Wrath

Yeah, I finally saw it. The opening shot with the swooping owl and the music was beautiful. I was like "Wow, what were the critics thinking? This is perfect!" But then the movie actually started. Sigh. Knightly was wonderful, The visuals were magnificent, with lots of terrific ideas really well executed. But, crap on a stick, virtually everything plot-related was freaking awful. And the music was totally scattershot. Sometimes the music would be totally on-point, then it'd be forgotten about for an extended period only to be suddenly remembered and jammed into a spot where it didn't really go. Everyone other than Knightly did fine with what they had to work with, but what they had to work with was trash.

Nutcracker is going to bone almost all of us.

Much better crafted than I expected, and totally fun. I thought the "war" part of the movie was quite well done, with great tension and pacing, and I thought they did a nice job with the characterizations. The "zombie" part, which I expected to be the truly awesome climax that ramped it all up to 11, was instead underwhelming and brought the whole thing down. The movie was 2/3 cult-classic legend and 1/3 blah and forgettable. It was all set to be an instant classic, but fell apart within sight of the finish line. I both loved it and was disappointed by it at the same time.

1. Will Fatastic Beasts Open to more than $65M? 1000 NO 2. Will Fantastic Beasts Open to more than $80M? 2000 NO 3. Will Fantastic Beasts Open to more than $72.5M? 3000 NO 4. Will Widows Open to more than $14M? 4000 YES 5. Will Widows Open to more than $17.5M? 5000 NO 6. Will Instant Family open to more than $14.5M? 1000 YES 7. Will Green Book have a PTA above $17,500? 2000 YES 8. Will Bohemian Rhapsody stay in the top 4? 3000 YES 9. Will Grinch make more than half of Fantastic Beasts' weekend total? 4000 NO 10. Will Nutcracker stay above Star is Born? 5000 NO 11. Will Halloween's PTA stay above $1,500? 1000 NO 12. Will Overlord have a bigger percentage drop than Spider's Web? 2000 YES 13. Will A Private War enter the top 10? 3000 NO 14. Will Smallfoot drop below the top 16? 4000 YES 15. Will Johnny Depp transform into somebody more GA friendly by the end of the film? I dunno maybe Mel Gibson? 5000 He'll turn into a socially conscious pile of toxic waste, which will be viewed as an improvement. Bonus: 9/15 5000 10/15 8000 11/15 12,000 12/15 16,000 13/15 20,000 14/15 24,000 15/15 30,000 Part B: The top 3 predictions will score points as follows: Closest: Within 1% - 15,000, Within 2,5% - 12000, Within 5% 9,000, Within 10% - 6000 Outside 10% - 3000 points 2nd Closest: Within 1% - 12,000, Within 2,5% - 10000, Within 5% 7,000, Within 10% - 4000 Outside 10% - 2000 points 3rd Closest: Within 1% - 10,000, Within 2,5% - 8000, Within 5% 5,000, Within 10% - 2000 Outside 10% - 1000 points 1. What will Fantastic Beasts make for its 3 day? 64M 2. What will Nutcracker's percentage change be? -58% 3. What will Venom's PTA be for the Weekend? $1,630 Part 😄 There will be 6 films to place and points are expanded because traditionally people haven't scored well here: 3. Instant Family 4. Bohemian Rhapsody 6. Star is Born 8. Nutcracker 10. Nobody’s Fool 12. Boy Erased

Hmm. Wk3 - Yes Subject to change.

1. Will The Grinch Open to more than $65M? 1000 YES 2. Will The Grinch Open to more than $72.5M? 2000 NO 3. Will Spider's Web Open to more than $11M? 3000 NO 4. Will Spider's Web Open to more than $15M? 4000 NO 5. Will the top three new entries combine to more than $90M? 5000 NO 6. Will Overlord open in the top 5? 1000 YES 7. Will Bohemian Rhapsody drop less than 45%? 2000 NO 8. Will A Star is Born finish within $1.5M of Nutcracker? 3000 NO 9. Will Goosebumps stay above The hate you Give? 4000 NO 10. Will Hunter Killer have a bigger percentage drop than Halloween? 5000 YES 11. Will Venom's PTA stay above $2,000? 1000 NO 12. Will First Man drop more than 62.5%? 2000 NO 13. Will Nobody's Fool stay in the top 7? 3000 YES 14. Will Beautiful Boy increase more than 25% from last weekend? 4000 NO 15. Will Cumberbatch at any point make a person kiss a dog's anus? 5000 Do dogs count as people? Bonus: 9/15 5000 10/15 8000 11/15 12,000 12/15 16,000 13/15 20,000 14/15 24,000 15/15 30,000 Part B: The top 3 predictions will score points as follows: Closest: Within 1% - 15,000, Within 2,5% - 12000, Within 5% 9,000, Within 10% - 6000 Outside 10% - 3000 points 2nd Closest: Within 1% - 12,000, Within 2,5% - 10000, Within 5% 7,000, Within 10% - 4000 Outside 10% - 2000 points 3rd Closest: Within 1% - 10,000, Within 2,5% - 8000, Within 5% 5,000, Within 10% - 2000 Outside 10% - 1000 points 1. What will Grinch make for its 3 day? 67M 2. What will Halloween's percentage change be? -48% 3. What will Smallfoot's PTA be for the Weekend? 1,100 Part 😄 There will be 6 films to place and points are expanded because traditionally people haven't scored well here: 3. Nutcracker 4. Overlord 6. Star is Born 8. Venom 9. Halloween 11. Hate You Give

Wk2 - Yes

I've decided that I'm shooting to come in 6th, 8th or 9th this time (though I'll accept 4th as well), so I'm ok with this.

The downside is that someone newly submitting a list is perfectly free to put down a perfect score for Bohemian. You’re actually penalizing the folks who got their lists in on time.

Was it ever?

Wait, 2.5 days? Isn’t it 1.5 days? When exactly is the deadline?

Wk1 - No

Part A: 1. Will Bohemian Rhapsody Open to more than $35M? 1000 YES 2. Will Bohemian Rhapsody Open to more than $50M? 2000 NO 3. Will Bohemian Rhapsody Open to more than $42.5M? 3000 YES 4. Will Bohemian Rhapsody make more than Nobody's Fool and Nutcracker Combined? 4000 YES 5. Will Bohemian Rhapsody have a higher PTA than Suspiria? 5000 YES 6. Will Nobody's Fool Open to more than $12M? 1000 YES 7. Will Nobody's Fool Open to more than $16M? 2000 NO 8. Will Nutcracker Open to more than $18M? 3000 YES 9. Will Nutcracker Open to more than $22.5M? 4000 NO 10. Will Nobody's Fool have a higher PTA than Nutcracker? 5000 NO 11. Will Beautiful Boy make more this weekend than Suspiria? 1000 NO 12. Will Halloween stay in the top 3? 2000 NO 13. Will Hunter Killer stay above First Man? 3000 YES 14. Will Goosebumps have a bigger percentage drop than Littlefoot? 4000 NO 15. Will Hate You Give stay in the top 8? 5000 YES 16. Will First Man increase more than 60% on Saturday? 1000 NO 17. Will Venom have a PTA above $2000? 2000 YES 18. Will A Star is Born finish the weekend within $2.5M of Halloween? 3000 YES 19. Will The top 5 make more than $100M? 4000 NO 20. Will Bohemian Rhapsody mean to make you cry? 5000 Yes, because it won't be back again this time tomorrow, but I'll carry on, carry on. Because it doesn't really matter. Bonus: 12/20 3000 13/20 5000 14/20 8000 15/20 12000 16/20 16,000 17/20 20,000 18/20 26,000 19/20 32,000 20/20 40,000 Part B: The top 3 predictions will score points as follows: Closest: Within 1% - 15,000, Within 2,5% - 12000, Within 5% 9,000, Within 10% - 6000 Outside 10% - 3000 points 2nd Closest: Within 1% - 12,000, Within 2,5% - 10000, Within 5% 7,000, Within 10% - 4000 Outside 10% - 2000 points 3rd Closest: Within 1% - 10,000, Within 2,5% - 8000, Within 5% 5,000, Within 10% - 2000 Outside 10% - 1000 points 1. What will Bohemian Rhapsody make for its 3 day OW? 43M 2. What will Hunter Killer's Sunday gross be? 785K 3. What will Night School's PTA be for the 3 day weekend? 1,025 Part 😄 There will be 6 films to place and points are expanded because traditionally people haven't scored well here: 1. Bohemian 2. Nutcracker 4. Halloween 6. Venom 9. Hunter-Killer 11. First Man

True. This January is probably one of the least vigorously contested months (in the Pick the Top Release This Month question) in the time I've played this game. I mean, if Glass got bumped to Feb for some reason, the winning movie could easily be under $30M.

Working on it now. Wow. The slate of movies this winter is kind of underwhelming.

Not feeling very confident about this one yet, but I may as well get something down to work from as I am feeling like it'd be a mistake to abstain from it. Unlike that international one. I'm not touching that one with a 3-meter pole. 1. Mary F-ing Poppins 2. The Favourite 3. Vice 4. Green Bbok 5. Fantastic Beasts 6. Widows

I abstain NO LONGER! 1. December 21-23 2. December 28-30 3. November 23-25 Part B - abstain

Abstain (for now)

This looks like fun, I’m in. 750 points, eh?

Probably, but Mortal Engines hasn’t impacted yet.

Don't scoff at free points.

Reviews have been startling strong.

First the Dark Universe, now the Spideyverse. The world is a cruel place.

My wife just got back from seeing it, which is funny. I thought previews were tomorrow night and usually I'm the one telling her when stuff comes out. Anyway, she said it was spectacular. I'll prob see it.... crap, weekend is super busy. Maybe next week sometime.

So, the final Monday is included, right? Want to make a ruling on International/China monday totals before we start?