Hurricane Derails Box-Office

While we're all keeping our eyes on Hurricane Irene, stories are floating around today about how this weekends box-office returns will likely be the lowest of the year, a meager $80 million, which of course, is partially due to exhibitors being forced to close about 1,000 theaters across the entire East Coast. 
-

But really, as Nikki Finke pointed out this morning, this whole hurricane business is a really nice excuse for one putrid release week, lets be honest. There's always a late August lull, and we're in it.