Maybe the B.O. doesn't stink?

Check out this Variety article for another way of looking at this year's box office (and probably the correct way): Stop the Madness. A subscription account may be required to view this, so for those of you without, here's the bottom-line:
Since we all know "The Passion" was a unique event that brought in a lot of people who don't normally go to movies, it's effect skews any judgments about overall box office well-being. If you take it out of the picture, 2004 was behind 2003, and this year is way ahead. However, there were also far more pictures released last year. So even if you include "The Passion," we are ahead this year on a per picture average, at about $48 million, compared to last year's $45 million at this time. In terms of individual pictures, we've had far more successes, doubling the number of pictures to top $100 million in the first part of the year. We've also had far fewer flops, since 29 pictures last year opened under $10 million. That's more than half of them, kids. Maybe this year doesn't hurt so bad after all.
Still, don't discount yesterday's post yet. Variety still described last weekend's performance, starring "Kingdom of Heaven," as a major disappointment.