people played Wii Sports and were immediately hooked. The game was a phenomenon. Not just hardcore gamers wanted to play it, but parents, and even grandparents. The Wii truly brought console gaming to the masses in a way that had previously been unthinkable thanks to an innovative new controller. Oh, and for the hardcore gamers, a little title by the name of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight PrincessExcite TruckTrauma Center: Second Opinion were more than enough to keep the console flying off shelves for years after release, especially because the older technology meant it could be sold substantially cheaper than either the Xbox 360 or the PS3.

The Independents marks Colony’s 10th anniversary as a platform where founder Jean Lin’s personal vision and marketplace viability find rare equilibrium. The exhibition brings together 24 design studios from Colony’s orbit, each responding to what independence in design practice means to them. The resulting collection serves as both retrospective and manifesto – a declaration that independence in design isn’t merely aesthetic preference but philosophical stance. A paper cord chair with a single walnut along a corner hinge sits in the corner of Lin’s Tribeca gallery space. To the casual observer, it might register simply as a thoughtful detail of material juxtaposition. But Chen Chen & Kai Williams’ Walnut Corner Chair carries cultural memory within its form. The designers drew inspiration from the Chinese tradition of passing walnuts from one generation to the next, objects worn smooth by the hands of ancestors. This object-as-inheritance becomes a fitting metaphor for what Colony has cultivated over its decade of existence. “I’m very proud of the community of independent designers that we have built at Colony over the past decade,” says Colony founder Lin. “The Independents exhibition encapsulates my very own ‘why.’ My belief in the independent spirit is limitless, and so is my awe.” The exhibition reveals how Colony’s cooperative model has evolved beyond representation to becoming an incubator. Studios emerging from the gallery’s Designers’ Residency program – including Ember Studio, Thomas Yang Studio, and the freshly minted Studio BC Joshua from the 2025 class – demonstrate how Colony functions as both launch pad and ongoing support system. Materiality serves as a throughline connecting past and present. Current Colony designers like Hiroko Takeda, Moving Mountains, and SSS Atelier present new work that extends their material investigations. Takeda’s textiles in particular showcase how technical mastery creates spaces for expression – the constraints of the loom enabling greater creative freedom. For more information on The Independents, visit Colony at goodcolony.com. Photography by Brooke Holm.

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Alibaba Group has introduced QwenLong-L1, a new framework that enables large language models (LLMs) to reason over extremely long inputs. This development could unlock a new wave of enterprise applications that require models to understand and draw insights from extensive documents such as detailed corporate filings, lengthy financial statements, or complex legal contracts. The challenge of long-form reasoning for AI Recent advances in large reasoning models (LRMs), particularly through reinforcement learning (RL), have significantly improved their problem-solving capabilities. Research shows that when trained with RL fine-tuning, LRMs acquire skills similar to human “slow thinking,” where they develop sophisticated strategies to tackle complex tasks. However, these improvements are primarily seen when models work with relatively short pieces of text, typically around 4,000 tokens. The ability of these models to scale their reasoning to much longer contexts (e.g., 120,000 tokens) remains a major challenge. Such long-form reasoning requires a robust understanding of the entire context and the ability to perform multi-step analysis. “This limitation poses a significant barrier to practical applications requiring interaction with external knowledge, such as deep research, where LRMs must collect and process information from knowledge-intensive environments,” the developers of QwenLong-L1 write in their paper. The researchers formalize these challenges into the concept of “long-context reasoning RL.” Unlike short-context reasoning, which often relies on knowledge already stored within the model, long-context reasoning RL requires models to retrieve and ground relevant information from lengthy inputs accurately. Only then can they generate chains of reasoning based on this incorporated information.  Training models for this through RL is tricky and often results in inefficient learning and unstable optimization processes. Models struggle to converge on good solutions or lose their ability to explore diverse reasoning paths. QwenLong-L1: A multi-stage approach QwenLong-L1 is a reinforcement learning framework designed to help LRMs transition from proficiency with short texts to robust generalization across long contexts. The framework enhances existing short-context LRMs through a carefully structured, multi-stage process: Warm-up Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT): The model first undergoes an SFT phase, where it is trained on examples of long-context reasoning. This stage establishes a solid foundation, enabling the model to ground information accurately from long inputs. It helps develop fundamental capabilities in understanding context, generating logical reasoning chains, and extracting answers. Curriculum-Guided Phased RL: At this stage, the model is trained through multiple phases, with the target length of the input documents gradually increasing. This systematic, step-by-step approach helps the model stably adapt its reasoning strategies from shorter to progressively longer contexts. It avoids the instability often seen when models are abruptly trained on very long texts. Difficulty-Aware Retrospective Sampling: The final training stage incorporates challenging examples from the preceding training phases, ensuring the model continues to learn from the hardest problems. This prioritizes difficult instances and encourages the model to explore more diverse and complex reasoning paths. QwenLong-L1 process Source: arXiv Beyond this structured training, QwenLong-L1 also uses a distinct reward system. While training for short-context reasoning tasks often relies on strict rule-based rewards (e.g., a correct answer in a math problem), QwenLong-L1 employs a hybrid reward mechanism. This combines rule-based verification, which ensures precision by checking for strict adherence to correctness criteria, with an “LLM-as-a-judge.” This judge model compares the semanticity of the generated answer with the ground truth, allowing for more flexibility and better handling of the diverse ways correct answers can be expressed when dealing with long, nuanced documents. Putting QwenLong-L1 to the test The Alibaba team evaluated QwenLong-L1 using document question-answering (DocQA) as the primary task. This scenario is highly relevant to enterprise needs, where AI must understand dense documents to answer complex questions.  Experimental results across seven long-context DocQA benchmarks showed QwenLong-L1’s capabilities. Notably, the QWENLONG-L1-32B model (based on DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B) achieved performance comparable to Anthropic’s Claude-3.7 Sonnet Thinking, and outperformed models like OpenAI’s o3-mini and Qwen3-235B-A22B. The smaller QWENLONG-L1-14B model also outperformed Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking and Qwen3-32B.  Source: arXiv An important finding relevant to real-world applications is how RL training results in the model developing specialized long-context reasoning behaviors. The paper notes that models trained with QwenLong-L1 become better at “grounding” (linking answers to specific parts of a document), “subgoal setting” (breaking down complex questions), “backtracking” (recognizing and correcting their own mistakes mid-reasoning), and “verification” (double-checking their answers). For instance, while a base model might get sidetracked by irrelevant details in a financial document or get stuck in a loop of over-analyzing unrelated information, the QwenLong-L1 trained model demonstrated an ability to engage in effective self-reflection. It could successfully filter out these distractor details, backtrack from incorrect paths, and arrive at the correct answer. Techniques like QwenLong-L1 could significantly expand the utility of AI in the enterprise. Potential applications include legal tech (analyzing thousands of pages of legal documents), finance (deep research on annual reports and financial filings for risk assessment or investment opportunities) and customer service (analyzing long customer interaction histories to provide more informed support). The researchers have released the code for the QwenLong-L1 recipe and the weights for the trained models. 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Developers have a ‘clearer path’ to pursue architects who design unsafe buildings following a recent Supreme Court ruling, legal experts have warned The judgement, which interprets important elements of the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) and the Defective Premises Act 1972 (DPA), heightens the need for practices to hold ‘comprehensive’ professional indemnity (PI) insurance, according to top lawyers. Earlier this month (21 May) the Supreme Court ruled that BDW, the main trading arm of Barratt Developments, was able to pursue damages from structural engineering company URS for alleged negligence in provision of design services for two residential schemes. This was despite BDW undertaking remedial works on the properties voluntarily more than three years ago and no longer owning the buildings. Judges dismissed the engineering firm’s latest appeal against BDW’s right to claim for compensation on all four grounds.Advertisement Nick Stockley, partner at law firm Mayo Wynne Baxter, said: ‘This ruling creates an easier route for builders to reclaim losses that they incur for the actions of design contractors. ‘It suggests that the time-out defence is no longer a fail-safe if the genuine blame rests with a design contractor. The ruling also takes away any voluntary-decision defence that either a design contractor or architect may try to raise. ‘It means that any design contractor needs to maintain insurance that extends to their work, irrespective of when the work was carried out. ‘An architect’s work should always be covered by professional indemnity insurance but that cover will need to be more extensive. An architect should review any existing insurance policy cover in order to check that that policy extends to all work carried out by the architect.’ The two projects at the centre of the BDW claim are Capital East in London and Freemens Meadow in Leicester. Advertisement The housebuilder carried out voluntary remedial works at these properties in 2020 and 2021, despite no longer owning them, after defects were discovered that created a danger to occupants.   It claimed damages from URS but the engineering firm appealed, initially to the Court of Appeal then to the Supreme Court, arguing that a voluntary act could not lead to recoverable losses, and only claims brought by a property owner under the DPA were subject to an extended 30-year limitation period.  URS claimed that a third party could not be owed a duty under the DPA and added that a contribution for liability could only be made once a settlement was finalised.  However, the Supreme Court found in BDW’s favour, saying that URS’s interpretation of the law ‘would penalise responsible developers, such as such as BDW, who had been pro-active in investigating, identifying and remedying building safety defects’.  It said DPA would ‘better serve the policy of ensuring the safety of dwellings’ if it had a wider application, ruling that ‘BDW itself has rights under the DPA against a party primarily liable for the defects’.  It added that BDW had ‘acted responsibly’ and ‘in accordance with the government’s strong encouragement’ in carrying out remediation work at Capital East and Freemens Meadow, concluding: ‘Penalisation of [such] developers would be contrary to the purpose of the legislation’. Rob Horne, head of construction disputes for Osbourne Clarke, which represented BDW, said: ‘For residential developers there is now significantly more clarity over the full effect of the retrospective limitation period introduced by the BSA. ‘Ultimately, the aim of the BSA was to ensure that safety failures are properly addressed and that those responsible bear the costs. This case furthers that aim by ensuring that developers have a clearer path to recover funds from designers and constructors who designed and built unsafe buildings.’  Horne added: ‘The Supreme Court has commented that proactive developers who, in effect, do the right thing in effecting necessary safety works, should not be penalised by having rights of recovery barred.  ‘Such developers are able to recover the remedial costs from those most responsible for the safety defects in question.’  ‘This reading gives the Defective Premises Act far more teeth’ Julia Tobbell, partner at law firm Forsters, said the decision will be ‘a relief to proactive developers’ as, ‘although their decision to voluntarily take on repairs may be a factor in assessing reasonableness of mitigation, it does not bar them in principle from being able to recover from negligent contractors’.  She added: ‘The court also found that the duty to build homes properly under Section 1 of the PDA is not just for the benefit of the homeowner, but also the developer who procures the contractor to carry out the works.   ‘The developer can both owe a duty (to the homeowner) and be owed a duty (by the contractor); this reading gives the DPA far more teeth.’  2025-05-30 Will Ing comment and share

From featuring weirdly sexual, even predatory scenes to just plain horrible effects, dated or immature jokes and awkward acting, not every film we watched during our childhood is as good as would like to remember.Based on more than 12,000 votes on films pulled from a Reddit thread asking, “What's a movie you loved as a child that you now consider to be cringe worthy?” Ranker compiled the top movies we watched when we were younger that make us wince when we think about them — or at least certain scenes — today.Sure, movies such as 1994’s Blank Check, 1984's Sixteen Candles and 2007’s Bee Movie were some of our favorite flicks growing up, but it’s clear they haven't aged so well.READ MORE: ’90s Classics That Could Never Get Made TodayAccording to Ranker voters, these are the top 11 movies we loved when we were kids that totally make us cringe with secondhand embarrassment today.Blank Check — Creepy for its blatant predatory vibes and that age gapHoward the Duck — Remembered for its bizarre acting and plain weird interspecies sex sceneSixteen Candles — Problematic in retrospect for the implied non-consensual assaultBee Movie — A human lady cheats on her boyfriend with a literal bee...The Master of Disguise — Fun as a kid, but just an atrocious film when watched as an adultThe Cat in the Hat — You'd be surprised how raunchy and kid-unfriendly this eyesore of a movie isMars Needs Moms — Uncanny valley centralThe Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl — George Lopez is terrifying nightmare fuelCatwoman — It's very early 2000sDungeons & Dragons — A camp classic with spotty acting and cheesy special effectsBatman & Robin — The Batsuit has nipplesGet our free mobile appTV Shows We Used to Love That Are Cringe NowWe can't say why we liked these shows, but we can certainly say why we can't watch them now. Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky

While large reasoning models (LRMs) have shown impressive capabilities in short-context reasoning through reinforcement learning (RL), these gains do not generalize well to long-context scenarios. Applications such as multi-document QA, research synthesis, and legal or financial analysis require models to process and reason over sequences exceeding 100K tokens. However, RL optimization in such regimes is plagued by slower reward convergence, unstable policy updates due to KL divergence fluctuations, and reduced exploration resulting from entropy collapse. These bottlenecks reveal a fundamental gap in transitioning LRMs from short-context proficiency to long-context generalization. QwenLong-L1: A Structured RL Framework for Long-Context Adaptation To address these limitations, the Qwen Research team introduces QwenLong-L1, a novel RL framework designed to adapt LRMs to long-context reasoning tasks. The framework is structured into three key stages: Warm-up Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT): Provides a stable initialization for the policy model by training on curated question-context-answer triplets, ensuring basic competence in contextual comprehension and answer extraction. Curriculum-Guided Phased Reinforcement Learning: Introduces a staged training process with gradually increasing context lengths. This progression enables the model to incrementally acquire long-context reasoning behaviors without destabilizing policy updates. Difficulty-Aware Retrospective Sampling: Enhances exploration by maintaining and reusing hard examples from previous phases, weighted by their difficulty, to encourage deeper reasoning and robustness across diverse inputs. These stages are complemented by hybrid reward mechanisms—combining rule-based exact match verification with semantic evaluation by a lightweight LLM—ensuring both precision and recall during policy training. Technical Design and Methodological Advantages QwenLong-L1 integrates recent advances in group-relative RL optimization, specifically GRPO and DAPO, to mitigate the computational overhead associated with long-context value estimation: GRPO estimates advantage by normalizing rewards within sampled groups, eliminating the need for a separate value network and encouraging diverse generation patterns. DAPO incorporates mechanisms such as dynamic sampling, overlength penalty shaping, and asymmetric clipping thresholds to prevent entropy collapse and mitigate length biases during training. The reward function is defined as the maximum of two signals: a deterministic rule-based match and a semantic judgment from a compact evaluator model (e.g., Qwen2.5-1.5B). This hybrid approach avoids overfitting to rigid formats while maintaining answer correctness across varied notations and phrasings. Moreover, the framework is optimized via progressive context scaling, where the RL process transitions from 20K-token to 60K-token input lengths in controlled phases, stabilizing training dynamics and facilitating policy generalization. Experimental Results and Benchmark Performance QwenLong-L1 was evaluated on seven long-context document QA benchmarks, including DocMath, Frames, 2WikiMultihopQA, HotpotQA, Musique, NarrativeQA, and Qasper. The 32B variant, QwenLong-L1-32B, demonstrated strong empirical performance: It outperformed baseline models such as R1-Distill-Qwen-32B by 5.1 points and exceeded leading proprietary systems like OpenAI-o3-mini and Qwen3-235B-A22B. Its performance was comparable to Claude-3.7-Sonnet-Thinking, indicating competitive reasoning capabilities under extreme context lengths. Pass@K analysis revealed consistent improvements with increased sampling, achieving a Pass@2 average of 73.7, surpassing DeepSeek-R1 and OpenAI-o1-preview, even at low sampling rates. Ablation studies further validated the individual contributions of SFT, phased RL, and retrospective sampling. Notably, RL played a decisive role in enabling emergent reasoning behaviors such as grounding, subgoal setting, verification, and backtracking—traits not effectively induced by supervised fine-tuning alone. Conclusion QwenLong-L1 represents a systematic approach to equipping LRMs with robust long-context reasoning capabilities through reinforcement learning. Its design effectively bridges the gap between short-context expertise and the demands of information-dense environments by combining supervised initialization, curriculum-driven context scaling, and hybrid evaluation strategies. The framework not only achieves state-of-the-art results across long-context benchmarks but also demonstrates the emergence of interpretable reasoning patterns during training. Check out the Paper, Model on Hugging Face and GitHub Page. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also, feel free to follow us on Twitter and don’t forget to join our 95k+ ML SubReddit and Subscribe to our Newsletter. Asif RazzaqWebsite |  + postsBioAsif Razzaq is the CEO of Marktechpost Media Inc.. As a visionary entrepreneur and engineer, Asif is committed to harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence for social good. His most recent endeavor is the launch of an Artificial Intelligence Media Platform, Marktechpost, which stands out for its in-depth coverage of machine learning and deep learning news that is both technically sound and easily understandable by a wide audience. The platform boasts of over 2 million monthly views, illustrating its popularity among audiences.Asif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/NVIDIA Releases Llama Nemotron Nano 4B: An Efficient Open Reasoning Model Optimized for Edge AI and Scientific TasksAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/A Coding Implementation to Build an AI Agent with Live Python Execution and Automated ValidationAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/Step-by-Step Guide to Build a Customizable Multi-Tool AI Agent with LangGraph and Claude for Dynamic Agent CreationAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/A Comprehensive Coding Guide to Crafting Advanced Round-Robin Multi-Agent Workflows with Microsoft AutoGen

About Equip Equip is the leading virtual, evidence-based eating disorder treatment program on a mission to ensure that everyone with an eating disorder can access treatment that works. Created by clinical experts in the field and people with lived experience, Equip builds upon evidence-based treatments to empower individuals to reach lasting recovery. All Equip patients receive a dedicated care team, including a therapist, dietitian, physician, and peer and family mentor. The company operates in all 50 states and is partnered with most major health insurance plans. Learn more about our strong outcomes and treatment approach at www.equip.health.Founded in 2019, Equip has been a fully virtual company since its inception and is proud of the highly-engaged, passionate, and diverse Equisters that have created Equip’s culture.  Recognized by Time as one of the most influential companies of 2023, along with awards from Linkedin and Lattice, we are grateful to Equipsters for building a sustainable treatment program that has served thousands of patients and families.About the role We are looking for a passionate Product Manager to join us in building Equip’s commercial and finance reporting, integration, and data science capabilities. Data is the backbone of Equip—we use it every day to support business processes, measure our success, and inform our decisions. As the Product Manager for Commercial and Finance analytics, you will collaborate with domain experts to identify opportunities to use data to improve our patient acquisition and engagement strategy and billing processes. We need someone who can apply a creative, rigorous, and efficient approach to product management. You will be a critical member of our team, collaborating with Data Analysts, Data Scientists, Data Engineers, and internal stakeholders. You will help develop and drive the roadmap for our data initiatives and work towards a strategy for enabling the organization to self-serve data needs as we scale. If you’re eager to work in a dynamic, fast-moving environment where you’ll strive to make a big impact at a mission-driven organization, then this might be the right fit for you!Responsibilities Be a thought partner with our Commercial and Finance departments to identify data initiatives that support both departmental and organizational goals.Advocate for the needs of your stakeholders when working with our application development teams, third parties, and other cross-functional stakeholders.Develop a strategy and roadmap for Commercial and Finance analytics, integrations, and data science that is outcome-driven and pursues organizational goals.Work closely with your Data Analyst, Engineering, and Data Scientist counterparts to come up with innovative ways to execute on the data roadmap, ensuring tight timelines and successful launches.Utilize testing, user research, and market analysis to iterate on features, derive insights, and enhance customer/user satisfaction.Design and prepare product requirement documents, including articulating the business case, value proposition, trade-offs, and user stories. Drive features from development to launch in an agile scrum environment by coordinating and participating in development activities including daily standups, backlog grooming, retrospectives, sprint planning, demos, and other scrum ceremonies.Monitor usage and satisfaction of our data products to identify gaps and opportunities.Work towards improving the data literacy in the organization and enabling meaningful self-service analytics.Demonstrate empathy and curiosity when approaching all complex issues (be they technical, societal, or personal) and share a genuine interest in solving problems for our users.Operate with a high degree of autonomy in a growing, early-stage work environment. Find ways to improve efficiency and excellence in our product development process.Perform other duties as assigned.Qualifications 4+ years of experience as a Product Manager within a high-growth company, ideally working on data products and/or products in the healthcare domain. Proven track record of successfully delivering features on time following agile methodologies and best practices. Strong analytical skills, including the ability to clean, visualize, and present compelling narratives using data.Familiarity with data modeling, schema design, ETL/ELT pipelines, data lineage, and storage architectures.The ability to read and write SQL. Demonstrated business sense and intellectual curiosity with the desire to become a subject matter expert in eating disorder treatments.Organizational and project management skills with a demonstrated ability to balance numerous projects while meeting tight deadlines.Attention to detail. Effective interpersonal skills, particularly in building relationships, working collaboratively, and influencing and driving alignment. Strong written and verbal communication skills.Comfortable working in a fast-paced environment with changing priorities.Benefits Time Off:Flex PTO policy (3-5 wks/year recommended) + 11 paid company holidays.Medical Benefits: Competitive Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, and AD&D insurance.Equip pays for a significant percentage of benefits premiums for individuals and families.Maven, a company paid reproductive and family care benefit for all employees. Employee Assistance Program (EAP), a company paid resource for mental health, legal services, financial support, and more! Other BenefitsWork From Home Additional Perks: $50/month stipend added directly to an employee’s paycheck to cover home internet expenses. One-time work from home stipend of up to $500. Physical Demands Work is performed 100% from home with requirement to travel once or twice a year for in-person meetings. This is a stationary position that requires the ability to operate standard office equipment and keyboards as well as to talk or hear by telephone. Sit or stand as needed.At Equip, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) are woven into everything we do. At the heart of Equip’s mission is a relentless dedication to making sure that everyone with an eating disorder has access to care that works regardless of race, gender, sexuality, ability, weight, socio-economic status, and any marginalized identity. We also strive toward our providers and corporate team reflecting that same dedication both in bringing in and retaining talented employees from all backgrounds and identities. We have an Equip DEIB council, Equip For All; also referred to as EFA. EFA at Equip aims to be a space driven by mutual respect, and thoughtful, effective communication strategy - enabling full participation of  members who identify as marginalized or under-represented and allies, amplifying diverse voices, creating opportunities for advocacy and contributing to the advancement of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging at Equip.As an equal opportunity employer, we provide equal opportunity in all aspects of employment, including recruiting, hiring, compensation, training and promotion, termination, and any other terms and conditions of employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, familial status, age, disability, weight, and/or any other legally protected classification protected by federal, state, or local law. Apply NowLet's start your dream job Apply now Meet JobCopilot: Your Personal AI Job HunterAutomatically Apply to Remote Sales and Marketing JobsJust set your preferences and Job Copilot will do the rest-finding, filtering, and applying while you focus on what matters. 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We’re not sure if he chose to accept it intentionally or not, but Tom Cruise has cleared his mission in providing movie theaters with a healthy opening weekend against Disney’s bizarre, Elvis-loving alien for the second time in 23 years. Yep, more than two decades after Cruise shared the same opening frame with the animated Lilo & Stitch in 2002—when the hand-drawn Gen-Z classic went head to head with Cruise and Steven Spielberg’s neo noir sci-fi, Minority Report—the movie star has danced with the little space dude again via Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning opening opposite the Lilo & Stitch remake. And this time, the pecking order is reversed. Twenty-three years ago, it was considered almost ho-hum when Minority Report topped out above Lilo & Stitch and both films managed to gross north of $35 million. This was otherwise business as usual in a healthy summer movie season where the real anomaly was that the first Spider-Man had become the first movie to cross the $100 million in a weekend a month earlier. At the time, Minority Report did slightly better with $35.7 million versus Lilo’s $35.2 million. But in the year of our streaming lord 2025, it’s a big win for movie theaters that both Final Reckoning and ESPECIALLY Disney’s mostly live-action remake have generated the biggest Memorial Day weekend ever in the U.S., albeit now with Lilo on top via its estimated $180 million opening across four days. For the record, this also snags another benchmark from Cruise by taking the biggest Memorial Day opening record from Top Gun: Maverick ($161 million in 2022). Furthermore, Lilo earned a jaw-dropping $342 million worldwide. Meanwhile Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is projected to have opened at $77 million across its first four days, and $63 million over the first three days. Some will likely speculate how this can make up for the much gossiped about budget of the film—with Puck News estimating the eighth Mission film costing a gargantuan $400 million—but taken in perspective of the whole franchise, this is a very good start for The Final Reckoning, which was a victim of filming both COVID pauses and delays, and then later having to suspend production because of the 2023 labor strikes. For context, the previously best opening the M:I series ever saw was when Mission: Impossible – Fallout debuted to $61 million during a conventional three-day weekend in 2018. That movie also is one of the finest action films ever produced and received an “A” CinemaScore. In retrospect, it would seem when a masterpiece of blockbuster cinema like that could not clear $70 million, a definite ceiling on the franchise’s earning potential had slowly materialized in recent years. Consider that the previous best opening in the series was Mission: Impossible II back in 2000, a clean quarter-century ago, when it made $58 million (or about $108 million in 2025 dollars). In other words, the series’ most popular days are long behind it. Nonetheless, when not counting for inflation, The Final Reckoning has enjoyed the largest opening weekend in the series’ history—including even when you discount the holiday Monday that buoys The Final Reckoning’s opening weekend to $77 million. In one sense, this proves that the goodwill Cruise and Ethan Hunt can still generate with his most loyal audience remains sky high (consider that according to Deadline, Final Reckoning’s biggest demo was with audience members over the age of 55!). In another, it is also confirmation that regaining control of IMAX screens is crucial in the 2020s for a blockbuster with a loyal but relatively contained audience. After all, this is a big gain for the franchise over Dead Reckoning, which despite having a higher CinemaScore grade from audiences polled than Final Reckoning (an “A” vs. an “A-”) opened below $55 million two years, likely in part because audiences were saving their ticket-buying money for Barbenheimer the following weekend, which included Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer commandeering all the IMAX screens from Mission. At the end of the day, The Final Reckoning was able to grow business and audience interest over Dead Reckoning and set a franchise record in spite of opening in the same weekend as Disney’s lovable little alien. Whether it is enough to justify the rumored $400 million price tag is a horse of a different color. However, Cruise has positioned himself as such a champion of movie theater owners and the box office in a post-COVID world that he can certainly take a victory lap in helping deliver a historic win for the industry this Memorial Day. And frankly, given how we remain skeptical that The Final Reckoning