Movie Summer 2012: borderline dud

Huffpo has a piece about the just-concluded lackluster summer -- admissions at 532 million, worst since 2005, well off the modern standard of 658 million set in 2002.

Culprits: poor showing for bankable stars like Adam Sandler ("That's My Boy"), Tom Cruise ("Rock of Ages") and Johnny Depp ("Dark Shadows"). Some big-budget duds, like "Battleship," "Total Recall."

What's do be done? Hollywood will no doubt hope to find projects that can replicate/replace this year's save-the-season titles -- "The Avengers" and "Dark Knight Rises," trying to score again with its traditional young male demo, though that gets harder and harder every year.

Idea: listen to what the box office is telling you. "The Hunger Games," "Brave," "Snow White and the Huntsman," anything with Channing Tatum (he has THREE movies finish better than $100 miilion, "Magic MIke," "The Vow," and "21 Jump Street"). Women are a growing force at the box office, less likely to be home playing video games. Also: old people. "Hope Springs" and "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" did decnet business, and are cheap to make.