Weekend Box Office Predictions Game: Dinner for Schmucks Invites Inception

July 28, 2010

Reigning box office champion Inception licked up Angelina Jolie in Salt last weekend and now eyes Dinner for Schmucks starring Paul Rudd and Steve Carell, Cats & Dogs 2: The Revenge of Kitty Galore in 3D, and Charlie St. Cloud with Zac Efron. Can one of these films topple the Christopher Nolan powerhouse?

You get to predict what each of these five films will make from Friday, July 23 through Sunday, July 25 in the latest round of our ongoing Weekend Box Office Prophet Game. Once your predictions are submitted, they are averaged in with the other players for a cumulative score that competes against the Prophet predictions.

Should the average player differences between the actual box office gross and predicted grosses beat the Prophet for 3 or more of the 5 films, the top player will win White Collar: Season One on Blu-ray. If the Prophet comes out on top then this prize will roll into the next round and be joined by another. We will still award a small DVD prize to the top place finisher should that occur. The Prophet fell in the last round so it's a fresh start this week. Make it count!

Once you are successfully logged in, the average player scores will update in real time below as new predictions are entered. The entry period will close at 9pm PST Thursday, July 29, with this round's results being published Monday evening in our box office actuals report.

There are currently 59 players up against the Prophet

The entry period for July 30 - August 1 has already ended. Follow the weekly results at the Weekend Box Office Prophet main page.

Cats & Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore 3D
Cats & Dogs returns! This time it takes a page from a similar talking animal film, Disney's G-Force, and hits a whopping 3,700+ screen count in 3D. I'm of the opinion that talking guinea pigs are a lot cooler for kids than talking cats & dogs, so I don't see this reaching G-Force's massive $31.7 million opening weekend.

All: $19.7 Me: n/a Prophet: $19.7 Actual: $12.3

Charlie St. Cloud
Zac Efron puts his name to the test in this adaptation of the popular book. Over 2,500 screens and some built in book audience should help it along, but I have a hard time imagining Charlie will make a run at beating the goofball comedy Dinner for Schmucks. It's hard to top Carell right now.

All: $15.9 Me: n/a Prophet: $16.8 Actual: $12.4

Dinner for Schmucks
A pair of proven comedy actors in Steve Carell and Paul Rudd team up in hopes of doing at least as well as Grown Ups. That silly comedy managed to open at $45 million off 3,500 screens. Dinner for Schmucks comes in smaller at 2,500 screens making an estimate as easy as using your calculator.

All: $29.9 Me: n/a Prophet: $29.2 Actual: $23.5

Inception
Inception enters its third weekend having dropped 32% from $62.8 to $42.7 million from its first to second. If it drops the exact same amount again then we're looking at around $29 million. Is that enough to beat Schmucks? It could be a photo finish.

All: $29.7 Me: n/a Prophet: $27.8 Actual: $27.5

Salt
Angelina Jolie avoided licking her wounds last weekend when Salt debuted to a healthy $36 million. Salt's legs will be put to the test by three newcomers, Inception still running strong and the publicity generated by Comic-Con in the rearview mirror.

All: $21.2 Me: n/a Prophet: $20.1 Actual: $19.5