March to Box Office Madness 2010 Final Results

We have a winner! Some six months later, the spring/summer box office season can finally be declared finished, and with it, the March to Box Office Madness 2010 game.

It was a tight race all the way down to the wire, but our winner, with 65 points (out of a possible 76) is Justin G., who topped the "record" for total points (I say "record" because this is only the second year of the game) of 64 points by last year's winner, Wayne (of Reel Whore). (Wayne ended this year tied for 14th with 49 points.) Bringing up the rear, with an impossible 10 points, was Clarabela, who obviously will need a partner next year (sorry, I had to call you out - it takes talent to score that low in this game!).

As it happens, I got 2nd place with 62 points, but since I was one of the prize-givers for 2nd place (see below), I'm going to defer. The prize I was scheduled to give to the 2nd place winner will be added to the 1st place booty; likewise, I'll ask Wayne to transfer his 2nd place offering to the 3rd place player, Neil A, who tallied 60 points. I will be in touch with all prize winners and offerers in the next few days to co-ordinate efforts.

First place:
* From Rachel of Rachel's Reel Reviews, a $25 gift certificate to a large movie theater chain (one in the area of the winner),

* From Joshua of The Discordic Adventures of Fnord, a set of five DVDs, including A Nightmare on Elm Street (Limited Special), My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and Revolver.

Second Place:
* From me, the standard DVD of your choosing (up to $19.99) from Amazon, (going to the first place winner)

* From Wayne, a set of two DVDs, Transformers and Spider-Man 3. As Wayne stated, "Both of those should be appropriate since they are summer box office breakers." (going to the third place winner)

Third Place:
* From This Guy of This Guy Over Here, "If I finish my eBook by then, I'll be happy to throw that in the pool of prizes... value will be $4.99 haha... but that's a big IF,"

* From me, a brand new t-shirt of insignificant value.

To view the final bracket in PDF form, click here (or if you wish to save, do a "Save Target As"): http://blogcabins.webs.com/march2madnessmaster2010final.pdf

Here are the complete and final standings; if you think I've made an error, be sure to let me know within three (3) days of this post. Due to the possibility of an error, prizes will not be sent until such time has passed. Click here to read all about the game.

Finally - THANKS FOR PLAYING! I look forward to doing it again next year.

NAME	TOTAL
Justin G.	65
Dylan	62
Neil A.	60
T.L. bugg	57
Joshua R.	57
Lindsay S.	55
Fitz	53
Keith	52
This Guy Over Here	51
Luke T.	51
Ruben	51
JacksSmirkingRevenge	50
Dodge This!	50
Nick	49
Wayne	49
Jess	48
Andy H.	47
Matt N.	47
John B.	47
Alex S.	47
Scott K.	46
Sebastian G.	44
Mike M.	43
Daniel	43
BD79	41
Travis M.	40
Linda S.	40
Jason S.	38
R.D. P.	37
Rachel	37
Scot N.	37
Joaquin	35
Kid Vegas	34
Vancetastic	33
Aiden R.	32
Andrew K.	32
Michaël P.	30
Clarabela	10

All box office data from Box Office Mojo.

March to Box Office Madness 2010 scoring update (through 8/15)

Though the March to Box Office Madness game technically won't end until late September, I'm going to be periodically posting updates to the standings.

Just about the only matchup left to decide is Inception vs. Iron Man 2, and it looks like it'll come down to the wire. I might've taken some liberties with some matchups that aren't technically "closed," but certainly appear to, so these standings are not binding.

Currently, there are 64 available points (out of a possible 76). If you think I've made an error, be sure to let me know. We have 38 total players. Click here to read all about the game and/or to see the full bracket.

NAME	TOTAL
Justin G	53
Dylan	50
Keith	48
Neil A	48
T.L. bugg	45
Joshua R	45
Andy H	43
Lindsay S.	43
Scott K	42
Fitz	41
Mike M	39
This Guy Over Here	39
Luke T	39
Ruben	39
JacksSmirkingRevenge	38
Dodge This!	38
Nick	37
Rachel	37
J. Wayne H	37
BD79	37
Jess	36
Travis M	36
Matt N	35
John B.	35
Alex S	35
Jason S	34
R.D. P	33
Sebastian G	32
Daniel	31
Aiden R.	28
Linda S	28
Andrew K	28
Scot N	25
Joaquin	23
Kid Vegas	22
Vancetastic	21
Michaël P	18
Clarabela	10

All box office data from Box Office Mojo.

March to Box Office Madness 2010 scoring update (through 7/18)

Though the March to Box Office Madness game technically won't end until late September, I'm going to be periodically posting updates to the standings.

We're at about the halfway point, as 16 matchups (of varying worth) have been decided. The next two weeks, with Salt and Dinner for Schmucks, will put an end to a few more matchups.

Currently, there are 26 available points (there will be a total of 76 possible by the time the game ends). If you think I've made an error, be sure to let me know. We have 38 total players. Click here to read all about the game and/or to see the full bracket.

NAME	TOTAL
Lindsay S.	26
Fitz	24
This Guy Over Here	24
Luke T.	23
Scott K.	23
Sebastian G.	23
Daniel	22
Dylan	22
Justin G.	22
Nick	22
Ruben	22
JacksSmirkingRevenge	22
Andy H.	21
Dodge This!	21
Wayward Jam	21
Jess	21
Mike M.	21
BD79	20
John B.	20
Matt N.	20
Rachel	20
Travis M.	20
Aiden R.	19
Alex S.	19
Jason S.	19
Keith	19
Neil A.	19
Joaquin	18
R.D. P.	18
T.L. bugg	18
Andrew K.	17
Joshua R.	17
Scot N.	17
Kid Vegas	15
Linda S.	13
Vancetastic	12
Michaël P.	11
Clarabela	4

All box office data from Box Office Mojo.

March to Box Office Madness 2010 scoring update (through 6/27)

Though the March to Box Office Madness game technically won't end until late September, I'm going to be periodically posting updates to the standings. It's been a couple months since the game started, so I figured now was a good time.

Though others could be called as decided, only five "matchups" have been outright, no doubt, for sure decided. Those five are (points per win in parenthesees): Toy Story 3 vs. Why Did I Get Married Too? (1), Shrek Forever After vs. Date Night (1), The A-Team vs. MacGruber (1), The Karate Kid vs. Nightmare on Elm Street (1) and Shrek Forever After vs. The A-Team (2).

As such, there are 6 available points (there will be a total of 76 possible by the time the game ends). If you think I've made an error, be sure to let me know. We have 38 total players. Click here to read all about the game and/or to see the full bracket.

NAME	TOTAL
Andrew K.	6
Andy H.	6
Dylan	6
Jess	6
Joaquin	6
Linda S.	6
Lindsay S.	6
Luke T.	6
Matt N.	6
Nick	6
Scott K.	6
Sebastian G.	6
JacksSmirkingRevenge	6
Vancetastic	6
Alex S.	5
BD79	5
Daniel	5
Dodge This!	5
Fitz	5
J. Wayne H.	5
Jason S.	5
Justin G.	5
Keith	5
Kid Vegas	5
Mike M.	5
Rachel	5
Ruben	5
Scot N.	5
This Guy Over Here	5
Aiden R.	4
John B.	4
Michaël P.	4
Neil A.	4
Travis M.	4
Clarabela	3
T.L. bugg	3
Joshua R.	2
R.D. P.	2

All box office data from Box Office Mojo.

March to Box Office Madness update

The game is underway! This year, we have 38 players, up slightly from the 34 we had last year, but the prizes - vastly improved! Last year, Wayne of Reel Whore took home a DVD of his choosing from Amazon as well as a t-shirt. This year, the prize pool is deep, and will shake out as such:

First place:
* From Rachel of Rachel's Reel Reviews, a $25 gift certificate to a large movie theater chain (one in the area of the winner),

* From Joshua of The Discordic Adventures of Fnord, a set of five DVDs, including A Nightmare on Elm Street (Limited Special), My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and Revolver.

Second Place:
* From me, the standard DVD of your choosing (up to $19.99) from Amazon,

* From Wayne, a set of two DVDs, Transformers and Spider-Man 3. As Wayne stated, "Both of those should be appropriate since they are summer box office breakers."

Third Place:
* From This Guy of This Guy Over Here, "If I finish my eBook by then, I'll be happy to throw that in the pool of prizes... value will be $4.99 haha... but that's a big IF,"

* From me, a brand new t-shirt of insignificant value.

Here's a list of all of the players in this year's contest; for kicks, I've thrown in their picks for the tournament champion:

Player	Top Film Pick
Mike M.	Eclipse
Jess	Iron Man 2
T.L. bugg	Toy Story 3
Aiden R.	Eclipse
Scott K.	Eclipse
Joshua R.	Toy Story 3
This Guy Over Here	Iron Man 2
Luke T.	Iron Man 2
Fitz	Iron Man 2
Justin G.	Toy Story 3
JacksSmirkingRevenge	Iron Man 2
Michaël P.	Iron Man 2
Travis M.	Eclipse
Sebastian G.	Iron Man 2
Keith	Toy Story 3
Ruben	Iron Man 2
Daniel	Iron Man 2
Nick	Iron Man 2
Jason S.	Eclipse
Clarabela	Iron Man 2
Andy H.	Toy Story 3
Neil A.	Toy Story 3
R.D. P.	Eclipse
Dylan	Toy Story 3
Kid Vegas	Iron Man 2
Linda S.	Iron Man 2
Matt N.	Iron Man 2
Vancetastic	Shrek Forever After
Andrew K.	Eclipse
John B.	Iron Man 2
Alex S.	Iron Man 2
Rachel	Inception
Joaquin	Iron Man 2
Scot N.	Iron Man 2
Lindsay S.	Iron Man 2
Dodge This!	Iron Man 2
Wayne H. - 2009 Champ	Iron Man 2
BD79	Eclipse

Those champ picks break out as such:
Iron Man 2 - 21
Eclipse - 8
Toy Story 3 - 7
Inception - 1
Shrek Forever After - 1

Finally, I posted this earlier, but just in case, so you know that I'm no cheater, here's my bracket.

Good luck to all, and extra special thanks to all those contributing to the prize pool! Makes it a lot more fun with a larger pool and more winners. Updates to the scoring will be posted periodically over the next few months.


P.S. - Bonus PLUG: If you just can't get enough bracketology, Orrin of The Sophomore Critic has created a movie-themed bracket tournament of his own about the best films of 2009, which can be found here.

Last chance to March to Box Office Madness!

You must get your entry in to me by Thursday night 11:59 PM (Pacific) to be eligible. Good luck! Click the banner above for the full rundown of rules and to get your entry form. More details, including the expanded prize pool, coming soon. In the meantime, so you know that I'm no cheater, here's my bracket.

March to Box Office Madness 2010!

It's back!

Due to circumstances beyond my control, there's a limited window of opportinuty to get in on the game - today is March 23 and all entries must be submitted to be no later than midnight, April 2. The good news is that it shouldn't take but a few minutes for you to complete the entire process.

If you're a fan of sports at all, or have ever worked in an office, there's a good to great chance that you're aware of the phenomenon that strikes America this time of year. That's right - it's March Madness, the 64 (er, 65) team college basketball tournament that drains efficiency from thousands of companies as workers kill their time filling out their brackets and subsequently trying to sneak in actually watching the games of the first few rounds of the tournament. It's one big semi-gambling semi-orgy - and everyone semi-loves it.

The idea:
With the NCAA tournament in full force, and with my joint film and sports appreciation, I got the idea to run a box office game the same way that the tournament is run. 32 films, one box office champion, many shining moments.

So, what you'll do is click on the link provided below, download your bracket, fill it by picking the movie for each matchup that you think will have the higher box office total, and send it to me by April 2.

The rules:
1. For each matchup, select which film will have the higher box office. Continue through the bracket until a champion has been crowned.
2. Scoring per round will be 1-2-4-8-12, for a possible total of 76 points (see table in workbook).
3. For the tie-breaker, enter your predicted top 5 films (box office) from the ones listed. One point for will be rewarded for each correct film, and an additional point for proper placement, for a potential 10 points. In the case of a tie, if one person's tie-breaker portion is not filled out, the other will win.
4. Brackets MUST be turned in (sent to blogcabins@yahoo.com) no later than April 2.
5. Box office data will be counted from April 2 - September 20, 2010.
6. One entry per person.

The prizes:
Still slightly up in the air, but most likely the same kind of deal as done in year's past (a t-shirt and a DVD of your choosing from Amazon.com valued at up to $19.99). However, this year, I was hoping to get the community involved in the prize-giving (to paraphrase Forrest Gump, I am not...a rich...man), so if there's something you can offer to the prize pool, please let me know. Hopefully, we can get a nice booty going. We had 34 players last year, so just a few items will make it that much more worth it.

The link to your bracket (if having troubles - right click, Save Target As):

http://blogcabins.webs.com/March%20to%20Box%20Office%20Madness2010.xls

* Please enter your picks using the same titles I have entered in the master bracket, even if they aren't technically accurate; slight changes are made for formatting issues, and having the names match makes the scoring go that much quicker. Please don't re-format the file in any way if possible. Enter your names and picks and go! *

The banner:
Finally, what fun would this be if it's just a few people? This game is open to EVERYONE. I want this to be BIG! I've made the banner that you see in the sidebar, and I'd love it if you'd put it on your site as well (if possible). Let's do this right! With any luck, everyone will be doing it next year.










The code:
<a href="http://largeassmovieblogs.blogspot.com/2010/03/march-to-box-office-madness-2010.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Large Association of Movie Blogs" src="http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y82/dyjafi/marchboxbanner200.jpg"/></a>

Good luck, and be sure to get me your brackets by April 2! Any questions, comments, suggestions, or prize offerings, email me at blogcabins@yahoo.com.

March to Box Office Madness final results

Though I had originally stated that March to Box Office Madness wouldn't technically end until late September, I look at the yearly box office totals and I'm declaring it safe to call the competition. There's enough separation between the contending films, and not enough time for any film to pass another, what with most of them in "minor earnings" positions with most of them having been released 8-12 weeks ago.

So, from a total of 32 films we are down to one summer box office champion (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, with a hair over $400,000,000 in box office receipts), and from 34 players in this little game, we are down to one champion. Congratulations to Wayward Jam (aka Wayne) of Reel Whore on his winning bracket (as it so happens, Wayne came in 2nd in last year's Summer of LAMB box office contest - he clearly has a future in box office prognostication!). From a possible 76 points, Wayne racked up 64, enough to win the competition by a single point over his closest competitor, Keith of Kano's Kogitation. For his win, Wayne has won a Blog Smog t-shirt provided by Dentyne as well as the DVD of his choosing from Amazon (up to $19.99).

To view the final bracket in PDF form, click here (or if you wish to save, do a "Save Target As"): http://www.freewebs.com/blogcabins/march2madnessmaster2.pdf

Here are the complete and final standings; if you think I've made an error, be sure to let me know within three (3) days of this post. Due to the possibility of an error, prizes will not be sent until such time has passed. Click here to read all about the game.

Finally - THANKS FOR PLAYING! I look forward to doing it again next year.

NAME	TOTAL
Wayne	64
Keith	63
Linda S.	58
BD79	57
Jess	56
Anders	55
Shane C.	54
Rachel	51
Rik F.	48
Dylan	47
Alex D.	46
Daniel G.	46
Scott M.	45
Nick	44
TC K.	43
Ross	42
Friend Mouse	42
T.L. Bugg	40
Wendymoon	40
Clara M.	38
Jim B.	36
dreamrot	36
Chaka	35
Ivan S.	33
Josh L.	32
Nayana A.	32
Joseph D.	31
James H.	31
Mikey F.	31
Derek	28
Piper	23
Jason S.	22
Stephanie	22
Rick B.	19

All box office data from Box Office Mojo.

March to Box Office Madness scoring update (through 7/19)

Though the March to Box Office Madness game technically won't end until late September, I'm going to be periodically posting updates to the standings. It's been some time since the game started, so I figured now was a good time.

We're far enough along that a general shape is starting to show up in the brackets, with one region complete. However, we still have a long way to go, as evidenced by some of the other regions, where as few as one matchup has been decided. To view the current bracket in PDF form, click here (or if you wish to save, do a "Save Target As"): http://www.freewebs.com/blogcabins/march2madnessmaster.pdf

To date, there are 20 available points (there will be a total of 76 possible by the time the game ends). Out of 34 players, we have but one perfect bracket thus far. Here's the complete standings; if you think I've made an error, be sure to let me know. Click here to read all about the game.

NAME	TOTAL
Ross W.	20
Dylan	19
T.L. Bugg	18
Alex D.	17
Wayne	16
Ivan S.	16
Rik F.	14
dreamrot	13
clara m.	13
Wendymoon	13
Daniel G.	13
BD79	12
Nick	12
Jim B.	12
Linda S.	12
Rachel	12
Jess	12
Mikey Filmmaker	12
Anders	11
Josh L.	10
Keith	10
Scott M.	10
James H.	10
Nayana A.	10
Chaka	10
Jason S.	9
Derek	9
TC K.	9
Friend Mouse	9
Shane C.	9
Rick B.	8
Stephanie	8
Joseph D.	7
Piper	7

All box office data from Box Office Mojo.

March to Box Office Madness scoring update (through 5/17/09)

Though the March to Box Office Madness game technically won't end until late September, I'm going to be periodically posting updates to the standings. It's been a couple months since the game started, so I figured now was a good time.

Though others could be called as decided, only four "matchups" have been outright, no doubt, for sure decided. Those four are (points per win in parenthesees): Angels & Demons vs. Observe and Report (1), Wolverine vs. 17 Again (1), State of Play vs. Dragonball: Evolution (1), and Wolverine vs. State of Play (2).

As such, there are 5 available points (there will be a total of 76 possible by the time the game ends). If you think I've made an error, be sure to let me know. We have 34 total players. Click here to read all about the game and/or to see the full bracket.

NAME	TOTAL
Anders	5
BD79	5
clara m.	5
Daniel G.	5
dreamrot	5
Dylan	5
Friend Mouse	5
Jess	5
Josh L.	5
Rachel	5
Rik F.	5
Ross W.	5
Wayne	5
Alex D.	4
Chaka	4
Jason S.	4
Jim B.	4
Linda S.	4
Mikey F.	4
Nick	4
Rick Bman	4
T.L Bugg	4
TC K.	4
Ivan S.	3
Wendymoon	3
James H.	2
Nayana A.	2
Scott M.	2
Shane C.	2
Stephanie	2
Derek	1
Joseph D.	1
Keith	1
Piper	1

All box office data from Box Office Mojo.

March to Box Office Madness!

Time is running out! Entries must be submitted by April 2. If you've already submitted, I'll be checking them for completeness this week.

March to Box Office Madness!

If you're a fan of sports at all, or have ever worked in an office, there's a good to great chance that you're aware of the phenomenon that strikes America this time of year. That's right - it's March Madness, the 64 (er, 65) team college basketball tournament that drains efficiency from thousands of companies as workers kill their time filling out their brackets and subsequently trying to sneak in actually watching the games of the first few rounds of the tournament. It's one big semi-gambling semi-orgy - and everyone semi-loves it.

The idea:
Readers and longtime members of the LAMB will recall that, last year, we had a summer box office prediction game entitled the "Summer of LAMB." It was nothing fancy - just a number of people guessing what the top 10 movies would be, in order. However, with the NCAA tournament right around the corner, and with my joint film and sports appreciation, I got the idea to run a box office game the same way that the tournament is run. 32 films, one box office champion, many shining moments.

So, what you'll do is click on the link provided below, download your bracket, fill it by picking the movie for each matchup that you think will have the higher box office total, and send it to me by April 2.

The rules:

1. For each matchup, select which film will have the higher box office. Continue through the bracket until a champion has been crowned.
2. Scoring per round will be 1-2-4-8-12, for a possible total of 76 points (see table in workbook).
3. For the tie-breaker, enter your predicted top 5 films (box office) from the ones listed. One point for will be rewarded for each correct film, and an additional point for proper placement, for a potential 10 points.  In the case of a tie, if one person's tie-breaker portion is not filled out, the other will win.
4. Brackets MUST be turned in (sent to blogcabins@yahoo.com) no later than April 2.
5. Box office data will be counted from April 3 - September 27, 2009.
6. One entry per person.

The prizes:

TBD. I just thought of this and put it together in the last couple days, so the exact prizes are not know at this point. But there will be prizes!  Some ideas already in the mix are a custom-made t-shirt, DVDs, and possibly cash.  Since the brackets aren't officially due until April 2, and the won't officially end until almost six months later, I think we're okay with this.  Hopefully, though, everything will be figured out come April 2.

The link to your bracket (if having troubles - right click, Save Target As):

http://www.freewebs.com/blogcabins/March%20to%20Box%20Office%20Madness.xls

Finally, what fun would this be if it's just a few people?  I want this to be BIG!  I've made the banner that you see in the sidebar, and I'd love it if you'd put it on your site as well (if possible).  Let's do this right!  With any luck, everyone will be doing it next year.

The banner:










The code:

<a href="http://largeassmovieblogs.blogspot.com/2009/03/march-to-box-office-madness.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Large Association of Movie Blogs" src="http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y82/dyjafi/marchboxbanner200.jpg"/></a>


Good luck, and be sure to get me your brackets by April 2! Any questions, comments, suggestions, or prize offerings (sponsorships???), email me at blogcabins@yahoo.com.