1. QUANTUM OF SOLACE - $67.5M (first week)
2. MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA - $35.0M ($116.9M total)
3. ROLE MODELS - $11.2M ($37.6 total)
4. HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3: SENIOR YEAR - $5.7M ($84.2M total)
5. CHANGELING - $4.3M ($27.6M)
6. ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO - $3.1M ($26.5M total)
7. SOUL MEN - $2.44M ($9.4M total)
8. THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES - $2.3M ($33.6M total)
9. SAW V - $1.8M ($55.4 total)
10. BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA - $1.6M ($90.9M total)
11. EAGLE EYE - $1.5M ($98.7M total)
12. THE HAUNTING OF MOLLY HARTLEY - $1.4M ($12.4M total)
13. FIREPROOF - $1.3M ($30.2M total)
14. RACHEL GETTING MARRIED - $1.1M ($6.9M total)

  24.  SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE - $360K (first week)

RULES , TIMETABLE AND PROPOSED FORMAT CHANGES FOR THE 2^nd ANNUAL (AND SEMI-ANNUAL) SUPER LEAGUES

Starting the first Friday in January (1/2/09), we will start our second year of Super Leagues.  After the tremendous success and feedback the first full year of tournaments provided, it is my intention to try to make the game better, more streamlined, and perhaps even tougher than before.

To that end, along with the following particulars, which should be familiar to anyone who participated in any of the 2008 Super Leagues, there are also several proposed Rule and/or Format changes.  I want everyone who registers for ANY of the 2009 Super Leagues to weigh in with their opinion, because an majority one way or the other could have a significant impact on the game.

COMMITMENT

Before I start, however, I want to make an announcement, and I want all of you take this advice into consideration before you jump into these tournaments.  First of all, realize that these tournaments last a LONG TIME.  If you perform well and are in it for the long haul, it requires almost weekly attention for six or seven months or even an entire year.  That’s not something to be shrugged at. 

I know that this game, when all is said and done, is not really that important; things will always come up that are more important.  Emergencies will arise to take your full attention away.  That is inevitable, and I’m not saying that you should prepare yourself for the worst.  However, I want you to truly consider your situation before you register for these tournaments.  A lot of players sign up, and then just drop off the map.  I don’t like having to send out reminder after reminder that the next round is starting and they need to get in, or that certain titles have been postponed and therefore their rosters need to be changed; it’s just one of my duties as the tournament moderator.  I also fully understand that there are times when you simply go long periods of time when you don’t check your e-mail.  However, I would urge any player registering to make whatever time in their schedule that they can if they intend to participate.  Even if it’s only a couple of hours a week or even per month, make sure it’s the RIGHT few hours a month.  There is a pretty tight timetable on Fantasy Moguls when it comes to FM starting the leagues, as well as me creating the leagues and mailing out the passwords.  Obviously, if you are not anywhere near a computer or your e-mail, there’s nothing I can do, and just as obviously, we can’t wait for you.  I promise to do whatever I can to be accommodating, but even that has limits.

The reason I am making this plea is to avoid some of the problems that we faced in 2008.  Just ask yourself if you can devote the necessary time to this, and if the answer is no, then don’t enter.  If you can, or even if you only THINK you can, then you are more than welcome.  In fact, I hope you all will!

FORMAT

There will be four leagues starting on 1/2/09:

Super Ultimate Full-Year

Super Ultimate Half-Year (1^st Half)

Super Box Office Full-Year

Super Box Office Half-Year (1^st Half)

There will be two additional leagues starting in summer 2009:

Super Ultimate Half-Year (2^nd Half)

Super Box Office Half-Year (2^nd Half)

As it stands right now, the Half-Year leagues run five rounds, lasting seven months, and the Full-Year leagues run ten rounds, lasting twelve months.  The reason for having Half-Year  tournaments is simple:  it takes less time to conclude, and it provides an alternative to players who may or may not be eliminated early in the Full-Year competitions.

Proposed Change #1:  Do you favor stretching the tournaments out an additional round, from ten and five months each to twelve and six?

Pro:  Changing lengths would have the advantage of a longer tournament, which will include the Nov-Jan and Dec-Feb leagues and thus get full mileage out of the holiday film season.

Con: The winners of the Full-Year and Half-Year (2^nd Half) tournaments would not be decided until the end of February 2010, rather than at the end of the calendar year 2009.

Please answer:

a)      keep the lengths the same

b)      make the tournament(s) longer

REGISTRATION

You may register for one or all of the tournaments starting in January one of two ways:  you may go to the “2009 Super League Registration” page at www.thelatestmoviereviews.com , and in the “Comments” box provided, let me know the following information:

1. Your Fantasy Moguls username
2. The e-mail address that you want me to send the passwords to
3. Exactly which of the tournament(s) you wish to enter.
4.  Your real first name (optional)

Leaving a comment here will send a notice to my inbox, which I check practically every day.  Or, if you prefer, you can just register by sending me an e-mail directly, at Shrykespeare42@gmail.com.  Make sure you include all of the requested information if you intend to do it this way.

While this tournament is open to everybody who wants to play, there are a few additional rules that should be self-evident.  Now, my control only extends so far… once I mail out a league’s password, there is nothing I can do to stop an entrant from passing that password out to all his/her friends, or from creating multiple entries under different usernames.  And this is why the registration process exists in the first place.

Important Note #1.  If you don’t register, your stats won’t count.  NO EXCEPTIONS.

TIMETABLE

When it becomes possible to create these leagues, a date that usually falls on the Monday or Tuesday before the first Friday of the month, I will mail the password(s) to everyone who has signed up, for whichever tournament(s) they have asked to participate in.  (These leagues will be set up as Private, not Public, leagues, so that only those who register will receive the passwords.) 

Important Note #2:  The cutoff date for entry in each round is generally the 15^th of that month, give or take a couple of days.  If you have not signed up for and entered this tournament by then, you will have to wait for the next series of tournaments, which may be months down the road. 

Round One will begin like any other normal Box Office or Ultimate league.  Then, at the end of January, all contestants will be given the appropriate passwords for Round Two (Feb-Apr).  Again, only those who participated in Round One will be able to take part in Round Two.  Then, at the end of February, passwords will be given out for Round Three (Mar-May).  At the end of March, Round One will conclude, and the first cuts will be made. 

How would you feel about making the cuts, particularly the cuts in the early rounds, HARDER?  Instead of cutting a uniform number of players in each round, how about cutting a percentage of all players remaining?  For example, we could cut the bottom 15 or 20% after each round in the Full Year tournaments (25 or 30% in the Half Year).

Pro: This would make the tournament more difficult.  Given that only the worst of the worst were cut at the beginning of the tournaments in 2008, players would be encouraged to do more than just try to half-ass their way into the next round.

Con: This would result in a lot more players being cut early, which means they’ll be turned into spectators in very short order.  In fact, if the bottom 20% were to be cut, more than one-third of the field would be trimmed after only two rounds.

Please Answer:

a.       Keep the way the cuts are made the same as before, with a raw number being eliminated at the end of each round.

b.       Change the way the cuts are made; make it harder by cutting a percentage (which will be determined later) at the end of each round.

Important Note #3: Anyone who enters a round but, for whatever reason, does not end up entering the following round will be disqualified.  Disqualified players will be the first players considered when it comes time to make the cuts, and the rest will simply be the players who performed the poorest.

Important Note #4:  If you are cut in a particular round, you are therefore eliminated in all of the successive rounds for that tournament (unless you possess an unused IM), no matter how you are currently performing in those rounds.  Since there is no way to remove a eliminated player from a current league, the eliminated player’s standings will simply be ignored and not included in the overall standings.

Important Note #5:  Points/stats do not accumulate from one round to the next.  Every successive Round begins with a clean slate, which means that you could finish in the Top 10 in one Round and still be eliminated in the next… so you have to be on your game every single time!

Proposed Change #3: If a player who survives a previous round’s cut fails to enter the next round and is disqualified, should that player’s spot be given to the next person in line, i.e. the highest scoring “eliminated” player?  (I toyed with this idea last year, but ended up never enforcing it.)

Please answer:

a.       Yes, do that.  It will keep the number of players uniform.

b.   No, don’t do that.  Eliminated is eliminated, and disqualification for one player shouldn’t mean a reprieve for someone else.

IMMUNITY

Since we are going to be starting out with many, many players, it seems only fair that those who finish at, or very near, the top for a given Round should receive some kind of reward, and in this case, that would be the Immunity Marker (henceforth referred to as the IM).  If you finish in the top 5% of a completed Round, and you have not met the criteria for disqualification or elimination in a previous Round, you will receive an IM.  What this means is that, in a future round, should you qualify for elimination, you can “cash in” your IM and move on to the next round.

Important Note #5:  You may only earn one IM over the course of a given Tournament, and it can only save you once.

Important Note #6:  You MUST be in the Top 5% to earn an IM.  If a player in the top 5% of a Round already has (or has had) one, that does not mean that an IM will fall to the next player in line.  In other words, the only benefit for being in the top 5% if you already have/have had an IM is that you are preventing someone else from getting one.

It should also be noted that if a player cashes in his/her IM, that player will simply be given an extra spot in the next Round; he/she does not take the place of someone else.

Proposed Change #4 (contingent on Change #2):  If we end up adopting a cut-percentage format rather than a cut-raw-number format, thereby making the tournament harder, how do you feel about eliminating the “One IM only” rule? 

Please answer:

a.       Yes!  If a person is a good enough player to end up in the top echelon multiple times, he/she should be able to earn multiple IMs.

b.       No, only one IM to a customer.

c.       How about this?  A player can earn more than one IM, but only after he/she USES the one he/she already possesses.  In other words, you can never have MORE than one at a time, but if you have one and use it, you can earn another one.

STATS/STANDINGS

At the present time, the largest number of players that a league can accommodate is 50 players.  Since there are more players than that participating in this tournament, multiple brackets will have to be formed.  Since players will be competing against ALL other entrants (and not just the ones in their particular bracket), this makes the issue of a complete, all-encompassing standings table necessary.  This standings table, which I endeavor to update on a weekly basis, can be found on the “FM Super Leagues” board at  www.thelatestmoviereviews.com, every week, on the page titled “FM Super Leagues”.

PRIZES

The possibility of a cash prize or prize fund was discussed in late 2008, but most players seemed to agree that it would ruin the spirit of the game.  Most elected not to participate, while others said that they wouldn’t accept a prize even if they did win.  In the end, the idea was scrapped, but if anyone wishes to bring the subject up again, please shoot me an e-mail.

INFRACTIONS

Despite the competitive and cutthroat nature of this format, it is still, and should always remain, a friendly competition.  At the end of the day (or, rather, the year), there is nothing at stake except bragging rights.  Therefore, there is no excuse whatsoever for poor sportsmanship.  A player who indulges in excessive trash talk or troll-like behavior on the forums or message boards will be given warnings.  Repeated warnings could, and will, result in that player’s expulsion from the tournament.  Let’s keep it friendly, people!

Despite its growing pains, this tournament has been a rousing success, and I hope that there will be successive tournaments resulting in ever-increasing numbers of participants.  However, despite my best efforts, I’m also sure that there are those out there who will try to gain some kind of unfair advantage, by whatever means.  To them I can only say: please don’t.  Again, there is really nothing at stake apart from an inflated sense of self-worth and some ephemeral recognition, which is not at all enough reason to try to spoil it for everyone else.

I hope I’ve answered all or most of your questions, and if you have any additional comments, questions or suggestions, please feel free to respond by dropping me an e-mail. 

Thank you all for your participation.

Let the registration commence!