The 2014 Summer Movie Wager: A Game Of Box Office Predictions

Its that time of year again. Jeff Cannata (formerly of the Totally Rad Show, now host of NLB and DLC, and a frequent co-host of the /Filmcast) has thrown down the gauntlet, and once again challenged /Film to compete with him 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 year the contest includes Germain 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 watch the full episode of the show with our predictions.

2014 Summer Movie Wager Google Hangout video:

A quick technical note: Due to a new recording set-up, Peter Sciretta was getting a echo of his voice in his headphones, this is why he stops suddenly when talking from time to time during this recording and other times isnt able to hear the others interrupt while he is talking.

2014 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 2012 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.

2014 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:

  • How to Train Your Dragon 2
  • Godzilla
  •  Transformers: Age of Extinction
  • The Amazing Spider-Man 2
  • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Maleficent
  • 22 Jump Street
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
  • Wildcards

  • Neighbors
  • Edge of tomorrow
  • Hercules
  • Germain Lussier's List:

  • How to Train Your Dragon 2
  • Transformers: Age of Extinction
  • The Amazing Spider-Man 2
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past
  • Neighbors
  • Godzilla
  • Maleficent
  • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
  • 22 Jump Street
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Wildcards

  • The Purge Anarchy
  • Blended
  • Hercules
  • Jeff Cannata's List:

  • Transformers
  • Amazing Spider-Man 2
  • How to train your Dragon 2
  • Xmen Days of Future Past
  • 22 Jump Street
  • Godzilla
  • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
  • Edge of Tomorrow
  • TMNT
  • Maleficent
  • Wildcards

  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Jupiter Ascending
  • Planes: Fire and Rescue
  • Feel free to make your own predictions in the comments below!