Greetings, Moguls! With Thanksgiving just a day away, and the unfortunate news that Fantasy Moguls is being discontinued, this week's column marks a sort of deviation from the norm, for me. Tossing price and strategy analysis aside, and focusing instead on personal opinion and the holiday's theme of gratitude, this week I'm bringing you my Thankful 10 — I'll tell you the five films released in the past 12 months, and the five coming out in the next year, that I’m most thankful for.

Greetings, Moguls! I'm here this week to complete the Holiday Kickoff Spectacular with a frugal look at the lower end of the price list. See, when putting together your slate, you're almost inevitably left with a few dollars and an open space. But the cheap options are rarely slam dunks, right? That's true in some cases, but not all. And yes, some choices that cost $5 or less are little more than a tossup, or a hope not to damage your slate, with little consideration to positive benefit. You can also find some screaming deals, however, at the bottom of the barrel. So whether you're looking to fill out that last spot on your slate with a few remaining dollars, or conserve funds in order to double-stack a few blockbusters, here are the 10 best $5-or-less choices for both Ultimate Movie Moguls and Box Office Moguls leagues (they might even be more valuable than a five-dollar-footlong):

Greetings, Moguls! To accompany the start of new November-January leagues next week, I'll be bringing you a Special Edition column: the Holiday Bargain Basement Spectacular. My columnist cohorts will also expand their usual formats to include season-encompassing analysis. As the holiday season draws nearer, just imagine: There you are, curling up next to a fire (with or without roasting chestnuts), a warm sweater, a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows and a picturesque snow-covered landscape outside your window, perhaps some carolers serenading you. What could complete this wintry wonderland scenario? Why, the ability to read some expert analysis from the Fantasy Moguls team, of course. You may even want to print off our columns, so that you have physical literature to curl up next to the fire with. Doesn't it sound marvelously cozy?

Greetings, Moguls! While September and October were largely exempt from them, November brings the return of big boppers, Moguls Monsters, huge hits. Whichever alliteration you choose to describe them (and yes, you must use alliteration, it's mandatory), there are some expensive options out there in the current season. In Box Office Moguls leagues, the two money magnets are Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa ($59) and Quantum of Solace ($51). Despite my insistence to the contrary, this July The Dark Knight turned out to be well worth spending that amount of money on. Although neither of these two will make as much as TDK did — heck, they might not even make as much as TDK COMBINED — could either of these two sure-to-be-successful sequels help you to secure a Box Office Moguls victory despite siphoning off half your funds?

Greetings, Moguls! Although last week I had to bypass talking about The Wrestler because it wasn't available, on Wednesday I noticed that it's been "added to the roster," so to speak. How fortuitous that it's also eligible for this week's topic: movies priced between $20 and $29 in Ultimate Movie Moguls leagues. They're the Ultimate Twentysomethings, if you will. (No, not that one TV show from the early '90s; that deals with an entirely different numerical range, thank you.) We've already had one such Ultimate Twentysomething, Body of Lies, come out this season, and another, W., entered the fray over the weekend. Was it worth spending that much for Ollie and Josh? Not unless "Geo" has some serious legs. (He does fancy himself a runner ... )

Greetings, Moguls! As I've begun to discuss over the past two weeks, there is practically an onslaught of movies with at least some semblance of Oscar buzz coming out over the scope of the current October-December season. Heck, it's already started, with the release of Rachel Getting Married and Happy-Go-Lucky on consecutive weekends. While they're assuredly quality pieces of cinema, the big question is, are these awards-chasing films worth adding to your slate? I've chosen seven movies coming out between now and the end of the year that I think could be recognized in some fashion when Oscar nominations are announced. For each of them, I'll examine whether the likelihood of Oscar attention will make any difference in the film's performance, and whether the price tag in Ultimate Movie Moguls leagues is too high, just about right, or shockingly low. (Note: While Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler would probably make the list, it's not available in the current season, so I've bypassed it this time.)

Greetings, Moguls! After the dead period of August and September, now we're finally into October leagues. Instead of movies just being dumped because they have to get released SOMETIME (I'm looking at you, Bangkok Dangerous), now there are winter blockbusters and Oscar bait on the docket. It's a refreshing change, if you ask me. With that in mind, I've taken my monthly weekend-by-weekend look through October's offerings, selecting a stud, dud and wild card for each. No, the badassery of James Bond and the potential PTA power of Gus Van Sant (Milk) or Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon) aren't quite here yet, but at least you can already put them on your slate! Although this is sometimes the case, "stud" doesn't necessarily mean best value. After all, it's the film that's guaranteed to perform well — and that guarantee might mean a pretty high price tag.

Greetings, Moguls! This week I'm discussing PTA, and also giving you my best Shia LaBeouf impersonation. Not that I'm going to all of a sudden act in a bunch of $300 million blockbusters, but remember that part in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull where the hat blows into his hands and he begins to put it on before Indy reclaims it with a wink? As though he was saying, "Yeah right, kid, this is my department." I kind of feel that way about writing a column exclusively about winter films with PTA potential, most of which are arthouse offerings — after all, that department is the specialty of a slightly different Indie Jones. But hey, Shia LaBeouf at least did SOME things right as Indy's sidekick — and this examination of what I call the PTA problem will be no different. Now if only we can get Steven Spielberg to put Indie and I in his next blockbuster ... heck, if Facebook gets its own movie, why not Fantasy Moguls?

Well, it's official. Now that Labor Day has come and gone, and we've had the slowest box office weekend in years. I think it's definitely safe to proclaim that summer has completely left the building. I'll get into some analysis of the new September-November season next time. This Tip of the Week is a fun piece, however, a forecast if you will (one that's admittedly pretty far down the line), and an official goodbye to sweltering heat and tentpole blockbusters, at least for a while. Looking ahead to 2009, next summer has just as many guaranteed monster moneymakers (although perhaps not a $500 million earner), some movies that could surprise, and of course, a few that are potential flops.

Greetings, Moguls! Some of the slowest box office weekends of the year are in the near future — but such is life once the dumping ground of September rolls around. It's too late for summer blockbusters, yet a little too early, it seems, for quality filmmaking and Oscar baiters (although Burn After Reading should at least mark a tally in the quality column). Instead, we're left to deal mostly with movies that belong on the garbage heap — but as the saying goes, one man's trash is another's treasure, and you CAN find treasure with certain September flicks. As I like to do every month, I've perused the next four weeks worth of films to find you a stud, dud and wild card for each weekend. Onward!