You’ve been anxiously waiting for this moment, and SMP XXII (the standard for movie pools) is finally here!! The site is ready and rockin’ for a new year of excitement… and misery. Game on!!!
2018 RECAP
After Hollywood’s major letdown in 2017 ($3.7B – the worst summer in 11 years), 2018 rebounded nicely with $4.4B – the fifth biggest summer box office ever. And to think that if Avengers: Infinity War had released in May as originally scheduled, the summer would have threatened the all-time record of $4.75B. Disney was again the big winner with $1.5B from their four movies. Our Top 10 spanned movies from all four months, with June as the big winner thanks to The Incredibles 2 ($598M) and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($413M). May’s highlight was Deadpool 2 ($318M), and the July winner was Ant-Man and the Wasp ($212M). This summer the mega-surprise was August’s The Meg ($112M). Only 14 people trusted it, and two players specifically benefitted from its success. Even more surprising was that it was released in the SECOND weekend of August. Ballsy selections.
As everyone here knows, the white whale of the Summer Movie Pool is the “Perfect 10”. Of the 608 entries submitted over the prior 20 years we’d seen a total of just three Perfect 10s, two of which came in the same summer (sorry Kate). And of those three entries, their Deviation Scores were 14, 24, and 18. Even with 10 correct picks deviation can still come into play. With Year #21 wrapped up we’ve now had a total of 676 entries submitted, and amazingly we have another Perfect 10 tie. Whoa. So again we need to look at Deviation… but this isn’t going to bode well for anyone not named Kelly Perone. In the most incredible performance we’ve ever seen in the SMP, Kelly had a PERFECT DEVIATION to go along with her Perfect 10. That’s right, a Deviation Score of 0. ZERO. Incredible!! Back in 2011 Kelly became just our second member to win the SMP in their very first year, and now she sets the standard for perfection. The $500.00 First Place prize is deservedly hers. Congrats!
With all this talk of perfection let’s not forget that Jen Ballard also scored a Perfect 10 this summer, and the rest of us didn’t. Jen also had a Deviation Score of 12, which in either other 10-for-10 summer would have won. Sadly just not this year. To be able to look at both Disney’s Christopher Robin and Skyscraper and say, no I don’t think so, and then look at both Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! and The Meg and say, yep they’re definitely the ones… well major kudos to you as well for being smarter than us! Congrats on winning $100.00 for Second Place.
Third Place was a battle among those with 9 correct picks. 19 players to be exact. Thankfully we have a Scoreboard page that auto-calculates so we don’t have to figure it all out ourselves. And lookie here… another tie. Dennis Berg’s pursuit of his first SMP championship was well documented this summer, and it was his lack of faith in his very favorite actor in the world that did him in (the term “actor” used loosely). Kate Choomack, however, wouldn’t let him have it all to himself, as her top selections were jaw-dropping. They get to split the $30.00 Third Place prize.
And then we have our Bonehead Award. It was a tight race this summer as both Ed Acayan and Ted Venable made highly questionable selections within the first two weeks of the pool. Not quite sure of their motivation, but unfortunately for Ted The Guardians (no, not THAT Guardians) continued to earn $$$ throughout the entire summer. A whole $174K to be specific. The big winner (loser) was Ed with his pick of Revenge that earned a whopping $102K. Enjoy your $10.00 prize.
The cutoff for entries is the first Friday of May, so the time to confirm entries and track payments will be limited. As such, the deadline for submitting your picks will be the first Thursday of May at 11:59pm PST. At that point the site will lock and no further entries will be accepted. The entire month of April is more than enough time to assemble your picks and submit them.
Have your picks submitted by May 2nd!!!
On May 3rd all picks will be revealed on the Current Standings page.
Any questions? E-mail us at summermoviepool@gmail.com.
Good luck!!!
– SB