RESULTS: Summer 2014 Box Office Predictions

Yay! As a long-time fan of James Gunn, I'm so happy that Guardians was not only awesome in every way, but kicked the box office's ass despite being a "new" property (the 'Marvel' brand alone is apparently as strong as Pixar's used to be). It almost makes up for Transformers making over a billion dollars worldwide...almost.  The biggest surprise this year was just how mediocre How to Train Your Dragon 2 did, especially with no animated competition whatsoever; the "kids" movie to beat this summer was Disney's Maleficent, which smartly chose to hop on the Frozen-train of female-led fairy tale flicks.

Overall I think I did pretty well on my predictions, but if you kids have been keeping score at home, let me know how you fared against me!  I had fun keeping track throughout the season, and I'm looking forward to next year - though it will certainly be tough to predict with a slate including Jurassic World, the new Pixar film Inside Out (my personal most-anticipated), the Fantastic Four reboot, a Wright-less Ant-Man, Brad Bird's Tomorrowland, and a little ditty called The Avengers 2!

Points System:

- 13 points for getting 1 or 10 exactly correct

- 10 points for getting 2-9 exactly correct

- 7 points if movie was one spot away

- 5 points if movie was two spots away

- 3 points if movie was anywhere the top ten

- 1 point for each dark horse (pick three)

Actual (Domestic): 1. Guardians of the Galaxy - $274.6 million 2. Transformers 4 - $244.3 million 3. Maleficent - $238.5 million       4. X-Men: Days of Future Past - $233.2 million      5. Dawn...of the Apes - $205.2 million 6. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - $202.8 million 7. Godzilla - $200.6 million 8. 22 Jump Street - $190.2 million 9. How to Train Your Dragon 2 - $173.4 million 10. TMNT - $162.4 million

My Predictions: 1. How to Train Your Dragon 2 +3 2. Transformers 4 +10 3. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 +3 4. Godzilla +3 5. Dawn...of the Apes +10 6. X-Men: Days of Future Past +5 7. Maleficent +3 8. Guardians of the Galaxy +3 9. 22 Jump Street +7 10. TMNT +13

*Data from Box Office Mojo
                                                                                 Dark Horses:
                                                                                 The Fault in Our Stars
                                                                                 A Million Ways to Die in the West
                                                                                 Hercules

TOTAL: 60

"Guys, I think we just found...ourselves in second place in the overall domestic box office!"