No one should be terribly surprised that Ridley Scott isn’t quite the commerical hitmaker he presents himself to be.

I mean, believing that would require us to deliberately ignore most of his 1980s output, a good chunk of the 1990s and, oh, “A Good Year” and “Kingdom of Heaven”. And I’m not quite ready to forgive him “1492” or “Legend”.

Still, it’s quite a surprise that “Body of Lies” had its clock cleaned this weekend, coming in third behind “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” and “Quarantine”.

If nothing else, I would have thought the combination of LEONARDO DiCAPRIO! and RUSSELL CROWE! and the high-gloss marketing push would have brought in the crowds — but I guess the 130-minute running time proved too much of a roadblock when going up against the two shorter films. Or maybe the analysts are right, and audiences just went for sheer escapism over Middle Eastern drama.

“Quarantine”, by the way, is pretty solid. If you’re a “[REC]” fan on the fence, it’s definitely worth your time.