Another four months have passed and it’s time again to refresh our Box Office Predictions contest. Once again, we have a new set of rules, so hopefully everyone enjoys this new version. This contest begins the weekend of January 7-9, 2011 and continues through the weekend of April 29-May 1, 2011.

This is a 17-week contest where each week your predictions can earn you points with the highest point total declared winner. This four-month competition will add some new elements, but not all of them are required. There will be 1 game with 2 divisions. You’re welcome to participate in any or all of them. Points will be totaled separately; and for those who participate in all three, points will also be kept for all three combined. This time, you may post up to .5 of a million total (thus $17.5 M will be acceptable, but $17.4 M will not). Additionally, while in Division 2, you can get points for putting the top 10 in the correct order, you will also get separate points for correctly predicting the entries in the top 10 even if they aren’t in the correct order.

AFTER you finish reading the rules, be sure to post your predictions for this week.

Each week, on Wednesday, we will post a call for entries. You will have until 5:00pm Central (U.S.) on Friday to post or edit your submissions for the contest. After that time, any changes will nullify your predictions for that week’s entry. However, if you miss out, you can still participate in the remaining weeks of the contest. Missing any number of weeks will not disqualify you. Points will be given out for correctly predicting as follows:

DIVISION ONE

1. Guess the #1 Film at the U.S. weekend box office – 1 Point
2. Guess how much the #1 Film will make, if it is not also the highest grossing new wide release – 1 Point (closest to the final result)
3. Guess the highest grossing new wide release – 1 Point
4. Guess how much the highest grossing new wide release will earn – 1 Point (closest to the final result)

DIVISION TWO

1. Guess which films will place in the Top 10 of the weekend – 1 Point (per correct prediction)
2. Guess in what order the Top 10 of the Weekend will be – 1 Point (per correct position)
3. Guess how much each film in the Top 10 will earn – 1 Point (each person closest to the final answer on a per film basis)

All of the above will be based on the upcoming weekend box office from Friday through Sunday only. For an example of the regular schedule, see below. The #1 film of the week could be either a holdover or a new release. The answers for the rest of the game will always come from a pre-listed group of films. Box office number predictions must be in whole-millions increments (no $35,000,001, $35,100,000 or similar predictions will be accepted). For Limited Releases, you predict to the nearest whole-thousand increment instead. The points for guessing how much a film will make are given to the individual who comes closest for each individual film cited. If no one correctly predicts the #1 film at the box office, no one will get that point. If no one correctly guesses the film that will be the top new release, no one will get that point either even if their gross prediction was closest (it was just for the wrong film).

We will be using boxofficemojo.com to verify results based on the Actual numbers released the following Monday afternoon (or Tuesday afternoon if Monday is a Holiday). Estimates will not be used to determine winners.

Since this is a competition without prizes, just bragging rights, there will be no breaking of ties.

Sample Schedule

• Wednesday, Sept 1: Call for Predictions for Round 1
• Friday, Sept 3, 5:00pm: Deadline for Round 1 Predictions
• Tuesday, Sept 7: Round 1 Results Posted (Monday is Labor Day)

Submit the Following for this Week

DIVISION ONE

1. Guess the #1 Film at the U.S. weekend box office
2. Guess how much the #1 Film will make, if it is not also the highest grossing new wide release
3. Guess the highest grossing new wide release
4. Guess how much the highest grossing new wide release will make

DIVISION TWO

1. Guess which films will place in the Top 10 of the weekend
2. Guess in what order the Top 10 of the Weekend will be
3. Guess how much each new wide release will make