Each week Jacob recaps the weekend box office and the winners and losers in the Midnight Warrior Fantasy Movie League.
WEEK 10 BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN
Frequently when new players ask me to take a look at their lineups (hey, it has happened twice) I always end up giving them the same advice. You aren’t playing “Real World Movie Simulator”, you’re playing in the mother truckin’ Fantasy Movie League. Don’t worry about diversifying, just pour all your money into 2 or 3 movies and call it a day. They’re either going to be the most profitable, or they don’t belong in your cineplex. If you believe a movie will get the BP bonus, put every single egg in that basket. This holds true unless you’re in first place and want a hedge play on a crazy week.
This week, however, we ended with 4 movies in the PC, and for a while it looked even weirder than that. So many movies were right at the $40k/bux mark. Seven movies were within $5k/bux of the prize, with Hidden Figures and the immortal zombie Moana being the two right at the top. With Moana’s ultra-low price, it would have only taken $1,000 real world box office to make it the BP and wildly swing the perfect cineplex.
As is, the difference was so small that a some women skipping The Big Game (you aren’t allowed to say S****bowl) and seeing Hidden Figures was the demographic that made the week. As for everything else, it just ended up being this weird mix of Sing and The Founder.
As for the Midnight Warrior league, we find ourselves back in familiar territory yet again as School of Rock landed on top with a measly $48 million. He widens his lead to about $11 million over O PC, Where Art Thou?, but the nails are not in the coffin yet. The next 3 weeks will be huge, especially with one of the biggest plastic super hero movies landing this Friday. I wonder if School of Rock has decided to start hedging, or if he will risk it all to try and crack the top 100 overall cineplexes? We’ll find out next week, same bat-day, same bat-blog.
Join War Starts at Midnight to compete against the 20 other Cineplexes in this league!
WEEK 11 PREDICTIONS
There are two games going on this week: which blockbuster, and which filler. I’m here to help you with neither of them, as this week is a puzzler, or should I say a Riddler (I should not).
First, the new release rundown:
- The Lego Batman Movie : A juggernaut waiting to happen, I predict this to smash expectations and put up at least $100 million. I rarely go with detailed predictions like that, but I’m trying to earn my keep this week. FULL DISCLOSURE: I earn no keep from this blog.
- 50 Shades Darker : I guess Valentine’s Day being on Tuesday means some couples will be out watching the kinkiest movie franchise this side of The Matrix— that one is all leather and people bending over backwards. This one, much like The Matrix, will have a disappointing sequel that you’ll want to just lock in the dungeon and forget about.
- John Wick Chapter 2 : I didn’t see the first installment in this franchise, but I’m reading that this thing could over-perform, steal BP and power the PC as a 4x anchor. I’m just not buying it. I think the R rating limits the earnings and pushes everyone and their butlers to see Lego Batman.
So, where does that leave us? It means you anchor with the giant that is Lego Batman, fill in with 5x La La Land because the movie is fantastic and that is my tie-breaker with Lion. You have $20 bux left, so go 2x on $10 bux Monster Truck because the monster is in the truck. Without even checking, I know that this $0 cineplex earns the Chris Galegar stamp of approval.
Tired of seeing these articles come out so late in the week? Harass me on Monday or Tuesday on Twitter @jakerg23 and maybe I won’t wait for the weekly TCs and I’ll make my predictions sooner.