Is being able to instantly syndicate an opinion on a film to thousands of your closest friends affecting the opening weekend of less-than-great films?

Pshaw.

Michael Sragow at the Baltimore Sun writes:

This summer, movies such as "Bruno" and " G.I. Joe" have had unexpected tumbles at the box office - just within their opening weekends - while "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" survived blistering critical reaction to become a blockbuster.

Box-office watchers say the dramatic swings may be caused by Twitter and other social networking sites that can blast instant raves - or pans - to hundreds of people just minutes after the credits roll.

Later in the article Gregg Kilday of the Hollywood Reporter is quoted:

"Even if you don't have Twitter, a lot of people, especially kids, have long had the ability to text each other, sometimes from within the theater," he says. "And for a lot of the mass-market movies, the potential audience will go whether friends tell them they're good or not."

Yeah but no one wants to see a panned Twitter trending topic. Unless it sucks but there are robots who turn into cars and Megan Fox is running in slo mo apparently...

Via IWantMedia.com