It’s Time to Draft Your Team for the 2024-25 Movies Fantasy League

You thought the biggest competition of the year was over? Correction: It’s only just beginning.

We’re once again inviting you to join the Movies Fantasy League, our annual contest that challenges players — that’s you — to select eight movies from 2024 that could perform well at the box office and during awards season. Choose well, and you could walk away six months from now (it goes quickly, passage of time being what it is) with any number of great prizes, plus bragging rights over thousands of movie-obsessed peers.

Registration is now open, and teams have to be submitted by October 3 at 11:59 p.m. PT. After that, scoring begins. Once the season is underway, this hub will be where you can check your score and note how you rank among the other cinephiles, Vulture writers and editors, and movie and culture podcasters that will be participating. Until then, read on for an explanation of how the game works and everything you need to know about how (and when) to draft your team. Excited to play but not quite ready to draft? Sign up below for a reminder to register before the draft deadline closes:

New to the game? Here’s what to know.

➼ Draft a team of eight movies that were or will be released in 2024 before the draft deadline on October 3, 2024.

➼ Starting on October 4, you’ll accrue points based on the box-office performance, awards haul, and critical reception of those movies.

➼ The teams that earn the most points when the game ends after the 2025 Oscars will win one or more of the great prizes below.

➼ If you want to compete against your friends, family, or co-workers and be able to easily see how everyone’s doing, you can create a mini-league. You’ll find more details on that below.

Those are the basics; keep on reading for a more complete explanation.

Questions? Need help? You can email us at moviesleague@vulture.com.

Gameplay

The Films: We made a list of movies from 2024 — some already released, most still to come — and assigned them a dollar value based on how formidable they are projected to be in the various scoring categories.

Your Roster: You have a budget of $100 in fake dollars to build a team of eight movies. This will be your roster for the game. There is no substituting, even if a movie release gets rescheduled to next year.

Results: Each week starting Wednesday, October 11, the updated leaderboard will be available on this page and in the weekly MFL newsletter. Once the game has concluded following the 97th Oscars on March 2, 2025, prize winners will be notified within one week of the ceremony. In the event of ties, questions included on the draft ballot will determine the final order.

The Limit: Just one entry per email address. You can’t change your team once it has been submitted.

Mini-Leagues: You can play against a set of friends in a mini-league. Have everyone in your crew enter the same league name on the ballot when you each register, and then you’ll be able to filter the standings to see how everyone in your group is doing. There will also be mini-leagues associated with each of the podcasters participating in the game, so stay tuned for an announcement of which shows are playing and how you can join their mini-leagues. But note: You can only participate in one mini-league, so that may means choosing between your friends and family and your favorite podcast.

See the complete Official Rules.

Prizes

Oh, look, it’s an array of fantastic prizes. The top-20 teams on the leaderboard will receive a digital subscription to New York, plus:

Grand Prizes (1st–3rd Place)

The overall winner will get to select one of the following devices:

➼ A 65-inch Roku Plus Series 4K TV
➼ A Roku Streambar SE
➼ Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 Wireless Earbuds

Whoever finishes second will get to choose between the remaining two, and third place will get the final item. You can’t go wrong.

LEGO Jaws Set (4th and 5th Place)

We know you’ve always wanted a Sam Quint mini-figure, and now that reality is just a fourth- or fifth-place finish away. This 1,497-piece set also includes Chief Brody, Matt Hooper, and, of course, a giant shark. You’re gonna need a bigger shelf.

Criterion Channel Subscription (1st–10th Place)

Everyone that finishes in the top ten will receive a yearlong subscription to the Criterion Channel’s streaming library. This is as close as most of us will get to being in a closet with Zoë Kravitz.

MoviePass Subscription (1st–20th Place)

Everyone that finishes in the top 20 will receive a yearlong MoviePass subscription, which will allow you to see up to four movies per month in theaters. What better way to start prepping for the 2025–26 MFL season?

Draft Your Team

Registration is now open for the 2024-2025 season. Once you’ve done your research — we recommend immersing yourself in Joe Reid’s exhaustive strategy guide, which contains the full list of movies available to draft with their prices and invaluable commentary — you can select your team here. Make sure you submit your ballot before the October 3 deadline.

If you want to take a minute before you draft, make sure you sign up for a reminder below so you don’t miss the deadline:

Scoring Categories

Once your roster is selected, you will earn points in three categories:

1. Domestic Box-Office Performance

Movies will only be eligible for box-office points if they are released on or after October 4 (after the draft window closes). Points will be awarded in the following manner (based on Box Office Mojo):

Every $1 million earned: 1 point
Clears $25 million: 10-point bonus
Clears $50 million: 15-point bonus
Clears $75 million: 15-point bonus
Clears $100 million: 20-point bonus
Clears $125 million: 15-point bonus
Clears $150 million: 15-point bonus
Clears $175 million: 15-point bonus
Clears $200 million: 25-point bonus
Reaches No. 1 at the domestic box office: 20 points per week spent at No. 1

Last year, you began accumulating box-office points as soon as you submitted your team. We’ve done away with that this year. Now there’s a single start date: If a movie opens on or after October 4, it’s eligible to earn box-office points. If it opened before that date, it’s ineligible to earn box-office points. Keep that in mind when you’re drafting: Those September movies that may still be in theaters when the game begins won’t get you a box-office boost.

We’ve also bumped up the value of box-office performance. This year, for every $1 million a movie brings in, it earns one point. A $4 million indie? Four points. A $250 million blockbuster? 250 points. There are more, and bigger, bonuses for clearing certain box office thresholds, and a film being No. 1 at the box office for a given week earns you 20 points now.

2. Critical Performance

Similar to the boosted box office, we’ve doubled the bounty of points that a movie can earn on its critical reception, giving a little more juice to those indie flicks that may not be rewarded at the box office or by major award bodies. Points will be awarded in the following manner (based on the Rotten Tomatoes “Critics Score”):

0–25 percent: -5 points
26–45 percent: 0 points
46–64 percent: 5 points
65–74 percent: 10 points
75–85 percent: 25 points
86–95 percent: 50 points
96–100 percent: 100 points

Rotten Tomatoes points will be awarded all at once on January 7 and will not be adjusted based on subsequent score fluctuations. Only movies that have been released and have a Rotten Tomatoes score at the time of scoring are eligible for Critical Performance points.

3. Awards

Points will be awarded for both awards nominations and wins. This year we’ve added the Gotham Awards, which ought to provide a bump for indie movies, as well as points for various Oscar pre-nomination shortlists. This will tend to be a boon for more technically accomplished movies that get shortlisted in categories like sound, visual effects, and makeup, plus documentaries, international features, and the always surprising Best Original Song. See the calendar below for points associated with each event.