Box Office Wizard (5.7.10)
One of the goals we have at Player Affinity is to create an open dialog with our readers. I don't know how many of you there are yet, probably not much, but it's never too early to start asking for your thoughts and opinions.One way we thought to do this was through a weekly competition. We want you to get out your box office crystal balls and tells us which five movies will place in the top five of each weekend's U.S. domestic box office chart. Simple enough, right? I will make my own predictions here and explain them to you each week to give you some sort of reference point. It's then your job to enter a comment with your top five. This is Week #2. The first week you predict is the first week you enter the Box Office Wizard competition. For every correct prediction each week, you earn a point. Points are cumulative. The game keeps going on and on forever and ever except we will reset everyone back to zero -- let's say -- once a year. Each week there will be at least two winners: a weekend wizard for the users who guessed the most correct and a box office wizard for the user with the most points to date. The goal is to be Box Office Wizard for as long as you can. I'll pick an end date for the year at some point and then whoever has the most becomes the year's box office wizard. Maybe by the team that happens, Player Affinity will be so wildly popular that we'll have some cool free stuff to give the Box Office Wizard of the Year. Regardless, it's worth giving a try. What do you have to lose?
Week #1 Wizard: Steven C - 2 Pts (that's me)Current Box Office Wizard: Steven C - 2 Pts (that's also me)
Currently, Steven C is the Box Office Wizard with 2 Pts. Last weekend, I correctly predicted the first two top-five films. Olly, one of our PA TV writers, was the only other competitor. He received zero points, but he gets a lot of awesome points for participating.
Remember, only submissions in the comment section count and they must be made by 12:01 AM SATURDAY. Check our weekly recap posting late afternoon every Monday for the box office figures of the weekend. Remember, we count the WEEKEND ACTUALS, not the ESTIMATES announced on Sundays.Here are last week's top five finishers and this week's new contenders followed by my predictions.
Last Week's Top Five
- A Nightmare on Elm Street - $32.9 M (weekend) ... $32.9 M (gross)
- How to Train Your Dragon - $10.6 M ... $192.1 M
- Date Night - $7.5 M … $73.6 M
- The Back-up Plan $7.2 M … $22.9 M
- Furry Vengeance - $6.6 M … $6.6 M
New Contenders this Weekend
Iron Man 2
Directed by Jon Favreau
Written by Justin Theroux (screenplay), Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Don Heck, Larry Lieber (comics)
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Gwenyth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke
Genre: Action
Distributor: Paramount
Release: 4,380 theaters
My Top Five Predictions
Four words: shot in the arm. The box office should dominate under the iron fist of — yeah, you get it. Iron Man 2 has a shot at The Dark Knight’s opening weekend record of $158.4 million. The original nearly hit $100 million and that was with no reference point. I don’t want to be the bold one here and say it will do it, but I’m going to estimate $150 million this weekend. If it doesn’t get close to that number, it will say a lot about the power of mixed reviews (doubtful) or the economy.
A Nightmare on Elm Street will cruise into second, but we’re talking hundreds of millions between it and “IM2.” $15 million seems about right as horror movies don’t hold up very well, especially poorly reviewed ones. How to Train Your Dragon will be third, also with ease, earning about $7 million.
Just keep sliding ‘em down. Date Night will move down a peg with $5 million or so, but the distance between itself and The Back-up Plan should widen.
- Iron Man 2
- A Nightmare on Elm Street
- How to Train Your Dragon
- Date Night
- The Back-up Plan
