Last night MCN’s David Poland ripped into Anne Thompson’s…wait, he changed it…ripped into Anthony D’Allesandro‘s box-office analysis piece for Thompson’s Indiewire column called “5 Reasons That Went Wrong With Wall Street 2.” They can squabble the numbers out, but my own belief is that WS2 under-performed for three reasons.

One, Fox over-estimated Joe Popcorn‘s interest in another Gordon Gekko melodrama. Two, the under-30s knew immediately that it wasn’t in their wheelhouse, and that Shia LaBeouf and Carey Mulligan had been thrown into the mix as under-30 bait. And three, the movie betrayed itself by selling — convincingly — the idea that Michael Douglas‘s Gekko wanted redemption in the eyes of his daughter (Mulligan), and then pulling the rug out in Act Three by having him pull a fast one and burn her again. (And then look for forgiveness again at the very end, but only because he realizes he’s got a grandchild on the way.)

Wall Street 2 cost about $70 million (obviously not counting marketing) and is now petering out at $47 million domestic. It might do well in overseas markets so the game’s not entirely over.