Summer Movie League – Saved by a Fallen Angel

Week twelve of our Fantasy Movie League is now done and gone, leaving us just one week to go.

After getting trounced in week eleven, squandering my once substantial lead by not paying attention, you would have thought I would have done some serious research for this week.

But I didn’t, really.  I sort of winged it again, running mostly with my Monday.  Actually, if I had just stuck with my Monday pick I would have done better.  But I persisted with Angel has Fallen as my anchor, not really feeling it for anything else.  I thought Good Boys was too dear at the price, Here I Come was too risky, and The Overcomer unlikely to get enough of an audience.

And, as it turned out, I was about right.  If I had stuck with my 3x Angel has Fallen anchor, I would have been set, but for some reason I cannot recall I decided that Dora had a shot at best performer, so I loaded up on that for filler, losing a screen of Angel.

My final lineup was 2x Angel has Fallen, 1x Hobbs & Shaw, 5x Dora.  That was enough for third place and, more importantly, enough to stay ahead of Bhagpuss.

Saturday saw the estimates with me in second place, while Sunday dropped my into third, which carried me into the final totals, leaving the scores looking like this:

1. Miniature Giant Space Hamsterplex – $79,826,830
2. Conical Effort – $79,143,562
3. Wilhelm’s Qeynosian Kinetoscope – $77,485,569
4. Joanie’s Joint – $73,148,120
5. Too Orangey For Crows – $73,148,120
6. SynCaine’s Dark Room of Delights – $72,072,088
7. Po Huit’s Sweet Movie Suite – $65,327,083
8. Cyanbane’s Neuticles Viewing Party – $61,665,007
9. grannanj’s Cineplex – $23,471,704

The perfect pick was 3x Angel, 1x Hobbs & Shaw, and 4x Peanut Butter Falcon, the latter scoring the best performer nod.  Nobody got that lineup here… it is the same as the normal rule perfect pick, and only 16 people got that total… but Hamster and Conical did go with 3x Angel for anchors, getting them the top spot.

After the top three, the next three were heavy on Good Boys, which wasn’t a bad anchor.  It didn’t get punished by pricing as much as I thought it was.

And then there was Cyanbane and Po, who seemed to have bit on the idea of Ready or Not doing just badly enough to get worst performer, get the $2 million bonus for that, and turn into a solid anchor.  Unfortunately, it did too badly, or not goodly enough, or something… maybe they thought it would do well… but it didn’t go as planned regardless.

All of which leaves the season scores looking like this:

1. Wilhelm’s Qeynosian Kinetoscope – $1,129,071,344
2. Too Orangey For Crows – $1,104,960,211
3. SynCaine’s Dark Room of Delights – $1,013,187,702
4. Cyanbane’s Neuticles Viewing Party – $980,016,663
5. Conical Effort – $953,141,451
6. Joanie’s Joint – $944,658,210
7. Miniature Giant Space Hamsterplex – $928,603,452
8. Po Huit’s Sweet Movie Suite – $891,977,071
9. grannanj’s Cineplex – $754,894,150
10. Goat Water Picture Palace – $557,351,870

There was no change in the ranking.  Bhagpuss fell back a bit, but remains just about $24 million behind me, a gap a good week could easily cover.

The alternate scoring ended up looking like this:

1. Wilhelm’s Qeynosian Kinetoscope – 88
2. Too Orangey For Crows – 83
3. Miniature Giant Space Hamsterplex – 69
4. SynCaine’s Dark Room of Delights – 67
5. Cyanbane’s Neuticles Viewing Party – 67
6. Conical Effort – 57
7. Joanie’s Joint – 55
8. grannanj’s Cineplex – 54
9. Po Huit’s Sweet Movie Suite – 45
10. Goat Water Picture Palace – 45

Bhagpuss is just five points behind me, so there are a number of final week possibilities that could end up with me in second place.  Third place is also in play, with three people in very close proximity.

Which leads us all to the final week’s lineup:

1. Angel has Fallen – $216
2. Good Boys – $161
3. Lion King – $143
4. Hobbs & Shaw – $129
5. The Overcomer – $123
6. Angry Birds 2 – $100
7. Ready or Not – $98
8. Dora and the Lost City of Gold – $84
9. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark – $83
10. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – $74
11. The Peanut Butter Falcon – $72
12. Spider-man: Far From Home – $60
13. Toy Story 4 – $59
14. Don’t Let Go – $54
15. 47 Meters Down 2 – $46

Two films dropped from the list, The Art of Racing in the Rain and
Blinded by the Light.  They were replaced by one new film and one returnee.

The new film is Don’t Let Go, a supernatural thriller that is showing up at the bottom of the list and has no long range forecast.  Unless it breaks out, I am not sure how to rate it.

The returnee is Toy Story 4, which was in 17th place last week at the box office.  I am going to guess that it is going to get a theater expansion this coming weekend to have made it back up into the list.

Why would Toy Story 4 get a theater expansion this week?  It is Labor Day weekend in the US, the holiday that pretty much declares summer is over and everybody has to get back to school… though my daughter has been back to school for more than two weeks at this point.  This is the last big family weekend, so if you don’t have a trip planned then maybe a movie will do you.

That also means that this is a four day box office, Friday through Monday, so good luck getting estimates that match your needs.

As for my Monday gut pick, I went with 3x Angel has Fallen, 1x Good Boys, and 4x 47 Meters Down.  That seemed “safe,” but we’ll see what estimates look like as the week goes.

Also, as noted, this is the last week of the season.  With the end of summer I will also stop writing about the league every week, save for the final season wrap up.  I’ll leave it running, because why not, but I won’t be watching it closely.  If somebody else wants to run a league though, I’ll join up.

So get your picks in.  The league locks for the last time this season tomorrow night.