I t was just as dramatic a Summer Movie season behind the scenes as it was in front of it, as Disney films dominated so hard that Sony felt the need to take Spider-Man away from the House of Mouse! Admittedly, if it takes an international tech giant to not give the entertainment mega-conglomerate what it wants... it can't be all bad. Just unfortunate. Never forget, third Spider-Man films are cursed. After allowing the early starting Avengers film into the Summer Movie Wager, we decided to not give Avengers: Endgame the same chance as I wanted to make things a little less predictable and allow the early starting no-doubter to remove itself from the "Summer Movie" calendar (though, honestly it had reshaped the season last year anyway). Last year was all about records set! The highest ever score of 86 points was set by 2018's Wager winner Peter M. PETE! also set the record for spot-on picks with 6, and became just the fourth person to correctly pick the 10th movie, along with Rob M. and Leah S. in 2014, and Stephane de S. the winner in 2016. Lastly, Peter M. also joined the list of people who went 10 for 10 with the Summer Movie Top Ten, joining Patrick D. who won in 2014 and who is still the only participant to go 10 for 10 without a Dark Horse pick. Patrick D. was joined in 2014 by Johnny H., Leah S., Rob M., and Sarah C. who also correctly guessed all 10 films in some order and with help from 1 Dark Horse, and Russel H. who is the only person to correctly guess all 10 films with the help of 2 Dark Horse picks. That 10 for 10 group gains one more member this year! 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 WAGER SCORING

• # 1 or # 10 dead-on gets you 13 points each.
• 10 points for # 2-9 dead-on
• 7 points if your pick was only one spot away 
• 5 points if it was two spots away
• 3 points if your pick is anywhere in the Top 10
• 1 point for each dark horse that makes it into the Top 10

It's time for our SEVENTH ANNUAL Summer Movie Wager! Sarah C. of Geraldo Triviera won our first go around with 49 points in 2013, Patrick D. of The Bastards was our second Wager winner with 56 points! In 2015, special guest Alex B. at cinefilesreviews.com, who can also be found on twitter at @TheAlexBrannan, joined us and won it all with 51 points! Stephane de S. who joined us for a night of Trivia Club at Cardinal Rule, went on to win by less then half a million dollars, and ended up with 60 points in 2016! In 2017, that man that lost by half a million the year before, James C. of The Unusual Suspects won with 58 points!Our reigning Wager winner is PETE! or Peter M. who set the new record for points as well with 86 points in victory!

The Summer Movie Wager is a game popularised by the Totally Rad Show, which uses the rules of TimeTravelReview’s Summer Movie Pool:

The object is to pick the films that you think will be the top-ten grossing films of the summer, in order of box-office performance. That means only films released from the first weekend of May to the Labour Day weekend, counting only the money those films make domestically (US and Canada) in that period. In other words films from March or April might still be making money after May 1st, but they don’t count; films released from May on could start racking up foreign Box Office, but that doesn’t count; films released from May on could still be making money into September, but that doesn’t count either. Box Office numbers are generally available late Monday or Tuesday after the weekend closes. So what you will be doing is figuring out what 10 films will make the most money, and putting them in order of what you think they will gross at the box office. BUT, in addition to your top 10, you get to pick 3 “Dark Horses”- films you think *might* make it, but that you are not confident enough about to put into the top 10 proper.

The Summer Movie Wager is now an Extra Curricular institution and all around fun time for Trivia Club! A whole different kind of animal from the Oscar Confidence Pool and Saturday Night Live Fantasy League, it's the summer! It's a movie season, that last year was shifted a week earlier by the MCU and yes this year has also been shifted by Avengers: Endgame, technically!

With 2019 however we are returning to the first Friday of May, adding in an additional level of difficulty by NOT INCLUDING the end of the MCU's Infinity Saga! Instead, participants will be able to include all movies released between the beginning of the Summer Movie Wager season on the first Friday of May, May 3rd of 2019 and include all other films and box office numbers until the Monday of Labour Day Weekend, September 2nd of 2019! For a schedule of all the films coming out, we recommend looking at Box Office Mojo for an up-to-date list if you want to play at home! For an up to date TOP TEN throughout the Summer, our source will also be Box Office Mojo! For an always entertaining Summer Movie listen and competition we recommend NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, as always!

If we have a tie this is how the Summer Movie Wager tie-breaker works: 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!

 O nce again it was a down to the wire affair for the sixth edition of this Extra Curricular activity, just as it had been during the fourth edition in 2016! It was a summer filled with so many big franchises that we not only saw record scores across the board by our participants, bolstered by the sure shot number one selection that we would not pass up (even if Disney made it so we technically should have), and the highest score ever by a Summer Movie Wager winner! Also for the first time, in the inverse of last year, we had our first participant correctly guess the first and tenth spot! 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!


With Avengers: Infinity War being released a week earlier then first planned, we could have left it out the Summer Movie Wager due to a technically just as Box Office Mojo would leave it out the summer movie list with it's 'spring season' start date. How could we NOT have Avengers: Infinity War in the Wager however, when we knew it would be the movie of the year, let alone the summer? This then locked in the number one movie and thirteen points in for just about everyone... and it put the pressure not only on two through nine, but especially on the number ten spot.

Two races would shape how the Summer Movie Wager panned out, with one making significantly more impact then the other. Leading into the final four days of the Summer Movie Wager season Ant-Man and the Wasp needed just thousands of dollars to pass Solo: A Star Wars story... and it would take until MONDAY AFTERNOON, but the littlest of Marvel movies would surpass its Disney brother, the now infamously underperforming Solo: A Star Wars Story (which, come on, was still the number six movie guys)! This was the race that had less impact on the standing ultimately, though still could have made the difference if not for our other last minute change in the standings. Before we get to that other Box Office Stand-Off, the chase for the 10th spot, let us talk about surprises and disappointments!

Though it appeared on everyone's list, Solo: A Star Wars Story still underperformed when it came to correctly guessing which spot it would land. No one had the correct spot for Solo, and in a year wherein four different people corrected at least four spots correctly, when all nine participants guessed at least eight of the top ten correct movies in some order... that has a big ripple effect! Solo not doing as well as thought loses points on Solo and loses points on the movies around it. Still the biggest disappoint for our 2018 Summer Movie Wager was Skyscraper. Gaining a seventh, eighth, three ninth, a tenth, and two dark horses, while finishing seventeenth in the summer. James R. of Last Place Team was the only person with the good sense to leave Skyscraper off their list. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, was the highest grossing summer movie which was most overlooked. Finishing eighth on the summer, while only appearing in two of nine Top Tens, as well as three Dark Horse selections.

SUMMER MOVIE WAGER SCORING

• # 1 or # 10 dead-on gets you 13 points each.
• 10 points for # 2-9 dead-on
• 7 points if your pick was only one spot away 
• 5 points if it was two spots away
• 3 points if your pick is anywhere in the Top 10
• 1 point for each dark horse that makes it into the Top 10

It's time for our SIXTH ANNUAL Summer Movie Wager! Sarah C. of Geraldo Triviera won our first go around with 49 points in 2013, Patrick D. of The Bastards was our second Wager winner with 56 points! In 2015, special guest Alex B. at cinefilesreviews.com, who can also be found on twitter at @TheAlexBrannan, joined us and won it all with 51 points! Stephane de S. who joined us for a night of Trivia Club at Cardinal Rule, went on to win by less then half a million dollars, and ended up with 60 points in 2016! Finally in 2017, that man that lost by half a million the year before, James C. of The Unusual Suspects won with 58 points!

The Summer Movie Wager is a game popularized by the Totally Rad Show, which uses the rules of TimeTravelReview’s Summer Movie Pool:

The object is to pick the films that you think will be the top-ten grossing films of the summer, in order of box-office performance. That means only films released from the first weekend of May to the Labor Day weekend, counting only the money those films make domestically (US and Canada) in that period. In other words films from March or April might still be making money after May 1st, but they don’t count; films released from May on could start racking up foreign Box Office, but that doesn’t count; films released from May on could still be making money into September, but that doesn’t count either. Box Office numbers are generally available late Monday or Tuesday after the weekend closes. So what you will be doing is figuring out what 10 films will make the most money, and putting them in order of what you think they will gross at the box office. BUT, in addition to your top 10, you get to pick 3 “Dark Horses”- films you think *might* make it, but that you are not confident enough about to put into the top 10 proper.

Now as it's even noted in the rules, we usually start the first Friday of May BUT... Summer movie season is not what it used to be! Thanks to Disney deciding to shake things up, and honestly we can't leave the latest Avengers movie off the table, we'll begin the Summer Movie Wager on the last week of April, April 27th and include all other films and box office until September 3rd of 2018, Labour Day Weekend (we've still gotta stop somewhere)! For a schedule of all the films coming out, we recommend looking at Box Office Mojo for an up-to-date list if you want to play at home! For an up to date TOP TEN throughout the Summer, our source will also be Box Office Mojo! For an always entertaining Summer Movie listen and competition we recommend NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, as well as the fine folks at The Playlist for an always informative Summer Movie write-up for movies both inside and outside the Blockbuster sphere of influence.

If we have a tie this is how the Summer Movie Wager tie-breaker works: 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!

 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!


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

SUMMER MOVIE WAGER SCORING

• # 1 or # 10 dead-on gets you 13 points each.
• 10 points for # 2-9 dead-on
• 7 points if your pick was only one spot away 
• 5 points if it was two spots away
• 3 points if your pick is anywhere in the Top 10
• 1 point for each dark horse that makes it into the Top 10

It's time for our FIFTH ANNUAL Summer Movie Wager! Sarah C. won our first go around with 49 points in 2013, Patrick D. was our second Wager winner with 56 points! In 2015, special guest Alex B. at cinefilesreviews.com, who can also be found on twitter at @TheAlexBrannan, joined us and won it all with 51 points! Stephane de S. won by less then half a million dollars, and ended up with 60 points!  Take a look back at how happy Patrick was with that trophy, in 2014!

So happy! So proud! As he SHOULD be!

The Summer Movie Wager is a game popularized by the Totally Rad Show, which uses the rules of TimeTravelReview’s Summer Movie Pool:

The object is to pick the films that you think will be the top-ten grossing films of the summer, in order of box-office performance. That means only films released from the first weekend of May to the Labor Day weekend, counting only the money those films make domestically (US and Canada) in that period. In other words films from March or April might still be making money after May 1st, but they don’t count; films released from May on could start racking up foreign Box Office, but that doesn’t count; films released from May on could still be making money into September, but that doesn’t count either. Box Office numbers are generally available late Monday or Tuesday after the weekend closes. So what you will be doing is figuring out what 10 films will make the most money, and putting them in order of what you think they will gross at the box office. BUT, in addition to your top 10, you get to pick 3 “Dark Horses”- films you think *might* make it, but that you are not confident enough about to put into the top 10 proper.

Firstshowing.net has an impeccably updated list films coming out between May 5th and September 1st, of 2017 (the films within the Summer Movie Wager eligibility)! Pop Culture Happy Hour, as always, has a wonderful chat about the movies of the summer, while The Playlist has a wonderful write-up on the Summer season! If we have a tie this is how the Summer Movie Wager tie-breaker works: 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!

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


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


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


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


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


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


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