[jasonwatkinspdx]

You can't expect to understand a broad shift if you're only looking at the top grossing movies. That's like predicting the US economy by only looking at Bill G and Warren Buffet's asset sheets.

The Crank movies are a good example of something you couldn't really do 10 years ago. They were filmed on budgets with 10mm to 20mm. Typically a movie involving so many stunts would be far more expensive. Compare to say the Fast and Furious movies which have budgets in the 100mm range.

And while the current financial picture for the studios is hit driven, that's largely because of the high minimum cost to get a production done. As production costs fall films don't have to sell as well to be profitable, creating more of a long tail to the market.