If you recall, last year my wife Kris and I engaged in a summer movie fantasy league (we got the idea from Film Drunk), where we held a draft and picked summer movies based on what we thought their opening weekend totals would be. I won, but not by much.
We’re now in the midst of our Second Annual Summer Movie Fantasy League, and I’m long overdue for boring you with the details.
Back in April, we each picked ten movies we thought would have big summer opening weekends (May through August) and here they are (in release date order, not in the order we picked them). Right now, I’m way in the lead, but only because six of my movie picks have already been released, as opposed to only two of hers.
| Chris | Kris | |||
| Film | Box Office | Film | Box Office | |
| Avengers | $207,438,708 | Dark Shadows | $29,685,274 | |
| Battleship | $25,534,825 | Prometheus | $51,050,101 | |
| What to Expect | $10,547,068 | Brave | ||
| Men in Black 3 | $54,592,779 | Abe Lincoln | ||
| Madagascar 3 | $60,316,738 | Magic Mike | ||
| Rock of Ages | $15,060,000 | Dark Knight | ||
| Spider-Man | Total Recall | |||
| Ice Age 4 | Bourne Legacy | |||
| Hope Springs | The Campaign | |||
| Expendables 2 | Sparkle | |||
| $373,490,118 | $80,735,375 | |||
As you can see, we each have a couple of guaranteed mega-hits (she picked The Dark Knight as her first pick, and I went with The Avengers), and we each have a couple of highly questionable selections (I expected What to Expect When You’re Expecting to exceed expectations, and I was horribly wrong, and she figured Magic Mike, a movie about Channing Tatum taking off his clothes, would draw a ton of squealing ladies to the theaters, which remains to be seen.) Not to mention, my terrible choice of Rock of Ages, which despite being stuffed with stars in a Glee-obsessed country, opened this past weekend to a paltry estimated sum of $15 million.
Still, if The Dark Knight has a comparable opening to The Avengers, which I’m sure it will, I’m not really doing so hot. If you take Madagascar 3 and Men In Black 3 out of my totals, I’ve got three films that combine to the same total of her second pick, Prometheus. So, while I’m currently way in the lead, I’m also sort of only barely in the lead.
We also each picked three summer movies we thought would combine for the lowest total Rotten Tomatoes score.
| Chris | Kris | |||
| Film | RT Score | Film | RT Score | |
| What to Expect | 22% | Piranha 3DD | 12% | |
| Abe Lincoln | That’s My Boy | 23% | ||
| Madea Whatever | Rock of Ages | 42% | ||
| 22% | 77% | |||
We were both surprised Adam Sandler’s That’s My Boy even registered on RT, and Rock of Ages wasn’t quite the critical poo-fest Kris expected, but she has a very respectable total of 77% (last year, the lowest combined total was 95%). That means both Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Madea Makes Another Shitty Movie can only combine for 54% for me to win. I’m pretty sure Tyler Perry won’t disappoint me, but I have absolutely no idea how Abraham Lincoln will be received.
That’s where we stand right now! Kris has three movies opening in the next couple weeks, and of course Batman is lurking over the whole thing like, well, Batman lurking over something. I think the rebooted Spider-Man will have a big holiday weekend in July, and we all know Brave will be massive. I think this could still spin out either way. I’ll update the league every time we’ve got some new numbers to look at.
Very much enjoy! I’m picking Chris to win RT on the strength of Mr. Perry and Kris to win the big one on the strength of Batman.
How did you let Kris have Dark Knight? Just for that, next Arkham game, you have to play Robin.
I had first pick because I lost so badly last year in every category. No need to play Robin!
Oh and we want more Lady Business!