Bring On Box Office Betting

Now there's a film I can get behind

I’m just waiting for sportsbooks to offer on a regular basis future wagers on how well films will do in the box office. Some sportsbooks offer them for certain films, most recently, the film How To Train Your Dragon created some buzz. Maybe if I was eight years old I’d have a better idea on this one. Read more.

But ever since the Motion Picture Association of America asked the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to shelve plans to have betting on or as they termed exchanges on movie box office results, it’s got my motor running. Read more.

What would the world be like if you could wager on how well all movies were going to do in the box office? Forget the world, I’m thinking I’d be a rich bastard by now if that were the case. And I know, I’m not alone in this, when I say I can usually tell a stinker from the moment I see the trailer or see the actors in it. There’s just some movies that come in with so much hype and you can just take one look at the clip and say, this movie will fucking suck.

For instance, let’s go back a couple of years, Waterworld, Kevin Cosner, I could have bet a million dollars that movie was going to stink. He should just stick to movies about baseball. But to pick a box office flop takes careful expertise. You see, a box office flop isn’t necessarily a movie that sucks, it’s just a movie that doesn’t do well in the box office compared to how much was spent to make it. For example, the Hurt Locker, great movie, nominated for six awards, but it’s actually the lowest grossing best picture winner of all time. Another Iraq war theme movie is The Green Room, that flopped and I knew it would. Why would you make a movie like the Bourne Identity, but have it not be the Bourne Identity? It’s like pissing in someone’s face and saying it’s raining. When are film makers going to realize that Iraq war movies aren’t exactly most people’s cup of tea? Why? Let’s see, maybe because people still have loved ones over there getting blown up, so they may not want to see that on the big screen. Just a thought. War movies are usually more popular once the freaking war is over. If only there were odds on Uma Thurman’s Motherhood movie…Unless she’s cutting people up with a samurai sword, I guess people don’t give a shit. That movie flopped in the U.S, and they were hoping it would do better in the U.K, but it didn’t, in fact, it sold about twelve tickets in its debut this weekend.
It’s not just for my wallet that I think sportsbooks should devote more into offering box office future wagers for a wide variety of movies, okay, well maybe it is, but the possibility exists of reaching an untapped market. So many people already bet on entertainment odds and celebrity odds, more than likely, the same people would like to try their hand at guessing how a movie with perhaps their favorite actors will do in the box office as well.

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Tags: Article, betting, Box Office

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