Sharon Waxman: Back from a three-month vacation and ready for the world!

And just... like... clockwork: Sharon Waxman puts another big summer movie season to bed with a reheated "Business is Bad" piece in today's Times. Waxman had already buried the season alive back in early July, but to her credit, she waited to eulogize Hollywood as a whole until a few more useful sources showed up at its funeral:

Waxman, July 5: At this point, 26 weeks into the year and with many of the summer's biggest movies already rolled out, Hollywood executives seem resigned to the strong possibility that the overall box office for the year may be well behind 2004's.

Waxman, Aug. 24: With the last of the summer blockbusters fading from the multiplex, Hollywood's box office slump has hardened into a reality that is setting the movie industry on edge. The drop in ticket sales from last summer to this summer, the most important moviegoing season, is projected to be 9 percent by Labor Day, and the drop in attendance is expected to be even deeper, 11.5 percent, according to Exhibitor Relations, which tracks the box office.

Waxman, July 5: "We could be moving toward a down year, but that doesn't paint the picture for [the] next year or two to come," said Dan Fellman, president of theatrical distribution for Warner Brothers. If the downward trend continued for another year, he said, executives would probably reconsider the industry shift toward releasing DVD's as close to the movie's opening date in theaters as they do now. Some experts suggest that moviegoers are staying away from theaters because they prefer to see movies at home.

Waxman, Aug. 24: Even Robert Shaye, the studio leader behind The Wedding Crashers, one of the summer's runaway hits, shares the worry about the industry's ability to connect with audiences. "I believe it's a cumulative thing, a seismic evolution of people's habits," said Mr. Shaye, chairman of New Line Cinema. In previous years, he said, "you could still count on enough people to come whether you failed at entertaining them or not, out of habit, or boredom, or a desire to get out of the house. You had a little bit of backstop."

Speaking of complacency, Waxman claims a few crumbs from the DVD-release-date debate that so galvanizes the industry, getting theater-owners' boss John Fithian on the record about Bob Iger's "death threat" and studios' shitty movies--but not challenging him on $10 tickets, $6 popcorn and $4 soda.

Oh, wait, sorry: That's reserved for The Times' fall movie season obituary, which Waxman should have polished off right around...what? Thanksgiving?