makes you wonder where they get the numbers

We went to see Cars II on Saturday night with our granddaughter. It was the #2 grossing film of the night for the nation, in 4,115 theatres, grossing $9.5M

We went to see Midnight in Paris on Sunday night. It was the #10 movie in the US that night, in 858 theatres, with $1.3m gross.

What was amazing to me is that Cars II was in its second week, and there were maybe twenty people in the theatre in the heart of Silicon Valley. "Midnight" was sold out at the first four theatres we tried with Fandango ticketing, and for the show we got into, it was jammed, probably two hundred people in the theatre, the seventh week after release. Every week of the first six for it have gone up in numbers, but no weekly number exceeded what Cars II did on that one Saturday night.

I don't question the box office numbers. But I do wonder why the 'on-the-ground' experience is so misaligned to what the numbers say.

I'm reminded of this because I am old enough to remember the MacIntosh and the original IBM PC. No one in Silicon Valley thought the PC had any lasting value (well, okay, 'no one' is a bit strong, but even Andy Grove was dismissive and his chips were in it); lots of folk were enamored of the Mac. The PC though won the dollar contest in business, hands down, by a margin of better than an order of magnitude.

So if there is any solace for HP today, after the dismal reviews of the TouchPad this weekend, maybe they can liken the iPad to the Mac, and the TouchPad to the PC?

No, no, don't go down that path, Charlie