Shhhhhyeah, right...

The weekend box office numbers are in, and "Happy Feet" and "Casino Royale" are still #1 and #2, while "The Nativity Story" did a mere $8 million for the weekend.

My favorite part of the Yahoo story is the massive spin-job that the New Line execs are trying to pull, claiming that the snowstorms in the Midwest hindered the film's audience, thus explaining the paltry opening weekend.

Ahem. Well, I can safely say that there were no such storms in this neck of the woods, and without that, "Nativity" still did embarrassingly small crowds - the biggest show of the weekend was 58 Saturday at 7:00. The very next show, at 10:00, did 3. No, that's not a typo - THREE.

Face it, New Line. Making a period religious film with virtually unknown actors isn't gonna draw big simply because it's a period religious film. "The Passion"'s big success was because of a large number of factors, not least of which being the massive marketing campaign by Gibson's production company, wherein churches were sent literature months in advance hyping how this film would be "the most extraordinary outreach possibility in 2000 years." They made churchgoers feel like seeing the movie was imperative to their faith. (I saw it in the people I sold tickets to...one guy literally looked to the heavens and thanked Jesus for "letting me see your movie.")

In comparison to a hype job like that, a relatively sweet little film about Christ's birth didn't stand a chance. One can only hope that Gibson himself will learn a similar lesson next weekend, when "Apocalypto" comes out.