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Today's LAT looks at how Hollywood's Big Slump has not been confined within America's borders, as some "major" overseas markets have declined at the box office "by as much as 14 percent." Is there a way to blame the Germans for any of this? Why, yes, there is!

Warner's [president of international distribution Veronika] Kwan-Rubinek estimated that the first sunny weekend in Germany after three weeks of gloom cut last weekend's overall box office there by as much as 30%. "We have to remember the days are much longer. It's bright to 10 or 11 at night, and people like to spend a lot of time in cafes and go out and experience the outdoors," she said.

Since Hollywood's strategy of trying to defeat Europeans' culturally ingrained sun-worship by bombarding the Continent with sequels and ill-advised remakes of American television shows doesn't seem to be paying off, the studios might have to try more extreme measures. After determining that slowing the Earth's rotation at key times to minimize their overseas consumers' exposure to sunlight would be a prohibitively complicated way to improve the performance of War of the Worlds, DreamWorks has instead focussed its promotional resources on a more straightforward plan to blow up the sun on WOTW's release date. Yes, it's unorthodox, but tracking numbers suggest that once people got over the initial shock of realizing that all life on Earth would soon be extinguished, they'd flock to the movies for the soothing, communal experience of a summer blockbuster.

More Slump coverage: Maybe we need to blame celebs for overshadowing their movies.