Clerks II did over three times better than the entire run of the original film. If you want to compare opening weekend grosses, it did about 30 times the business of the original. In what world does it make sense to compare apples to watermelons?

Pirates, Lady, Monster House, Little Man, and Dupree are all much bigger general audience draws. Smith's movie did beat out the decidedly more PG-13 Super Ex-Girlfriend, and the often-overlooked per-screen average shows Clerks II outdid Little Man and You, Me, and Dupree. Looking at the just under a grand per screen difference between Smith and Shyamalan, the donkey show movie did about as well as the narf/scrunt/gobbledeguk tentpole movie.

How do you classify this as a disappointing opening?

Not only compared to its source film, but in relative terms, the Clerks II opening was definitely above average for a--let's face it---arthouse movie opening on 2000 screens against the mid-July mouth-breather fare. I don't play the box office grosses like a pony race the way lots of folks do. It's all relative, folks.

In the interest of fair play, I've been a big fan of Smith's movies for a while now, ever since a dear friend and cinema mentor insisted I watch Clerks. through Chasing Amy in a single sitting. You can armchair direct all you want, or Marvel Comics Presents "What If?" your versions of his movies to death, but give the ultra-criticism a rest. He makes movies some people like and others don't. The fact everyone has an opinion of how he should run his life, filmmaking career, or merch line indicates there's a thick layer of jealousy underneath that veneer of "he could do better".

My review of the movie is about two sentences long:

My lady and I agreed it was the best Summer (multi-thousand screen release) movie we'd seen this year. This isn't a movie about Going Home Again, it's about Finding Out Where Home Is.

As for the "about"....

Fuck David Poland.

Send hate to the email. I'll be happy to delete.