Mr. Smith Gets A Little

I can't believe that after this weekend Will Smith's Hollywood Stock would actually go down. Really?

WSMIT is currently hovering under $179.50 -- I say it's gotta go up even just a teensy bit, to H$ 180 by the middle of the week, no? Buy people, buy!!

Money In Black

MIB and MIB 2 both did about 50M for their opening weekends, so you'd think the 100M prediction InTrade is throwing around is wildly optimistic, no?

I'm saying more 120M.

Here's Big D's logic on why MIB 3 will produce *MORE THAN DOUBLE* the numbers of MIB 2:

1) The Avengers -- think 200M opening weekend a few weeks ago -- has just warmed up the audience
2) 4000 theatres -- the previous two MIBs were around 3000 theatre releases
3) Moving to the more lucrative 4-day Memorial Day weekend slot from July 4 weekend
4) Um, MIB 2 was ten years ago and the appetite for fantasy nonsense has more than doubled..

But heck, where does that time go? Has it really be ten years? Someone musta snapflashed me with one of those memory erasing pen thingies.

Swinton Kingdom

Not sure I completely understand the Fug Girls' attraction to The Swinton -- the picture above should be captioned "Looking for the valet to park my spaceship" -- but I suspect it has more to do with Tilda's perceived membership in the *real person* club.

TSWINN on the Hollywood Stock Exchange has been headed down all year and bumping along under $H 25 for a while. Tilda's turn in Moonrise Kingdom making a token opening this week should help with a modest correction upward this weekend. I say she can at least get above that $H 25 again, no? In fact, I'm going to go buy my some Swinton right now..

Hungry Time

HUNGER GAMES won't be opening until *next* Friday, but you have to know the buzz machine will be going full steam. Maybe if we're lucky they'll let Woody Harrellson do interviews! And maybe he can explain how something that started as a straight up critique of media culture is now quite un-ironically a giant-ass media event.. Hello!

I'm thinking irony-be-damned -- the HSX price of HGAME will climb steadily before the open, and will be over H$320 by the end of trading next Thurdsay (3/22).

The day trade? Jennifer Lawrence has been running point on the media blitz.. she's currently trading at H$63.34. I say there's still room for her to climb and she gets over H$64 by end of day tomorrow.

Mi Casa Es Su Casa

Ha! I bet you didn't know that a Will Ferrell movie was opening this weekend.

It looks like CASA DE MI PADRE has become this goofy Funny-or-Die extended video that Lionsgate is only going to trust with 350 theatres (as opposed to 21 JUMP STREET's 3000 theatres) this weekend. So my guess is that this little Mexican cheeseball will land somewhere in the Ferrell canon between SEMI-PRO and EVERYTHING MUST GO, with a per-theatre between $3.5k and $5k and an opening weekend at around $1.5m.. Tacking on another couple days, the question is: can this one get to $2m by next Wednesday night? Will the interwebs people come out? It will be work.. but claro que si!

And daytrading on Ferrell? Can we get at least a little bump? Porque non, senor?

Working It For Jump Street

Kicking off the March game, I'd like to point out that Mr. Jonah Hill -- the lithe and lumpy one on the bottom of the classic VF pic above -- is going to be everywhere. Will this impact his Hollywood Stock Exchange value this week?

Let's see, he was last night on Conan, and tonight (Tuesday 3/13) he'll be on Leno. Tomorrow (Wednesday 3/14) he'll be on Ellen in the afternoon and then Jimmy Kimmel at night. TOO MUCH WHALE-BOY!!!

I totally respect a guy out there hustling, but come on. I just don't think the cute chubby Jewish dumpling thing has enough legs for this much air-time. I haven't seen any real re-invention except raw Leno-esque ambition. Sweet Jebus..

On the daytrade front -- JHILL is at H$70.29 right now. I say Hill trades lower on Tuesday and Wednesday as a result of his overexposure.

On the movie performance front, much the same. 21 Jump Street is a Blockbuster? Really? $37.5m is what InTrade is predicting but I'm thinking lower.. JUST A TEENIE BIT LOWER!!! but lower..

Big D's February Fame Game Recap

BIG D'S FEBRUARY FAME GAME

BIG D'S FEBRUARY FAME GAME

For winners, check the CIRCLE OF TRIUMPH widget in the sidebar.. Congrats though to: Anglea Martin and Bryan Forst (the top non-bot player). Your cheques are in the mail!

Here's what happened to last week's stories:

Angelina's Right Leg
Wow,what a race. I was following along, clicking her twitter page over and over again.. Sunday night was 47,401..  Monday morning 8a 47,506.. Damn! it was close, but this leg isn't going to make it to 50k on time. I LOSE!

Brad Vs George
George had just a single day. A single day of dominance in the last.. FOREVER. But it didn't last until Monday. Damn, George. You need another stunt. I LOSE.

Project X Fail
Ha, didn't happen. Looks like Project X came in around expectations in the low 20's. I LOSE that one..

Over La Lohan
It turns out HSX trades on the weekends, but Monday morning doesn't help LLOHA stock. Flat like an lady's Aston Martin as we used to say in college. Her March 3 price was H$ 10.04, today she's down to $H 9.96 todaay and not moving. I WIN that one.

Loraxic Park
Boom goes the professional prediction machines! And cha-ching for Big D. Solid performance by The Lorax and solid WIN FOR ME -- well above $48m -- that's right, $70m+!

Lorax, Triumph Of Industrialization

BIG D'S FEBRUARY FAME GAME

BIG D'S FEBRUARY FAME GAME

The big movie open of March is coming this weekend -- The Lorax! Danny DeVito might get lucky this year!

For a slightly more technical analysis try the HSX March movie opening numbers.

I'm bullish on this little movie even though it struggled to get into the 50s for a RottenTomatoes score but I'm going to say that this movie performs past even the wildest (FilmGo) expectatations -- yep, I think this weekend's open will be over $48m.

This is the last bet in flimsily-named February Fame Game -- make it count! Will have everything racked up on Monday and we'll see who won and lost..

Cheeks Of Steel

BIG D'S FEBRUARY FAME GAME

BIG D'S FEBRUARY FAME GAME

Ah, what to do with La Lohan.. God bless she seems to be *trying* to grow up, kind of. And she's hosting SNL this weekend as her latest half-hearted poke at being her idea of normal.

I don't know. Check out these teasers for Saturday's show. Tell me if she's not just a little scary here -- certainly not Micheal Jackson or Mel Gibson cringey-crazy, but she's certainly trending kookoo.

So this is her fresh start? I hate to be a grumpy Gus but I think not -- my bet is:  her HSX stock LLOHA has been trickling upward of H$10 in anticipation of this weekend but I say that it opens Monday morning the same or lower than her Friday afternoon close after everyone's had a time to have a good look at this comeback kickoff.

Project Poopy

BIG D'S FEBRUARY FAME GAME LINK

BIG D'S FEBRUARY FAME GAME LINK

Only two movies are opening this weekend to wide release. I'll get to The Lorax on Friday -- today we hunker down on Project X.

The people who made this movie are thinking they made a Generation Whatever grail quest. Even if you replace the word "grail" with the word "booty" (Superbad) or "WTF happened?" (The Hangover) I think it's possible to make a fine nonsense film from using the standard quest plot.

Unfortunately, from all early reports, Project X neglected to add those magical ingredients -- characters and story.

While Superbad ($33m) and The Hangover ($44m) at least winked at the character thing, Project X's failure here is actually detectable to its target demo and IT WILL FAIL TO GET HALF OF SUPERBAD'S HAUL. That's right, I'm SHOUTING and I'm saying Project X will be under $16.5m this weekend as reported by Box Office Mojo, even though it's expected to be at least in the $20m+ range. Suck it, Budnick, you got lucky last time.

The Ascendent

BIG D'S FEBRUARY FAME GAME LINK

BIG D'S FEBRUARY FAME GAME LINK

Something happened at the Oscars, besides "The Leg". George Clooney's star seems to be burning brighter these days than his buddy Brad Pitt's.

Could it be that Joe Public wants their movie stars dashing, single, and large-and-in-charge? Check check and check for George. Brad, not so much. He's famously "retiring", child-rearing, and looking a little like a third wheel in Angie's love life (think: leg).

Moneyball was a good movie, but it did more for Jonah Hill that Pitt. Descendents on the other hand was a nice "balance" play for George -- makes him look a little serious while his personal life is still not so much. He's got a little of everything now -- Pitt is solid serious.

Today's bet is this: the longstanding dominance of Pitt over Clooney as measured by Google searches has come to a close. George is 2 scale pts behind and closing fast. I bet that next Monday (3/5/12) George is ahead of Brad, something that HAS NEVER HAPPENED since Google has been tracking this stuff. That's right kittykats, this is HISTORY..

Angie's Right Leg Kicks Off Showbiz Career

BIG D'S FEBRUARY FAME GAME LINK

BIG D'S FEBRUARY FAME GAME LINK

If you saw the Oscars last night then you know that Angelina introduced us to the newest member of her already-large family: her skinny but irrepressible right leg.

We'll be watching closely to see if her famous body part can muscle into the industry. So far the leg is making quite a showing -- check out spreads here and here, etc., and check out the leg's twitter account.

So the bet for today is -- Can Angie's Right Leg get 50k twitter followers by next Monday at noon? You have the rest of the day to make up your mind..

This is the first of a "one-week" February finale game.

Oscars 2012 Recap

I can't believe I missed four picks! Four!!! I will be returning my Headphones of Destiny to Best Buy first thing tomorrow.

Of course, since I won 6 of 10 picks, those of you who thought you could win by just automatically gainsaying me can SUCK IT!!!! You know who you are Brad Rhodes.

THE WINNER:  
Kim Goerlitz with 22 Brags from 7 Wins

THE RUNNER UP:  
Angela Martin with 21 Brags from 6 Wins

THIRD PLACE: 
a four-way tie between Pam, Shelby, Brad, and Dwight with 17 Brags

Congratulations everyone..

Now, be sure to play my weekly HSX game that starts tomorrow..

Oscar Mania 2012!!!

GO TO THE GAME HERE

Shelby asked me to guest blog: Apparently when you want to know who will win the Oscars, you ask DeAngelo. You don't think I'm right? What do you think I just did to this basketball?

Yes, each bet in this little Oscars game is worth a different number of "brags" and most brags wins the Vickers Trophy Of Awesomeness, a prize coveted throughout the land.

Four o'clock PST on ABC. Be there!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT THE FIRST TIME ANOTHER GAME LINK HERE

Best Picture

The Artist will win just because its all emotional and topically something the Academy eats up.. Blech. Moneyball should really be the winner. No, scratch that, Melancholia should really be the winner, but it didn't even get nominated.

Best Director

The only reason to give it to Malick would be to encourage him to make more movies. Scorcese and Woody have enough in the bag already. No, the Academy wants someone new.. Michel Hazanavicius!

Best Actor

Dog fight between Brad and his buddy George. I say George wins it this year. His movie was sadder. Of course, Gary Oldman *should* win it, but fat chance there.

Best Actress

The Academy is so predictable, Viola Davis. Meryl Streep has too much hardware already and the others all pretty "meh".

Best Supporting Actor

I don't care what my spidey-sense says, it must be Max. I will have no others.

Best Supporting Actress

Octavia Spencer -- The Help is killing me. But I don't really have any better ideas.

Best Original Screenplay

Midnight in Paris, of course. Such a sweet little movie. It fits nicely inside an Acadmey-person's brain.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Will probably be Moneyball, just because the Acadmy will want to even things out with the George pick from earlier and not have Brad -- who doesn't have a screenwriting credit but every knows it's HIS movie -- be grumpy. Of course all of this ignores the fact that this Oscar should go to the guys who did Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Best Foreign Film

You don't have to see any of these stupid movies to pick. On the "those poor people in Iran" and "I hope we don't bomb Iran" bandwagon what do we have? Ah! A Separation! I wish we were planning to bomb Denmark so Melancholia would have had a shot.

Best Documentary Feature

I say Undefeated. The Wiensteins need a break, why not documentary. And this one will pluck those Academy heartstrings.

OK, that's how it will unfold. I'm not even going to check back because this is exactly what will happen and there will be no need for comment.

Cat Fight: Aniston vs. Jolie

LINK TO GAME HERE

Sadly I am not the Emporer of the Universe. If I did actually have the ability to summon celebrity cage matches or light sabre duels on command, probably near the top of my list of whims would be some kind of bloody conclusion to the Brad Pitt sweepstakes, which most people have so far scored to Angelina Jolie by TKO.

In interwebs search popularity -- a much milder form of cage fighting available to us non-Emperor types -- Angelina is getting a little action this week from her Billy Bob book intro but is danger of losing her long held overall lead to Jennifer Aniston, who is on a furious boyfriend du jour public approval campaign. What happens by Friday end-of-day? I say Angelina hangs on for the win this week..

Carly Stays Hot Another Day

LINK TO BET HERE

Looks Carly Rae Jepsen, a little girl from BC, is lighting up the twitterverse after signing a deal with Beiber's Schoolboy Records last week. Check out the spike on FEB 15! 

I say she stays above 0.1% tomorrow --  she's now in Bieber-country now and her current hit song is as listenable as a Taylor Swift song. She certainly brings out my inner 14yr old girl.

Of course The Beibs is floggin her his own twitter account and running interference with "The Beliebers" who apparently are a little uneasy with his Justin's transition from smary teen idol to smarmy recording mogul. How does this first flash in the pan not sustain for at least one more day? We'll see..

Damn! B3TZ Is Too Fast

I wanted to throw up a Fameology game this week but hells bells -- we only have one game option, which is a daily game, and that's way too fast-twitch for entertainment.. Entertainment and Politics will do much better with a weekly publication cycle.

We're working on a "Super Simple Game" type -- brags only, pick as many bets as you want/can, winner takes all at the end of the week with only one prize.. Hope to debut that *next* Monday.

Until then, enjoy the picture of me sitting at my desk working on B3TZ and protecting my stapler.