Summer Movie Wager 2017 Results

September 18, 2017



 O ur 2017 Summer Movie Wager did not prove to be as down to the wire as last year's Extra Curricular activity! Not that it was a bad summer for good movies, it was certainly a bad summer for bad movies, and a tough year for interesting sequels. By Labor Day weekend, the top ten of Summer '17 movies had been locked in place. This did not make them any less surprising. Especially when it came to the ONE and the TEN place! For the first time in our Summer Movie Wager, no participants were able to correctly guess the first or tenth spot, and no one even had number ten as a Dark Horse choice. Now remember, if we have a tie this is how the Summer Movie Wager tie-breakers work: 1) getting 1 and/or 10 correct, 2) the number of dead-on picks from 2 thru 10, 3) the number of picks only one spot away, 4) the number of picks only two spots away, 5) most correct picks including Dark Horses, and 6) box office of highest pick not in the summer’s top 10! If after this, everything is still tied, then the winner’s trophy will be shared!

Summer Movie Box Office 
(as of September 4th, 2017)
1. Wonder Woman 
2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 
3. Spider-Man: Homecoming 
4. Despicable Me 3 
5. Dunkirk 
6. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales 
7. Cars 3 
8. War for the Planet of the Apes 
9. Transformers: The Last Knight 
10. Girls Trip

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was a lock. Until it wasn't. With Guardians of the Galaxy being the pleasant surprise that topped the Summer Movie season of 2014, high hopes were put in place for the sequel. The multi-colored super-space movie that misconstrued the Marvel house style so much that it ended up creating a new style for MCU films, was itself upended in the first weeks of August by another comic book film, itself a very pleasant surprise! Wonder Woman, which was ranked no higher then fourth, was itself a brighter and better film then any other film in the DC superhero Synder-verse before it, and the Patty Jenkins film proved an empowering reminder that hope, and positivity, and female-centric stories can still sell very very well. This was doubled down on by the number ten movie of the summer season, a film that did not pop up on anyones radar but which knocked Baby Driver out of the top bracket in the last few weeks before Labor Day. Girls Trip isn't the first R-rated female-led pre-wedding movie, and not even the first one of the summer... but not only did it show the further power of female-led movie fun, and that R-rated comedies aren't "cursed", but also the all too easy to forget power of black cinema.

With the tenth highest grossing film of the summer, Girls Trip, not on any lists that meant that everyone had at least one outlier. Baywatch was the most popular "bad" choice that did not end up in the Summer's Top Ten. No doubt reminded that The Rock had popped up these last two years with underrated films, Baywatch was featured on five top ten lists, and picked by another two people as Dark Horse. This isn't to under sell Tom Cruise's The Mummy which itself showed up on four top ten lists, as well as being picked four times as a dark horse, but ended up making about $22 million more then Baywatch. The least profitable movie to be chosen was King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, the Guy Ritchie spin on the myth, as of Labor Day had made about a million less then Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (though both films were boosted by more then $100 million in foreign box offices). Oh, and congrats to The Big Sick for out-Box-ing both of these films on 1/100th of the budget!

Other then one and ten, the film that made the most difference for this year's winner? Dunkirk. Though the success of this Nolan summer Oscar film surprised some of us, with the selection of the film ranging from eighth, ninth, as well as a few Dark Horse choices... it ended the Summer Movie season the FIFTH highest grossing movie of Summer '17!

This year's runner-up is last year's Summer Movie Wager winner, Stephane de S. who finished with seven less points then last year but just as many correct picks in the top ten (if not more picks, since last year included two dark horse selections). Two people tied for third, just like last year, Dylan M. of the M. Night Shaym-Aliens (following in the foot steps of Joel L. last year), who also got nine correct movies in the top ten but was most hurt by his order of things especially in the bottom half of the ranking, and Russel H. the person currently writing this article, who hasn't done this well since we first started doing this in 2013!

Congrats to our NEW Summer Movie Wager winner, the FIFTH Summer Movie Wager winner...

FILE PHOTO
JAMES C. of The Unusual Suspects, 58 points
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (+7)
2. Despicable Me 3 (+5)
3. Spider-Man: Homecoming (+10)
4. Wonder Woman (+3)
5. Dunkirk (+10)
6. Transformers: The Last Knight (+3)
7. Cars 3 (+10)
8. Baywatch
9. War for the Planet of the Apes (+7)
10. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (+3)
DH1. The Dark Tower
DH2. The Emoji Movie
DH3. The House

$ $ $


STEPHANE de S. the 2016 Summer Movie Wager Winner, 53 points
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (+7)
2. Despicable Me 3 (+5)
3. Spider-Man: Homecoming (+10)
4. Wonder Woman (+3)
5. Cars 3 (+5)
6. Transformers: The Last Knight (+3)
7. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (+7)
8. War for the Planet of the Apes (+10)
9. Dunkirk (+3)
10. The Mummy
DH1. Baywatch
DH2. The Dark Tower
DH3. The Emoji Movie

$ $ $

RUSSEL H. of Trivia Club, 48 points
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (+7)
2. Despicable Me 3 (+5)
3. Spider-Man: Homecoming (+10)
4. Wonder Woman (+3)
5. Transformers: The Last Knight (+3)
6. War for the Planet of the Apes (+5)
7. Cars 3 (+10)
8. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (+5)
9. The Emoji Movie
10. Baywatch
DH1. Atomic Blonde
DH2. The Mummy
DH3. Alien: Covenant

$ $ $

DYLAN M. of the M. Night Shaym-Aliens, 48 points
1. Spider-Man: Homecoming (+5)
2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (+10)
3. Despicable Me 3 (+7)
4. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (+5)
5. Cars 3 (+5)
6. Transformers: The Last Knight (+3)
7. Wonder Woman (+3)
8. Dunkirk (+3)
9. War for the Planet of the Apes (+7)
10. Alien: Covenant
DH1. The Emoji Movie
DH2. The Mummy
DH3. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

$ $ $

PETER M. of PETE!, 47 points
1. Despicable Me 3 (+3)
2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (+10)
3. Spider-Man: Homecoming (+10)
4. Wonder Woman (+3)
5. Cars 3 (+5)
6. War for the Planet of the Apes (+5)
7. Transformers: The Last Knight (+5)
8. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (+5)
9. Baywatch
10. The Mummy
DH1. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
DH2. The Dark Tower
DH3. Dunkirk (+1)

$ $ $

JOEL L. of the M. Night Shaym-Aliens, 46 points
1. Spider-Man: Homecoming (+5)
2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (+10)
3. Despicable Me 3 (+7)
4. Transformers: The Last Knight (+3)
5. War for the Planet of the Apes (+3)
6. Cars 3 (+7)
7. Wonder Woman (+3)
8. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (+5)
9. Dunkirk (+3)
10. The Mummy
DH1. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
DH2. The Dark Tower
DH3. Alien: Covenant

$ $ $

JAMES R. of Last Place Team, 45 points
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (+7)
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (+3)
3. Transformers: The Last Knight (+3)
4. Despicable Me 3 (+10)
5. Cars 3 (+5)
6. Spider-Man: Homecoming (+3)
7. Wonder Woman (+3)
8. War for the Planet of the Apes (+10)
9. Baywatch
10. Alien: Covenant
DH1. The Mummy
DH2. Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie
DH3. Dunkirk (+1)

$ $ $

MARK P. of the Cunning Stunts, 44 points
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (+7)
2. Transformers: The Last Knight (+3)
3. Despicable Me 3 (+7)
4. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (+5)
5. Cars 3 (+5)
6. Spider-Man: Homecoming (+3)
7. Wonder Woman (+3)
8. War for the Planet of the Apes (+10)
9. Baywatch
10. The Mummy
DH1. Alien: Covenant
DH2. Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie
DH3. Dunkirk (+1)

$ $ $

JARRAD R. of Last Place Team, 39 points
1. Transformers: The Last Knight (+3)
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (+3)
3. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (+7)
4. Despicable Me 3 (+10)
5. War for the Planet of the Apes (+3)
6. Cars 3 (+7)
7. Spider-Man: Homecoming (+3)
8. Alien: Covenant
9. Wonder Woman (+3)
10. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
DH1. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
DH2. Baywatch
DH3. The Mummy


$ $ $


Support Trivia Club on PatreonRussel Harder hosts Trivia Club at Hitch (1216 Queen St East) every MONDAY starting SEPTEMBER 11th 2017, at The Rec Room (255 Bremner Blvd) every TUESDAY starting September 5th 2017, and Cardinal Rule (5 Roncesvalles Ave) every WEDNESDAY! Every FRIDAY, a new episode of the Pause & Play podcast (a portable edition of our live events) is available on SoundCloud & iTunes!

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