Well, $50 million didn’t happen. Brüno finished the weekend with a respectable $30.4 million. But, $20 million is a pretty big gap… what caused such an erroneous projection? Well, TIME thinks Twitter is to blame.

Did Twitter cost Brüno millions? Tell us what you think.

"Brüno’s box-office decline from Friday to Saturday indicates that the film’s brand of outrage was not the sort to please most moviegoers — and that their tut-tutting got around fast. Brüno could be the first movie defeated by the Twitter effect."

With techsavvy moviegoers tweeting their opinions to literally millions of followers, the micro-blogging site can make or break a film in one day.

Days after the movie was released, Brüno is still a trending topic on Twitter. Users can’t seem to stop tweeting about the film. Sure, some of the tweets are positive saying how funny the film is… while others are incredibly harsh and could have contributed to the Twitter effect that was mentioned above…

It’s hard to say if Twitter cost Brüno millions at the box office. The film had already been under fire from The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) so it’s unclear how much impact Twitter actually had.

But, in any case this is a new trend we’re sure to keep an eye on.

Do you think Twitter can have a negative impact on the box office? Tell us.

“If you want success today, create something good. Seed the early adopters. And then cease, or at least slow down, your marketing. Because the more you beat people over the head, the less attention they’re going to pay. THEY want to feel in control, THEY don’t want to feel tools of the system. THEY want to embrace the project.

This frightens the purveyors. Because they can nail marketing, but QUALITY? Look at the flicks, they truly suck. Ask the man on the street, he thinks music sucks TOO! To the point where most people have tuned out, and the only people who can bring them back are their buds, who have a RELATIONSHIP with them. Believe me, the marketers at Fox don’t have a relationship with their audience. They THINK they do, but they don’t.

Hearing the movie’s good, I’m gonna give it a chance. Then again, if Fox keeps trumpeting the story, they’re gonna kill MY word of mouth, I don’t want to work for the man. And neither does the Net generation. WE make the stars, not you. Give us reasonable choices, WE’LL do the work. It won’t happen instantly. First week grosses, first week SoundScan numbers, are no longer important. It’s about longevity. It won’t take forever, because word of mouth happens so quickly on the Net, and we’re all in touch with SO many more people on a regular basis. But it’s now our game, not yours, don’t ever forget it.”

Spot. On.

(via Joseph Jaffe)

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Christopher Carfi, CEO and co-founder of Cerado, looks at sales, marketing, and the business experience from the customers point of view. He currently is focused on understanding how emerging social technologies such as blogs, wikis, and social networking are enabling the creation of new types of customer-driven communities. He is the author of the Social Customer Manifesto weblog, and has been occasionally told that he drives and snowboards just a little too quickly.