The Filmcast

Ep. 739 - The 2023 Summer Movie Wager Results

Sep 12, 2023

Guests: Germain Lussier (Entertainment journalist and critic) and Peter Sciretta (Film blogger and writer). They discuss the outcomes of their summer movie predictions, surprising omissions, and their poor scores. They reflect on the results of the Summer Movie Wager game, including surprises, embarrassing misses, and the significance of movies aimed at female audiences. They analyze the performance of 'The Little Mermaid' and the surprising success of 'Sound of Freedom'. They discuss the underwhelming box office of 'The Flash', COVID-19 impact on movie releases, and reveal the winner of the summer movie wager.

01:49:15

Creator website

Episode guests

Germain Lussier

Peter Sciretta

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Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Barbie becomes the most successful Warner Brothers film in history, attributed to organic excitement and clever marketing.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse surpasses expectations with strong word-of-mouth and continued popularity of the franchise.

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 performs strongly due to beloved characters and the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Oppenheimer exceeds expectations with director Christopher Nolan's reputation and immersive IMAX experience.

The live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid underperforms, struggling to capture the magic of the original.

Sound of Freedom's unique approach using QR codes resonates with viewers, leading to its unexpected success at the box office.

Deep dives

Barbie dominates the summer box office with a record-breaking $612 million

Barbie becomes the unexpected juggernaut of the summer, making $612 million and becoming the most successful Warner Brothers film in history. The movie's success is attributed to a combination of organic excitement and clever marketing, as well as a resurgence of interest in movies aimed at female audiences.

Introduction

6min

Reflections on the Summer Movie Wager

16min

Discussing the results of the 2023 Summer Movie Wager

5min

Movie Wager Results and Reflecting on Choices

19min

Reflections on IMAX, Summer Movie Wager Predictions, and 'Op-And-heimer' Ranking

3min

Analyzing the Live-Action Little Mermaid and the Surprise Success of Sound of Freedom

17min

Discussion on 'Dead Reckoning Part One', its Success, and Future

2min

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Predictions

14min

The Flash's Disappointing Box Office

18min

10.

Movie Releases and Summer Movie Wager Winner

9min

11.

Discussion of a Legendary and Terrible Film

3min

It's the annual reckoning! Germain Lussier (@GermainLussier) and Peter Sciretta (@Petersciretta) return to the podcast and, along with the rest of the Filmcast crew, discuss this year's summer box office. Where did we guess right in the Summer Movie Wager? What were our many, many, many failures? Listen to hear us discuss!

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The Summer Movie Wager is a box office game which is played each summer. You can find the history and play along at http://www.thesummermoviewager.com (thanks to Dennis for maintaining the site!) 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 4 2023 (the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3) and last through September 4, 2023, 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.

The Actual Top 10 Movies
1. Barbie
2. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
3. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
4. Oppenheimer
5. The Little Mermaid
6. Sound of Freedom
7. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
8. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
9. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
10. Elemental

Germain’s top 10
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
2. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
3. The Little Mermaid
4. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1
5. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse
6. The Flash
7. Fast X
8. Barbie
9. Oppenheimer
10. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
DARK HORSES
-Elemental
-Haunted Mansion
-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Peter's top 10
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
2. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse
3. The Little Mermaid
4. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
5. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1
6. The Flash
7. Fast X
8. Barbie
9. Oppenheimer
10. Elemental
DARK HORSES
-Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
-Haunted Mansion
Devindra’s Top 10
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
2. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
3. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
4. The Little Mermaid
5. The Flash
6. Elemental
7. Fast X
8. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1
9. Barbie
10. Oppenheimer
DARK HORSES
-Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
-Meg 2
-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Jeff’s Top 10
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
2. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
3. The Little Mermaid
4. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
5. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1
6. Fast X
7. The Flash
8. Elemental
9. Oppenheimer
10. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
DARK HORSES
-Barbie
-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
-Haunted Mansion

Dave’s top 10
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
2. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
3. The Little Mermaid
4. The Flash
5. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1
6. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
7. Fast X
8. Barbie
9. Oppenheimer
10. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
DARK HORSES
-Blue Beetle
-Elemental
-Haunted Mansion

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, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Also, follow us on Twitter @thefilmcastpod.
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The Filmcast

Ep. 739 - The 2023 Summer Movie Wager Results

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

Barbie dominates the summer box office with a record-breaking $612 million

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse exceeds expectations with $381 million

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 performs well with $358 million

Oppenheimer surprises with $310 million and international success

The Little Mermaid disappoints with $298 million

Sound of Freedom surprises with $181 million

Indiana Jones and the Dale Destiny bombs with $174 million

Spider-Verse and Barbie top the box office

Indiana Jones disappoints at the box office

The Flash fails to impress at the box office

Transformers Rise of the Beasts underperforms

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