Impossible mission

Maybe it's just my schadenfreude at work, but there is something satisfying about "Mission: Impossible 3" taking in a projected $40-45 million on opening weekend, dreadfully far below the wonks' estimates for what the first big tentpole movie of the summer should earn.

Nikki Finke posits in the piece linked to above that it is, of course, Cruise-fatigue which is to blame for the low gross. I'd like to believe that, but Cruise-fatigue didn't torpedo "War of the Worlds," and that came smack in the center of CouchGate.

Give me another Cruise-flick with declining grosses, and then we can start discussing a serious consumer backlash.