Global Warming = Summer Movie Boom?

Variety author Ted Johnson has finished up a piece where he discusses possible causes for the extremely successful summer the movie industry has had in 2007. He titled his work "Global Warming at the Box Office." Here is an excerpt:

The weather.

Is global warming good for Hollywood? Extreme heat and heavy rain across large swaths of the U.S. sent more people to theaters, looking for relief. The onset of the extreme weather -- record-breaking temperatures in the western U.S., rain up and down the Eastern seaboard, the Midwest and Texas -- started at the end of June, just as the box office was starting to see a bump. "You went from dreadful heat to downpours," Snyder says. "Historically, we've seen a bounce in grosses when the weather is bad. Also, when kids can't go outside, and make their parents nuts, they send them to the movies."

Well, of course the Hollywood crowd is going to jump into the mindset of "now, how could this be affected by global warming?" In all honesty, I am pretty sure that my Ford Explorer isn't the reason that Transformers did well at the box office.

Furthermore, here is another reason Mr. Johnson added to his list:

Escapism.

War, scandal, disaster. That's all you see in the news. People just want to escape. They'll avoid "The Mighty Heart" in favor of talking rats. It seems like a great explanation, full of cultural pontification, intellectual heft and societal angst. That is, until you remember what was in the news in the tepid summer of 2005: War, scandal, disaster.

How about the simple fact that the movies this summer just plain rocked? Too simple? Funny how libs are always looking for "creative" explanations when the answer is right in front of them. Remember, we had Transformers, Oceans 13, Pirates 3, F4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Spiderman 3, Ratatouille (which was awesome), Live Free or Die Hard, Mr. Brooks, Knocked Up, Harry Potter, The Simpsons Movie, Bourne Ultimatum, Superbad, Rush Hour 3, and closed it up with the remake of Halloween this past weekend. Did I miss any other decent ones? No, Balls of Fury does not make the cut...