On the topic of Slumps

I just read the Newsweek article about their trip to New Zealand to visit with Peter Jackson and view King Kong. Here's something the article's author throws in at the end of the piece, in a non-sequiter fashion:

"At this juncture, not even "Kong," which opens on Dec. 14, will be able save Hollywood from a lame year at the box office, but it will ensure that 2005 wraps up with a few exclamation points."

Thanks to Entertainment Weekly, and other stupid publications that employ grade-school authors...it is now generally accepted in the media that this year is a "lame" year at the box office, when Potter, Kong, and Narnia, might end up helping this year eclipse last year's total take.

It's pervasive thought, man. Groupthink. Enough people write enough articles about how bad this year's box office has been--despite said articles being based on bogus reasoning--and the rest of the media, and even the general public, start to take such a label as fact.

I honestly think that all this crap talk about a slump has ultimately resulted in many citizens staying away from the movies all together, thus creating the once-fictional thing they predicted. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.