This headline from The Drudge Report is a classic example of twisting numbers to create a false impression. The reader is led to believe that "An Inconvenient Truth" is melting down at the box office, but
a click on the link and a close look at the numbers show otherwise:
- It's true that box office was down for "An Inconvenient Truth" on Sunday, which seems to be the point of the Drudge headline. But so were the numbers for nearly every other movie. (Maybe this has something to do with Father's Day.)
- It's true that "An Inconvenient Truth" came in 12th on the list, pulling in $1.75 million for the weekend. In raw totals, it's dwarfed by "Cars" and "Nacho Libre." But look at the per-screen average, which is a better barometer of whether people are filling theaters for a movie. Using that, "Truth" beat "A Prairie Home Companion," "The Break-Up," the "Garfield" sequel and the latest X-Men movie, among others.
"An Inconvenient Truth" even gave "The Lake House" a run for its money. If Al Gore's glorified PowerPoint presentation can compete with a Sandra Bullock/Keanu Reeves romance at the box office, he's doing pretty well.
This headline from The Drudge Report is a classic example of twisting numbers to create a false impression. The reader is led to believe that "An Inconvenient Truth" is melting down at the box office, but a click on the link and a close look at the numbers show otherwise:
You make a good point about understanding numbers. The per-screen figure is very important for understanding box-office numbers.