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Sean Collier: I agree with the previous comments - this was less a film as it was The Great Efron Experiment. This proves that he has an audience and bodes well for him (pending smart career moves.) As for Fox, this one was little more than a quick bonus on their calendar, so I'm sure they're fine.

Kim Hollis: I will echo the sentiment of everyone else and agree that WB should be quite happy with 17 Again's performance. It could have been such a tough sell - and there is probably no young man in that age group who could have delivered what Efron did. He has some loyal fans, though the question as his career moves forward is whether they'll continue to follow him or if they'll dismiss him as a flavor-of-the-month.

In ten years, will he wish to be 17 Again?

Kim Hollis: We touched upon Zac Efron's future a bit last week. Do you believe his career is in the early stages of ascending, or is 17 Again about the best we can expect from him?

Josh Spiegel: Though it's probably too early to say, I don't think Zac Efron's going to go much higher in terms of stardom. He's already tried once (though it will probably not be the only time) to go down the indie path, with Me and Orson Welles, the Richard Linklater-helmed period piece and...well, that one didn't hit lots of multiplexes. Again, I'm sure he's going to try and do different types of movies but unless something he does that isn't exactly like 17 Again or High School Musical 3, I don't think he's going to be the next big all-around movie star.





Brandon Scott: Last week I said that I didn't see a long career for him or Hudgens, etc. Since I am not 17, I don't truly know how big of a star this kid is now, so its a little difficult to say. I mean, is Shia LaBeouf a bigger star than he is? I suspect so, but I would assume their fan bases are different. But they came from the same place, so Efron still has hope to get bigger, while I think he is probably close to as big a star as he will be, if that makes sense.

Eric Hughes: I think this is only the beginning. For me, he shed away any lingering remnants of High School Musical by landing a well-received gig on Saturday Night Live. Opening a #1 movie without HSM in the title is icing on the cake. It only goes up from here.

David Mumpower: Using this week's sports topic of choice as a jumping off point, he's like a top ten NFL Draft prospect. The upside is there, to be sure, but whether there is any long term payoff remains to be seen. We may have just witnessed the two best opening weekends of his career. It's entirely possible that it's all down from here and he's going to be widely remembered as that High School Musical kid who wound up on a bunch of quickly canceled television shows. It's also possible that he goes on to be a perennial Hollywood All-Pro. He is what NFL Draft personnel evaluators call an Elevator Player. He can go up or down a lot from what he is right now.

Sean Collier: Exactly right, David. And since we've seen a lot of teen celeb/actors fizzle out lately, Efron can either measure every move VERY carefully and most likely do quite well, or stumble about and burn out early. The pull 17 Again had is a sign of great box office potential, but he still has work to do.

Kim Hollis: He's a kid with lots of untapped potential at this point. I admit it. I like him. I think he has a charm that was probably best utilized in Hairspray, where he was much more of a supporting player, but we know that he has the capability of bringing in audience. He's rumored to have the title role in Jonny Quest alongside Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Race Bannon, and I think that could be a good move for him if it's played right.

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