Ep. 891 - The 2026 Summer Movie Wager Results

David Chen (0:19)

Hello everyone, and welcome to The Filmcast, the podcast about movies. I'm David Chen, and I'm taking all my money and betting it on Mortal Kombat III.

Joining me today is Devindra Hardawar.

Devindra Hardawar (0:32)

What did we learn, kids? Never doubt Spider-Man, never doubt Nolan.

David Chen (0:37)

And Jeff Cannata.

Jeff Cannata (0:39)

What are these YouTubers doing up in my top 10?

David Chen (0:44)

Of course, those are vague and oblique references to this year's Summer Box Office, because today is the reckoning, the reckoning, the results for the 2026 Summer Movie Wager. Of course, we can't do the reckoning alone. We've got to have the other participants here today joining us. He is a senior reporter for IO9 and Gizmodo, Germain Lussier.

Germain Lussier (1:07)

Who is feeling very vindicated by the success of Backrooms and Obsession.

David Chen (1:13)

Also joining us, she is the digital managing editor at Fangoria, BJ Colangelo.

BJ Colangelo (1:19)

I may be a loser, but original horror stays winning.

David Chen (1:25)

I got to say, BJ, huge congratulations on the new gig as the digital managing editor at Fangoria.

What a deserved new position for you. Congrats. That's just awesome. I just wanted to acknowledge that right at the top.

BJ Colangelo (1:40)

Thank you so much.

David Chen (1:42)

Also, as somebody who has left slashfilm.com and gone on to much, much better things, I can say it gets better. It's awesome. Actually, the better part of your life is after you leave, one could argue. Anyway, joining us also is the creator of slashfilm.com, Peter Sciretta.

Peter Sciretta (2:04)

Awkward. I've also left slashfilm.com on to better things.

Germain Lussier (2:09)

This is the first one filmcast here where all six of us now have officially left slashfilm.

David Chen (2:16)

Oh, wow. That's so true. That's so true. Anyway, he is the creator of slashfilm.com. He is also the co-creator of the Ordinary Adventures YouTube channel, Peter Sciretta.

Peter Sciretta (2:28)

I'm just glad that we all got that indie horror from YouTubers. It's going to be a big thing this year. That really helped my Summer Movie Wager.

David Chen (2:35)

We all nailed it. We all nailed it. Well, so today, folks, is the day that we discuss what the actual rankings were for this year's Summer Domestic Box Office. At the beginning of Summer, all six of us decided to choose what we thought the top 10 movies of the Summer would be according to the rules that you can find at thesummermoviewager.com.

We were assigned points based on how many of those we got right. Basically, I'm not going to go through all the rules right now, but you can read over there at thesummermoviewager.com. Today, we're going to find out which of us won the wager. As a reminder, the prize for the wager is you get to dictate a piece of media that is under three hours long that everyone else on the wager needs to watch. We will record an episode about that before the conclusion of next year's wager.

We will find out at the end of this episode who won. We'll also find out what that person wants everyone else to watch. It should be an exciting time. Before we get going though, a few announcements. Number one, I do also always want to acknowledge Dennis, filmcast listener and now administrator of thesummermoviewager.com who does a wonderful job managing the site and keeping things exciting. He also posts probability metrics like halfway through the summer to show people what likelihood people have of winning. Always a lot of fun and it's a lot of work and Dennis, we really appreciate everything you do for the filmcast and the summer movie wager.

Germain Lussier (4:08)

Yes, thank you Dennis and thank you for the moment every year that we all revel in when David Chen reaches percent.

Jeff Cannata (4:15)

It's a beautiful time for all.

David Chen (4:19)

I also just wanted to let people know what else is going to be covered on the filmcast. In the coming days on the After Dark this week, we'll have a conversation about the Adam Wingard movie Onslaught.

Next week on the podcast, we'll be covering the Korean horror action question mark film Here, name of the movie.

Devindra Hardawar (4:38)

Hope.

David Chen (4:39)

Here is the name of the movie. So we'll be talking-

Peter Sciretta (4:40)

Hope.

David Chen (4:41)

Hope, that's what I mean.

Devindra Hardawar (4:42)

You had one job, one word.

David Chen (4:43)

I did. I did.

Peter Sciretta (4:44)

One name.

David Chen (4:45)

The name is Hope is the name of the movie. Why did I think here? I don't know what was going on there.