Summer of LAMB results

If you look closely at the image below, amongst the rules is one that says that the final weekend for the SOL would be October 10-12. But I keep looking at the box office numbers, and it's clear that nothing is going to change between now and then, except perhaps for The Dark Knight picking up a few bucks, but that wouldn't have any bearing on the final tallies.

So, I present to you the final numbers and the winner of the first Summer of LAMB....Marcy from Because I Saw The Film. The key to Marcy's victory was her placing of three films in their correct final places within the top 10, putting The Dark Knight, Hancock, and Wall*E all in their right places.

Here are the final standings (click the image at the bottom to see all the nitty gritty details):

Because I Saw The Film - 13
Reel Whore - 11
Cinexcellence - 11
Spaghetti Sauce and Sweet Peas - 10
Getafilm - 10
The Flick Chick - 10
Blog Cabins - 10
Invasion of the B Movies - 7
Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob - 7

Marcy, for your win, you get to choose two DVDs from Fletch's Unwanted DVD pile (woo!): Fargo (calm down - it's a duplicate), Stitch: The Movie, Reefer Madness, or Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj. Try to contain yourself. I will be in touch to make arrangements for sending our your prizes.

Thanks to all for playing. This was fun - I can't wait for our Oscar pool, though...

Full results (click to enlarge):
Thanks to boxofficereport.com for all data.

Summer of LAMB status update

We're a bit more than halfway through summer movie season (though 80% of the big contenders have already been released), so I figured it was high time to see what's going on with the Summer of LAMB. Below is a screenshot that lists all entrants, their guesses, and the actual box office totals as of July 14 (thanks to boxofficereport.com for the data). All figures are in millions. Click to enlarge the picture to a readable size.

Summer of LAMB entry: DC Girl @ the Movies

[Editor's Note: Our last entry (Matt from The Spoon) forgot to insert predictions for the box office dollars in his S.O.L. entry. He should have gotten together with DC Girl, who sent in a perfectly formatted and complete entry (thank you)...but sent it in past the deadline. Though she will be ineligible to win, her entry still deserved to be posted. Thanks to all that sent in their S.O.L. entries - a scoring update will be published shortly.]

Name: DC Girl
Site: http://dcmoviegirl.blogspot.com

1. The Dark Knight, $350M
2. WALL-E, $345M
3. Iron Man, $340M
4. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, $250M
5. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, $200M
6. Kung Fu Panda, $180M
7. Hellboy: Golden Army, $150M
8. The Pineapple Express, $140M
9. Get Smart, $135M
10. The Incredible Hulk, $110M

Guaranteed Flop: Step Brothers. Will Farrell's train has left the station

Rip Van Winkle Hit (sleeper): Wanted looks like interesting visuals, and despite Angie, playing Angie, I do dig Mr. McAvoy and Freeman.

Three Movies I'm Most Looking Forward To:
1. The Dark Knight: Heath Ledger as the Joker, slam-dunk previous entry, need I say more?

2. Wall-E: They've only had ONE subpar entry in their repertoire, Cars.

3. ...and since Indy's already out Hellboy: The Golden Army. Del Toro guarantees unique not-totally CGI visuals and a unique comic book-to-film concept.

Summer of LAMB entry: The Spoon

[Editor's Note: Matt forgot to insert predictions for the box office dollars in his S.O.L. entry and as such will be ineligible to win, but I thought his entry still deserved posting.]

Name: Matt
Site: The Spoon

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
2. The Dark Knight
3. Hancock
4. Iron Man
5. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
6. Wall-E
7. Hellboy 2
8. Speed Racer
9. The Mummy 3
10. Sex and the City

Guaranteed Flop: Postal - This project suffers from the double smooch of death because 1) it's based on a video game and 2) it's written, produced, and directed by Uwe Boll.

Rip Van Winkle Hit (sleeper): Kit Kittredge: An American Girl - Stars Abigail Breslin, which, in a summer with relatively few kiddie films, is probably enough to drag tens of thousands of young girls - with their parents in tow - to the theaters.

3 Movies I'm Looking Forward To:
Completing this exercise made me realize how little I pay attention to new films coming out because quite a few names on the soon-to-be-released movie list made my clap my hands in anticipation.

Indiana Jones 4 - Seeing Indy return is kind of like watching Michael Jordan make a comeback but since Spielberg remains at the helm I'm inclined to think Indy 4 will be more like Michael Jordan's first comeback rather than his second.

The Dark Knight - Admittedly, some of my interest is for Heath Ledger's final role but mostly I just want to see what kind of magic director Christopher Nolan has produced in his second Batman film.

Hellboy 2 - I liked the first Hellboy film but now that Guillermo del Toro has gone a little more serious with his follow-up, I really like where this one could go.

Summer of LAMB entry: Invasion of the B Movies

Name: Jason Soto
Site: Invasion of the B Movies

1. WALL-E - $700M
2. Dark Knight - $500M
3. (tie) Iron Man - $400M
3. (tie) The X-Files 2 - $400M
5. (tie) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $350M
5. (tie) Step Brothers - $350M
7. (tie) Hellboy 2 - $300M
7. (tie) The Mummy 3 - $300M
7. (tie) Incredible Hulk- $300M
10. Hancock- $200M

Guaranteed Flop: The Love Guru. I dunno something about Justin
Timberlake playing a gay french guy in his
underwear...

Rip Van Winkle Hit (sleeper): I don't really know what a sleeper is
exactly.

3 Movies I'm Looking Forward To:
Only 3? Curses! Ok um...

* Dark Knight cause it looks so f*ckin' cool.

* Indiana Jones 4 cause I finally get to see an Indy
movie in theaters.

* Pineapple Express cause the trailer looks freakin'
awesome!

Summer of LAMB entry: Spaghetti Sauce and Sweet Peas

Name: Mikey Filmmaker
Site: Spaghetti Sauce and Sweet Peas

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $310M
2. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - $270M
3. Wall*E - $260M
4. The Dark Knight - $245M
5. Speed Racer - $165M
6. Iron Man - $135M
7. Sex and the City - $125M
8. Pineapple Express - $120M
9. The Incredible Hulk - $85M
10. The X-Files 2 - $80M

Guaranteed Flop: You Don't Mess With the Zohan (It's a stupid title and Adam Sandler looks stupid. Enough said.)

Rip Van Winkle Hit (sleeper): Son of Rambow (I've only heard good things about this film. It's been making a huge impact on the festival circuit. Don't expect it to make a lot of money, but it's a film few people have heard about.)

3 Movies I'm Looking Forward To:
1. The X-Files 2 (I watched the tv show growing up and have been
waiting for the sequel for the last ten years.)

2. The Pineapple Express (I'm almost done with the script and this
should be a really funny film.)

3. The Dark Knight (Batman is back and the sequel should only reassure
that statement. Looking forward to Ledger's performance sadly because
it will be his second to last.)

Summer of LAMB entry: Reel Whore

Name: Waywardjam (aka Wayne)
Site: Reel Whore

The clock is ticking but after much deliberation and heartache, here’s my predictions for the success of summer 2008, aka The Summer of the LAMBs!

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $400M
2. Iron Man - $325M
3. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - $300M
4. The Dark Knight - $290M
5. Hancock - $278M
6. Wall*E - $235M
7. Speed Racer - $220M
8. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - $215M
9. Kung Fu Panda - $195M
10. You Don’t Mess With the Zohan - $145M

Also rans: The Pineapple Express, The Incredible Hulk, Meet Dave
Guaranteed Flop: Oh my Mike Myers how far you have fallen. I can’t see how The Love Guru will do anything but fail. I think it will also fail to the tune of $25M which we all know won’t even cover Myers’ salary.

I would have loved to throw in Postal here too but if you know a film is a flop before it is even released can you really predict it as such?

Rip Van Winkle Hit (sleeper): Would you believe… Get Smart will be the sleeper hit for a major release? I believe it.

If we’re considering limited and exclusive releases a la Waitress and Little Miss Sunshine fame, I’d have to go with Son of Rambow or Hamlet 2…yeah, that’s right Hamlet 2.

3 Movies I'm Moist With Antici…Pation For:
* The Dark Knight. They kicked my baby mama to the curb in favor of Maggie Gyllenhaal but hey, Mrs. Cruise royally stunk up Batman Begins. We’ve got Bale back in the suit, returning cast members Caine, Freeman and Oldman reprising their roles, and Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart chewing up the scenery. How is this not on everyone’s must see list!

* The House Bunny. Not what you expected? Well, I love me some Anna Faris!!! This will be goofy and predictable no doubt, but at least it’s not another installment of Scary Movie. Plus I still have the McPhever and this is looking to be the year of the Beverly D’Angelo comeback, so why not give this a try?

* Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. I remember getting online to see the Indiana Jones teaser and feeling tingly all over. Then I noticed the Hellboy 2 trailer was available and after watching the most breathtaking effects and wicked fight scenes, I was like Indy Who? You da man, Ron Perlman!

…If I could name one more flick that makes me all sweaty, it’d have to be Midnight Meat Train. That has to be one of the most ludicrous titles in recent film history but it’s going to be one helluva ride!

Summer of LAMB scoring system

Just a quick note to let those playing in the Summer of LAMB know that the scoring system has been determined.

* One point will be awarded for correctly identifying a movie that finishes in the top 10.

* An additional point will be awarded for placing a film in the correct position within the top 10 (i.e. if you picked Indiana Jones to finish first and it does, you would now have two total points).

* An additional point will be earned for choosing a final box office gross that is +/- 10% of the actual final gross.

This will make for 30 possible points, with the winner having the most points. Since there was no prize awarded for Best Blog at the LAMMYS, the prize here - a DVD of your choice - will come from that pool (the list of available choices can be found here).

After I've posted all the individual entries, I will create and post a spreadsheet that summarizes all of the entries, should you wish to score at home. Additionally, I'm sure I'll post updates as summer rolls along.

Thanks for playing!

Summer of LAMB entry: Getafilm

Name: Daniel
Site: Getafilm

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, $324M
2. The Dark Knight, $313M
3. Iron Man, $291M
4. WALL-E, $274M
5. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, $253M
6. Hancock, $245M
7. Get Smart, $212M
8. Sex and the City: The Movie, $196M
9. Speed Racer, $164M
10. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, $149M

Guaranteed Flop: Kung Fu Panda - $68m.

Rip Van Winkle Hit (sleeper): Sex and the City: The Movie.

Three Movies I'm Most Looking Forward To:
- The Dark Knight (Ledger buzz and great franchise).
- Indy 4 (Oh, no reason...).
- Hancock (Back on the Smith train after I Am Legend).

Summer of LAMB entry: The Flick Chick

Name: Stephanie
Site: The Flick Chick

1. WALL-E, $350M
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, $330M
3. The Dark Knight, $250M
4. Iron Man, $225M
5. Hancock, $200M
6. Kung Fu Panda, $180M
7. Speed Racer, $150M
8. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, $140M
9. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, $135M
10. Get Smart, $110M

Guaranteed Flop: Meet Dave. I don't really think words are necessary, but here are a few: Eddie Murphy. Science Fiction comedy.

Rip Van Winkle Hit (sleeper): Pineapple Express.

Three Movies I'm Most Looking Forward To:
1. Indiana Jones...: I feel like I've been waiting half my life for this movie to come out. I can't remember the last time I wanted to see a movie this badly.
2. The Dark Knight: The ad campaign so far has had me very intrigued. Plus, I'm curious to see Ledger's take on The Joker.
3. Mama Mia!: I like Meryl Streep, I like musicals, and though I'd never admit it in public I like Abba.

Summer of LAMB entry: Because I Saw The Film

Name: Marcy
Site: Because I Saw The Film

1. The Dark Knight, $325M
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, $310M
3. Iron Man, $250M
4. Hancock, $238M
5. WALL-E, $209M
6. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, $205M
7. Tropic Thunder, $198M
8. The Happening, $180M
9. Kung Fu Panda, $160M
10. Pineapple Express, $165M

Guaranteed Flop: The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Let's face it, the 90s are over. And "I Want to Believe" is a stupid title.

Rip Van Winkle Hit (sleeper): Hamlet 2. Great trailer and it's getting good online hype. It's fits the whole quirky comedy genre.

Three Movies I'm Most Looking Forward To:
1. The Dark Knight. Everything that I've seen, heard, or read so far has been awesome. My expectations are insanely high for the movie, but I have faith in Christopher Nolan & Co.
2. The Happening. Interesting concept and I love Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel. I'm hoping for a decent Shyamalan comeback.
3. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I love the series. Spielberg is a great entertainer.

Summer of LAMB entry: Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob

Name: Nick
Site: Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob

1. The Dark Knight - $380M
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $375M
3. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - $370M
4. Star Wars: The Clone Wars - $360M
5. Pineapple Express - $330M
6. Speed Racer - $325M
7. Iron Man - $280M
8. The Incredible Hulk - $265M
9. Kung Fu Panda - $250M
10. Hellboy II: The Golden Army - $245M

Guaranteed Flop: Postal. Why? It's Uwe Boll. His name is synonymous with 'flop'.

Rip Van Winkle Hit (sleeper): Repo! The Genetic Opera.

Three Movies I'm Most Looking Forward To:
The Dark Knight (It's Batman!), The Happening (It's supposed to be M. Night's best since Sixth Sense), and Sisterhood of the... I mean... um... Wanted (because it looks awesome).

Summer of LAMB entry: Cinexcellence

I still have yet to determine a proper scoring method to this madness (seriously, if you have any ideas, let me hear them), but I think I've figured out the prize, which of course I'll share later. In the meantime, here's the second entry (out of 10 total) in the Summer of LAMB contest.

Name: Joseph
Site: Cinexcellence

1. The Dark Knight - $400M
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $350M
3. Iron Man - $250M
4. Hancock - $215M
5. Wall-E - $210M
6. Star Wars: The Clone Wars - $175M
7. Get Smart - $115M
8. Pineapple Express - $110M
9. Tropic Thunder - $100M
10. Kung Fu Panda - $90M

Guaranteed Flop: Postal. It's Uwe Boll

Rip Van Winkle Hit (sleeper): The Incredible Hulk. People hated Hulk. It could work to their advantage.

Like sands...

Time is running out! Voting for the LAMMYS ends Monday night at midnight Pacific time. Please don't miss this chance to honor your peers (and maybe get honored yourself) as it won't come around again for awhile.

Here's the link: http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/335421

I promise to make no more than two or three more reminder posts about the LAMMY deadline. ;)

Also, the deadline for entries into the Summer of LAMB contest is Friday night at midnight Pacific. Additional details can be found here.

Summer of LAMB entry: Blog Cabins

Name: Dylan (aka Fletch aka Shep aka Ol' Dirty Bastard)
Site: Blog Cabins

So that the rest of you don't call me a cheater in regards to the box office prediction contest, here's my prognostications for the summer movie season:

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $385M
2. Wall*E - $310M
3. The Dark Knight - $295M
4. Iron Man - $260M
5. Hancock - $245M
6. Kung Fu Panda - $200M
7. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - $185M
8. Speed Racer - $165M
9. Get Smart - $150M
10. Pineapple Express - $145M

Also rans: The Incredible Hulk, Hellboy II, Tropic Thunder

Guaranteed Flop: The Love Guru - years away from the multiplex (in person, at least) and this is what Mike Myers has for us? Second choice for a flop is Sandler's You Don't Mess With the Zohan.

Rip Van Winkle Hit (sleeper): The Happening. A comeback for Night? Possibly...

3 Movies I'm Most Looking Forward To:

* The Dark Knight. Can Nolan catch lightning in a bottle twice? Will Ledger blow us away as expected? Will this round of Batmans fall prey to the same disease as the last (and most other superhero franchises) - namely, the inability of the producers to keep from tossing more and more people into the mix? I want the answers to those questions.

* Indiana Jones... I've tried not to get excited or have much of any expectations for it, but after nearly 20 years, it's definitely higher up on my "want to see" list than most any other summer flick, regardless of how good they might look.

* Hancock - I'm intrigued. To date, I've only seen the one trailer, but it's hard to go wrong with Smith as a July lead, and Jason Bateman livens things up.

3 Movies I'm Not Looking Forward To At All:

* Wanted - This couldn't look much worse. Morgan Freeman needs to get out of the "mentor" role asap (or the cousin to that, the mentor-who-turns-out-to-be-evil), and he needs to give Liam Neeson the same advice. And Jeremy Irons. Maybe the three should star in a movie where they mentor each other, then all turn on each other. That actually sounds like a lot of fun. Also a problem with Wanted: looks aside, doesn't Angie Jolie seem a bit old for McAvoy? I know if the genders were flopped no one would bat an eye (and that's unfortunate), and maybe it's cause McAvoy looks like he's 21, but they just seem like such a terrible romantic pairing.

* The Incredible Hulk - Why Ed, why? Every time I see Hulky and the evil Hulk "played" by Tim Roth, I can't help but think of The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, and that's never a good sign.

* Speed Racer - Never watched the show. The movie looks like it might be fun (or horrifying) on an acid trip, but that's about it. Perhaps I would have a different opinion if I were 10 years old.

It's Carnac time!

It's time for the Summer Box Office Challenge, excellently named by Nick as the "Summer of LAMB" (you can thank me and Spike Lee for the brilliant artwork, though). As is just so happens, the "S.O.S." from the original becomes "S.O.L.," which - aside from standing for "sh*t outta luck" - happens to translate from English to Spanish as "sun," but if you ever had a choice of cheap Mexican beers in front of you, you would have already known that. Either way, it's pretty fitting, if you ask me.

Due to a number of reasons like poor planning, an abundance of events, an early "summer" movie season and potential blogging burnout, I'm waaay late in putting this up, and as such, it will be more of a blitz of an event where I give you little time to do anything rather than a well-planned, thought out event like, say, the LAMMYS (vote until May 5th!).

Anyway, here's the idea - send me the following items:

* Your name and site, if applicable. This contest will be open to anyone, LAMB or not.

* Your prediction for the top 10 movies of the summer, ranked by US box office (yes, I need the numbers, too). Use movies from May - August on this list for reference, if need be.

* Your Guaranteed Flop - no prediction needed, just a name and maybe a few words why you think it is/will be a flop, if you feel like it. (This and the next two items are just for fun and won't count for or against anything.)

* Your Rip Van Winkle Hit (aka Sleeper) - same deal as the Flop.

* Finally, the three movies you are most looking forward to and why.

Since Iron Man is being released Friday, I'm putting a deadline of Friday at midnight (Pacific time) for when you need to get me your entry by. Please use the subject "Summer of LAMB," or better yet, just click here and it will all magically be done for you.

The method for scoring is TBD, but will most likely involve the number of correct films placed in the top 10, the accuracy of each movie, and the overall accuracy. The prize is also as-yet-undetermined, but it will likely be something worth more than your first cars (I'm going to assume your first car was of the Matchbox/Hot Wheels variety). But seriously, I'll make it worth your while, and besides, I have 4 months to figure it out. Mostly, the rush is just to get the entries in before the season starts on Friday.

In the mean time, I will post people's guesses (I will just post first names and/or sites; let me know of any special conditions) here at the LAMB on a regular basis so that we can all laugh at them. I'll also put up some standings during the course of the summer. If you have any ideas for scoring or questions, you know the drill.