Well, well, well... who would've thought it would turn out like this. Trailing badly through 8 weeks, Joseph (thanks to Skyfall and The Hobbit) has positioned himself to win this challenge. Trailing by only $15m, Joseph still has Monster's Inc 3D, This is 40 and Parental Guidance to help overtake Jorge who doesn't have any more new releases coming out. In addition, The Hobbit should help Joseph add another $70m even if the second week drop is in the neighborhood of 50%. Not bad considering Joseph lost The Big Wedding to a spring 2013 release AND Dredd 3D garnered all of $13m and was his sole source of revenue for a whole month.
Ray, with Django Unchained, has a chance of reaching $500m before the end of the challenge but has Larry challenging him for 3rd place with 2 more movies: The Guilt Trip and Les Miserables. Other than Inglorious Basterds and Pulp Fiction back in 1992, Quentin Tarantino movies aren't known for bringing in big box office so chances are Django Unchained won't either. Especially releasing at Christmas. Les Miserables, on the other hand, has been getting an incredible amount of oscar buzz. Whether that translates to box office revenue remains to be seen.
Larry, meanwhile, joined the $400m club and has an outside shot at $500m depending on Les Miserables.
As for me, I was hampered both by bad choices (Chasing Mavericks? Really?) and rescheduling. Dark Zero Thirty, which is getting a whole bunch of praise, only opened for me in limited release and doesn't go wide until mid January. But I can't really complain as Joseph not only lost a movie in this challenge but the GI Joe sequel in the summer challenge as well. Also, Jack Reacher has opened poorly so there's no chance of me reaching $400m.
Ah well, with only 6 movies/3 weeks left in this challenge, I think it's time I start getting the next challenge ready. :)
