Box Office Pick’em: January Results

Aaron takes an early lead in Box Office Pick’em. Luke is left licking his ‘Broken’ wounds.

January never has a great crop of movies in the first place, so it was a little disheartening to start our brand-new contest by picking from the dregs.

If you’ve forgotten the rules of the contest, or need a refresher, please refer to the first post.

Aaron’s January Roster
  1. Zero Dark Thirty
  2. The Last Stand
  3. A Haunted House
  4. ‘Texas Chainsaw 3D’
  5. ‘Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters’
  6. ‘Struck by Lightning’
  7. ‘John Dies at the End’

Aaron’s Highlights

As expected, ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ built steam off its Oscar nomination and pulled in nearly $85 million.

‘A Haunted House’ was hugely profitable. On a minuscule budget of $2.5 million, the horror spoof hauled in $36 million and change.

While Aaron didn’t have much confidence in ‘Hansel & Gretel’, its foreign box office held strong and propelled the film to a near $88 million take.

Aaron’s Lowlights

‘The Last Stand’ was all kinds of crappy. It was Aaron’s second highest-budgeted movie at $45 million. There’s a good chance that it won’t even come close to recouping that cost during its theatrical run.

Aaron’s January Net Total: $108,993,658

Luke’s January Roster
  1. Gangster Squad
  2. Broken City
  3. ‘Movie 43’
  4. ‘Mama’
  5. ‘Parker’
  6. ‘Quartet’
  7. LUV

Luke’s Highlights

Luke was cost savvy in his picking. His budget total for the month was around $10 million lower than Aaron’s.

‘Mama’ raked in a lot of cash on a measly $15 million budget. Domestic and worldwide box office was great for this low-budget horror flick. Luke nearly topped $58 million with his ‘Mama’ pick.

‘Quartet’ figured to have a big overseas box office. We still don’t know the exact budget for the movie, but its $22 million mark is huge for a limited release.

Luke’s Lowlights

‘Movie 43’ failed to perform. Sure, it had a small $6 million budget, but it only made $6,058,274 in the month.

‘Broken City’ was a huge flop. Luke spent $35 million to acquire the movie, but only got $16 million back. And it doesn’t look like ‘Broken City’ will have legs to do any damage in the coming weeks.

Luke’s January Net Total: $42,873,530

Important Notes

Movies that still don’t have official listed budgets include ‘Parker’, ‘Texas Chainsaw 3D’, ‘Struck by Lightning’, ‘Quartet’, ‘John Dies at the End’ and ‘LUV’. The budget for ‘Parker’ is rumored to be $30 million while ‘Texas Chainsaw 3D’ is rumored to be around $20 million (a far cry from the early rumors of $8 million).

We felt like we could call January for Aaron, even though solid information on those budgets wasn’t in as of yet. Those numbers will be added in when they’re confirmed (although the latest estimated budget rumors are factored into the monthly total). The year-end totals will reflect the real earnings.

Aaron picks first in the February draft.

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