It’s time for the Summer Box Office Challenge, excellently named by Nick as the “Summer of LAMB” (you can thank me and Spike Lee for the brilliant artwork, though). As is just so happens, the “S.O.S.” from the original becomes “S.O.L.,” which – aside from standing for “sh*t outta luck” – happens to translate from English to Spanish as “sun,” but if you ever had a choice of cheap Mexican beers in front of you, you would have already known that. Either way, it’s pretty fitting, if you ask me.

Due to a number of reasons like poor planning, an abundance of events, an early “summer” movie season and potential blogging burnout, I’m waaay late in putting this up, and as such, it will be more of a blitz of an event where I give you little time to do anything rather than a well-planned, thought out event like, say, the LAMMYS (vote until May 5th!).

Anyway, here’s the idea – send me the following items:

* Your name and site, if applicable. This contest will be open to anyone, LAMB or not.

* Your prediction for the top 10 movies of the summer, ranked by US box office (yes, I need the numbers, too). Use movies from May – August on this list for reference, if need be.

* Your Guaranteed Flop – no prediction needed, just a name and maybe a few words why you think it is/will be a flop, if you feel like it. (This and the next two items are just for fun and won’t count for or against anything.)

* Your Rip Van Winkle Hit (aka Sleeper) – same deal as the Flop.

* Finally, the three movies you are most looking forward to and why.

Since Iron Man is being released Friday, I’m putting a deadline of Friday at midnight (Pacific time) for when you need to get me your entry by. Please use the subject “Summer of LAMB,” or better yet, just click here and it will all magically be done for you.

The method for scoring is TBD, but will most likely involve the number of correct films placed in the top 10, the accuracy of each movie, and the overall accuracy. The prize is also as-yet-undetermined, but it will likely be something worth more than your first cars (I’m going to assume your first car was of the Matchbox/Hot Wheels variety). But seriously, I’ll make it worth your while, and besides, I have 4 months to figure it out. Mostly, the rush is just to get the entries in before the season starts on Friday.

In the mean time, I will post people’s guesses (I will just post first names and/or sites; let me know of any special conditions) here at the LAMB on a regular basis so that we can all laugh at them. I’ll also put up some standings during the course of the summer. If you have any ideas for scoring or questions, you know the drill.