251 Movies Fantasy League Team Names Referenced One Battle After Another

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Here’s a look at the scores from Week 19 of Vulture’s Movies Fantasy League. While it’s too late to join for this season, you can still keep up with everything at the league hub and by signing up for our weekly newsletter.

The box office for 2026 is off to a strong start, with a new film directed by Sam Raimi and a YouTube creator leading the weekend. However, audiences are still enjoying older favorites like Marty Mauser and Judy Hopps, along with films released in late 2025. Both Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire and Ash are continuing to earn huge amounts of money, and it makes me think we might need to add another milestone for films that reach $400 million in earnings next year. I’ll have to give it some thought!

Regarding bonus milestones, The Housemaid is projected to exceed $125 million at the box office, which will earn it a 15-point bonus. Marty Supreme and Hamnet could also reach significant milestones – $100 million and $25 million, respectively – if they continue to gain attention during awards season.

The full list of box-office performers this weekend (amounts are cumulative earnings to date):

Here’s a look at the box office earnings for several films: Zootopia 2 earned $408 million, followed by Avatar: Fire and Ash with $386 million. The Housemaid brought in $120 million, while Marty Supreme made $90 million. Anaconda grossed $63 million, and The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants earned $70 million. Song Sung Blue totaled $38 million, No Other Choice made $9 million, and The Testament of Ann Lee earned $2 million. Finally, The Secret Agent brought in $3 million.

Check out the MFL landing page to view the complete leaderboard. You can also join our Discord server for more detailed information about each movie in the MFL and other exciting content.

Name ‘Em

For several seasons of the Movies Fantasy League, the most reliable thing hasn’t been the movies themselves, the awards shows, or even Timothée Chalamet’s December successes – it’s been the incredibly creative and often hilarious team names you all come up with. I always spend extra time looking at the leaderboard because I’m constantly sharing the bizarre and brilliant combinations you create with each other.

Things have been a little quiet on the awards front this week, so I decided to highlight the creative team names from this fantasy football season. Surprisingly, a whopping 251 teams used the format “One [BLANK] After Another.” This makes sense – the movie with that title was hugely popular when most players were drafting their teams, and it’s still a popular topic. Plus, the phrase is perfect for funny references and puns. Currently, the second-place team is called “One Contender After Another,” and you can find another one, “One Oscar After Another RM,” in fifth place. Many teams referenced other movies too, like “One Accident After Another,” “One Black Phone After Another,” and “One Avatar After Another.” It doesn’t even have to be a recent movie – “One Alita Battle Angel After Another” proves that! Our Vulture editor, Emily Heller, admitted she especially liked the name “One Failed Glenn Close Campaign After Another.” A brutally honest message from that team owner!

The title “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” was also a popular target for parodies. You all came up with some really creative takes on it! Here are a few of my favorites:

These lines playfully express what the speaker would do with different resources. If they had money, they’d write you a draft; if they had points, they’d defeat you; with machines, they’d destroy you; possessing sentiment, they’d appreciate you; with legs, they’d (jokingly) kick Elisabeth Shue; and if they had arms, they’d hug you.

And finally, from Vulture’s own Genevieve Koski, If I Had Leagues I’d Pick You.

I noticed a lot of teams referencing the films Marty Supreme and Hamnet, which wasn’t surprising. I decided to look at the top 100 teams in the MFL and see which movies were the most popular sources of inspiration. Marty Supreme came out on top, with ten teams referencing either the film Marty or its star, Timothée Chalamet. My personal favorite team name was MuadDib Supreme! One Battle After Another and Hamnet were each referenced by eight teams, followed by The Secret Agent and Wicked: For Good with three mentions each. Sorry, Baby and The Testament of Ann Lee appeared twice. There were also nineteen other 2025 films represented among the top 100, including Sinners, Bugonia, and Father Mother Sister Brother. And, predictably, many teams paid homage to Carol, the beloved 2015 film, with team names like Carol Aird’s Right Glove and Carol Aird’s Lost Glove. It’s clear this is a truly creative group of fans.

Four teams cleverly connected Chloé Zhao’s emotional film, Hamnet, to a humorous moment from the TV show 30 Rock. In that episode, the character Angie Jordan appears in a commercial as a spokesperson for the “Ham Council.” The teams’ submissions were titled: Angie Jordans HAMnet, Angie Jordan’s Hamnet, We Like How Angie Jordan Says HAMnet, and She’s the Spokeswoman for the Hamnet Council.

I have to give a special shout-out to some amazing trivia teams! It really warmed my heart to see three of them pay tribute to Sal Saperstein by including his name – or a variation of it – in their team names: Sal Saperstein, ThanksSalSaperstein, and Sally Saperstein. It’s a small thing, but it made me smile!

I also love team names that advocate for overlooked works. Some highlights include “Justice for 28 Years Later,” who should definitely return next year as “Justice for the Bone Temple”; “Justice for Black Bag,” clearly a fan of Steven Soderbergh; “Justice for Ophelia,” which might be a nod to Taylor Swift or a misspelling of Elphaba; “Justice for The Seed Bearer,” a reminder of the original title James Cameron changed for the third Avatar film; “Justice for Kelly Reichardt,” because The Mastermind deserved more recognition; “Justice for Husavik,” the song that should have won Best Original Song in 2020; and of course, “justice for carol 2015 dir todd haynes.”

Anusha Praturu, our managing editor, gathered these team names that are popular around the Vulture office and on Slack – they’re all based on bathroom jokes!

This collection features playfully crude and nonsensical names, primarily focusing on toilet humor. The titles consist of silly combinations of words related to bodily functions and anatomy, creating a deliberately absurd and childish effect. Examples include humorous misspellings and combinations like ‘Avatar Peepee and Poopoo’ and ‘Farty Poopreme’, emphasizing the lighthearted and intentionally ridiculous nature of the content.

I asked the Vulture team what their favorite team names were, and everyone was really excited to share!

Here’s a list of team names and who submitted them:

Father Mother Sister Brother Aunt Gladys (Britina Cheng)
 Rage Against the Smashing Machine (Emily Heller)
Florence and the Smashing Machine (Morgan Baila)
 Bugonia I hardly know ya (Morgan Baila)
Avatar Smoke and Stack (Rebecca Alter)
 Aunt GLAADys (Anusha Praturu)
Machine Gun Jay Kelly (Britina Cheng)
 PTAs apt PTA appt at Apt A (Emma Alpern)
if i had lips and consent i’d kiss asap rocky (Emily Heller)
 JKelly Personal Demon Hunter (Rebecca Alter)
Strongly Signaling Interest In BFs Hobby (Morgan Baila)
 Deb who has no idea what shes doing but likes it (Anusha Praturu – this team is in 971st place)
Alexander Skarsgard in Leather Pants (Rebecca Alter)
 Tubi or Not Tubi (Anusha Praturu, shoutout to Jackson McHenry)
The Coen Father Mother Sister Brothers (Rebecca Jennings – her team isn’t doing well)
 If I win the rapture will happen 10 11 26 (Anusha Praturu – this team is in 17,846th place)
* Devin (Megh Wright appreciates its simplicity amidst a lot of puns.)

And finally … my favorite team names of the season:

Here’s a rundown of the team names we came up with: ‘Kay Jelly’ – a playful twist on ‘Jay Kelly,’ imagining it as a jelly. Then there’s ‘Gay Kelly,’ another take on ‘Jay Kelly.’ We also had ‘Fire and Ass,’ which speaks for itself. ‘Ella McCay and Mrs. Miller’ was inspired by the style of director Paul Thomas Anderson. ‘The Legendary House of Dynamite’ evoked a dramatic image, like Jared Harris’s first time in drag. We made sure to include a ‘Simpsons’ reference with ‘I was saying Boogonia,’ as we do every year. And for a nod to ‘Arrested Development,’ we came up with ‘Ike and Tina Tuna’ and ‘Hot Hamnet Water.’ ‘The Return of Jafar Panahi’ felt good, and finally, ‘Josh Allen at the Oscars’ – hoping he’s recovered from foot surgery!

After much discussion, and with Rebecca Alter (who’s leading our staff competition) agreeing, we’ve decided the best team name is Tracy Letts Get Loud. It’s clever and funny on multiple levels.

Calendar

Here’s a schedule of upcoming awards shows: The Directors Guild of America Awards take place on February 7th, followed by the Film Independent Spirit Awards on February 15th. The BAFTA Awards are on February 26th, and the Producers Guild Awards on February 28th. Actor Awards will be held on March 1st, with the Writers Guild Awards on March 8th, culminating in the 98th Academy Awards on March 15th.

Have questions, feedback, or trouble finding your team or league on the leaderboard? Contact us at moviesleague@vulture.com.

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2026-02-03 19:56