If we can determine a national champion with a tournament, why can't we decide the best movie of the year with one? Here is the much-anticipated 2022 Movie Madness!
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Here is how the 2022 Movie Madness tournament shook out! What is Movie Madness you may ask? Well, we took the concept of the NCAA tournament and applied it to film. We created a 65-team tournament to determine the most significant movie of 2022. We designed 4 regions of 16 teams, plus a play-in game for the final spot.
Here was the criteria for the selection process:
1- Box Office Success
2- Awards Buzz
3- Cultural Significance
4- Personal Enjoyment
The goal of this is to determine the most significant film of 2022. Not my personal favorite, not the box office champion, and not the Best Picture winner. But which film really grabbed culture by the throat and demanded we pay attention to it? Below you’ll be able to see how I filled out the bracket after creating it, and then on The Streaming Circuit podcast you’ll be able to hear how an esteemed movie podcast host would fill out my brackets (hint: it’s not me).
Here is the infamous committee that designed the 2022 Movie Madness brackets:
- Myself
- John Stamos
- That third Jonas brother
- The girl who played Annie
- Amy Schumer
- Wiz Khalifa
- The Rock...'s accountant
- Julie Ertz
- Flo from Progressive
- Waynke Knight aka Newman
- Gisele Bundchen
We treated each studio as a college conference; Disney/Fox, Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros. & Sony all got 4 automatic bids while A24, Netflix, Apple, MGM & Lionsgate each got 2. (For the Big Five studios, the top domestic grosser at the box office was guaranteed an automatic bid) Then 35 films were selected as at-large bids. It sounds confusing, but here are the conferences broken down:
Universal: 16
Automatic Bids: Jurassic World: Dominion, Minions: The Rise of Gru, The Fabelman’s, Nope
At-Large Bids: The Black Phone, Tar, The Bad Guys, Ticket to Paradise, Halloween Ends, Violent Night, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Bros, The Munsters, She Said, The Northman, Vengeance
Disney/Fox: 11
Automatic Bids: Avatar: The Way of Water, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Turning Red
At-Large Bids: Thor: Love & Thunder, Lightyear, Barbarian, The Menu, Chip N’ Dale: Rescue Rangers, The Banshees of Inisherin, Prey
Paramount: 7
Automatic Bids: Top Gun: Maverick, Smile, Scream, Sonic the Hedgehog 2
At-Large Bids: Babylon, The Lost City, Jackass 4Ever,
Warner Bros: 6
Automatic Bids: The Batman, Elvis, DC League of Super Pets, Don’t Worry Darling
At-Large Bids: Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, Black Adam
Sony: 6
Automatic Bids: Uncharted, Where the Crawdads Sing, The Woman King, Bullet Train
At-Large Bids: Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, Morbius
A24: 6
Automatic Bids: Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Whale
At-Large Bids: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Pearl, Aftersun
Netflix: 5
Automatic Bids: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Pinocchio
At-Large Bids: The Adam Project, The Gray Man, Hustle
Apple: 3
Automatic Bids: Cha Cha Real Smooth, Spirited
At-Large Bids: The Greatest Beer Run Ever
MGM: 2
Automatic Bids: Bones and All, Women Talking
At-Large Bids: None
Lionsgate: 2
Automatic Bids: The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Prey for the Devil
At-Large Bids: None
Independent: 1
RRR (Tollywood Studios)
**The play-in game was The Munsters vs. Morbius, just for some context.
Here is how I personally filled out the 2022 Movie Madness brackets:
Fightertown USA Region (West)
Mostly chalk here out West. With the exception of Spirited upsetting billion-dollar Dominion, we saw the higher seeds move on. Shuri gave it her best, but not even the Black Panther could outrun F-18’s. Could Maverick be the film of destiny?
Pandora Region (North)
In a battle of mediocrity, Don’t Worry Darling took down Babylon in one of the more exciting matchups in the North. The best matchup however is hands down the semifinal showdown between Pinocchio and Benoit Blanc. Blanc survives, and rides that momentum past the Navi to win the North for Glass Onion.
Multiverse Region (South)
The weakest region for me is the South. We do get an epic battle of the multiverse, but (controversially) Dr. Strange comes out on top for me. But that high doesn’t last long for our superhero, as Elvis swivels his hips into the Fin Four!
Gotham City Region (East)
An absolutely stacked region out East! The Black Phone, The Fabelman’s & The Batman all were in my top 10 movies of the year, but ultimately the caped crusader makes his way through the region and advances to the Fin Four.
Fin Four
Elvis has left the building! We see a couple of not-so-competitive matchups in the semifinals, but the final is an epic clash of titans! Bruce Wayne vs. Captain Maverick is truly one for the ages, but it turns out an F-18 is a lot more powerful than the Batmobile. Congratulations to Maverick, Goose, Iceman and the rest of Top Gun: Maverick, the 2022 Movie Madness champions!
That's how it played out for me! Hopefully you listened to the podcast, but in case you didn't (I'm begging ya to listen to the show), here are how the official brackets played out:
Fightertown USA Region (West)
Pandora Region (North)
Multiverse Region (South)
Gotham City Region (East)
Fin Four
And finally, for those real movie nerds out there, here is how the 2022 Movie Madness NIT brackets played out!! (filled out by yours truly)
North Region
East Region
South Region
West Region
Fin Four
There you have it! Everything you need to know about 2022 Movie Madness! Hopefully you enjoyed the podcast and reading through the selection process. Make sure to go check out all of our great content on sports & pop culture!