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But is it the Last Song? Is it really?

Kim Hollis: The Last Song opened to $16.0 million over the weekend and has earned $25.4 million since Wednesday. Be honest. This is a lot more than you expected, isn't it?

Josh Spiegel: Oh, not really. I mean, I wish that this film had flopped, and flopped hard. But it's a perfect confluence of factors. Who loves Nicholas Sparks novels? Teenage girls. Who loves Miley Cyrus? Teenage girls. Who loves Nicholas Sparks and Miley Cyrus? I'd answer, but it'd be drowned out by all of the teenage girls in the world spontaneously bursting into a high-pitched shriek of unadulterated glee. Just throw in a pale vampire, and the teenage world would have died of happiness.

Michael Lynderey: Well, since I predicted that The Last Song would have a $40 million five-day, this is actually a lot less than I expected. But it should be noted that I made my prediction in the haze of looking at Dear John's opening weekend numbers, and had assumed that a Sparks/Cyrus ticket was going to be even bigger than a Sparks/Seyfried combo, especially considering how well Hannah Montana did last year. Clearly, it's a bit more complicated than that - Dear John had the advantage of a pre-Valentine's Day frame, and while Miley Cyrus is a huge draw for a certain audience, she's the antithesis of that in other circles (Amanda Seyfried, on the other hand, is more neutral). As is, this is still an excellent stepping stone for Cyrus, and she's going to have a Lohan/Duff type career for at least a few years. That's especially true since she has absolutely no competition in the teen queen department - Emma Roberts seems to have dropped out of the race, Kristen Stewart is basically an indie star, and most other names are non-starters.





Tom Houseman: I'll admit that Miley's songs are pretty damn catchy, but that girl should not act. Does anybody know how many novels this Sparks fellow has published so that I can anticipate how many more commercials I'll have to see for weepy tearjerkers about teenagers? Last Song couldn't tap into as wide an audience as Dear John, but it's certainly an unqualified success.

Michael Lynderey: Nicholas Sparks is the proud author of no fewer than 16 books. Two of those are non-fiction, and six have already been made into films, so it's just eight to go.

Tom Houseman: I am weeping into my Cadbury cream eggs. I can only assume the next Sparks adaptation will star Justin Bieber.

Reagen Sulewski: What we're seeing here is what happens when a group of pessimists are proved wrong. I, like a lot of people, went high on this film after the rather inexplicable success of Dear John with the thought that Cyrus would be able to pull her ravenous fanbase along. And it's clear she did to some extent, but with no mention of either Hannah or Montana, that audience was probably also confused.

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