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Everybody loves a bride. Except us.

Kim Hollis: Bride Wars, the women-go-nuts-for-weddings comedy from Fox, opened to $21.1 million. How good a result is this?

Brandon Scott: I think that this is disappointing. Torino steals the headlines and Bride dukes it out for a tight finish for second with Unborn. With two known, name actresses, I think they were clearly expecting more.

Daron Aldridge: It would be a respectable, laudable gross if not for the performances of Gran Torino and The Unborn, both of which were the weekend's surprises. The take is actually a better take than I would have thought but the studio probably wanted more. I have to reiterate my opinion about Hudson from the discussion about My Best Friend's Girl just a few months ago. I really don't see her as a draw with more mediocre returns than breakout hits. Hathaway's big hits have at least been more recent than Hudson's.

Max Braden: Last year 27 Dresses opened the weekend after this one to $23 million on fewer theaters, so this a decline. But Gran Torino opened surprisingly high. January releases for romantic comedies shouldn't be expected to do much more than low 20s.

Jim Van Nest: I agree with Max on the Rom-Com thing. And I'll add that while Hudson and Hathaway are "known actresses", how many people will go to see a movie just because they're in it? There's a handful of actresses who have that going for them and neither of these two qualify, in my opinion. AND, they were going up against an incredible "I'll see it because he's in it" film in Gran Torino. So, I'd say they should take their $21 millionand be happy Torino wasn't in 3,500 theaters.





Kevin Chen: If this discussion were not overshadowed by the context of the current economic crisis, I would have taken your assertion that these films are competing for audience and laughed you off the island. Instead, I'll merely suggest that you are barking mad.

Jason Lee: I think that even if Gran Torino hadn't opened above Bride Wars, we still would have been a little disappointed with the gross given the star-power and the brain-dead enjoyment factor of this film. I mean, c'mon, who thought that Bride Wars would have been a mere $1.3 million ahead of The Unborn?

David Mumpower: You know, I dig Hathaway and I'll always treasure Kate Hudson for Almost Famous, but Bride Wars offends me more than any other movie in recent memory in concept. It's an insult to vaginas everywhere and I'm more than a little bit disgusted it did $21.1 million. That's three million worth of suckers who could have stayed home and watched a good chick flick instead.

Reagen Sulewski: I share your horror at all involved, but at some point don't we have to blame the women that keep subsidizing this dreck? Quit paying to be insulted, or at least hire me to do it cheaper.

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