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Shane Jenkins: Yup - Blart, Taken, Torino. Which is coincidentally the name of my new ska band. You should hear our cover of Tiffany's cover of I Think We're Alone Now.

Jim Van Nest: I hate to just jump on board with everyone else, but how could Paul Blart NOT be the #1 surprise of early 2009? This looked like a straight-to-DVD release that the studio decided they'd try to squeeze a few bucks out of in theaters and it's become the biggest hit of the year, so far. The legs on Taken would probably be #2, with Friday the 13th's opening coming in as my #3. (I know...it wasn't on Kim's list...but a record-setting weekend? For yet another Jason flick? No way.) This being said, I think Paul Blart is so ahead of the others on this list that when we start recapping the 2009 Box Office stories of the year, Blart will likely be the only one on that list that we're still talking about with that cocked to the side, confused puppy dog look.

David Mumpower: I agree that Paul Blart: Mall Cop is the biggest surprise and I think that Jim is right that it's going to be a huge factor when we rank the top 12 film industry stories of 2009. Having said that, two straight weeks of almost imperceptible drops from Taken has it narrowing the gap, even allowing for the fact that Paul Blart went up instead of down this week. On the surface, there is very little about Taken that seems marketable. The fact that it's a slam dunk for $100 million is every bit as surprising as Paul Blart is. Choosing the third film is tricky. Since Gran Torino got a token 2008 release, I'm going to take it out of the equation for now. Coraline deserves some consideration, because it has already made more in 11 days than Stardust made in its entire theatrical run. My Bloody Valentine 3-D and Hotel for Dogs have combined for $110 million between them, which is also a dubya-tee-eff statement. In the end, I have to give the edge to He's Just Not That Into You, though. It's currently sitting at $58.8 million and appears likely to become a $100 million movie, a scenario I had not envisioned for the title.

Max Braden: With the benefit of hindsight, I'm going to say that Paul Blart isn't the biggest surprise. It's Sandler-esque and not very far over $100 million. But nearly $130 million for Eastwood? That's a huge surprise. Is anyone of his generation still taking on lead roles? Would you have expected him to be able to cross $100 million another time after Million Dollar Baby? Would you have expected Gran Torino to have beaten any of the other titles? I think after Gran Torino, the biggest surprise is Taken, which looked like a cheap thriller dumped in February but is performing like every weekend is opening weekend. Blart is #3 in my book.

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