FOX News Misunderestimates "Worlds"

It appears that the FOX News channel misunderestimated or made the mistake of speculating before getting the numbers in. Judging from the way ticket sales dropped off on its second day, the channel chose to run this headline on Saturday: "Bad Box-Office Omens for 'War of the Worlds'".

After checking out the E! Channel's website, it appears that FOX News should not have said anything. The thing to do would have been to wait until today and then evaluate its earnings. The E! Channel ran this headline: "'War' Cruises to Victory". Their report greatly contradicts what FOX News predicted (as do other articles that can be found by searching for the money it made over the 4th of July weekend). According to E!, "Steven Spielberg's latest batch of ETs put a world of hurt on the holiday box office". Paramount president Wayne Lewellen said:

This is the best opening in Paramount's history on several fronts--single day, three day, four day, etc. for both Paramount and Tom Cruise. It's the fastest film to get to $100 million for both Cruise and Paramount and also Spielberg

FOX also makes another flub which can be found in this article, "'War of the Worlds' Gets So-So Reviews". It says this:

The only rave review for the movie so far from a major publication is in the trade paper Variety. But the publication is famous for putting a brave face on anything Paramount releases. (Variety's editor-in-chief, Peter Bart, was long ago a key executive at Paramount, and still feels loyal to his old studio.)

But FOX News could not be more wrong. Just visit RottenTomatoes.com to see how "fresh" this movie really is. 71% of the "Cream of the Crop" say it is "fresh". This "Cream of the Crop" includes Entertainment Weekly, which says

War of the Worlds is an attack-of-the-aliens disaster film crafted with sinister technological grandeur -- a true popcorn apocalypse.
-- Owen Gleiberman, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

And the Washington Post which says

Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds is a close encounter of the blurred kind, an orchestration of chaos and panic and destruction as visceral as it can get.
-- Stephen Hunter, WASHINGTON POST

So you see, Variety does not stand alone. After visiting to see if they would have a report for today that "corrected" their previous thinking, I struck out. There is no report for the money it has taken in even though it was the highest grossing movie this weekend. FOX News is simply way too conservative to understand how to report on entertainment in America. That is why when Tom Cruise acts out, all they can do is laugh and harangue him.

Wouldn't it be nice if FOX News could just not say anything that had to do with Hollywood? It's too bad that will never happen.