Did Twitter nip Brüno in the bud?

Sacha Baron Cohen's new comedy may be the first victim of the microblogging site Twitter.

That's the theory proposed by Time Magazine, based on the opening weekend box office results for «Brüno» in North American theaters.

Although the movie took in $14.4 million on its premiere on Friday, analysts had predicted $50 million for the whole weekend.

However, receipts were down drastically on already on Saturday, plummeting even lower on Sunday for a total of $30 million. That's a never-before-seen un-met margin of $20 million.

Time Magazine is sure this is due to Twitter: The first North American viewers posted their tweets (no longer than 140 characters) on the microblogging site while the general public was still lining up outside movie theaters, letting their millions of followers (members who follow tweets of other members) know just how bad they thought the movie was – most of them far from appreciated Sacha Baron Cohen's limitless brand of provocative humor.

A word-of-mouth sensation, Twitter has the potential for becoming an excellent promotional tool. Or a double-edged sword capable of losing millions for production companies in the space of a few hours.