Cinema Hype

This weekend’s box-office scores weren’t what you’d call flighty. Not empty. No, this was a downright educational weekend at the movies. And shouldn’t we all learn something every day? In that spirit, three talking points:

1. Not to say “I told you so,” but The Pursuit of Happyness did take first place this weekend, which supports the theory that Will Smith’s likeability is an even stronger force than the standardization of English spelling.

2. Next up, marketing analysts have their answer to a long-debated question: with the second-place finish of Eragon, it seems that teenage boys are, in fact, a viable force for the economy. Just in case anybody was wondering.

3. Our third and final lesson for the day, supported by the fact that the seriously extended and un-canonical adaptation of Charlotte’s Web took third place, is that everybody loves a pig named Wilbur. There’s a joke about overprocessing and bacon in here somewhere, but it just seems too harsh for sensitive piglet ears.

I, for one, feel smarter already.