Weekend Box Office Predictions Game: Marmaduke Growls at Shrek

June 03, 2010

Last weekend was a bust at the box office as Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Sex and the City 2's underperformance ensured the worst Memorial Day frame in the past 15 years. Despite a poor performance by the Prophet, the players were defeated 3-2 (view the results which means drydock54321 takes home a consolation DVD prize.

Taking aim at his royal greenness in Shrek The Fourth this upcoming weekend are an ecletic mix of four new films. There's Splice with Adrien Brody, Killers with Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher, a talking dog in Marmaduke, and Get Him to the Greek with Jonah Hill and Russell Brand.

Your objective in this game is to predict the final domestic box office dollars in millions for these five films from Friday, June 4 through Sunday, June 6. Your prediction is averaged in with the other players for a cumulative score to compete against the Prophet predictions (view the overall leaderboard).

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 the following films on Blu-ray. A tie rules in favor of the players.

High Anxiety
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
The Wolfman
Near Dark

If the Prophet wins then all four prizes will rollover into the next round and be joined by a fifth. We will still award a small DVD prize to the top place finisher should that happen.

Once you are 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, June 4, with this round's results being published next week. This is a short 24-hour window round so get those predictions in quick.

There are currently 50 players up against the Prophet

The entry period for June 4 - 7 has already ended. Follow the weekly results at the Weekend Box Office Prophet main page.

Get Him to the Greek
Another Universal 2010 release means another flop, right? Maybe, but this R-rated comedy has some strong word of mouth behind it and the TV spots/trailers are pretty funny. Whether Jonah Hill and Russell Brand can put butts in the seats is the real question. Opens on 2,700+ screens.

All: $21.1 Me: n/a Prophet: $13.1 Actual: $17.6

Killers
Both of Katherine Heigl's last two movies opened to over $23 million each. Ashton Kutcher's last movie, Valentine's Day, opened to over $50 million. Anything under $20 million would be a disappointment for Lionsgate given the 2,700 screen count and these two marquee names.

All: $22.3 Me: n/a Prophet: $14.2 Actual: $15.8

Marmaduke
Shrek finally faces some family friendly competition when this over-sized talking dog arrives on the scene. A healthy 3,000 screen count and run time less than an hour and a half could boost the box office take. But it's another talking dog whose novelty has worn off.

All: $18.2 Me: n/a Prophet: $10.7 Actual: $11.6

Splice
Adrien Brody goes from an Oscar winner for Best Actor to campy sci-fi in just a few years. How does that happen? Splice looks a lot like Species except the she-devil is far less attractive and can fly. It might be enough to stop a run of vapid horror films of late. Opens on over 2,500 screens.

All: $17.1 Me: n/a Prophet: $8.4 Actual: $7.4

Shrek Forever After
The big ogre is the lone holdover this week and should retain its top spot. It earned $57 million last Fri-Mon, a mere 19% drop from the same previous four day period. A talking dog just doesn't have the pull that Shrek does.

All: $29.3 Me: n/a Prophet: $31.3 Actual: $25.5