Madness....

I just had to share with you the results of this weekend's box office. I have called the choices of this week's movie-going public "deplorable." The Top 5, with their money and aggregate Rotten Tomatoes scores were

Valentine's Day 52 Million 16%
Percy Jackson 31 Million 49%
The Wolfman 30 Million 30%
Avatar 22 Million 82%
Dear John 15 Million 28%

Those numbers are absolutely dumbfounding. The reason I like Rotten Tomatoes is it takes all the reviews it can find, puts them together, ranks them fresh or rotten, and then divides by the total. Simple, effective, and a large enough sample size to have a good representation. For example the movie with the least overall reviews is Percy Jackson and it still has 84 reviews. When you exclude Avatar, and put the aforementioned 4 movies together they had a combined 126 fresh reviews to go along with 303 rotten reviews. Which leaves them with a staggering 29% rating. That means that if you polled people walking out, you would be damn lucky to get 3 positive reviews out of ten. And what's worse? Those movies made a combined $128 million.

I guess I just don't get it. People like what they like. I am not immune to this because I just watched Transformers 2 for the third time this weekend. It scored 20% on RT, but I like it, so there are always exceptions. But most likely if a movie is not at 60%, I won't even consider seeing it. One review is an aberration, 5 reviews is a coincidence, but 10 reviews is a trend.

Why does America watch these things and reward filmmakers that do this? I have no idea. I have always thought that my $10 and two hours of my time is too valuable to be misused. Does that make me snotty? I don't think so. I think it makes me smart, and shows I have an expectation for value. I have always been one to look forward to movies because of the director and writer, not always the actors.

So I realize I'm a little different. But I don't want to sit there and waste my time, watching something awful. That is why I have Netflix. So I can pay 9 bucks a month and watch whatever I want. But when it comes to going to the theater, that is somewhat sacred. It is an experience that I do not take lightly. I can name on one hand the films I have seen in theaters this year. One. Avatar, and it was awesome. Granted the year is only a month and a half old, but this is the only movie released in those parameters worth seeing. Until Friday when Shutter Island is released. And if it makes less money this weekend than Valentine's Day, then I will officially have proof that there is no higher power.

Oh yeah, as of Monday, Shutter Island is tracking 88% on RT. I don't think that is a coincidence either.