This Week in WTF Pop Culture History: Waterworld teaches Hollywood how to make money off of big-budget garbage.

We don't know if you've noticed, but all at once, audiences have gotten sick of Hollywood's shit -- this summer's box office is down almost 20 percent, which is a shocking number considering ticket prices are higher than ever (including the absurd premium they still charge for 3D). No movie this year made $300 million in the USA, whereas last year Iron Man 3 did over $400 million (hell, in 2012, The Avengers did an astonishing $623 million). The conventional wisdom was that while audiences love to bitch about sequels, reboots, and CGI garbage, they'll still pay to go see it. But we're finally seeing the bubble burst.

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In America, anyway. What does this have to do with Waterworld? Allow us to explain.

See, while American audiences have finally gotten sick of superheroes and CGI-heavy reboots, audiences in China and elsewhere have not -- overall profits are going to be higher than ever thanks to foreign ticket sales. That's bad news for people who have grown to hate modern blockbusters, as we explained in detail here:

"Foreign audiences also aren't as picky about good writing (a lot of it will be lost in the translation to subtitles anyway) or clever comedy (which is highly culturally specific). So if you're a studio executive who is choosing between financing a poignant coming of age film about an orphan ranch hand in East Texas or a film about a giant radioactive thunderstorm that gives people superpowers, chances are you're not going to go with the poignancy."