You Heard It Here First

Hmm, maybe this blog has more influence than I thought. Because clearly Troy Glaus is an avid reader and he took the advice that I gave him back in 2003. Today, SI.com reports that Glaus did indeed buy (and presumably use) steriods. Way ride on my coattails, Sports Illustrated.

 
The Summer Box Office Derby: The Verdict

Back in late April I posted my predictions for the summer's top ten box office totals. Now that it's Labor Day, it's time to look back on how I did:












As you can see, I nailed the top seven films, and nine out of the top ten (having overestimated Ocean's Thirteen while underestimating Live Free or Die Hard). I'm particularly proud of the fact that I got the ninth place finish of Knocked Up (somewhat of a sleeper heading into the summer) right on the nose. The problem was that I was way off in predicting the order of finish. Clearly, the Spider-Man franchise was not "on the wane" as I stated last April (at least financially, if not creatively). And I didn't have any idea that Transformers would be as popular as it was. My final takeaway from this is that I need to adjust for 2007 inflation. Overall, my box office totals were well below the actuals. For example, I thought the fifth place film would rake in $180 million; it turns out that the fifth place finisher took home $287 million, a whopping $102 million more than I thought. The lesson: never underestimate the buying power of the huddled masses.