"dark shadows," the johnny depp/tim burton film, also very high budgeted. > erik, overall, what do you think mattered most for ticketgoers? do you think it was the improvements in the economy, or just great movies that came out this year? > > i think it's just great movies. you look at "the avengers," you look at "dark knight rises," you look at "skyfall" - people are saying one of the best james bond movies ever. quality matters. people only seem to think hollywood can out a product and people will just show up, and that is the case sometimes. but when you get a movie that exceeds even its own epic status and through the market and all that kind of stuff, people just want to see it and it becomes an event, and even more people to go see it, and they tell their friends and then they go see it again. so, people just want to see great movies. that's all we want. > and it is going to be a terrific year at the oscars. thank you for all your help this year. > > thank you very much for having me. that's a wrap for 2012, and a wrap for us today. be sure to meet us back here every weekday morn

just this week, tim burton said that he has been to tea party rallies and he has heard the n-word spread around. this is a relentless campaign to put people in their place. it seems to me to be totally unfounded and totally unfair. >> i agree with that. i think people go looking to find something to discredit them. and author of "the new york times" wrote a book about the tea party. "the new york times" is not super conservative, and she found what you said. these are not people who are racist. they are not uneducated people that the media likes of retirement. i think most of them have good intentions. the issue is if you're going to tell your party it is my way or the highway, and if you deviate from this at all, we will come after you. that is not constructive. it just isn't going to work. what you have to do is try to move them and get them to the right place. charles: i guess only the president can say it is my way or the highway. kiersten, thank you so much. the former dec commissioner cochairing. he is going gangham style. >> stop getting on youtube so you can see gangham style. ch

burton and kent conrad. hey, brad. caller: hello. what would have happened to somebody that was a bit funding or the british redcoats? i think it is treason. host: 10 in michigan -- timn michigan. good morning. caller: it seems some of these republicans do not realize they lost the election and they are not listening to the people. the people spoke. we had an emergency manager in detroit. the people unanimously passed that they did not want it. it passed anyway. they need to start listening to the people. host: call in kentucky -- paul. caller: i am calling about the fiscal cliff that we are about to go over. it seems like there is a lot of discussion about social security. the people to make the decisions with social security have little invested in social security since the cutoff is $190,000. they should depend on social security if they are going to make decisions about social security. my father died when he was 61. why don't the majority of people that make the same decisions have the same investment in social security? host: several callers mentioning the fiscal cliff. here is a headline from "the washington post." obama is leaving after days to come back to w