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Jason Lee: Anytime a movie is in development for almost ten years, alarm bells automatically go off in my brain. The fact that this movie will end up in the black before international and overseas grosses are factored in is fantastic for WB.

Max Braden: I think it's impressive in that this movie falls between a kid-friendly movie like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and an adult fantasy like Lord of the Rings. The demographic for this movie was largely adult and more of an art film than action piece. Plus Where The Wild Things Are had no visible stars like other movies.

George Rose: This is the worst of the best case scenarios, which still makes it pretty good. Over $40 million would make it a breakout success. With just over $30 million, it's going to need Cloudy With a Chance of Meatball-style legs for it to be a big win in the long run. For now, it's a pretty good result considering the source material is a nine-sentence kids book. Maybe I just expected more considering its great $12 million start on Friday.

Nothing like a hot mess for tearing up the box office

Kim Hollis: Law Abiding Citizen, the latest Taken-esque revenge flick, opened to $21.0 million, torching expectations. Explain this.

Josh Spiegel: Well, is there an explanation? We can't chalk this up to Gerard Butler being the star (or co-star with Jamie Foxx, but Butler's got the flashier role), because Gamer didn't do too well. Maybe it's that people still love revenge movies? I don't know, sometimes you just wonder if people go to movies because they feel like they should go to movies. This one amounts to a disappointed shrug at its success.





Jim Van Nest: I think it's 100% that people like revenge movies. People like the thought of having the balls to go on a rampage like that when they are wronged. 99% of them, however, DON'T have the balls...so they go to the movies and yell at the screen, "That's EXACTLY what I would have done!!!!"

Tom Macy: I'd rather not have to explain it. My forehead is still red from the abuse it took while watching he Taken numbers roll in. Maybe Gerard Butler personally went door to door wearing a six-pack T-shirt (because there's no way that thing was real in 300) with a boombox blasting Nine Inch Nails screaming: THIS! IS! GERARD!!!! BUTLER!!! ROOOOAAAARRRR! Personally, I would have just shut the door in his face, but some folks are mesmerized by six-packs.

Other than that scenario, which I think is the most plausible, there really hasn't been another straight up action/thriller option for manly men who don't watch baseball or football in awhile. I know Surrogates, but come on. People like Jamie Foxx, they like Gerard Butler. It was well placed to scoop up the target demographic.

Brett Beach: An opening north of $20 million? Very surprising . Here are my three key theories: 1) Everyone kept hearing it pitched as Saw meets something something (Law and Order or Taken were referenced a lot) and the women thought, "Ooh, it's Saw but with more hunky people at the core," while the men observed, "Dude, it's going to be like Taken but more violent." Voila! A de facto date movie that pleases both genders is born. 2) A male variation on the Halle Berry/Swordfish gambit where a brief hyped nude scene is worth at least a few million more in box office. I don't know how much Butler laid on the line, but it got mentioned in a number of reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. 3) F. Gary Gray's fanbase is a lot larger than people remembered and they have been patiently biding their time since Be Cool.

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