The Syndicate

Each studio head will draft a roster of 5 films and 10 actors to compete with for the season. Just like real world studios, your hope is that the films and actors you own the rights to will earn lots of money and win all the awards.

Film selections will perform as an umbrella pick, earning points based on the money and awards that the film is responsible for as a whole (including directing, writing, acting, crafts, etc.).

Actor selections will perform as an individual pick, earning points based on the money and awards they receive for their roles in all their films that open during box office season play (regardless of whether or not another studio owns the rights to the film). An actor selection who is also a director or writer only earns points as an actor. For example, in 2014, Angelina Jolie as an actor pick was eligible for Maleficent, but not Unbroken. Angelina Jolie as a director earned points for the studio that owned Unbroken as a film pick.

Each film and actor can only be owned by one studio.

Draft begins April 1 and will conclude before the end of the month. The draft is your first chance to acquire films and actors that you'll own throughout the year--unless, of course, you drop your rights to them. The order of the draft will be determined at random and follow a snake pattern. In a snake draft the first to choose in round 1 becomes the last to choose in round 2 and the first again in round 3. Each studio will fill all of their film slots before selecting actors.

While the draft is in progress, no changes to your picks are allowed. If you make a selection it is locked as soon as you submit--no edits. However, once the draft is complete and all studios have a full roster, studio heads can begin dropping and adding selections as they see fit up until Dec. 31, 2018, as long as the film has not had an official North American opening yet. Once a film or film that an actor is in has had its theatrical box office/streaming premiere in the US, limited or otherwise, that film and/or actor selection becomes permanently locked to that studio roster for the season.

To note: This is an annual game. Next season, any returning studios will allowed one contract pick before the start of the draft. A contract pick is an actor that the studio owned in the previous season and wishes to bring along for a consecutive season without the threat of another studio drafting him or her. If retained, your contract pick is an automatic first round actor pick in the draft, meaning you’ll make your first new pick on your turn in the second round. This could factor into whether or not you draft someone this season, knowing what they have in the pipeline for next season.

League Structure:

Round 1: Box Office Regular Season

The box office round runs from May 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019, making any film with a US opening, limited or otherwise, in that time frame eligible to be drafted & earn points, as well as the actors that appear in them. Box office earnings is for US totals only, not international. Limited/awards qualifying openings count, even if no official box office earnings are reported. Films with openings before or after the season cut-offs are ineligible to compete (in any capacity) in the league. For example, in 2017, Logan could not be drafted by a studio. Hugh Jackman could be drafted by a studio, but his role in Logan was ineligible because it opened before the start of the league. His role in The Greatest Showman was eligible though because that opened in the window.

Festival screenings/premieres do not qualify as official openings. For example, any film that showed at Sundance or Berlin is available for draft, unless of course they have their theatrical run begin before May or after December.

Films without official release dates set are eligible to be drafted. If they never get their release date, they can be dropped and replaced as the owner sees fit. Similarly, films without official titles can be drafted, so long as it is clear which work-in-progress film is being drafted.

Film selections will earn points based on the total box office earnings of that film, represented as one full point for every million dollars earned and down to the fraction of one thousand dollars.

2016 example:
- Finding Dory earned $486,295,000 by Dec. 31, 2016 for 486.295 points
- Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk earned $1,738,000 by Dec. 31, 2016 for 1.738 points

Actor selections will earn points based on a percentage of the total box office earnings for each film they’re in. The total box office for each film will be divided evenly by all league actors that appear in the film (in any capacity—credited or uncredited) validated by being listed on the film’s IMDB page. Totals of films starring only one league actor will be divided by 2 (not 1).

2016 example:
- Finding Dory had 4 league actors, each earned 1/4 of the film’s points for 121.57 each
- Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk had 2 league actors, earning 1/2 of the points for .869 each

Rounds 2 through 6: Awards Playoffs

At the end of the regular season on Dec. 31, 2019, box office tallies will be finalized and only the top X grossing studios will advance while the X lowest grossing studios will be eliminated.

In this postseason phase of the league, the focus of your studio now turns to how well your films and actors perform at a select number of awards shows. In each round, studios will compete for the highest number of nominations and wins at five different shows. The order of rounds is determined by their air date—I expect that round 2 will be the Golden Globes, round 3 Critics Choice, round 4 a collection of all the guild awards, round 5 BAFTA and the final/round 6 is the Oscars. At the end of each round the lowest scoring studios will be eliminated from play with only the final X competing at the Oscars.

Earning awards points:
Your film and actor picks earn you points in the following ways during awards play:

- Nomination: 1 point each (films earn 1 point for every nomination in any category, actors earn 1 point for every nomination they specifically earn, but not for ones their film earns)
- Best Film win: 10 points (film selections only; for the Golden Globes, 10 points will be given to the two films that win Drama and Comedy/Musical); if a studio owns a doc, foreign or animated film they only earn 10 points for BP-equivalent wins, not their genre-specific categories (that counts as "All other categories" below)
- Actor win: 5 points to actor selections, 2 points to film selections (lead and supporting, and only 2 points to an actor and film when part of the SAG ensemble win)
- Director win: 5 points (film selections only)
- Screenplay win: 5 points (film selections only)
- All other categories: 2 points (film selections only)

In the case of a tie during any round, a winner must be determined between the tying studios. To settle this, the points each studio acquired in nominations will be removed. That means which ever studio earned the most points based solely on wins will advance. If this process does not determine a winner then a hierarchy of wins will be established, where a studio with the rights to the winning film in this succession of categories will move on: Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay (Original then Adapted), Best Lead Actress then Actor, Best Supporting Actress then Actor, Animated, Foreign, Documentary, Score, Cinematography, Editing, Song, Production Design, Costumes, Makeup, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing. (Note that the hierarchy is for film rights, not actor rights.)

Elimination Chart:

Round 1 (Box Office):
Top 1 advances to Round 3 (if we have enough players)
Middle X advance to Round 2
Bottom X eliminated

Round 2 (Golden Globes):
Top X advance to Round 3
Bottom X eliminated

Round 3 (Critics Choice):
Top X advance to Round 4
Bottom X eliminated

Round 4 (BAFTA):
Top X advance to Round 5
Bottom X eliminated

Round 5 (Guilds):
Top X advance to Round 6
Bottom X eliminated

Round 6 (Oscars):
Top 1 wins

General Advice on Strategy:

There are really two things you need to focus on when drafting for your studios--money and awards. Selecting box office juggernauts is going to secure your spot in round 2. This is a good thing. You can’t win the league without making it beyond box office.

But once you enter the playoffs your box office won’t matter so you’ll want to keep in mind that in order to make it through the playoffs you’ll need to own some awards contenders as well. As an example, the top 5 grossing films drafted into our 2017 league (that debuted from May to Dec.) were: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Wonder Woman, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming and It —few of which were major awards contenders, but the owners of each of those films did make it to the playoffs.

The hardest rounds to navigate are box office and the Golden Globes. Box office because not all big money films secure you enough awards capital to matter in the later rounds. The studios that owned Darkest Hour and The Post last year were eliminated in box office. Golden Globes because there are so few categories to compete for. Nominations here are important or you'll drop out.

The best and clearest advice is to have a mix of blockbusters and awards fare—for every Marvel film you pick, add a Call Me by Your Name. Or pick an actor that excels in both arenas, like Woody Harrelson who banked money from War for the Planet of the Apes and awards for Three Billboards. Additionally, you’ll want to keep a close eye on the playing field as the season progresses, adding and dropping films & actors as their buzz rises and falls. Actors in high grossing films with small casts (think Sandra Bullock in Gravity, for instance) can earn you a lot of box office points, sometimes more than film picks can.

But essentially it all comes down to what you believe will have the biggest presence of the year, and that’s what makes it fun to compete.