Boo. Hiss.

So "Snakes on a Plane" topped the box office this weekend, but with a measly $15.25 million haul -- hardly the tally befitting a zeitgeist blockbuster.

By contrast, "The Blair Witch Project" -- the movie to which "SoaP" has been most often compared by clueless media commentators -- grossed what, about $35 mil its first weekend in wide release?

I have to wonder whether New Line's strategy of not screening the film for critics, the better to position the film as a movie made for fans of cheeseball cinema, worked against a mass debut, with most of the continent waiting for reviews to decide whether or not the movie was actually any good. The reviews turned out to be pretty enthusiastic, for the most part, but I doubt they did much to counter the "uh-oh" tone in all the speculative articles that ran on Friday.

Still, I told you to see it Friday morning. So what kept you away?

Post your excuses in the comments section.