Geezer's Hindsight is 20/20: Rating the Films of August

The summer season has come and gone, and it has taken its blockbusters with it. In my first column taking over for Shryke's month in review posts (that I was always a big fan of) I am going to cover the films from the summer's final month: August. It was certainly a month filled with some quality films as well as decent box office numbers. Here's how I rate them in terms of value for our little game:
Prices are from the July-September season.

Bandslam: $5,157,620, 0 Top 5, 0 PTA, 5.7 IMDB
Cost: $7 U, $8 BO
Grade: F
This was the worst pick of the month, netting you no positive value for your 7 or 8 bucks. No Top 5, No PTA, no thank you.

Post Grad: $6,290,448, 0 Top 5, 0 PTA, 5.5 IMDB
Cost: $5 U, $6 BO
Grade: F
Would be the worst pick a lot of months, but this stinker had the advantage of being slightly cheaper. either way, it did nothing for you if you owned it.

Taking Woodstock: $7,147,708, 0 Top 5, 0 PTA, 7.1
Cost: $9 U, $5 BO
Grade: F
The only thing this got you was an ok IMDB score, which isn't even close to justify having it on your slate.

Shorts: $19,716,511, 0 Top 5, 0 PTA, 4.7 IMDB
Cost: $8 U, $9
Grade: U: F, BO: D
Another horrible pick, but at least this one got you a little money.

Paper Heart: $1,149,350, 0 Top 5, 1 PTA, 6.6 IMDB
Cost: $6 U, $4 BO
Grade: U: D-, BO: F
If you took this in Ultimate, you were disappointed by the single PTA point. If you took it in Box Office, you were really disappointed it only made a not so cool million dollars.

Halloween 2: $30,094,379, 3 Top 5, 0 PTA, 5.2 IMDB
Cost: $14 U, $15 BO
Grade: D
No matter which format you relied on Michael Myers in, you were sorely disappointed. What once looked like a sure weekend winner managed only 3 Top 5, no PTA and a mediocre IMDB, to go along with its 2x multiplier. Not the horror film you wanted to go with.

I Sell the Dead: $7,066, 0 Top 5, 0 PTA, IMDB- 6.9
Cost: $3 U, $1 BO
Grade: U: C-, BO: N/A
I'm not grading this one for BO purposes, because no one expected anything out of it. For 3 dollars in Ultimate, I'm sure you didn't love it, but the IMDB didn't kill you, and that's about all you can hope for from a pick this cheap.

World's Greatest Dad: $166,467, 0 Top 5, 0 PTA, IMDB- 7.7
Cost: $4 U, $2 BO
Grade: U: C-, BO: N/A
Cheap pick that didn't deliver the PTA, but a very respectable IMDB score is good for $4. If you paid more for it though, the grade decreases.

The Goods, Live Hard, Sell Hard: $15,000,327, 0 Top 5, 0 PTA, 6.0 IMDB
Cost: $5 U, $5 BO
Grade: U: D, BO: C
Bad take in Ultimate for sure, but it was ok in BO, giving you a modest 3x for only $5. It was a throw in on your slate anyway, so it wasn't that bad.

A Perfect Getaway: $15,483,540, 0 Top 5, 0 PTA, 6.7 IMDB
Cost: $5 U, $5 BO
Grade: U: D+, BO: C
See: The Goods, Live Hard, Sell Hard.

Five Minutes of Heaven: $13,217, 0 Top 5, 1 PTA, IMDB- 7.2
Cost: $3 U, $2 BO
Grade: U- C, BO- N/A
Very similar to I Sell the Dead, but slightly better IMDB and got you a PTA point. Not terrible for $3.

Ponyo: $14,333,967, 0 Top 5, 0 PTA, 8.0 IMDB
Cost: $6 U, $3 BO
Grade: U: C+, BO: B
Very good IMDB, decent box office make this an ok Ultimate take for $6, but would have liked to see either a Top 5 or PTA point. It fell in the dreaded in between theater count, preventing that. Solid bang for your buck in BO, and if you had $3 lying around, you couldn't have spent it better.

The Time Traveler's Wife: $59,035,745, 5 Top 5, 3 PTA, 7.3 IMDB
Cost: $11 U, $10 BO
Grade: U: B, BO: A-
A movie that did well across the board, but didn't really break the bank in any category either. You definitely weren't disappointed in having it in either format, but it wouldn't kill your slate if you didn't.

The Final Destination: $58,280,235, 11 Top 5, 4 PTA, 5.2 IMDB
Cost: $11 U, $12 BO
Grade: B+
This was the film to take on 8/28! Kicked H2 to the curb and then went on to win the next weekend as well. Poor IMDB, but for the price, you couldn't do really better. You loved having this no matter what format or season you took it.

It Might Get Loud: $786,813, 0 Top 5, 8 PTA, 7.4 IMDB
Cost: $4 U, $2 BO
Grade: U: A-, BO: N/A
An outstanding bargain in the Ultimate game, getting you 2 PTA for every dollar spent. Would have been the bargain basement pick of the month if it weren't for one other film.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra: $144,200,266, 12 Top 5, 7 PTA, 6.0 IMDB
Cost: $25 U, $27 BO
Grade: A
This film was the most expensive of the month, but it definitely delivered the goods. For what you spent on it, you received excellent value. The top earner of the month, very good in the Top 5 category, nice PTA and an IMDB that wouldn't demolish your category. 5.3x multiplier in BO is magnified because with how much you spent on it, you were locking up a great return on a significant part of your budget. One of the best picks of the month.

My One and Only: $1,131,590, 0 Top 5, 10 PTA, 7.5 IMDB
Cost: $3 U, $2 BO
Grade: U: A+, BO: N/A

This was the bargain basement pick of the month! For just $3 you netted 10 PTA points! That's more than 3 per dollar. An outstanding value and a very good IMDB score to boot. Easily one of the very best picks you could have made this season.

Bronze Medal Winner of the Month:
Julie & Julia: $85,216,298, 7 Top 5, 4 PTA, 7.7 IMDB
Cost: $13 U, $13 BO
Grade: A+
For about half the price of G.I. Joe, Julie and Julia delivered a little more than half the BO, a little more than half the Top 5, a little more than half the PTA and a better IMDB score. So basically, this film was a little better than G.I. Joe for your buck, in either format. Helped carry a lot of high ranking slates I am certain.

Silver Medal Winner of the Month:
Inglourious Basterds: $103,903,469, 16 Top 5 (and counting), 5 PTA, 8.6 IMDB
Cost: $18 U, $17 BO
Grade: A++
Tarantino bounces back from his failure in Grindhouse for a massive success with Inglourious Basterds. For what it cost, it was a phenominal payoff. One of 3 films this month to crack 100 million, the top 5 champion of the month, an absolutely sterling 8.6 IMDB score, and throw in the 5 PTA points, and you have the total package, for less than 1/5 of your budget. Pulled off a 6x multiplier at $17 in BO. You really couldn't ask for more unless...

Gold Medal Winner of the Month:
District 9: $108,456,233, 12 Top 5 points, 6 PTA, 8.6 IMDB
Cost: $11 U, $9 BO
Grade: A+++
You had District 9! This was the easiest decision for me to make. It was really District 9 and everything else. There were a lot of great choices this month, but none of them came close to the value of District 9. I don't think anyone could have won a league without it. The price of 11 or 9 dollars was way too cheap for this monster. With more money than any film not named G.I. Joe, 12 top 5 points for 11 dollars, The 4th highest PTA number, and tied with the Basterds for best IMDB score with that phenomenal 8.6, this was a must have. That is a 12x multiplier in BO. even in leagues where it was slightly more expensive, it remains the best pick of the month. You really could not do better than this, and it was also the best film of the month, in my opinion anyway.

Well that will do it. Let me know what your biggest hits and misses of the month were? Did you have the Basterds and District 9 on all of your slates? How about your epic misses? Someone had to take Post Grad right? Feel free to tell me what you think of the grades as well. See you next time with the wasteland we call September! Glad I could take this over for you Shryke, as I can definitely see now how much work it actually is!

I know that 5 or 6 people had the same slates in a BO June-August league at one point and me and Shryke decided to take the last $6 film (Bandslam) instead of going with what I was sure to be a flunkee, I Love You Beth Cooper. It turns out Bandslam was actually the worse pick.

Also, I hit pretty good on It Might Get Loud, but would have done a lot better if I didn't try to hedge my bets by dumping it on a few slates for another PTA pick (I can remember which).

Then there's IB and J&J. Looking back, I'm still unsure about how they'll turn out.

(That last part was a joke. Just saying they were extremely hard to predict.)

Great column Geez! Glad to see you taking my "Was It Worth It?" concept and running with it! Hope you're up to doing it every month, because post-game analysis is a necessity in sports-talk radio, so why not here?

Very well done article geez. I am very happy to this column back its very informative and its good to see what did well and what failed! Good work geez and i look forward to next months article.

Good work, Geez. As for my slates, my picks were at either the bottom or top of that list, with little or no in between. For instance, I had Bandslam, Shorts, and H2, but also had District 9, Julie and Julia, and It Might Get Loud.

It's kind of funny that I actually insisted that Julia and Julia was a better pick than The Time Traveler's Wife while Geezer (or was it W) disagreed. Now, Geezer has decided that it was the better pick all along.

I'm in the same boat...I thought Julia and Julia would bomb, and thought Time Travellers Wife would do better. Still puzzled over that one. I think my personal likes/dislikes clouded my thinking.

I actually thought that both would do well Boush, and they did, Julie and Julia just did better. I had Julie and Julia in my draft league slate that won, and it was a big reason why (well that and Harry Potter, It Might Get Loud, etc..). I had Time Traveler's Wife more in the standard format though just because it was a little cheaper and fit better in my slates. Good call though, not too many people thought it would do as well as it did.

Buscemi wrote:It's kind of funny that I actually insisted that Julia and Julia was a better pick than The Time Traveler's Wife while Geezer (or was it W) disagreed. Now, Geezer has decided that it was the better pick all along.

I wasn't really high on either one, but had TTW on 3 BO slates thinking it was a safer pick than J & J. TTW had a 5.9x (so far) while J&J had a 6.5x... So, not too far away. About $6 m (converting TTW's # to J&J's).