Time to get excited about the summer movies coming up! Josh and Violet put together a competition which blends our love of movies with fantasy sports! Check out how it went, and how you can participate — which will qualify you for a giveaway!
So I decided to recruit a bunch of friends to try out a friendly competition. Right now it is March Madness season, and for those unfamiliar, it is where a bunch of sports fans try to decide how the college basketball season will play out. You start with a bunch of teams, and try to predict the winners of each game, down to the final team. Well, I had heard about this “Fantasy Movie Draft” from a podcast I listen to, called “The Morning Stream,” where a guest of the show, Justin Robert Young, introduced it to the hosts of the show, Scott and Brian.
So rather than get invested in the hype of March Madness (I really don’t like basketball), I wanted to give this a try. It actually feels like a strange combination of March Madness and Fantasy Football, with an auction aspect to it.
So here is how it went!
We have 7 people partaking in the “Movie Draft”: Violet, my sister Jamie, our friends Michelle, Tamara, George, and David, and myself. Each ”player” would begin with $100 (fake) dollars. This money would be used to bid on the various movies coming out this spring/summer. We wanted to start as soon as possible to include Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice in the bidding. So what are we bidding on? Well which movie would make the most money, of course!
We had to set some ground rules to make sure the game went well, so we said that only domestic box office would count. Trying to keep track of international box office could be a pain given the dates often not lining up for when a movie is released. We also culled the list to include only wide release movies, and from there we decided to move some of the obviously smaller movies to a second “tier” which would be bet on if people had money left over at the end. That way someone wasn’t “stuck” with extra money left over at the end. We also decided that other than the “second tier” movies, the auction order would be in release order—we couldn’t really think of a more fair way to do it.
To organize the game, we have a number of people who are adept in Excel and Google Docs, so we arranged a few spreadsheets. One sheet that provided a list of movies, along with lead actors, director and synopsis, then another sheet that would be marked with the owner, and how much was paid for the movie. This would keep track of how much money everyone had left. Also on a sheet is a cell to keep track of the box office totals for each movie, and it would auto-calculate everyone’s total as the weeks go on.
The hardest part of Fantasy Movie Draft was coming up with an easy bidding system. Unfortunately, we did not have a 3rd party “auctioneer” that could provide a more balanced way to auction the movies. But we had to make due.
So we went down the list. First up was Batman V. Superman, and Violet came out swinging on it. Most of the players seemed to feel a little timid as to how far the betting should be dragged out. She was able to spend $30 of her $100 to secure one of the bigger summer blockbusters. Later in the list, Captain America: Civil War came up, and Violet was able to secure that one was well for a mere $42. Violet seemed to have a lock on potentially the two biggest movies of the summer.
But things did balance out some, with other people getting some pretty good-sized movies. Here is a breakdown of how things went:
| Movie | Cost |
|---|---|
| My Big, Fat Greek Wedding 2 | $13 |
| Ratchet and Clank | $6 |
| X-Men: Age of Apocalypse | $37 |
| TMNT: Out of the Shadows | $14 |
| Now You See Me 2 | $9 |
| Warcraft | $17 |
| The Founder | $4 |
| Movie | Cost |
|---|---|
| Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice | $30 |
| Collide | $2 |
| Criminal | $7 |
| A Hologram for the King | $1 |
| Captain America: Civil War | $42 |
| Jason Bourne | $18 |
| Movie | Cost |
|---|---|
| God’s Not Dead 2 | $5 |
| Central Intelligence | $15 |
| The BFG | $20 |
| The Secret Life of Pets | $21 |
| Ghostbusters | $15 |
| Sausage Party | $24 |
| Movie | Cost |
|---|---|
| Hardcore Henry | $7 |
| Jungle Book | $30 |
| The Purge: Election Year | $5 |
| Ice Age: Collision Course | $19 |
| Suicide Squad | $39 |
| Movie | Cost |
|---|---|
| Keanu | $8 |
| The Angry Birds Movie | $16 |
| The Nice Guys | $9 |
| Finding Dory | $50 |
| Nine Lives | $5 |
| Ben Hur | $12 |
| Movie | Cost |
|---|---|
| Huntsman: Winter’s War | $20 |
| Mother’s Day | $11 |
| Alice Through the Looking Glass | $35 |
| Free State of Jones | $9 |
| Independence Day: Resurgence | $25 |
| Movie | Cost |
|---|---|
| Meet the Blacks | $4 |
| Before I Wake | $1 |
| The Boss | $1 |
| Barbershop 2: The Next Cut | $9 |
| Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising | $20 |
| The Conjuring 2 | $7 |
| The Shallows | $6 |
| The Legend of Tarzan | $7 |
| Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates | $6 |
| Star Trek Beyond | $19 |
| Bad Moms | $1 |
| Pete’s Dragon | $15 |
| Spectral | $4 |
Overall I think the event went well. I think the part that needs to be fine-tuned is the auctioning. Having a dedicated “auctioneer” would help next time, as I would not have to worry about bidding, as well as auctioning, making it more fair for everyone else.
As for my personal picks, I am banking on a lot of hopeful things happening. Funny enough, two of my movies come down to hoping nostalgia kicks in. I think My Big, Fat Greek Wedding 2 is going to rely on the previous success it had with the first movie, some 13 years ago, and Warcraft will rely on all of the video game fans getting on board and seeing their video game world come to life.
I am very excited to see how the summer movie season pans out now. There are bound to be some “upsets” I am sure, and seeing how everything unfolds will be interesting. Tell us what you think of the competition and each players’ picks in the comments below. I am curious to see what people think! Also, if you vote in our poll below before May 6, 2016, you can earn an entry into our Summer Movie Draft Giveaway! Make sure to vote in the poll below, as well as leave a comment as to who you think will win and why! Don’t forget to claim your entry in the Rafflecopter form on our giveaway page!
Though I like Violet’s 2 heavy hitters BvS and Civil war, the rest of her line-up will likely struggle. My vote is for David who has Suicide Squad, Jungle Book, & Ice Age. Those animated movies seem to do quite well, why else would they keep making them. Even though Hardcore Henry looks like a movie length Go Pro video, it might be a sleeper hit with all the millennials and hardcore fans.
My vote is for violet. She has my #1 pick cap 3 civil war. Great marketing + a great Hollywood cast and special effects and characters galore = $$$$ from here till the end of the yr. Not to mention you know there will be surprises. I think with this pick alone she wins
I voted for David because I think he has the strongest lineup.
Have you already done the 2017 Draft? Haven’t seen any articles about it.
No, we need to get to it though! Summer is coming up really fast!