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Box Office Wizard (9.10.10)

By: | Movie Features | September 10, 2010
If I told you Milla Jovovich was into wizards, would you play Box Office Wizard, our weekly box office prediction game? Well, it's true, or at least according to TMZ. So, with that in mind, all you need to do to win your Ukrainian dream girl's affections is predict which five movies will place in the top five of this weekend's U.S. domestic box office chart. 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 #18. 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?


Last Week's Top Five
                              1. 1. The American - $13.1M (weekend)… $16.3M (gross)         
                              2. 2. Machete - $11.3M…$11.3M
                              3. 3. Takers - $10.8M…$37.3M
                              4. 4. The Last Exorcism - $7.3M…$32.1M
                              5. 5. Going The Distance - $6.8M…$6.8M
                              Week #17 Wizard(s):  SimonSays - 2 pts
                              Current Box Office Wizard: Steven C - 52 Pts 

                              Although he put last weekend's winner, The American, fifth, Simon managed to get two points by getting the number three and four films down. Props, however, to GamerGeek and Sallas for predicting "American" correctly despite messing up the rest.

                              ALL-TIME TOTALS
                              Steven C - 52
                              TheGamerGeek - 47
                              SimonSays - 42
                              Sallas - 28
                              Olly H - 14
                              Dustin C - 10
                              OracleofGame - 6
                              Dementious - 5 
                              Matthew D - 3
                              Lydia - 2


                              Remember, only submissions in the comment section count and they must be made by 12:00 PM 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. On 4-day weekends, only the 3-day total matters.

                              Here are this week's new contenders followed by my predictions.

                              New Contenders this Weekend

                              Resident Evil: Afterlife 
                              Written and Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson
                              Starring: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter
                              Genre: Sci Fi/Action/Horror
                              Distributor: Sony/Screen Gems
                              Release: 3,203 theaters 






                              My Top Five Predictions

                              Last week was definitely the up-for-grabs tough week and The American managed to come out on top with just $13 million or so. With one major release out coming that also happens to be the fourth installment in a series, that makes it super easy to predict. Resident Evil: Afterlife will take top honors. The last two films have made $23 million in their opening weekends, both of which were in September -- in fact, "Afterlife" opens six years to the day that "Apocalypse" did. What fans the  series lost after "Extinction" disappointed, Sony/Screen Gems should make up for in 3-D ticket sales. Expect $25 million on this slow September weekend.

                              Now for predicting the rest, all of which finished closely last weekend. Clooney's thriller should endure as grindhouse films don't typically return well, so I've slotted The American over Machete just as they finished last weekend. Takers could be close to jumping over the Robert Rodriguez film, but I'm keeping it fourth. The Last Exorcism should hold up for fifth, but Going the Distance could give it a good run for that last spot once again.

                               

                                1. 1. Resident Evil: Afterlife
                                2. 2. The American
                                3. 3. Machete 
                                4. 4. Takers
                                5. 5. The Last Exorcism


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