Pathetic state of the world

This post is actually about this afternoon's earnings results from the Mouse House. But before we get to that, here's what the WSJ's Joe Morgenstern had to say about the movie "Wild Hogs," starring John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy. (trust me, there's a connection):

Wild horses couldn't drag me to see "Wild Hogs" a second time, but seeing it once can be a liberating experience. Not in the same sense that its four middle-class, middle-aging buddies from suburban Cincinnati liberate themselves from work and family to recapture their youth during a road trip to California on their Harleys. The movie frees you of the belief that making it in Hollywood requires finely honed skills. If the writer and director of this coarsely honed sitcom could get hired, then the studio doors must be wide open.

Morgenstern says that as bad as "Wild Hogs" is, it could have been worse; the trip might have started in Bangor. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie gets a 17 percent score. That's 98 rotten reviews out of 118. Among the more prominent critics - the "cream of the crop" section - the score is 6 percent. Those are about the lowest numbers I've ever seen. OK, so Disney reports today that its movie studios generated a 60 percent jump in second-quarter operating profits, in large part because "Wild Hogs" has been such a surprise box office hit ($216 million in worldwide ticket sales to date). Disney, of course, can't leave bad enough alone, so there will now be "Yosemite Three," which stars Allen in what's called a "corporate retreat comedy." Y'know, just like "The Apartment."