Jack the Balance-Sheet Slayer

The Los Angeles Times offers up five simple lessons for avoiding producing box-office poison like last weekend’s release of Jack the Giant Slayer. Modestly, I would like to offer a sixth lesson, briefly summarized as “Jack WHO?”

I hadn’t seen, read, or heard anything about Jack. Jack about Jack? And I confess that this recent spate of movies trying to redo fairy tales for grownups has inspired me to watch something, anything else. (They already did In the Company of Wolves once, expertly; leave it alone.)

But since audiences aren’t exactly flocking to see it, I guess I’m far from alone.