‘Jeopardy!’ Contestants Were Stumped By A Clue About Steven Spielberg’s Latest Film

Steven Spielberg is, by far, the highest-grossing director of all-time. His movies have made over $10 billion at the worldwide box office (James Cameron is in second place — for now — with $8.2 billion), but The Fablemans didn’t do much to help the total.

Spielberg’s most recent (and personal, and good and weird) film was never going to rival the financial might of Jurassic Park or Jaws, but it’s still a disappointment that the Golden Globe winner for Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director only made $20 million at the box office, half its reported budget. It also says a lot about the “state of moviegoing,” as the Washington Post reporter Steven Zeitchik put it, that the contestants on Tuesday’s episode of Jeopardy! had apparently never even heard it.

The category was “Summing Up the Spielberg Movie.” The clue for $1,000: “Young cinema lover Sammy represents cinema lover Steven Spielberg.” Contestant Katie thought it was Hugo, which is a decent guess. Especially compared to fellow contestant Vince thinking it was 8mm, a movie directed by Joel Schumacher. They did better with the other clues, including “Soldier Matt Damon needs rescuing; wait, Vin Diesel’s in the film, too?!” (Saving Private Ryan) and “Making Whoopi age several decades” (which is a very funny way to describe The Color Purple).

Maybe the contestants would have nailed the $1,000 clue if the category was about Spielberg’s non-union Mexican equivalent, Señor Spielbergo.