Patrick Goldstein of the LA Times’ recently pondered the unprecedented drop off that Sacha Baron Cohen‘s latest attempt to expose the absurd behavior in everyday American life, “Brüno” experienced during its second week at the box-office. Its 73% fall in its second week is the steepest drop for a movie this year, and certainly something the suits over at Universal were not expecting from one of their more heavily marketed features.
One hypothesis’ Goldstein mentioned that is being thrown around the Internets to explain the steep drop-off was the influence on the “Twitter-Effect,” which appears to be the accelerated spread of negative word-of-mouth about the multitude of homosexual related situations that make red-blooded Americans toss and turn at night, which were reported in real-time by the social-networking device.
If Universal, which is still considering its$43 million purchasing of “Bruno” a financially smart move, needs someone to blame for the fact that their recycled material didn’t sell well, then Twitter seems like as good any outlet for their disappointment, because without Twitter, god, there is no possible way those mindless audiences could have figured out this thing was a second-rate, re-packaged “Borat,” right?Case-closed. Thanks internets!