Mathews: It is like Rotisserie baseball, but with totally mediocre movies (Photo: NYDN)

I cannot say this surprises me so much, but evidently not too many people took up theater chains AMC and Cinemark on their "flee-and-its-free" pledge for the clunky Cinderella Man. That said, Daily News critic Jack Mathews earlier this week offered a potentially useful alternative I neglected to mention:

In the case of Cinderella Man, I would charge New Yorkers $6.85 for a ticket — forget the money-back guarantee. The $3.15 saved would help defray the costs of calories at the concession stand and put viewers in a better mood.

I come to the $6.85 price by checking both the critics' and viewers' ratings for the film on metacritic.com. Out of 100 points, Cinderella Man scored 69 with the nation's top critics while scoring 68 with 108 viewers polled.

I split the difference.

By Mathews' calculations, Batman Begins would be worth $7.80, War of the Worlds would be worth $6.45 and exhibitors could charge no more than $1.57 to view The Honeymooners.

And just in case you thought Mathews might be losing his edge:

I think we all deserve a handsome discount for putting up with Tom Cruise's antics over the last two months, but that's just me.

Oh, snap! No, Jack—you and everyone but Katie Holmes.