Welcome to week twelve of our 2014 Summer Box-Office Challenge!
Think of it as a summer-long contest for movie-lovers – you’ll make predictions and guesses as to which summer movies will rule the box-office each week, we award points and at the end of the contest the three top point-earners will each win a Blu-ray/DVD prize pack! First place will win ten (10) Blu-ray/DVD titles released throughout the coming summer, second place wins five (5) and third place wins two (2). We’ll have bonus questions each week as well to help bolster your point totals and keep you in the running.
Apes rule, robots drool… but we knew that was going to be the case didn’t we? The weekend actuals show Dawn of the Planet of the Apes taking #1 with a $72.6 million opening, and as for the bonus question, Boyhood managed a whopping $78k per theater average. Check out the updated top five player standings below (and the list of the remaining players with double-digit scores at the end of the post).
- Thomas McCallum – 28 points
- Spencer Connell – 27 pts
- Chris B – 26 pts
- Jamie Boyd – 25 pts
- AKFilmfan – 24 pts
Spencer jumped into the top five – all the way to #2 – on the strength of a winning guess that was also within $1m of the actual as well as getting the bonus correct. It was a 9 pt week for him and shows what’s still possible in these final weeks.
And now it’s on to week twelve! Check out the challenge questions below and play along in the comments section.
There are three wide releases this week, and while one of them is a kids flick the other two are R-rated affairs. The question is whether or not either of those two can take the top spot. R-rated films have opened at #1 four times this year so far, with two of those being comedies. So let’s look at this week’s competitors. The Purge: Anarchy is the sequel to last year’s surprise hit ($89m worldwide on a $3m budget), and it should at least match the original’s opening of $34m. Sex Tape is a “sexy” rom-com hoping to capitalize on Cameron Diaz’s recent statement that she “bares all” for the first time, but her and Jason Segal writhing around in the buff sounds scarier to me than a night where all crime is legal. Planes opened last year to $22m – a fair amount for a Disney pic trying to capitalize on their connection to Pixar – but I wouldn’t expect the follow-up (Planes: Fire & Rescue) to do any better.
And of course it’s entirely possible that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes hangs on to the top spot for another week.
To enter, leave a comment below with your answers to these questions by 11:59 pm Central time Wednesday:
- Predict the #1 film at the box office for July 18–20 and how much it will earn: The closest correct answer earns 5 points, the 2nd closest earns 3 points and a correct guess within one million dollars earns an additional 2 points. (Example: “Video Games: The Movie, $16k”)
- Bonus Question: Three indie darling directors (of varying degrees) have new films in limited release this weekend – Mike Cahill’s I Origins, Michel Gondry’s Mood Indigo and Zach Braff’s Wish I Was Here. Which one will have the highest per theater average? A correct answer earns 2 points.
Here are the incredibly simple rules:
- The cutoff for predictions is 11:59 pm Central time each Wednesday, and there will be no exceptions.
- Predictions are for Friday to Sunday domestic box office as reported by Box Office Mojo.
- The contest runs through the weekend of July 25–27 (that will be the final round).
- Be sure your Disqus info is accurate and consistent as that’s how we’ll be tracking your guesses week to week and contacting our three winners.
- Comment edits made AFTER the cutoff time constitute cheating and will result in player forfeit.
We’ll return next Monday for week 13 and our updated leader-board. Thanks for playing and good luck!
Here are the remaining players who have points in the double-digits and therefore still technically have a chance of reaching the top three.
Husain 23 Gary Salem 23 Barthov 22 Xtlhogciao 19 Ash 19 Smokey Ling 14 Rpaine 13 Alex Guilmartin 12 Starkweather 11 Good Jeff 10 Joe Webb 10