So ends The Avengers month .. plus something about the future of this blog

I had no idea a month ago that this would turn out to be The Avengers month on this blog. I was saying, just a month ago, that I'd be cutting back in posting, which has kind of happened, at least in time spent, if not (so much) in the actual number of posts. I said then: "The bottom line is that the mix has gradually changed here just lately, and, as per the previous para, the quantity of posts is going to have to scale back a bit as well."

Because I saw The Avengers at the start of its initial theatrical release - before it opened in the US - I was able to give it a brief review at a very early stage, and that has turned out to be one of my most popular blog posts ever. In fact, it may eventually become my most popular single blog post. Furthermore, May 2012 has turned out to be just about my most popular single month ever, measured in total views (I don't think it will quite achieve first place, but it will go close and be a very clear second). So I've benefited here, as by a side wind, from the extraordinary popularity of The Avengers.

By the way, over the next couple of days The Avengers will move into third place (overtaking The Dark Knight) among the highest grossing movies of all time in the domestic US market - measured in raw, unadjusted dollars.

It will also, maybe a day or so later, move into third place (overtaking Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2) among the highest grossing movies of all time worldwide - measured in the same way.

In unadjusted dollars, it will be behind only Avatar and Titanic (though there are classics that are higher than any of these when you adjust for inflation). I don't think anyone expected success on quite this phenomenal a scale, and it's intrigued me over the past five weeks just how it should be explained (when I, personally, had some reservations about it even as a superhero movie).

I still expect The Avengers to end its initial theatrical run with a worldwide gross of about $1.5 billion. Note that all of my predictions so far have been bold in prospect but conservative in retrospect, so we'll see with this one. So far, it's panning out.

I doubt that there will be any phenomenon quite like The Avengers to keep up my popularity as a blogger in June and beyond. So what I previously announced still holds. I.e., this place will still be scaling back a little bit, with a different mix (probably more personal and fun/pop culture stuff in the mix).

On the other hand, you'll be able to read my literary/philosophical reflections in more places than ever, what with my column in Free Inquiry, my blogging on philosophical issues at Talking Philosophy (a blog that is worth following), and my occasional contributions at the ABC Religion and Ethics Portal ... plus, no doubt, occasional contributions in still other places (I'm always looking for additional and larger soapboxes).

Plus there are a couple of new books that will be completed this year ... and in the pipeline for publication from very respectable imprints.

Anything of note will continue to be reported here.