Tom's Top 3: July 22, 2025
Flop or Not?
Hi everyone! Welcome to this week’s installment of Tom’s Top 3 Tuesdays, where I highlight three pieces of content (Podcasts/Shows/Songs/Articles/etc.) that I found interesting or noteworthy from the prior week.
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Writing this from Kenya :). Today I pet elephants, fed giraffes, and wrote 700 words on movies and personal finance. Hope you enjoy!
[Movie] A24 - Eddington
This movie currently has a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 65% Metacritic score. It also is being considered a flop, having only made $4.3M in its opening weekend, on a budget of $35-50M.
And yet, it is in my top 5 movies of the year.
I honestly loved this movie. Sure, it was NOT a pleasant watch. Revisiting the dizzying nightmare that was 2020 does not scream “fun summer flick.”
It may not be appreciated now, but I think we will look back on Eddington with admiration for its rather accurate portrayal of this crazy time in American history. Don’t just take my word for it, Bill Hader went as far as calling the movie a “masterpiece” on the A24 podcast.
Even if you ignore the film’s social commentary (which isn’t incredibly partisan), the movie itself just kind of rocks.
It is absolutely hilarious without intentionally being a comedy—I think it was the funniest movie I’ve seen this year. It has thrilling action that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It is an emotional drama that forces you to confront yourself as much as you do the characters. And it has a star-studded cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, and many other great performances.
[Blog] Frequent Miler - Citi Strata Elite complete details leaked (and my personal analysis)
Citi is about to come out with a premier credit card to compete with the Amex Platinums and Chase Sapphire Reserves of the world. Long rumored, we now have some more details of the card, which comes out on July 27.
The details are as follows:
Annual Fee: $595
Spending Categories
Hotels, Car Rentals, Attractions through Portal: 12x
Flights through Portal: 6x
Weekend Dining (6pm-6am EST Friday & Saturday): 6x
Other Dining: 3x
All Else: 1.5x
Credits:
$300 Hotel Credit through Portal
$200 “Splurge” Credit (Live Nation, American Airlines, others)
$200 Blacklane Private Chauffeur
Other Perks:
Priority Pass Membership
Global Entry or TSA PreCheck
Four American Airlines Admiral Club Passes
I agree with Frequent Miler that this card is probably only worth it for the sign-up bonus (they list it at 100K miles for $4K in spend over 3 months). It is expected that Citi will become the exclusive transfer partner of American Airlines, so building up some miles with them could pay off down the line.
I currently don’t have any Citi cards, so I might sign up just to take advantage of this offer and then downgrade to the Citi Custom Cash after a year ($0 annual fee, 5x back on top spending category). Regardless, I love seeing new card releases and more competition in the space.
From the first Iron Man in 2008 through Endgame in 2019, Marvel produced around 50 hours of screen storytelling. In the six years since Endgame, the number jumped to an astounding 102 hours of movies and television — 127 hours if you include animation.
“That’s too much,” Feige said.
He characterized the time period after Endgame as an era of experimentation, evolution and, unfortunately, expansion. And while he’s proud of the experimentation — he points to TV series WandaVision and Loki as some of the best stories they’ve made — he admits, “It’s the expansion that is certainly what devalued” that output.
This quote speaks volumes, because it is precisely what fans have been saying for years. The “comic book / super hero fatigue” that has hampered Marvel since Endgame is directly proportional to the amount of content they churn out.
This was due to a Disney mandate—when Disney+ launched, they needed new content to incentivize consumers to subscribe. But the hype quickly devolved into anxiety, as the convoluted interconnectedness of the Marvel universe meant that fans had to spend hours watching subpar shows (ahem, looking at you She Hulk, Hawkeye, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) just to know what’s going on.
After returning to the CEO role, Bob Iger has recalled this mandate (which he initially kicked off), paring back the amount of content that Marvel produces. Hopefully this leads to a sort of Renaissance for the studio.
That being said, Marvel is releasing 9 titles in 2025 alone, across film and TV. In theaters, Captain America: Brave New World (sucked) and Thunderbolts* (good, but nobody cared) have only continued the “Is Marvel Cooked?” narrative. Needless to say, a lot is riding on the release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps this weekend. IMAX showings are all booked up at my local AMC, so maybe that’s a good sign?
That wraps up this edition of Tom’s Top 3 Tuesdays. If you made it to this point, please drop a 1️⃣, 2️⃣, or 3️⃣ in the comments to let me know what you found most interesting/useful. And as always, please like and consider sharing with a friend who you think would enjoy! I’ll be back next week. ✌️