Rules and Regulations
(largely based on 2003's rules and updated for 2009)
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2009 Summer Movie Pool Rules and Regulations (largely based on 2003's rules and updated for 2009) |
Official Summer Movie Pool Rules (Updated: April 2009)
What is the Summer Movie Pool?
This is a contest where players rank the top 10 box-officegrossing
films of the summer season, in order. Only those films released during the summer season are eligible, and only the money they gross during the summer season counts.
Important Dates OR When exactly does "summer" begin and end?
When the Summer Movie Pool began back in the early 1990s, the summer movie season started on May 31st. The studios have decided otherwise in the intervening years, and since we follow them like sheep, the summer season now begins the first full weekend in May.
For 2009 SMP this means films released on May 1st weekend are eligible. Those released on April 24th weekend are NOT eligible. If you have a question about a film’s eligibility, ask before you submit your picks. All films released from the first full weekend in May through to Labor Day are eligible for the contest, and all the money those films make within that period in the North American theatrical market will count.
Deadline for Entries and Fees
Entries, though, will be due at 11:59pm on Monday May 11, 2009. This means you can take into account the first two weekends of some films box office, and it means you can go see some of the early
releases before you finish your entry. Email entries to, myself - Andy Taylor - please mark your Subject Header: 2009 Summer Movie Pool Entry. Not critical, but nice for me to know what it is.
Money will be due to the SMP Pool Treasurer - Pauline Zvejnieks, by May 31. The fee is still $5 USD. If you submit an entry but don’t pay by the deadline, you're out. Pauline can
accept cheques drawn on U.S. Accounts (email her for her mailing address) as well as PayPal payments (provided they are NOT directly from a credit card). It’s always a good idea to email her and let her
know if you’ve made a payment to her pay pal account. Sometimes people’s email accounts associated with their paypal accounts don’t match their email addys used for the mailing list and its easy for us to get confused.
THE RULES:
The Goal:
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. As I've said, that means only films released from May 1st 2009 to
the end of August 2009, 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 B.O., 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. For the last seven or so years, I have been using box office numbers from Yahoo Box Office which gets their numbers in turn from Box Office Mojo.
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 Scoring:
Getting number 1 or number 10 dead-on gets you 13 points (each).
The rest of the scoring goes like this:
10 points for numbers 2-9 dead-on
7 points if your pick was only one spot away from where it ended up
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
The scoring is tabulated so that you get the SINGLE HIGHEST point value for each pick- that is, if you get number ten right, you don't get 13+3, you only get 13. Don't worry I keep track of the scoring so you don't have to!
Where can I get a list of films coming out this summer?
ComingSoon.net Movies
Yahoo Movies Coming Soon
Hollywood.com
The Box Office Prophets
Remember release dates often change, so don't get too trigger happy and submit an entry May 1st and then learn that the studio has bumped something on May 2nd. You've got until the second week of May for entries. I suggest you use the time wisely. Don't be late, but don't be too premature either.
Updated: 2009-09-10