Welcome to (the re-installed) Sneak Leaks, the page in which we leak information (via blog form) about movies that could potentially join the current movie assessment/re-assessment roster.
Or in this case, the 25 new or fairly new movies that will battle 23 assessed/re-assessed movies for spots 2,048 through 2,070 of the Two ThouCentennial Project.
You can find out about all of that via the entry below.
“Determining 23 In ’23 (And In ’24)”
Something dawned on me two weeks ago, as I kept [and still keep] preparing for the eventual hard copy announcements of both The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Chevalier, per VideoETA. And as to what that something was, well it was me seeing my approach in determining the final 53 movies for the Two ThouCentennial Project as both outdated and depriving, with the former operative word pertaining to what comes [not all players are active on game day] after an NFL team has 53 players on its active roster, and the latter operative word pertaining to certain (13) movies that are as deserving of being a part of the Project as the 2,047 movies that have or will have overall guaranteed Project spots. So, given all of that, I have decided to have those 13 movies be among the 23 already/re-assessed movies that will compete against 25 new or fairly new movies, with the 24th and 25th best movies in that pending group of 48 as the Wild Card movies in the determination for the 2,048th overall guaranteed Two ThouCentennial spot.
Yes, the content here is full of many variables, such as which 13 movies have already positioned themselves to make the Project and the approach that will be used in determining the 2,048th overall guaranteed Two ThouCentennial spot. But once you get the hang of following along, the content here will be easy to pick up on. Let’s begin with the aforementioned 13 movies via Section A.
Section A: The 13 movies that have already positioned themselves to make the Project. Here in this section, I will present a chart with the names of all 13 of those movies and the reason(s) why they are getting Two ThouCentennial consideration. Let’s get right to it:
| Movie | Why it’s getting Two ThouCentennial consideration |
| Kickin’ It Old Skool | The presence of Maria Menounos almost single-handedly puts this movie in this position. |
| West Side Story ‘21 | The Project can’t have In The Heights without this movie. Plus, Rachel Zegler gives it a boost throughout. |
| Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 | This movie showed that it can be the best of the franchise. |
| Renfield | Nicolas Cage is totally entertaining as Dracula. Plus, this movie can be a Project jump-starter. |
| Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant | John’s above and beyond effort to save Ahmed totally deserves to be a part of TwoThouCentennial lore. |
| Sisu | Made by the people who brought us John Wick and doesn’t disappoint at all. |
| Miracle | This movie could outrank Mystery, Alaska as the best hockey movie in the Project. |
| Gifted | Fred The Cat deserves to be a part of Two ThouCentennial lore. Plus, Julie Ann Emery gets redemption after the failed assessment, known as I Hate Kids. |
| Best Sellers | Aubrey Plaza delivers in a big way with this movie. Plus, she forms a great one-two punch with veteran actor Michael Caine. |
| Top Gun: Maverick | This movie is one of the rare ones, in terms of a sequel being better than its predecessor. |
| Top Gun | The Project can’t have the aforementioned Top Gun: Maverick without this one. |
| Black Samson | This movie is the best of the 1970s blaxploitation movies. Plus, Hoodoo The Lion deserves to be a part of Two ThouCentennial lore. |
| La Bamba | This movie is way more developed than Jimi: All Is By My Side. Plus, Esai Morales is excellent in it. |
Okay, so you all saw the 13 movies listed in the chart above and the reasons why they will all be tough outs come the time that they could be selected. Now let’s get to Section B, which has the 25 movies that they all must go up against, in order to move up to Tier 5.
Section B: The 25 New Or Fairly New Movies that the Section A movies need to defeat to move up to Tier 5. And just like Section A, they are all via a chart below:
| Movie | Post-Assessment Outcome |
| Assassin Club | Despite the presence of both Henry Golding and Daniela Melchior, this movie could be a second post-A Simple Favor disappointment for the former. |
| Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania | The various negative YouTube videos about this movie, and the controversy surrounding Jonathan Majors both really hurt its stock |
| Magic Mike’s Last Dance | The second installment had series-ending vibes about it. Plus, despite the presence of Caitlin Gerard, this movie feels like an unnecessarily tacked-on threequel. |
| A Good Person | This boasts a good cast, including soon-to-be 86-year-old Morgan Freeman. But given that this is the second movie following “The Minute You Wake Up Dead” in the veteran actor’s career, the expectations are low. |
| 65 | Based on the look and feel of this movie, it gives off vibes of The Time Machine, the latter of which is a Tier 3 movie. But it also gives off the vibes of an incoherent story, so it might not join The Time Machine in the Project. |
| Paint | Despite the rustic vibes, this movie is a total slap in the face to the memory of the late Bob Ross. |
| Spinning Gold | Despite the older Peyton List and Lyndsey Fonseca being among the cast, this movie could flame out like Dreamgirls did. |
| The Little Mermaid ‘23 | What looked like another home run in the category of Disney live-action remakes is instead starting to look like another movie with a fallen stock. |
| Elemental | This movie could be home run 27 for Pixar. |
| Strays | A movie with swearing animals is giving off vibes as an R-Rated version of both the Babe movies. |
| Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts | The Transformers franchise has spawned six Two ThouCentennial movies. This could be number seven. |
| Oppenheimer | This movie has a star-studded cast and it’s cool to see a movie portrayal of Albert Einstein. |
| Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken | This movie is giving off How To Train Your Dragon vibes, from the standpoint of it being an under-the-radar Dreamworks movie. |
| The Equalizer 3 | Based on the trailer, this movie could be the best one of the franchise. |
| A Haunting In Venice | Kenneth Branagh makes an unexpected reprisal of Hercule Poirot. And given how successful both Murder On The Orient Express and Death On The Nile were, this movie should live up to expectations. |
| Five Nights At Freddy’s | Given that Blumhouse put forth M3GAN and Elizabeth Lail finally having a chance to have a movie of hers in the Project, this movie could be a potential 2,048 through 2,070 movie come early next year. |
| Trolls Band Together | Anna Kendrick has 30 Two ThouCentennial movies. This will be number 31. |
| Disney’s Wish | Disney has put forth late-November releases in recent years via non-Pixar computer-animated movies, and has had success each time in making the Project. This movie will continue that trend. |
| Migration | This movie will be number 14 for Illumination and will add to that franchise’s successful run. |
| The Blackening | This movie could flop just like the 2022 movie “Gatlopp” did, as it’s similar to that movie. |
| The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes | This movie has an uphill battle in being the only Hunger Games movie to make the Project, despite the presence of Rachel Zegler. |
| Blue Beetle | Given that this movie is about a lesser known DC Comics character, along with it not having a name celebrity as its lead, it could end up like Green Lantern. |
| Missing | This movie is a flier movie, based on its trailer being shown before the assessments of both The Menu and M3GAN. |
| Kandahar | At minimum, this movie is a one-time viewing, based on the presence of Gerard Butler. However, it could be a post-Plane letdown. |
| The Amazing Maurice | Given the struggles of the movie Luck (Simon Pegg movie), there’s not much hope for this movie, as both movies are computer-animated ones that center around a cat. |
Okay, so given the predicted outcomes of all 25 movies, 11 of them are slated to join the 13 Section A movies for the battle to get the 2,048th overall guaranteed Two ThouCentennial spot. And depending on how the rankings on the Already Assessed & Re-Assessed Vs. Pending Rookie Scale page shape out, all 11 of those movies could punch tickets into Tier 5. But we won’t know about that until early next calendar year.
Alright, now comes Section C, where the 25 eventual qualifying movies all split into two groups [12 in Group One, 13 in Group Two], with the top four movies in each group receiving a first-round bye. Here’s the rest of the breakdown via the bullet points below:
- The one seeds in each group faces the winner of the eight seed and the nine seed battles
- The two seeds in each group faces the winner of the seven seed and the ten seed battles
- The three seed in each group faces the winner of the six seed and the eleven seed battles
- The four seed in Group One faces the winner of the five seed and the twelve seed battle
- The twelve seed in Group Two takes on the thirteen seed in Group Two, with the winner taking on the five seed in Group Two
- The twelve seed, thirteen seed or five seed in Group Two faces the four seed in Group Two
Alright, now comes Section D, where the top 11 movies on the Assessed & Re-Assessed Vs. Pending Rookie Scale page battle for the 2,049th overall guaranteed Two ThouCentennial spot. This formula is similar to Section C, except way shorter. Take a look via the bullet points below:
- The top five seeds all receive first-round byes
- The one seed faces the winner of the eight and nine battle
- The two seed faces the winner of the seven and ten battle
- The three seed faces the winner of the six and eleven battle
- The four seed and the five seed face one another in a quarterfinals battle, with the winner facing either the one seed, eight seed or nine seed
Okay, so once those two selection processes wrap up, the other 21 spots will be picked based on which remaining ones are ranked 1 through 21. And given that the Wild Card spots are for the two movies that are the least deserving of spots 2,048 through 2,070, it’s important that any potential opponent of theirs eliminates them at any point during the first selection process, as each such movie will be in separate groups.
Of course, the time that the 23 eventual confirmed movies get into Tier 5 will be sometime in 2024, as I want battles such as John Wick Vs. Sisu, In The Heights Vs. West Side ’21 and Saved By The Bell: Hawaiian Style Vs. Kickin’ It Old Skool to occur March Madness Tournament style. And given that three of those movies won’t clinch until Migration [the last chronologically released Section B movie] gets hard copy confirmation, the battles for fully guaranteed Two ThouCentennial spots will be on an indefinite moratorium, effective two days from now. And with that being said, you can vote right here to decide if the indefinite moratorium is worth it or not.
Now before I wrap this entry up, I want to address how I plan to fill the last 30 Two ThouCentennial spots since I don’t want to leave that stone unturned. And as to how I plan to do that, well I will be determining them Major League Baseball roster building style, with something like A Simple Favor 2 being the equivalent of a number three or number four batter that hits for home runs and RBIs. And given the high expectations of the second Anna Kendrick-Blake Lively collaboration, it will be near impossible to supplant it. But much more on that unturned stone in a much later entry, as one of my main ongoing focuses will be how the 25 Section B movies will fare between now and late-December.
Blog to you all about Two ThouCentennial related activity once The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Chevalier both get hard copy confirmation.