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Box Office Wizard (10.15.10)

It’s Box Office Wizard! Predict which five movies will place in the top five of this weekend's U.S. domestic box office. It’s that easy. 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 #23. It’s never too late to start! 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 Social Network - $15.5M (weekend)… $46.0M (gross)
  2. 2. Life As We Know It - $14.6M…$14.6M
  3. 3. Secretariat - $12.6M…$12.6M
  4. 4. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole - $7.0M…$39.4M
  5. 5. My Soul To Take - $6.9M…$6.9M

 

Week #22 Wizard(s):  SimonSays - 2 pts
Current Box Office Wizard: Steven C - 60 Pts 

It was a bad week for most of us because too many of you listened to me. Simon came out on top by predicting fourth place for “Legend” and second for Life As We Know It.

 

ALL-TIME TOTALS
Steven C - 60
TheGamerGeek - 59
SimonSays - 54
Sallas - 38
Olly H - 14
Kieran - 13
Dustin C - 10
Joseph – 6
OracleofGame - 6
Dinah – 5
Dementious - 5 
HSXGirl - 4
Max A – 4
Harmonica - 3
Matthew D – 3
Julian – 2
  
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 

RED
Directed by Robert Schwentke
Written by John and Erich Hoeber, Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner (comic)
Starring: Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren
Genre: Action
Distributor: Summit Entertainment
Release: 3,225 theaters 

 

 

Jackass 3D

Directed by Jeff Tremaine
Written by Preston Lacy
Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius
Genre: Comedy
Distributor: Paramount
Release: 3,081 theaters 


My Top Five Predictions

The box office is definitely in need of a boost and will get one this weekend with a proven sequel and a multi-generation-welcoming action film. The question is, which will come out on top?

You really can’t argue against Jackass 3D. The second film, Jackass Two, opened to nearly $30 million in 2006 and while that was four years ago, trends like that tend to stick. I’m going to more modestly say $25 to $28 million is in order.

RED will be a bit harder to predict. I think the basement is $15 million, but the star power will push it much higher. I’m thinking $20 million should be easily attainable with more a definite possibility given the PG-13 rating.

The Social Network is a given for third place and $10 million despite a close finish last week with Life As We Know It. “Network” has held up well and I can’t imagine “Life” will do the same let alone better. Secretariat should easily round off the top five with $6-7 million. It might even threaten to jump “Life,” but I’ll play it safe.

  1. 1. Jackass 3D
  2. 2. RED
  3. 3. The Social Network
  4. 4. Life As We Know It
  5. 5. Secretariat

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