"Opening Weekend." The all-important buzz phrase to which all of us have become addicted; two words that instill excitement and longing. The movie industry lives for hype, and every moviegoer has succumbed to it at some time or another.

You can admit it. You've probably planned an entire weekend around the opening of a highly anticipated movie. Maybe even dressed up like Obi-Wan Kenobi, carried a Lightsaber and camped out for two days to see Revenge of the Sith. But have you taken the day off of work to see The Dark Knight yet? Seriously. A survey of people who buy tickets on Fandango.com showed that 38 percent of people who were working said they'd either take some time or the day off to see the movie.

Why? Hype. The collective weekend frenzy of drooling fans - segments of audiences who manage to get films labeled as "great" regardless of whether they're good or not; films that get labeled simply by the opening numbers. Cha-Chin. Cashola. Boodle.

IMDb, for instance, has said TDK is "the best movie ever made". Is it the best movie ever made? Perhaps we should ask its collective hysteria of fans. Or simply look to its numbers: nearly $400 million in revenue in just three week.

But are the almighty dollars all that matter? Revenue isn't a barometer for quality, but we keep doling out the eight bucks for a ticket, don't we? Case in point: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, which opened this weekend to scores of critics (including myself) who panned it as "a poor third installment" and a "failure". And that's being nice. But its opening weekend figures are fabulous - $42 million. Not bad for a "flop".

So what drives all the hype? I'd say groupthink, but who am I to define something that's eluded experts for years? Plus, now the speculation over more numbers begins. Just read the news. Will TDK surpass the record set by Titanic in 1998? It grossed over $600 million, making it the all-time 'king of the world' in the movie numbers game.

Yet oh, how times have changed. For one thing, it took Titanic nearly a month to gross $200 million. TDK hit that in five days. Plus, Titanic was released at a time when the video version (for the kids reading this, that's now DVD) wasn't offered to the public for nine months or so. Which meant audiences kept going back to theaters to see Titanic again, and again, and again. Cross-demographic appeal? Leo DiCaprio? Who's to say?

The talent of TDK Director, Christopher Nolan - and the sad fact that TDK was Heath Ledger's last (and brilliant) performance - could mean TDK's numbers may reach Titanic's...er...titanic revenues yet. But thatÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s not the point. The point is movie hype and the opening-weekend "bank" seems to be all that matters in Hollywood. Where's the virtue in that?

By Sara-Lynn White