For the launch of the Summer Fantasy Movie League the first week out was not all that exciting.
The alleged season of blockbusters did not have anything big and new for us. There were three new films, but none of them were expected to dominate, so it became a week of mix and match to try and find the optimum pick. The list of options included:
Solo $514 Deadpool 2 $325 Adrift $215 Avengers: Infinity War $167 Action Point $143 Book Club $126 Upgrade $62 Life of the Party $49 Breaking In $36 Overboard $30 Show Dogs $25 A Quiet Place $21 Best of the Rest $19 RBG $15 Rampage $7
On the anchor end of things, the question seemed to be whether or not Solo would collapse gently after a disappointing opening weekend, or if that lack of fan enthusiasm would continue to haunt it and cause a sharper fall.
Up against it was Deadpool 2 in its third week. While an R-rating holds back its potential audience, it seemed likely to hold on a good chunk of the weekend, and you could get two screens of it.
And then there was Adrift, an ominous name for a film of uncertain potential, or possibly The Avengers. You could also get five screens of The Avengers, or six screens of Action Point. But that last seemed a big unknown.
After some hemming and hawing about Solo, I decided that two screens of Deadpool 2 was going to be my choice. And I actually decided that very early in the week.
Due to the changes at FML, allowing leagues to set their own rules, I am now in a variety of leagues, including Liore’s Monday Hot Takes league, which locks on Tuesday at noon. (Wednesday last week, due to the Monday holiday.) So I wanted to get a lineup for that set.
With two screens of Deadpool 2, my filler options were limited. On a whim, I filled up with five screens up Upgrade, another new film this week, and something of a wild card, with estimates all over the place, filling in the last slot with a screen of Breaking In.
That set on Tuesday night, I copied it to all my other leagues… and then stopped paying attention. It was a busy week at the office, forecasts were slow in coming and were not very solid, so I saw no reason change my early lineup and left it there until everything locked on Friday morning.
Which turned out to be a pretty good plan, as I came in first in all of the private leagues to which I belong. It wasn’t a huge victory. I ended up ahead by just a bit in all of them. But a win is a win.
Deadpool 2 turned out to be the anchor of the week, and the perfect pick for normal rules was 2x Deadpool 2, 1x The Avengers, 1x Book Club, 1x Breaking In, and 3x Rampage, the latter getting the best performer nod. An odd perfect pick, with that many different titles.
However, with no bonuses in the TAGN league, best performer doesn’t mean anything. Meanwhile, the mobile app will show you the perfect pick for the rule set your league follows and, as it turned out, with no bonuses, my lineup was the perfect pick.
Max score for me. You may now declare the whole thing rigged, since I chose the rules.
Summer Movie League – My Week One Pick
But, as I said, I didn’t end up way out in front. With the no bonuses rule, I did not get anything special, like an extra $5 million boost, for getting the perfect pick. The rest of the league looked like this:
- Wilhelm’s Abyssal Pocket Playhouse – $72,523,234
- Vigo Grimborne’s Medieval Screening Complex – $72,050,064
- Corr’s Carefully Curated Cineplex – $70,922,048
- Biyondios! Kabuki & Cinema – $68,877,990
- Too Orangey For Crows – $66,904,278
- aria82’s Cineplex – $66,378,778
- Po Huit’s Sweet Movie Suite – $64,838,687
- SynCaine’s Dark Room of Delights – $64,689,720
- Ben’s X-Wing Express – $63,202,505
- Kraut Screens – $63,150,646
- Goat Water Picture Palace – $63,023,844
- Bean Movie Burrito – $62,566,205
- grannanj’s Cineplex – $62,546,819
- Joanie’s Joint – $62,121,048
- Paks’ Pancakes & Pics – $59,954,993
- Darren’s Unwatched Cineplex – $59,358,954
- I HAS BAD TASTE – $57,472,179
- Aure’s Astonishingly Amateur Amphitheatre – $56,994,840
- Skar’s Movies and Meat Pies – $55,109,496
- Miniature Giant Space Hamsterplex – $43,924,845
- JHW’s Cineplex – $42,109,808
- DumCheese’s Cineplex – $23,682,794
No little colored letters now as we’re all in the same league. There are still 22 players, as there were in the Meta League. We added a few new players and a few came over from the MCats league to try out the early lock and no bonus fun.
The top six places went to people who anchored on two screens of Deadpool 2. Then Solo and Deadpool 2 became viable, along with five screens of The Avengers, which anchored SynCaine’s lineup.
Dragging people down were some poorly performing filler. As I expected, the Best of the Rest pick turned out to be a complete bust, and those who went with it suffered.
Adrift also didn’t hold up very well as an anchor.
Likewise, the new film Action Point disappointed and those carrying it felt the pain of its over optimistic price, especially DumCheese who was anchored on six screens of it. I feel sorry for you man.
And so ended the first week. I don’t even have to do two lists because the overall matches the weekly. The scores are not that spread out, both because of a lack of bonuses, but also because it just wasn’t a big scoring week. The perfect pick, with bonuses, was just $79.5 million.
So on to week two and the choices it offers.
Ocean's 8 $626 Hereditary $219 Solo $218 Deadpool 2 $201 Hotel Artemis $138 Avengers: Infinity War $93 Adrift $89 Book Club $67 Upgrade $32 Life of the Party $31 Breaking In $24 Overboard $16 A Quiet Place $16 Action Point $15 RBG $11
We shed Rampage and Show Dogs this week, as well as losing Best of the Rest as an option and added three new films to the list.
The big opener is Ocean’s 8, which I guess is the all women version of Ocean’s 11, once again demonstrating sexism in the workplace as the women have to do their heist with only 73% of the staff.
Actually, Ocean’s 8 takes place in the same universe as the Clooney helmed trio of 11, 12, and 13. Sandra Bullock is Debbie Ocean, sister of Danny Ocean (Clooney), who is off to pull her own heist with an all female crew. Given that my preference for this series has followed the rule of “the lower the number the better it is” Ocean’s 8 could be big, with forecasts running in the $40-50 million range. You can have one screen of that. Also, it is reported to be opening on limited screens on Wednesday night, so you might get some preview numbers for it on Thursday morning for the TAGN league, but they won’t count towards the weekend total.
Then there is a big gap in pricing to get to Hereditary, a new title opening this week and something in the horror genre, an area of film I always underestimate. I need Liore to advise me on this.
After that we’re back to Solo. After failing to make $30 million its second weekend out you have to ask whether it is due for a soft landing yet. Are people going back to see it a second time? Then there is Deadpool 2, now available as a four screen anchor package or something you can team up with other options.
And finally on the anchor list is Hotel Artemis, the third new item this week, featuring Jodie Foster as a nurse who runs a secret hospital for criminals. I hope Debbie Ocean doesn’t need her services.
Down in the filler end of the list, there are a lot items with similar prices. I would take Upgrade over Life of the Party, but I am not sure who will win out of the three way mix of Overboard, A Quiet Place, and Action Point. And then there is RBG hanging in there at $11.
Since this post goes up on Wednesday I guess I can put my Monday Hot Takes league pick in, since that locks on Tuesday at noon Pacific.
This week I went with 4x Hereditary and 4x Life of the Party.
The is my Liore dedicated pic, because she says Hereditary is going to be big, and horror is her wheelhouse. We shall see if I change that up for the TAGN league.
Get your picks in! They’d due in less than 24 hours from when this posts!
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