2010 summer movie season sees faltering ticket sales

Social networking has accelerated negative word of mouth. Says Klady: "About 18 months ago we started seeing the phenomenon that after the 'avids' saw a picture on opening day, they killed it the next on Twitter." What Dergarabedian dubs the "big-on-Friday, dead-on-Sunday" phenom had a chilling effect on the fortunes of 2010 summer releases like Sex and the City 2 and Cats and Dogs.

Apart from Toy Story 3 and Inception, the popular and critical successes of the summer, did the movies do anything right?

"Even in a summer where Hollywood's not doing its best, PG-rated films like The Karate Kid and The Last Airbender really clicked with audiences," says Gray. Dergarabedian cites the success of indie and foreign titles like Letters to Juliet, The Kids Are All Right, and The Girl Who Played With Fire and the quality of the documentaries Restrepo and The Tillman Story.

If Gray were a dream pirate like DiCaprio in Inception, he'd implant a simple idea in the minds of moviemakers in advance of next summer: "Don't rely on 3-D and franchise branding. Focus on telling good stories."

Contact movie critic Carrie Rickey at 215-854-5402 or crickey@phillynews.com. Read her blog, "Flickgrrl," at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/flickgrrl/