Bad sign for 'Bruno'

True, the Sacha Baron Cohen mock documentary had an opening weekend gross of a little over $30 million, which for most movies would represent a smash. But the LAT's Ben Fritz points out that ticket sales tumbled 39 percent between Friday and Saturday. In an age when young moviegoers routinely text message critiques to their friends while they're still watching the film on a Friday, such a dropoff could signal some seriously bad buzz (not that it much matters, but reviews ranged mostly from lukewarm to awful).

The odds of "Bruno" earning a total of even $100 million, let alone the $128.5 million worth of tickets that "Borat" sold in the U.S. and Canada, are very low. The reason is simple: Many people just didn't like "Bruno." The film's Cinema Score -- an average grade given by a sample of those who see the picture -- was C, very low given what easy graders moviegoers generally are. It's impossible to know for sure what audiences disliked, but the envelope-pushing amount of male nudity no doubt played a major role.