goforthetie wrote:What a strange thread this has turned into...
I hope J! tracks down Peter's next-of-kin, informs them that he can be called a J! champion, and donates $7400 to the charity of their choice.
Don't forget 15 years of interest on that $7400!
Here's another interesting clue from the same game we've been discussing, in the category Guinness Records:
With 7 movies in the all-time Top 10, he's the world's most successful director
All-time Top 10 of what? Box office? Critical acclaim? The IMDB top 250? (I doubt if that was around in 1996.) I can't think of any quantifiable method by which one could find any director to fit that clue as written. Assuming the criteria is domestic box office gross, not adjusted for inflation, then the clue may not be off by miles, but it is definitely off. As of 1996, the man in question had 7 films that had made at least $130 million at the box office. This is impressive for the time, but not even close to being 7 of the all time top 10. Other pre-1996 films that had more than $130 million include: The 3 Star Wars films, Gone With the Wind, Snow White, The Exorcist, Grease, The Sting, Animal House, Saturday Night Fever, The Godfather, and Superman. These were all released in 1983 or earlier. Counting the rest of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, there are another 50-60 films that topped $130 million, so I have no idea what they were thinking with this clue.
Since the clue did say "the world's most successful director", I looked at worldwide grosses as well, and while it may be closer, there is still no way to say that he had 7 of the all time top 10 in 1996. He had 7 movies with over $321 million worldwide, but again this figure is easily topped by the 3 Star Wars, plus many other films, mostly of the 80s and early 90s. Forrest Gump, Lion King, Aladdin, Home Alone, Batman, Ghost, T2 and many others are hundreds of millions ahead of that $321 million figure, so again, while he has an impressive resume, he's nowhere close to having 7 of the all time top 10 by any objective criteria that I can think of, let alone one that could have been measured by Guinness.
By the way, in case you didn't know, the correct response given on the show was:
Steven Spielberg