jackanderson (Level 26)

My carefully thought out, intricate, almost-certainly-100%-wrong predictions!

Ted will make money because it's Seth MacFarlane and I don't think people are completely tired of his humour yet (or, at least, as tired as the Internet thinks). I don't think it will run away with the box office because there are two other R rated releases out this week, which I think will hurt it and I think Brave may have some legs. If anything, I think I've overshot this one but I'm sticking nevertheless. I'm actually hoping that it's really good too because I still have a lot of goodwill towards Seth MacFarlane (American Dad! is still brilliant and the first few seasons of Family Guy still hold up. Plus, he worked on Johnny Bravo, so he gets a free pass for life).

Magic Mike will be the surprise winner of the weekend. It may not take first or second, but it will be the surprise winner because I think it'll shock everyone with just how well it does. One word, people: Women. Women will see this because of the subject matter, men will see it because they're dragged to it, and we film snobs will see it because Soderbergh. Of course, this could also suffer from extremely negative word of mouth when those women find out that it's not 90 minutes of Channing Tatum taking his clothes off. We may be in for a Haywire situation, which I hope isn't the case because, like Ted, I'm really hoping that this is good.

Tyler Perry's Madea's Total Clusterf*ck Of A Name will, very upsettingly, make money. I doubt it'll make a major opening, though, because... well, the previous two openers. This is an R rated comedy jostling for position with an R rated comedy and an R rated comedy drama. Somebody is getting their ticket sales cannibalised and I have a feeling that it'll be this one. Of course, I've still guessed at $18 million to hedge my bets in case I'm wrong. Also, can I just state both a] how this trailer has absolutely nothing funny in it at all and b] how absolutely manly Madea sounds and, consequently, how awful Tyler Perry's woman voice is? Having never seen a Tyler Perry movie, is that supposed to be the joke? @litrock, can you shine some light on this for me?

Finally, People Like Us will bomb. Tyler Perry has a built in fan-base, Ted has the star power of Seth MacFarlane and Magic Mike has Channing Tatum taking his clothes off. People Like Us only has the PG-13 rating going for it, and I don't think that that's going to help it at all. Plus, the total and utter bomb of Seeking A Friend... has given me a wake-up call for when it comes to judging the runt of the Wide Release litter. I'm expecting failure and continued sighing from me due to me wishing that Elizabeth Banks would star in more, better stuff.

That's me, then. I pray that the wondrous, generous, awesome perfection of Mary Elizabeth Winstead is watching over me this week and not @RockinKemosabe! Loyalty, Mary! I was hopelessly into you first! Before that poser!

EDIT: @batmanbeyond234: Yep, no Limited Releases! It's that kind of week. Means we're playing with big money here, too! High stakes! Pressure! Over-exaggerated drama over a contest that has literally no value or prizes or stakes whatsoever!

EDIT 3: Ah, results time! This week was a very high scoring week when it came to grosses, which made a lot of us look silly. However, we have 2 very clear winners (despite me trying to bend the rules to get the point I so bloody rightfully deserve!) and the newbie managed to get on the scoreboard on their first try. But, I am getting ahead of myself, here are the results for Week 6! Reminder: 1 point for being closest and 2 points for being dead on (or, in a rule change, getting the $00.0 million part right).

Well, as you can see, @Acura_Max has broken their dry spell and scored 2 vital points, putting them firmly in leadership contention. Of course, only 2 people have actually been able to break past the 4 point total so far, so it'll be interesting to see if they can be lucky number 3. Also, I imagine that @staceywi is fuming that @Acura_Max swooped in out of nowhere and stole her Magic Mike point! Because, as we all know, the Box Office Winners League is Serious Business. Also, congrats to the arsehole known as @RockinKemosabe for gaining two points and taking the lead. Even though they stole one of those points which I should have shared with them but mathematics conspired to screw me over. The power of Mary Elizabeth Winstead strikes again! But, joke's on you, sucker! The perfection known as Mary Elizabeth Winstead actually acknowledged my existence on Twitter for about 30 seconds last Friday! She conversed with me! Ha! I win! I WIN, ARSEHOLE!!

Also, congrats to the newbie, @dOm_CaTz, for scoring on their debut week! Your parents are probably so proud.

I'm not bitter about this week's results or anything, by the by. With that in mind, let's go to the board.

Well, that's Week 6 all wrapped up! Can @Monkeyman04 regain his position at the top of the board? Can @staceywi, @skidd and @Acura_Max break past the dreaded 4 point boundary? Can @obscurefan and @litrock finally get a damn point? And will @RockinKemosabe burn in hell for being a cheating ARSEHOLE? These questions and more shall be answered in Week 7. Hopefully. Return to the forums on Wednesday for the next round. Until then, folks!

I'm just going to copy what I put on the Screened article and paste it here, if it's alright with you lot?

I liked it. (Live in the UK and, thanks to some workarounds, watched it on YouTube) Yeah; it speechifies (Sorkin show, par for the course so I knew what I was really getting myself in for) and the middle where MacKenzie basically delivered 7 straight monologues to Will in a rowreally dragged, but the dialogue was snappy ("Can you flirt?" "Yeah." "Show me your flirting skills." "...hi?"), the characters were great and I really like the twist that they're going to, essentially, fake report on real events. It's a good outlet for Sorkin's insane attention to detail (just started watching The West Wing, began on Season 2, and I can just tell he did his gorram research).

I also loved the complete non-reaction the staff had to the news alert. Maybe I'm just easy to please. Also, "Dickless! Not you, I'm coming to you in a minute!"

The cast already seem to have the Sorkin patter down; vital if this show is going to be any good. Emily Mortimer, Dev Patel, Jeff Bridges and Alison Pill, in particular (incidentally, it really makes me super ultra happy to see Alison Pill back on TV. In Treatment and Scott Pilgrim have sold me on this woman being a phenomenal actress and I firmly believe that she needs to put that talent to good use).

Does anyone else feel that Don is rather one-dimensional at the moment? His complete and total "I really couldn't give a toss" demeanor just seemed highly exaggerated. If this is meant to make us root for Maggie and Jim to get together then mission absolutely accomplished (I also really loved MacKenzie immediately trying to set Jim up with Maggie. That was a good joke), but it means that one of the characters is already a rather unlikable dick.

I could do without Sorkin's constant irrational hatred of the Internet and all forms of social media. It just comes off like a petulant child who doesn't like anyone saying any bad things about his piece of work which he insists is perfect in every single way because his mother said so and, thusly, their going to spend their entire adult life preaching to people about just how eeeeeeeeviiillll the Internet is... and the metaphor has gone off the rails.

Finally, I really don't like that twist at the end. It just doesn't really make much sense and it makes me wonder why she'd do it in the first place. In fact, why doesn't he remember her from there? In fact in fact, why didn't she just tell him? And why is she just carrying that notepad around from 3 weeks earlier? It just reeks of lazy writing, a twist for the sake of a twist, and Sorkin is usually better than that when it comes to plot writing.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed it and would like more now, please! Bring on July 10th for the UK premiere!

And the results are in! To be frank, it was rather close this weekend, and there were so many predictions that were so close to being dead on. I feel like bending the rules and awarding those that were this close the two points... But I can't. Because the rules are the rules. Anyways, we have one major success, one relatively decent opening (all things considered), one pretty large bomb and a bunch of people failing to realise that Woody Allen makes money, gorram it! Here come this week's results! Remember, it's one point for the closest or two points if you're dead on.

So, it finally happened! @TopSteer finally got a point! It only took the duder 5 bloody weeks, but they finally got a point! Let's all give them a big round of applause! Their recovery rally starts here! @skidd managed to gain a vital point, although they're still stuck in second place. But @RockinKemosabe is the true winner here, shooting straight up into leadership contention! Yes, this does mean that @Monkeyman04 is still in the lead for yet another week, but we might finally see somebody new at the top next week.

Let's see how the scoreboard has been affected by this week's results!

So, that's the end of Week 5! As per usual, comment on the thrilling events on this thread! Is @Monkeyman04's luck finally about to run out? Can any of our challengers defeat him? Is this truly the beginning of @TopSteer's comeback? Is @litrock p*ssed that @skidd stole the Abe Lincoln category from right under him? Can @obscurefan finally, at long last, get a point? You'll have to come back Wednesday to find out when we commence with the halfway point of the competition: Week 6! See you then!

And that's it! No more predictions please as the deadline has been passed. Check back here on Monday for the results or, if you would like a preview of how things are likely to go, then come back later for the Friday forecast!

As per usual, today is the last day to get your predictions in! If you make them after Midnight tonight, they WILL NOT be counted.

As much as I love @dvdhaus's suggestion, I believe that the correct answer is always Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

She's mine! YOU LOT CAN'T HAVE HER!!

@TopSteer: I will more than happily pray against my results if it finally gets you some points! You're a trier and, dammit all, triers deserve at least a point!

Also, re-reading my predictions and then reading all of yours (as in, everyone who's made predictions so far), I've realised that I may not completely understand the concept of a bomb. $25 million is not really a bomb, and all of yours are looking exceedingly accurate. Dammit, all!

I need to start rigging this thing! Once I've finished building my time machine, I'll use it to win the League! And then you'll all kneel before my awesome terror! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

As per usual, my predictions.

As much as I would love for it to succeed, I really don't think that Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter will do well, at all. It's a ridiculous premise and I imagine that the super serious marketing is going to turn a hell of a lot of people away. In addition, it stars literally no-one that anyone will remember (barring Howard Stark) leading me to note above when I said, "None of the stars in this movie have ever successfully opened a film, and those who have, haven't done so in the last half a decade." I stand by that statement and I don't think "From producer Tim Burton and the Director of Wanted" will have the same pull as they once did. As much as it pains me to say, I'm calling it: This'll be a bomb. Prove me wrong, America!

Brave is interesting. I mean, it's Pixar, so it will win the weekend and it will make money. But I don't think that it'll make that much money. Madagascar only came out 2 weeks ago and I think that's really going to eat into those ticket sales, making the opening less than anticipated and, consequently, dooming the "Female lead" concept to action movies starring Angelina Jolie, once again. I pray more for the quality, than anything else. It's not out here in the UK until August, and the trailers have me terrified that Pixar haven't learnt anything from Cars 2. As for the prediction: I went a bit conservative. Shoot me.

Seeking A Friend... is a random number I pulled out of my arse. It's got star power which I think will help it do well, but beyond that, it's anyone's guess. I'm kind of surprised that they haven't played up the fact that it's from the writer of Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist at all, but they're professional marketers, so what does my opinion matter?

And To Rome With Love has rather terrible reviews which will hurt its box office. But, it's Woody Allen and the novelty of seeing him in front of the camera again for the first time in over half a decade should draw out enough people to help this make my prediction. If this becomes the next Midnight In Paris (which, let's face it, has already happened thanks to Moonrise Kingdom), I will be utterly amazed.

And now watch as, just like every single other week, my carefully thought out and rationalised predictions turn out to be 100% wrong!

Also, how do you folks like the slightly less formal writing style? I think I've finally gotten the hang of writing these and making them interesting to read!

EDIT 2: And the results are in! To be frank, it was rather close this weekend, and there were so many predictions that were so close to being dead on. I feel like bending the rules and awarding those that were this close the two points... But I can't. Because the rules are the rules. Anyways, we have one major success, one relatively decent opening (all things considered), one pretty large bomb and a bunch of people failing to realise that Woody Allen makes money, gorram it! Here come this week's results! Remember, it's one point for the closest or two points if you're dead on.

So, it finally happened! @TopSteer finally got a point! It only took the duder 5 bloody weeks, but they finally got a point! Let's all give them a big round of applause! Their recovery rally starts here! @skidd managed to gain a vital point, although they're still stuck in second place. But @RockinKemosabe is the true winner here, shooting straight up into leadership contention! Yes, this does mean that @Monkeyman04 is still in the lead for yet another week, but we might finally see somebody new at the top next week.

Let's see how the scoreboard has been affected by this week's results!

So, that's the end of Week 5! As per usual, comment on the thrilling events on this thread! Is @Monkeyman04's luck finally about to run out? Can any of our challengers defeat him? Is this truly the beginning of @TopSteer's comeback? Is @litrock p*ssed that @skidd stole the Abe Lincoln category from right under him? Can @obscurefan finally, at long last, get a point? You'll have to come back Wednesday to find out when we commence with the halfway point of the competition: Week 6! See you then!

As literally everybody who is on this site should be aware of by now, I have the biggest crush and biggest obsession on one Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

Yes; she is the purest definition of insanely "no, really, it's so unbelievably unfair on the rest of us, please stop it" beautiful, but that's not the only thing. She's also a fantastic actress who makes even the worst stuff watchable. Seriously, try telling me that things like "Black Christmas 2006" and "Make It Happen" would be in any way viewable entertainment without her in them! And then when she's given stuff to do, boy howdy!

Finally, she's an absolutely awesome person. In interviews she's shown to be genuinely witty, she's always wonderful to her fans and she seems like the sort of person who would actually be willing to have a genuine conversation about stuff if you went up and talked to her. I'm in genuine love!

Hell; the only reason I haven't murdered her husband, Riley Stearns, yet, is because he's awesome too! And, just like TV Tropes says, I Only Want My Beloved To Be Happy! So, despite my insane crush, I'd much rather just know Mary.

And, on the way less creepy and strange front, I'll also take Anna Kendrick and/or Jewel Staite. But only after Mrs. Winstead!

I may have issues... Major issues...

So, this weekend was a double edged sword. On the one hand, nobody saw the crappy movies! Yay! On the other, not a single one of us were close with our predictions as a result. As such, you'll notice that the major winner of the weekend only won by virtue of her predictions being the lowest. Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself. Here are the results for Week 4! Don't forget, it's one point for being closest and two points for being dead on.

So, yeah, congrats to @staceywi for picking the lowest and stuff. I'd be more proud and congratulatory but you did only win on a technicality so it hardly counts. Much. (bitter troll face) Also, a hell of a lot of my pride is directed towards the American public for skipping these movies. Seriously, you do not know how happy it makes me to see a horrid Adam Sandler movie finally flop!

Anyways, let's see what this has done to the scoreboard as we pass a third of the way!

And that's the end of Week 4! We have a new contender to @Monkeyman04's crown but can @staceywi stick the landing? Can users like @litrock and @Red finally get on the scoreboard? Can @RockinKemosabe resist the urge to murder @staceywi for, essentially, one-dollar-ing his ass? All of these answers and more will be revealed in Week 5 when we deal with the releases of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (squee!) and Brave (but not in the UK, which is why I'm not squee-ing)! Until then, comment on the results, chat amongst yourselves and have a good old time!

See you back here on Wednesday for Week 5!

The Friday results are in for the week's two wide releases and I have good news and bad news.

The Good News: Nobody is seeing these films. Rock Of Ages made $5.3 million and is on course to make about $15 million for the weekend. Meanwhile, the excretable That's My Boy is fairing even worse with $4.6 million from the Friday and projected to make $13 million for the weekend.

The Bad News: Nobody is seeing these films, meaning that all of our predictions are, quite frankly, looking like major failures and major embarrassments.

But at least nobody's seeing these films, yet. Every cloud, right?

No more predictions, please! That part has now closed! Come on back here Monday for the results!

As per usual, today is your last chance to get your predictions in! Predictions made after tonight at Midnight WILL NOT be counted!

@Monkeyman04 Don't be too worried, just yet. The only other person who's close to you is @skidd and he hasn't voted yet! The only other way anyone would get close would be to have one person win all of the predictions, and that's rather unlikely, in my opinion. I think you may have a staying of execution, for now.

@FinalDasa Next week sees the release of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (which I am totally off to see and none of you lot can stop me) and Brave. So the big films are coming, this is just sort of a week off.

@FinalDasa: FinalDasa!

Oh, lord, you're right! It's now been fixed!

And now, my predictions!

Musicals do well, but never too well on opening weekend, hence my conservative estimate on Rock Of Ages. That'll have some legs, but it won't do that well on opening weekend. Adam Sandler movies make a crap tonne of money, unfortunately, and I think that this is going to make a fair bit of money. I completely expect Madagascar 3 to stay at number 1, but I think this'll take number two and it will almost definitely beat Prometheus. As for the indies, I took a pair of completely random guesses based on their screen counts. I'm almost certain that I'm wrong on the pair of them.

EDIT 3: Results!

So, this weekend was a double edged sword. On the one hand, nobody saw the crappy movies! Yay! On the other, not a single one of us were close with our predictions as a result. As such, you'll notice that the major winner of the weekend only won by virtue of her predictions being the lowest. Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself. Here are the results for Week 4! Don't forget, it's one point for being closest and two points for being dead on.

So, yeah, congrats to @staceywi for picking the lowest and stuff. I'd be more proud and congratulatory but you did only win on a technicality so it hardly counts. Much. (bitter troll face) Also, a hell of a lot of my pride is directed towards the American public for skipping these movies. Seriously, you do not know how happy it makes me to see a horrid Adam Sandler movie finally flop!

Anyways, let's see what this has done to the scoreboard as we pass a third of the way!

And that's the end of Week 4! We have a new contender to @Monkeyman04's crown but can @staceywi stick the landing? Can users like @litrock and @Red finally get on the scoreboard? Can @RockinKemosabe resist the urge to murder @staceywi for, essentially, one-dollar-ing his ass? All of these answers and more will be revealed in Week 5 when we deal with the releases of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (squee!) and Brave (but not in the UK, which is why I'm not squee-ing)! Until then, comment on the results, chat amongst yourselves and have a good old time!

See you back here on Wednesday for Week 5!