In fact, we have TWO winners!

I don’t know if my scoring system for this tournament is ingenious or idiotic, but suffice it to say that it’s all in Excel and is dependent on formulas. Makes it great and easy in that I don’t have to manually add anything…but there’s one major flaw in the setup: it’s dependent on everyone copying & pasting and/or using the exact lettering that I have for the film titles. I try to go in at the beginning of the season and clean ‘em up, but (of course), I miss some. And in this case, a big one!

Nicholas R. also scored 72 points, to tie Nick J. On top of that, they tied with the tie-breaker, too, so we truly have co-champions. Congrats to all people named Nick or Nicholas in the tournament!

So…look closely at your entry and the master - if you see any errors, you have two more days to let me know. Thanks, and I apologize for the error!

To view the final bracket in PDF form, click here (or if you wish to save, do a “Save Target As”): http://www.freewebs.com/blogcabins/march2madnessmaster2011.pdf

Here are the updated standings:

All box office data from Box Office Mojo.

We have a winner! Some six months later, the spring/summer box office season can finally be declared finished, and with it, the March to Box Office Madness 2011 game.

As usual, it was a tight race all the way down to the wire, as we had four individuals that absolutely crushed this. But it did come down to one winner, and that person did so by scoring a whopping 72 out of a possible 76 points, correctly predicting all but one matchup!

Your winner is…NICK JOBE! Congrats, Nick!

Last year’s champ, Justin G., ironically tallied the same number of points as 2009’s winner (Wayne) scored last year (49). Make sense? Probably not. In other words, look forward to scoring 49 points next year, Nick. Congrats also go out to the three folks that tied for 2nd place, with 70 points (Fraser T., Josh L., and George A.).

As for the prizes, I was remiss and never posted a solid list of what they were and how they broke down. Here’s the skinny on what I offered previously:

* From me, a $25 to AMC theaters, a Scene It!, the DVD game, and a brand new t-shirt of insignificant value from my stack of new t-shirts.

In addition, I put out the call for prize pack help, and here’s what I got from a few awesome LAMBs:

* From Jess, a few gently used DVDs, including Fargo, Burn After Reading, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Master and Commander, and The Da Vinci Code.

* From Blake, gently used (watched once) review screeners of Jack Goes Boating and Stone on BluRay.

* From This Guy Over Here, a copy of his 247-page interactive eBook, “100 Films From the Aughties.” See more info here: http://www.e-junkie.com/shop/product/462286.php.

I will work out the prize distribution with Nick, Fraser, Josh, and George.

To view the final bracket in PDF form, click here (or if you wish to save, do a “Save Target As”): http://www.freewebs.com/blogcabins/march2madnessmaster2011.pdf

Here are the complete and final standings; if you think I’ve made an error, be sure to let me know within three (3) days of this post. Due to the possibility of an error, prizes will not be sent until such time has passed. Click here to read all about the game.

Finally - THANKS FOR PLAYING! I look forward to doing it again next year.

All box office data from Box Office Mojo.

The game is underway! This year, we have 38 players - exactly the same number as last year. Slightly disappointing that it didn’t balloon a bit more, but at least it didn’t go down. Last year, Justin G. took home a big ol’ kitty of prizes. This year, the prize pool looks like this:

* From me, a $25 to AMC theaters (this is already in-hand, so sorry if you win and don’t have AMC nearby. Think about re-gifting…),

* From me, Scene It!, the DVD game. I somehow own two of these - you’ll get the unopened one. Of course, I might as well give away both - no one will play against me, anyway.

* From me, a brand new t-shirt of insignificant value (I always have random ones about).

I’d really like to sweeten the prize pool, including maybe getting some prizes for 2nd and 3rd place. If you have anything to offer - posters, memorabilia, even gently-used DVDs that others might like, let me know at blogcabins@yahoo.com and I’ll inform the gang when I post a scoring update in a bit.

Here’s a list of all of the players in this year’s contest; for kicks, I’ve thrown in their picks for the tournament champion:

Those champ picks break out as such:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II - 29
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - 5
Cars 2 - 2
Super 8 - 1
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - 1

Finally, I posted this earlier, but just in case, so you know that I’m no cheater, here’s my bracket. (Of course, I never take the prizes if I win anyway, so I’m not sure why I do this.)

Good luck to all! Updates to the scoring will be posted periodically over the next few months.

You must get your entry in to me by Thursday night 11:59 PM (Pacific) to be eligible. Good luck! Click the banner above for the full rundown of rules and to get your entry form. More details, including the expanded prize pool, coming soon. In the meantime, so you know that I’m no cheater, here’s my bracket.

It’s back for a third year!

If you’re a fan of sports at all, or have ever worked in an office, there’s a good to great chance that you’re aware of the phenomenon that strikes America this time of year. That’s right - it’s March Madness, the 64 (er, 68) team college basketball tournament that drains efficiency from thousands of companies as workers kill their time filling out their brackets and subsequently trying to sneak in actually watching the games of the first few rounds of the tournament. It’s one big semi-gambling semi-orgy - and everyone semi-loves it.

The idea:
With the NCAA tournament in full force, and with my joint film and sports appreciation, I got the idea to run a box office game the same way that the tournament is run. 32 films, one box office champion, many shining moments.

So, what you’ll do is click on the link provided below, download your bracket, fill it by picking the movie for each matchup that you think will have the higher box office total, and send it to me by March 31.

The rules:
1. For each matchup, select which film will have the higher box office. Continue through the bracket until a champion has been crowned.
2. Scoring per round will be 1-2-4-8-12, for a possible total of 76 points (see table in workbook).
3. For the tie-breaker, enter your predicted top 5 films (box office) from the ones listed. One point for will be rewarded for each correct film, and an additional point for proper placement, for a potential 10 points. In the case of a tie, if one person’s tie-breaker portion is not filled out, the other will win.
4. Brackets MUST be turned in (sent to blogcabins@yahoo.com) no later than March 31.
5. Box office data will be counted from April 1 - September 25, 2011.
6. One entry per person.

The prizes:
Still slightly up in the air (as usual). I’m throwing in (at minimum) a $25 gift card to AMC Theaters and a t-shirt, but as with last year’s booty, I was hoping to get the community-at-large involved in the prize-giving (I’d like to have prizes for the top 3 finishers), so if there’s something you can offer to the prize pool, please let me know. Hopefully, we can get a nice prize pack going (more on this later). We had 34 players the first year and 38 last year, so just a few items will make it that much more worth it.

The link to your bracket (if having troubles - right click, Save Target As):

http://blogcabins.webs.com/March%20to%20Box%20Office%20Madness2011.xls

* Please enter your picks using the same titles I have entered in the master bracket, even if they aren’t technically accurate; slight changes are made for formatting issues, and having the names match makes the scoring go that much quicker. Please don’t re-format the file in any way if possible. Enter your names and picks and go! *

The banner:
Finally, what fun would this be if it’s just a few people? This game is open to EVERYONE. I want this to be BIG! Below is a banner, and I’d love it if you’d put it on your site as well (if possible). Let’s do this right! Good luck!

The code:
<a href=”http://largeassmovieblogs.blogspot.com/2011/03/march-to-box-office-madness-2011.html” target=”_blank”><img border=”0″ alt=”Large Association of Movie Blogs” src=”http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y82/dyjafi/marchboxbanner200.jpg”/></a>

Good luck, and be sure to get me your brackets by March 31! Any questions, comments, suggestions, or prize offerings, email me at blogcabins@yahoo.com.

We have a winner! Some six months later, the spring/summer box office season can finally be declared finished, and with it, the March to Box Office Madness 2010 game.

It was a tight race all the way down to the wire, but our winner, with 65 points (out of a possible 76) is Justin G., who topped the “record” for total points (I say “record” because this is only the second year of the game) of 64 points by last year’s winner, Wayne (of Reel Whore). (Wayne ended this year tied for 14th with 49 points.) Bringing up the rear, with an impossible 10 points, was Clarabela, who obviously will need a partner next year (sorry, I had to call you out - it takes talent to score that low in this game!).

As it happens, I got 2nd place with 62 points, but since I was one of the prize-givers for 2nd place (see below), I’m going to defer. The prize I was scheduled to give to the 2nd place winner will be added to the 1st place booty; likewise, I’ll ask Wayne to transfer his 2nd place offering to the 3rd place player, Neil A, who tallied 60 points. I will be in touch with all prize winners and offerers in the next few days to co-ordinate efforts.

First place:
* From Rachel of Rachel’s Reel Reviews, a $25 gift certificate to a large movie theater chain (one in the area of the winner),

* From Joshua of The Discordic Adventures of Fnord, a set of five DVDs, including A Nightmare on Elm Street (Limited Special), My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, and Revolver.

Second Place:
* From me, the standard DVD of your choosing (up to $19.99) from Amazon, (going to the first place winner)

* From Wayne, a set of two DVDs, Transformers and Spider-Man 3. As Wayne stated, “Both of those should be appropriate since they are summer box office breakers.” (going to the third place winner)

Third Place:
* From This Guy of This Guy Over Here, “If I finish my eBook by then, I’ll be happy to throw that in the pool of prizes… value will be $4.99 haha… but that’s a big IF,”

* From me, a brand new t-shirt of insignificant value.

To view the final bracket in PDF form, click here (or if you wish to save, do a “Save Target As”): http://blogcabins.webs.com/march2madnessmaster2010final.pdf

Here are the complete and final standings; if you think I’ve made an error, be sure to let me know within three (3) days of this post. Due to the possibility of an error, prizes will not be sent until such time has passed. Click here to read all about the game.

Finally - THANKS FOR PLAYING! I look forward to doing it again next year.

All box office data from Box Office Mojo.

Though the March to Box Office Madness game technically won’t end until late September, I’m going to be periodically posting updates to the standings.

We’re at about the halfway point, as 16 matchups (of varying worth) have been decided. The next two weeks, with Salt and Dinner for Schmucks, will put an end to a few more matchups.

Currently, there are 26 available points (there will be a total of 76 possible by the time the game ends). If you think I’ve made an error, be sure to let me know. We have 38 total players. Click here to read all about the game and/or to see the full bracket.

All box office data from Box Office Mojo.

Though the March to Box Office Madness game technically won’t end until late September, I’m going to be periodically posting updates to the standings. It’s been a couple months since the game started, so I figured now was a good time.

Though others could be called as decided, only five “matchups” have been outright, no doubt, for sure decided. Those five are (points per win in parenthesees): Toy Story 3 vs. Why Did I Get Married Too? (1), Shrek Forever After vs. Date Night (1), The A-Team vs. MacGruber (1), The Karate Kid vs. Nightmare on Elm Street (1) and Shrek Forever After vs. The A-Team (2).

As such, there are 6 available points (there will be a total of 76 possible by the time the game ends). If you think I’ve made an error, be sure to let me know. We have 38 total players. Click here to read all about the game and/or to see the full bracket.

All box office data from Box Office Mojo.