Weekend Box Office Predictions Game: The Other Guys Hunt Inception

August 04, 2010

The "ell" Funnymen Will Ferrell and Steve Carell square off at the box office with their partners Mark Wahlberg and Paul Rudd, respectively, this weekend in Dinner For Schmucks and newcomer The Other Guys. But it could be Christopher Nolan's Inception that has the laugh and walks away with its fourth consecutive weekend top grossing crown.

These three films are joined by Salt with Angelina Jolie and another newcomer, high stepping and now in your face Step Up 3D, to comprise the five eligible films in our ongoing interactive weekly Weekend Box Office Prophet Game. The goal of the game is simple: predict what each of these films will make from Friday, August 6 through Sunday, August 8 at the domestic box office. Your predictions are then averaged in with all the players to go up against the Prophet predictons.

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 and The Running Man on Blu-ray. If the Prophet comes out on top then these prizes will roll into the next round and be joined by a third. We will still award a small DVD prize to the top place finisher should this happen (overall game leaderboard).

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, August 5, with this round's results being published Monday evening in our box office actuals report.

There are currently 61 players up against the Prophet

The entry period for August 6 - 8 has already ended. Follow the weekly results at the Weekend Box Office Prophet main page.

The Other Guys
Another weekend, another goofball comedy. Stepping in to take on Steve Carell and Schmucks is Will Ferrell in The Other Guys on over 3,400 screens. Schmucks will most certainly fall, but can Ferrell topple Inception? Not if it doesn't do any better than Ferrell's last movie, Land of the Lost. Ouch.

All: $27.2 Me: n/a Prophet: $24.9 Actual: $35.5

Step Up 3D
The Step Up franchise lives on in Step Up 3D, a film that the franchise's fans will be all over and everyone else should avoid like the plague. The first Step Up opened to $20.6 million back in 2006 and the sequel $18.9 million in 2008. Expect another drop with a possible tiny boost from 3D at over 2,200 screens.

All: $16.1 Me: n/a Prophet: $21.3 Actual: $15.8

Inception
Can Inception pull off a four-peat? If The Other Guys is not met with open arms then the likelihood is relatively high. Last weekend Inception made $27.5 million, a 35.7% drop from the previous weekend. A similar drop would still put it well above $15 million and in a position to finish top 2, if not first.

All: $18.5 Me: n/a Prophet: $17.0 Actual: $18.5

Dinner for Schmucks
Dinner For Schmucks had a decent opening with $23.5 million last weekend but could face a steep drop. It continues to trail Inception at the box office this week and will face competition from The Other Guys from moviegoers looking for silly laughs. Most consider Carell > Ferrell right now which would mean advantage = Carell.

All: $14.7 Me: n/a Prophet: $12.5 Actual: $10.4

Salt
Audiences continue to like the taste of Salt as the Angelina Jolie action flick dropped 46% last weekend for a $19.5 million take in its second frame. I suspect a similar drop heading into weekend number three which should put it around the $10 million mark. Consider that gift advice.

All: $11.2 Me: n/a Prophet: $9.8 Actual: $10.9