Box Office Game
Name the five top films of a mystery box office weekend.
Every day: One past US box office weekend a day, the same for every player: name the five top-grossing films of that weekend, with ten wrong guesses shared across all five. New puzzle: Between 1 and 2 am Eastern Time.
Box Office Game gives you one past weekend a day and asks you to name the five films at the top of the US box office. You see the grosses and distributors, and you spend points to reveal clues such as genre, cast or plot. It grew out of a segment on the Blank Check film podcast.
About Box Office Game
Box Office Game is a free web game built on an idea from the Blank Check film podcast. Each day it picks one weekend from the history of the US domestic box office and shows you the chart for it: the date, and for each of the top five films its distributor, that weekend's gross, the change from the week before and the total so far. Your job is to name all five films.
You type film titles into a search box backed by The Movie Database, and box office figures come from The Numbers. Every film starts with points. If a title will not come, open its row and buy hints one at a time, such as the genre, the director, the stars, the tagline or the plot, each costing some of that film's points. You can miss ten times in total across the whole chart, and the game ends when the ten misses are spent or all five films are named.
The weekend can come from almost any decade, so one day is a 1988 Christmas season and the next a summer of superhero sequels. After you finish you see how your score compares with everyone who played the same weekend. Past games are kept in an archive that supporters can unlock with a donation. It suits film fans who like Framed or Actorle and know their release calendars.
How to play Box Office Game
- Open boxofficega.me and read the weekend date at the top of the chart.
- Look at each row's distributor, weekend gross and running total for clues to which film it is.
- Type a film title into the guess box and pick it from the search results.
- If you are stuck on a row, select it to reveal hints such as genre, cast or plot, each one costing that film's points.
- Keep going until all five films are named or your ten wrong guesses run out, then compare your score with other players.
Tips
- A row marked as new with a big gross is usually a wide release in its opening weekend; check the date for holiday seasons.
- Distributor names narrow things down quickly: a Walt Disney row in the late 1980s is likely animation.
- Wrong guesses are shared across all five films, so save hints for the rows you have no idea about rather than guessing blindly.
Questions
When does a new Box Office Game come out?
A new weekend is posted every day between 1 and 2 am Eastern Time.
How many wrong guesses do you get?
Ten in total across the whole chart. The game ends when they are used up or when all five films are found.
Can I play past Box Office Games?
Yes. Every past game is in an archive, which is unlocked by making a donation to the site.
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