Ridiculous nonsense. Nowadays, plummeting by ONLY one third is considered excellent audience retention.
No kidding, a 33% drop is not bad at all. Heck, most are near 50% these days.
That would be true, if we knew what the real numbers would have really been if they didn't play with the initial, premier weekend numbers.. Hollywood, et al, has an invested interested in driving up the Conservative negatives, especially before an important election cycle..
I know as an author, Oprah, bankrolls her books to achieve a ranking on the NYT's best seller list to get them rolling.. She's not alone in this practice, and in the motion picture industry, production companies, do likewise..
Check out the Responses from the Movie sites and witness the number of paid responders to glorify a movie.. They only seed the first 2-3 weeks, dependent upon the promotion marketing budget, after that the truth usually surfaces..