People Enjoy Watching the World Collapse

Maybe it's something about the trials the world is currently facing that sends movie-goers flocking to disaster porn. Or maybe a taste for the macabre is just innate in the human psyche.

“2012,” Roland Emmerich’s thriller about a global cataclysm, opened at No. 1 with a higher-than-expected $65 million in ticket sales in the United States and Canada, according to the tracking service Hollywood.com. Sony, which released the movie, estimated that it raked in an additional $160 million overseas, making the first weekend for “2012” one of the biggest of the year.

It is rare for a movie not based on a pre-existing brand, franchise or hit novel to deliver such robust results. Sony said “2012,” with a budget of $200 million, had the highest worldwide opening ever for an original movie.

I kind of want to see it.