2016 Summer Movie Wager: A Game Of Box Office Predictions

Update: During this podcast, we put the call out to listeners/readers to create a system that would act as a running scoreboard, dynamically updating with the box office numbers to show who is in the lead throughout the Summer. A /Filmcast listener named Paul answered the call, and you can now check the running tally on the Summer Movie Wager Virtual Scoreboard. We didn't actually expect anyone to create anything as intricate as this, so a big thanks goes out to Paul. Please also check out his cocktail blog here.

Its that time of year again — the Summer movie season is upon us. And the /Filmcast team have once again gathered to compete in what has become an annual tradition: the Summer Movie Wager. Every year in the past I would make a guest appearance on the Totally Rad Show for this segment, but with that show now disbanded we have taken on the job of hosting this contest on /Film. This is the tenth annual edition of this contest.

Last year was David Chen's first time participating and he won the wager. This year the contest includes Devindra Hardawar (his first time), David ChenGermain Lussier, Jeff Cannata and myself in a game is to decide what will be the highest grossing films of the Summer. It's a free-for-all; the person with the best score wins. But it isn't just that easy — not only do the participants need to predict what 10 films will be the highest grossing films domestically, but we need to place them in order. After the jump you can listen to the full episode of the show with our predictions.

2016 Summer Movie Wager Podcast:

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2016 Summer Movie Wager Rules

The rules for the game come from TimeTravelReview's Summer Movie Pool:

The object is to pick the films that you think will be the top-ten grossing films of the summer, in order of box-office performance. As I've said, that means only films released from May 1st 2016 to the Labor Day weekend, counting only the money those films make domestically (US and Canada) in that period. In other words films from March or April might still be making money after May 1st, but they don't count; films released from May on could start racking up foreign B.O., but that doesn't count; films released from May on could still be making money into September, but that doesn't count either. Box Office numbers are generally available late Monday or Tuesday after the weekend closes. For the last seven or so years, I have been using box office numbers from Yahoo Box Office which gets their numbers in turn from Box Office Mojo. So what you will be doing is figuring out what 10 films will make the most money, and putting them in order of what you think they will gross at the box office. BUT, in addition to your top 10, you get to pick 3 "Dark Horses"- films you think *might* make it, but that you are not confident enough about to put into the top 10 proper.

2016 Summer Movie Wager Scoring:

  • Getting number 1 or number 10 dead-on gets you 13 points (each).
  • The rest of the scoring goes like this:

  • 10 points for numbers 2-9 dead-on
  • 7 points if your pick was only one spot away from where it ended up
  • 5 points if it was two spots away
  • 3 points if your pick is anywhere in the Top 10
  • 1 point for each dark horse that makes it into the Top 10
  • The scoring is tabulated so that you get the SINGLE HIGHEST point value for each pick- that is, if you get number ten right, you don't get 13+3, you only get 13.

    Peter Sciretta's List:

  • Finding Dory
  • Captain America: Civil War
  • Suicide Squad
  • Independence Day: Resurgence
  • X-Men: Apocalypse
  • Ghostbusters
  • The Secret Life of Pets
  • Star Trek Beyond
  • Alice Through the Looking Glass
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
  • Wildcards

  • Ice Age: Collision Course
  • Neighbors 2
  • Warcraft
  • David Chen's List

  • Captain America: Civil War
  • Finding Dory
  • Secret Life of Pets
  • Suicide Squad
  • X-Men Apocalypse
  • Star Trek Beyond
  • Jason Bourne
  • Ghostbusters
  • Independence Day: Resurgence
  • Ice Age: Collision Course
  • Wild Cards:
  • BFG
  • Warcraft
  • Tarzan
  • Germain Lussier's List:

  • Captain America Civil War
  • Finding Dory
  • Independence day
  • Secret Life Pets
  • X-men
  • Alice
  • Central Intelligence
  • Ghostbusters
  • Suicide Squad
  • Star Trek Beyond
  • Wildcards

  • Neighbors 2
  • Ninja Turtles 2
  • Conjuring 2
  • Jeff Cannata's List:

    Civil War
    Finding Dory
    Ice Age
    Xmen Apocalypse
    Independence Day
    TMNT
    Jason Bourne
    Star Trek
    ghostbusters
    Suicide Squad

    Wildcards

    Neighbors 2
    Central Intelligence
    Pete's Dragon

    Devindra Hardawar's List:

  • Captain America Civil War
  • Suicide Squad
  • The Angry Birds Movie
  • X-Men Apocalypse
  • The Secret Life of Pets
  • Finding Dory
  • Jason Bourne
  • Star Trek Beyond
  • Independence Day Resurgence
  • Ghostbusters
  • Wildcards

  • Central Intelligence
  • The BFG
  • Free State of Jones
  • Feel free to make your own predictions in the comments below!