Here are the final results of the 2001 summer blockbuster contest announced about four months ago. To remind you, the point of the contest was to predict how well six big summer movies would do, and to choose the film not on that list that would do the best. The six films I chose and their final grosses were:
The eligible film not on this list that performed best over the summer was Rush Hour 2, which made $200 million, more than any other summer film except Shrek and The Mummy Returns. What about those two films? They opened one to two weeks too soon to be eligible for the contest. Looks like I need to start next year's contest a bit earlier.
This year, 31 people entered the contest, up from 23 last year.
And the winner is Jesse Mason, with 47 points. Mr. Mason pulled off a unique feat this year: his victory is due to his exact guess on the gross of Dr. Dolittle 2. Without those five bonus points, the title would have gone to Adam Villani, who scored 43 points. Paul Rogers and Lisha Hassanali share third place, with 42 points each.
Only one participant chose Rush Hour 2 as the sleeper film. That was Atli Sigurjonsson. By far the most popular sleeper choice was Jurassic Park 3, which was chosen by 14 people. Not a bad choice, as it grossed $176 million, which put it just behind Rush Hour 2 among the eligible films.
Mr. Mason was the only contestant who hit any film on the nose, properly gauging that Dr. Dolittle 2 was good for $112 million.
Here are the complete results, in increasing point order:
My choices could have been better. Next year, I swear, Disney's animated summer film is outta there. Even leaving aside Shrek and The Mummy Returns, I only chose three of the top six films of summer. Admittedly, two of the others (Rush Hour 2 and The Fast and the Furious) did far better than expected, but there were still another four films that did better than two of the films on my list. (And three of those got sleeper votes from one or more of you guys.) I probably should have put Jurassic Park 3 on the list instead of Atlantis. AI was a less predictable failure, I'd say. Hey, they love it in Japan.
Thanks to all who entered.