Wednesday, July 3, 2013

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.

16 comments:

stephen Hayes said...

Despicable Me 2....$72 mil

The Lone Ranger....$40 mil

The Heat...........$32 mil.

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

Despicable Me $125 million.
The Lone Ranger $60 million.
Monsters University $30 million.

Andrew Leon said...

1. Despicable Me 2 -- $110m
2. Lone Ranger -- $80m
3. The Heat -- $24m

Either Amazon or PayPal is fine. Whatever's easier.

Maurice Mitchell said...

This is not a big weekend for film. Lone Ranger has a 25% right now on RT so I'm guessing it'll bomb.
1. Despicable Me 2 $100M
3. The Heat $30M
2. Lone Ranger $40M

Briane said...

Despicable Me: $70 mil
Monsters U: $35
Lone Ranger $25 mil.

I wasn't going to pick Lone Ranger because White House Down didn't even crack the top 3, did it? I can't imagine who the market is for this movie. The only review I read of it said it's unusual but not in a complimentary way and that it's so gory that people actually left the theater (mostly people with kids). So I'm not feeling good about that number 3 pick, but I guess since I lost anyway, I might as well go with it.

Do I get an ebook? Does everyone? Nobody else is picking an ebook. On the offchance that I get a free ebook can I get "Change of Heart," the next Scarlet Knight book? And if nobody else asks for theirs, can I get all theirs, too?

Briane said...

OH, and on your "Who wants a Thursday off" thing? I tackled that years ago:

http://www.troublewithroy.com/2008/07/best-day-to-have-off-for-holiday.html

I might go repost that so people can see it. Or not. I'm lazy. But here's what I'm doing. I work every holiday except Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Xmas Eve/Day, and New Year's. So I work Good Friday and Labor Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, World UFO Day (which was yesterday), etc., then I take a Friday off.

That's like getting TWO days off. Here's how: I'll be working tomorrow .But because nobody else is, I'll have shorts and a t-shirt on, and I can always leave a little bit early (I'll probably work 730-2 or 3). So it's not like a regular workday at all; it's more like when I go into the office on Saturdays for a while. I can play my music loud or have "Archer" on while I work, etc.

Plus, I actually do get tons of work done because nobody interrupts me.

Plus all my emails and letters are dated July 4, so everyone thinks I'm this hardworking guy.

So it's not that bad of a day, really, and then I get Friday off, so while everybody else is having a regular day of work, I get a three-day weekend.

I have done this for 13 years now, and it's phenomenal. I've been encouraging my employees to do it. So far it's just me and my partner who do this, but we're both smart.

(I mean, we're the boss so we could just take the day off but we've got to set an example.)

Anyway, everyone should try it.

PT Dilloway said...

Anyone who doesn't finish in the top 3 gets a free ebook. Though some like Stephen Hayes don't have ebook readers and thus are pretty screwed on that score. Maybe he'll let you have his too. lol

Unknown said...

The University I work for has skeleton crew days. I usually work them alone. Same Idea, but I get to take a day off when I want as Compensatory time.

Unknown said...

1. Despicable Me 2 -- $100m
2. Lone Ranger -- $35m
3. The Heat -- $25m

PT Dilloway said...

That's a good idea but I don't think my bosses would go for it.

Cindy said...

I would play this game...if I was good at it. I do watch though.

klahanie said...

Just out of curiosity, here's the UK chart from last week.

1 Despicable Me 2

2 Man Of Steel

3 World War Z

4 This Is The End

5 Hummingbird

6 Behind The Candelabra

7 After Earth

8 Hangover Part III,

9 Before Midnight

10 Epic

Al Penwasser said...

It's worse when the 4th is on a frikkin' Wednesday.
Guess it would be tacky to make it the second Monday in July, so we'd have a three day weekend.
I hope The Lone Ranger tanks. It really is repulsive that they couldn't find a single Native American to play that part.

Al Penwasser said...

Actually, I should say, "didn't WANT to..."

Andrew Leon said...

I was thinking.
I'll bow out of part two of the contest since I won the first half. I'll still post my guesses but just because it's fun. I was trying to think of a way you could use my guesses as part of the contest, but I haven't had any ideas, yet.
At any rate, I'll participate but not compete. Maybe, that will encourage some other people to get involved.

Rusty Carl said...

Well - shit.

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