I could definitely see it being a strange/underwhelming film for a lot of people, so maybe my revised floor would have been 175M (5% less tickets than TDK). But that's something we'll never know so it's not worth dwelling on.
A 25% average drop in attendance post-midnights (from TDK) means that the media's sensationalism and talking down to people was effective one more time. I'm not saying that they wanted this result, it just seems to be the only way they know how to cover stories. And it's depressing and terrible.
This is why I only watched the stream of the Denver news station yesterday. They didn't sensationalize, they were very careful, didn't even show his face more than a handful of times. Focused on remembering the victims, and while I was watching they never once tried to connect the content of the movie to the shooting.
Sounds disappointing, doesn't it? Then again maybe I should have stepped in myself and applauded...
My audience reacted to all of those things and more.