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First of all, I think Reagen is wrong when he says that few people saw the original films. The timing of the video release of the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was unintentionally perfect. Netflix Watch Instantly was just surging in popularity and the availability of that title on the service is something Netflix themselves said was a boon to their product. Similarly, Amazon Video used this as a launch title when they began to offer free streaming to owners of Amazon Prime. And let's be honest about the fact that $12.7 million worth of box office revenue for a subtitled film is never anything to sneeze at. A lot more people saw the Swedish version than expected, which is why Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace went from virtual unknowns to key players in Mission: Impossible and Sherlock Holmes sequels.

I also believe that Max is waaaaaaaaaay off-base in saying that the Fincher remake is a shot-for-shot remake. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am as shocked as anybody to be saying this, but the Hollywood studio version of Men Who Hate Women, the real title of this story, is night and day better than the Swedish version. How this came to pass is a mystery to me but Sony got this one right. They brought in all of the key elements lacking in the first adaptation, which was frankly paint by numbers and woefully lacking in mystery or surprise. Yes, Fincher cheated a bit with the ending but it still works.

Keeping all of this in mind, Mr. Huntley is absolutely correct that the timing of this film is what hurt it. Anyone reading the above can see how passionate I am about the subject matter. In fact, it is my belief that Lisbeth Salander, not Harry Potter, is the best literary character created in my lifetime. No, she will not have the staying power or overall impact of Potter but the character is better. Despite my love of Lisbeth, there were four different times before the start of the New Year that my wife and I discussed watching the film. I never could talk myself into it. There is simply nothing Christmas-y about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. As such, I did what a lot of consumers clearly have. I waited until 2012 to watch the film. And if I did that, people who knew little about the project had almost no incentive to watch this flick over the holidays.

The movie I have been using as a comparison for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a recent Tom Cruise film, Valkyrie. That was a strangely timed holiday drama that seemed to run counter to the spirit of the season yet had enough of a reputation to sell tickets anyway. Nobody remembers this since Cruise was still anathema at the time, but Valkyrie earned $83.1 million domestically. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is already close to that amount and will probably edge past $100 million domestically. I consider that a successful franchise launch and am a bit mystified why the current box office perception of it is as a disappointment. Tim even compared it to The Hunger Games, clearly a much more commercial project. Men Who Hate Women is a film about murder, incest and rape. The fact that a holiday release of this type has earned $80 million and counting is impressive, not disappointing.

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