Sometimes American audiences make you glow with pride. Or at least not shake your head with disgust.

Take this weekend. Universal's “Battleship,” brought to you by the toy company that brought you “Transformers,” opened to negative reviews (29% among top critics) and weak box office ($25.3 million). That was good enough for second place but it's less than half the $55 million grossed by the third weekend of “The Avengers,” which has now grossed $457 million domestically and $723 million abroad.

“The Avengers,” by the way, got an 86% rating from top critics. My review here.

How bad is a $25 million opening for a purported summer blockbuster? Let's limit our discussion to movies that opened in May. Unadjusted, “Battleship”'s $25 mil is only the 63rd-biggest opening weekend in May. It's $4 million less than “Dark Shadows” grossed the weekend before, $2 million less than the opening of Eddie Murphy's “Daddy Day Care” in May 2003, and around $50 K less than “Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom” grossed on its opening weekend ... in May 1984. Remember “Dinosaur”? Neither do I. But it grossed $38 million during its opening weekend in May 2000.

Oh well. Rihana has something to fall back on, doesn't she?

As for “The Avengers”? Unadjusted for inflation, it's currently ranked sixth all-time domestically (behind “Star Wars,” “Star Wars Episode I,” “The Dark Knight,” “Titanic” and “Avatar”) and fourth all-time worldwide (behind the last “Harry Potter,” “Titanic” and “Avatar”). It will probably wind up second and third, respectively.

Adjust for infation, and it's currently ranked 61st, domestically, having just passed, “The Sixth Sense,” “Superman,” “Tootsie” and “Smokey and the Bandit.”

The J-10 numbers here. The 1960s commercial I must've seen 100 times below:

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