Box Office Blitz: Season 1 Finale (Week 26)

It's really annoying when July 5 is a Friday.  Who wants a holiday on a Thursday?  Stupid Founding Fathers.  This year Canada Day was on Monday, so Canada 1, USA 0 this year.

From the title, you can see I've decided to split the year into 2 seasons, so after this week we'll cash out and next week will begin a new season.  I thought about it and saw a lot of positives to that.  A chance (small one) to bring in new players, maybe those who haven't played in a while might start fresh, those who started play late have a better chance in Season 2, and Tony can at least get something for all the work he did.  The biggest con is that it costs me more.  Alas.  I'll probably tweak the scoring a little too so maybe things can be more competitive.

Andrew and Tony have locked up the #1 and #2 spots.  There's still a chance Rusty can beat Offutt for the 3rd place prize (since I am disqualified from winning).  Everyone else can get a free ebook from Planet 99 Publishing.  So in the comments you can let me know which one you want and in which format.

Meanwhile there is still a week left to go in Season 1.  This week comes the craptacular Lone Ranger movie.  It annoys me because I actually liked the Lone Ranger growing up, so I'd have been interested in a reboot.  But casting Johnny Depp as Tonto is a non-starter for me.  I mean come on, this is 2013, not 1953 when that kind of shit would still fly.  I know Hollywood does still have a tend to whitewash characters; case in point was "Argo" that won Best Picture this year, where Ben Affleck played a Hispanic guy by like getting a tan and dyeing his hair black maybe.  The difference to me though is Affleck didn't go around in a sombrero and talking with a stereotypical Mexican accent.  I mean come on Gore Verbiski and Disney, you really think in 2013 it's a good idea to put a white guy in warpaint and a head dress and say, "How, white man?"  And shame on Depp for taking the money for that part.  Besides that, I'm sure there'll be some "Wild Wild West"-style steampunk BS in the plot to muck things up.  So no, I'm not watching that his weekend (or ever) and I would urge you to do the same just to stick it to Disney.  (Really, shouldn't there be social organizations picketing the movie?  Or are we just that insensitive about Native Americans?  I guess we still do have the Redskins,  Braves, the Indians with their Chief Woohoo, the Florida Seminoles, etc.)

Diatribe over.  Let the game commence!

Here's the list of movies from my local megaplex (* denotes a new release)

• Despicable Me 2*
• Fast & Furious 6
• Iron Man 3 
• Man of Steel 
• Monster University
• Mud 
• Now You See Me 
• Star Trek Into Darkness
• The Bling Ring
• The Great Gatsby 
• The Hangover 3
• The Heat
• The Internship
• The Lone Ranger* (boooooo!!!)
• The Purge
• This is the End
• White House Down
• World War Z

  My picks this week will be:

1. Despicable Me 2 $60M
2. Lone Ranger $50M (shame on you people!)
3. The Heat $25M

No bonus question this week, mostly because I want Rusty and Offutt to be able to settle things on the field, so to speak, and not via a bonus question.  Because that would be pretty lame.  Anyway, make your picks in the comments and tell me what fabulous ebook you want!  Except Andrew, who should tell me how he wants his $25:  Amazon gift card, Paypal, or whatever.

Results will still be posted on Sunday.