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Despite nearly a year's worth of hand-wringing in the media about 2005's five-percent-ish downturn at the box office (commonly referred to as The Slump, and accompanied by the sound of air-raid sirens), the business appears healthy enough overall; most studio executives haven't found themselves the victims of a movie-watching paradigm shift that would send them scrambling to sell their Lexus SUV's to meet their monthly coke bills just yet. Today's LAT writes off the supposedly apocalyptic effects on the industry of last year's "blip," but we're still reminded that the hysteria caused by a year of Aeon Fluxes and Stealths still claimed some high-profile victims:

"Every picture costs too much and studios always want to spend less. I'm always fighting that battle, and I'm at the top of my game," producer Jerry Bruckheimer said. "Anytime you have a down year, it's tougher in the executive suites and they'll be second-guessing their decisions."

Before Disney posted an ugly $313 million loss at the end of last year, executives might not have blinked before signing off on Bruckheimer's requests to pile onto the already incredible budgets for his two Pirates of the Caribbean sequels. But in this new age of Slump-induced caution, Bruck's got to come up with a better answer than, "Because it's really fucking cool" for why he needs fifteen actual fighter jets to be destroyed by galleon cannon fire during Dead Man's Chest's final battle scene.