Yes, box office write-ups are easier/better when the news is good...

Random thought for the morning: At the end of yesterday's weekend box office roundup, I decided to link to my previous Dark Knight box office columns that were tangentially related to the Transformers 2 five-day box office blowout. As I usually do when I link to an old column, I decided to read them. I discovered something amusing. The Dark Knight pieces are better written, wittier, livelier, more info-packed, and just plain more fun to read. It's obvious in retrospect, but I'm a lot happier, and thus the words and trivia flow easier, when I'm writing about the box office triumph of something I love (The Dark Knight and the Batman franchise in general) than when I'm writing about the box office triumph of something I hate (Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen). Heck, even though I didn't care much for the new Star Trek, I was enough of a fan of the franchise to be happy for its success.

Yes, box office analysis is supposed to be a subjective medium, with writers like myself making subjective conclusions based on objective numbers. But it's interesting to note how much my own feelings about a given box office champion seeps through in a given column.

Scott Mendelson