Okay, so I haven’t seen Lee Daniels’ The Butler. In my defense, I had a conflict on the morning of the press screening and also I have absolutely no interest in ever watching another Lee Daniels movie again.

Remember the thing I wrote about vulgar auteurism when The Paperboy came out on disc last month? I stand by all of that, and I’m pointing to it again now that Daniels’ latest has opened at number one with $25 million. I mean, what the hell? What’s wrong with people?

On the other hand, the public did reject the generally reviled Kick-Ass 2, damning it to a fourth-place opening with $13.56 million, a hair below Elysium‘s $13.6 million. So I guess that’s something, anyway.