(Alternate) Box Office Blockbuster Tourney: Round Final!

So as explained some time ago, we are again playing a seeded tournament-style elimination game amongst each of the US domestic box office champion movies from the last 32 years, but this time with all-female judges.  Seeding was done via Rotten Tomatoes scores, with ties broken with Metacritic scores.  Three of our five judges have voted on each match-up of two films, with the winner advancing to the next round and the loser skulking off into obscurity, until we eventually reach our overall Champion!

Apologies for how long it’s taken me to get to this Final Round of our Alternative Box-Office Tournament–travel overseas delayed things.  But now we have arrived!

You can read the original version of Final Round here, but it’s sort of irrelevant since both of the films there are completely different to this one.  Like the last round, we will have all five of our judges vote. As before, I will share the votes in the order I received them, except where changing things up  helps to improve suspense.

So…the contestants:

The Lord of the Rings:  The Return of the King (2003)

vs.

The Avengers (2012)

Kim: I like both of these films, both movies are a bit involved as it’s beneficial to watch a number of films, before watching either of them.

Of these films, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King scores higher on IMDB, and slighting higher critic score than The Avengers on Rotten Tomato. However, The Avengers at #7 surpasses The Return of the King #24 in ranking for highest-grossing films of all time.

Knowing that, is a film better because the critics like it more, or because audiences pay to see it again and again? Is it better to have a thoughtful story? Or enjoyable entertainment? I’m going to have to go with Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, because for me, story wins. It’s one of the ultimate good vs evil stories and that’s why it wins.

My Vote:  The Lord of the Rings:  The Return of the King

Loey: The Avengers is a good movie in a great series, but it’s so easy to lose it in the blissful chaos of the MCU. Which villain are they fighting? How funny is Tony Stark? Does Black Widow do anything interesting? Honestly, I can’t remember. I do, however, remember every transcendent moment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The final installment has all the excitement and emotion you could possibly want and earns every second of its running time (and every award the industry could bestow). As soon as it ends, I want to watch the whole thing over again.

My Vote:  The Lord of the Rings:  The Return of the King

Robin: “Apparently I’m volatile, self obsessed and don’t play well with others.” The Avengers wins. Action packed and interesting from start to finish.

My Vote:  The Avengers

Liesbeth:  I think I enjoy The Avengers more.  Lord of the Rings is epic and amazing, but sometimes it’s just too…too much…do you know what I mean?  You really have to be in a very specific kind of mood to watch it.  Whereas Avengers is fun and light-hearted and you don’t have…[interrupted by child with mild cut on finger]  So I guess I feel like Avengers is more of a multi-purpose film or it’s just more accessible because you can watch it without it feeling like it has to be a big decision.  And I don’t really enjoy all the gore in Return of the King.

My Vote:  The Avengers

Beth: What to say that hasn’t been said? They’re basically the same movie – a rag tag group of lovable ninni muggins must band together, overcome their differences and defeat a faceless CG army. Egos must be overcome as we learn that friendship is the true prize..one that was in front of us all along. So for all these reasons, the surprise winner is The Goonies…a film that exemplifies and perfects all these elements AND finds a place for a story about a theatre full of puke. 10/10

My Vote: The Lord of the Rings:  The Return of the King

So there we have it…after that very disparate series of criteria chosen by our judges to decide their votes…

The Winner and undisputed (Alternate) Box-Office Blockbuster Tourney Champion:

The Lord of the Rings:  The Return of the King

Once again, a very exciting series of battles.  Special thanks to our five judges and apologies for how long things took at times.  You guys are amazing.

Once again, I did some quick analysis to see how our judges rated up against each other in terms of voting.  Bear in mind here that Kim, Loey and Beth all voted in a lot more contests than Robin or Liesbeth did.

Anyway, the two judges who agreed with each other the most in terms of both hard numbers and in terms of percentages were Kim and Beth, with a 73% agreement between the two of them.  That was followed by Loey and Robin, who agreed 66% of the time, but over far fewer total votes.  The two judges who agreed with each other the least were Loey and Liesbeth, with only 38% agreement, but again it was not over many votes.  No other set of judges agreed less than 50% of the time.

And anyway, that’s it!

Or is it?!!

Well, yes, yes it is.  I think two of these examinations of the same movies is probably enough, although the process was fun enough that I may have a look at something similar sometime down the line.

Until then!