Ep. 821 - The 2025 Summer Movie Wager
The Filmcast
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Summer Movie Showdown
This chapter dives into the buzz surrounding upcoming summer movie releases, particularly 'Thunderbolts' and 'Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning.' The speakers discuss both excitement and skepticism about these films' box office potential and marketing strategies, while also engaging in humorous banter about their rankings of other animated features like 'How to Train Your Dragon.' With a mix of critical analysis and lighthearted commentary, they explore the landscape of summer cinema.
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It's the annual Summer Movie Wager! Our friends BJ Colangelo, Germain Lussier, and Peter Sciretta return to make their wagers along with the Filmcast crew, on this summer's box office. Come back in the fall to see who will reign supreme as the winner of the 2025 wager. You can play along at thesummermoviewager.com. To be considered for the leaderboard, you must enter by Wednesday April 30, 2025.
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Thanks to our SPONSOR:
BETTERHELP: This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/filmcast today to get 10% off your first month.
Weekly Plugs
David - Decoding TV
Devindra - Engadget Podcast: Pixel 9a review + Bracing for tariffs
Jeff - runjeffrun.com
The Summer Movie Wager is a game that we play during the summer of each year. You can find the history of the game and play along at thesummermoviewager.com (thanks to Dennis for putting that site together). The general goal of this game is to predict the highest grossing films of the summer in terms of domestic box office, in the correct order. The closer you get to the final ranked order, the more points you get. This year, the summer movie wager will begin on May 1, 2025 (with the release of Thunderbolts) and last through September 1, 2025, Labor Day, as usual.
Each of your 13 picks (10 movies and 3 dark horses) gets a single score assigned to it by using the following rules:
-If your picked movie for #1 OR #10 is correct, you score 13 points for it.
-If your picked movie for 2-9 is correct, you score 10 points for it.
-If your picked movie is only 1 spot away from its actual placement, you score 7 points for it.
-If your picked movie is only 2 spots away from its actual placement, you score 5 points for it.
-If your picked movie is placed inside the Top 10, you score 3 points for it.
-If your picked movie is not placed inside the Top 10, you score 0 points for it.
-For each of your picked dark horses placed inside the Top 10, you score 1 point. If two or more rules apply to a single pick, only that single rule will be applied which assigns the highest point value to that pick. For example: If your pick for #1 is correct, you don't get 16 points for it because it is #1 and because it placed inside the Top 10; instead you only get 13 points for it.
Germain’s Top 10
1. Lilo & Stitch
2. Jurassic World Rebirth
3. Superman
4. The Fantastic Four: First Steps
5. How to Train Your Dragon
6. Thunderbolts*
7. F1
8. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
9. Elio
10. 28 Years Later
DARK HORSES:
- Ballerina
- M3GAN 2.0
- The Naked Gun
TIE BREAKER: $457MM
BJ’s Top 10
1. Jurassic World Rebirth
2. Lilo & Stitch
3. Superman
4. The Fantastic Four: First Steps
5. How to Train Your Dragon
6. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
7. Thunderbolts*
8. Final Destination: Bloodlines
9. Ballerina
10. Elio
DARK HORSES:
- M3GAN 2.0
- Karate Kid: Legends
- F1
TIE BREAKER: $527MM
Peter’s Top 10
1. Lilo & Stitch
2. Superman
3. Jurassic World Rebirth
4. The Fantastic Four: First Steps
5. How to Train Your Dragon
6. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
7. Thunderbolts*
8. Karate Kid: Legends
9. Elio
10. F1
DARK HORSES:
- Ballerina
- M3GAN 2.0
- Smurfs
TIE BREAKER: $402MM
Devindra’s Top 10
1. Lilo & Stitch
2. Jurassic World Rebirth
3. Superman
4. The Fantastic Four: First Steps
5. F1
6. How to Train Your Dragon
7. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
8. Karate Kid: Legends
9. Thunderbolts*
10. Elio
DARK HORSES:
- M3GAN 2.0
- Final Destination: Bloodlines
- Freakier Friday
TIE BREAKER: $510MM
Jeff’s Top 10
1. Lilo & Stitch
2. Superman
3. Jurassic World Rebirth
4. The Fantastic Four: First Steps
5. Elio
6. How to Train Your Dragon
7. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
8. F1
9. Thunderbolts*
10. Freakier Friday
DARK HORSES:
- M3GAN 2.0
- Karate Kid: Legends
- The Bad Guys 2
TIE BREAKER: $520MM
David’s Top 10
1. How to Train Your Dragon
2. Jurassic World Rebirth
3. Lilo & Stitch
4. Superman
5. The Fantastic Four: First Steps
6. Karate Kid: Legends
7. Thunderbolts*
8. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
9. F1
10. Elio
DARK HORSES:
- Ballerina
- The Bad Guys 2
- Final Destination: Bloodlines
TIE BREAKER: $530MM
Support David's artistic endeavors at his Patreon and subscribe to his free newsletter Decoding Everything. Check out Jeff Cannata’s podcasts DLC and We Have Concerns. Listen to Devindra's podcast with Engadget on all things tech. You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com.
Credits:
BETTERHELP: This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/filmcast today to get 10% off your first month.
Weekly Plugs
David - Decoding TV
Devindra - Engadget Podcast: Pixel 9a review + Bracing for tariffs
Jeff - runjeffrun.com
The Summer Movie Wager is a game that we play during the summer of each year. You can find the history of the game and play along at thesummermoviewager.com (thanks to Dennis for putting that site together). The general goal of this game is to predict the highest grossing films of the summer in terms of domestic box office, in the correct order. The closer you get to the final ranked order, the more points you get. This year, the summer movie wager will begin on May 1, 2025 (with the release of Thunderbolts) and last through September 1, 2025, Labor Day, as usual.
Each of your 13 picks (10 movies and 3 dark horses) gets a single score assigned to it by using the following rules:
-If your picked movie for #1 OR #10 is correct, you score 13 points for it.
-If your picked movie for 2-9 is correct, you score 10 points for it.
-If your picked movie is only 1 spot away from its actual placement, you score 7 points for it.
-If your picked movie is only 2 spots away from its actual placement, you score 5 points for it.
-If your picked movie is placed inside the Top 10, you score 3 points for it.
-If your picked movie is not placed inside the Top 10, you score 0 points for it.
-For each of your picked dark horses placed inside the Top 10, you score 1 point. If two or more rules apply to a single pick, only that single rule will be applied which assigns the highest point value to that pick. For example: If your pick for #1 is correct, you don't get 16 points for it because it is #1 and because it placed inside the Top 10; instead you only get 13 points for it.
Germain’s Top 10
1. Lilo & Stitch
2. Jurassic World Rebirth
3. Superman
4. The Fantastic Four: First Steps
5. How to Train Your Dragon
6. Thunderbolts*
7. F1
8. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
9. Elio
10. 28 Years Later
DARK HORSES:
- Ballerina
- M3GAN 2.0
- The Naked Gun
TIE BREAKER: $457MM
BJ’s Top 10
1. Jurassic World Rebirth
2. Lilo & Stitch
3. Superman
4. The Fantastic Four: First Steps
5. How to Train Your Dragon
6. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
7. Thunderbolts*
8. Final Destination: Bloodlines
9. Ballerina
10. Elio
DARK HORSES:
- M3GAN 2.0
- Karate Kid: Legends
- F1
TIE BREAKER: $527MM
Peter’s Top 10
1. Lilo & Stitch
2. Superman
3. Jurassic World Rebirth
4. The Fantastic Four: First Steps
5. How to Train Your Dragon
6. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
7. Thunderbolts*
8. Karate Kid: Legends
9. Elio
10. F1
DARK HORSES:
- Ballerina
- M3GAN 2.0
- Smurfs
TIE BREAKER: $402MM
Devindra’s Top 10
1. Lilo & Stitch
2. Jurassic World Rebirth
3. Superman
4. The Fantastic Four: First Steps
5. F1
6. How to Train Your Dragon
7. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
8. Karate Kid: Legends
9. Thunderbolts*
10. Elio
DARK HORSES:
- M3GAN 2.0
- Final Destination: Bloodlines
- Freakier Friday
TIE BREAKER: $510MM
Jeff’s Top 10
1. Lilo & Stitch
2. Superman
3. Jurassic World Rebirth
4. The Fantastic Four: First Steps
5. Elio
6. How to Train Your Dragon
7. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
8. F1
9. Thunderbolts*
10. Freakier Friday
DARK HORSES:
- M3GAN 2.0
- Karate Kid: Legends
- The Bad Guys 2
TIE BREAKER: $520MM
David’s Top 10
1. How to Train Your Dragon
2. Jurassic World Rebirth
3. Lilo & Stitch
4. Superman
5. The Fantastic Four: First Steps
6. Karate Kid: Legends
7. Thunderbolts*
8. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
9. F1
10. Elio
DARK HORSES:
- Ballerina
- The Bad Guys 2
- Final Destination: Bloodlines
TIE BREAKER: $530MM
Support David's artistic endeavors at his Patreon and subscribe to his free newsletter Decoding Everything. Check out Jeff Cannata’s podcasts DLC and We Have Concerns. Listen to Devindra's podcast with Engadget on all things tech. You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com.
Credits:
- Our theme song is by Varsity Blue, the newest project byTim McEwan from The Midnight. This episode was edited by Noah Ross who also created our weekly plugs and spoiler bumper music. Our Slashfilmcourt music comes from Simon Harris.
- If you’d like advertise with us or sponsor us, please e-mail slashfilmcast@gmail.com.
- You can support the podcast by going to patreon.com/filmpodcast or by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts.
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