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Brett Beach: Bruce frakkin' Willis or no, I would like to think that Helen Mirren with machine guns was at least equally responsible for a respectable opening. As much as I love Willis, it was really the teaming up of lecherous Morgan Freeman, crazy John Malkovich, wide-eyed Mary-Louise Parker, and my favorite Dame as his team that got me excited about this. Making back its budget (only $58 million? All involved deserve kudos for making that happen) seems highly likely although I would be surprised, even with critic kudos and good word-of-mouth if this makes it to a 3.0 final multiplier. To finally come around to the question(s): This will not be Summit's biggest non-Twilight hit (though a sequel could be...) and no we aren't dousing this with too much praise. I was expecting mid teens opening myself.

Joshua Pasch: I'm not saying they're the same film or anything, but Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman played opposite each other (along with Ben Kingsley, Lucy Liu, and Josh Hartnett) only a few years back in Lucky Number Slevin. Both are hyper violent films and have a starry if somewhat older cast. Slevin, however, opened to a measly $7 million. I think the difference here is Red features Helen Mirren (greater than the sum of Liu, Kingsley, and Hartnett?), had a solid marketing campaign, and, from what I'm hearing at least, it is the better movie (though I'm a fan of Slevin).

I think this has to be considered a success (though not a breakout film). If it has legs I'd be impressed - I haven't seen the demo split on this one but I'm not sure my grandmother is going to see it, even if she likes Morgan Freeman. In the end it'll be profitable for Summit, which is more than they can say for most of their outings outside of Twilight.

Also: I think its worth noting how invaluable those clutch "wow" moments are in a movie trailer touting action. Knowing opened to $24 million on the strength of that shot of the plane going down in the trailer. Likewise, I think Red owes fair amount to the image of Bruce Willis casually getting out of that spinning car; that and Helen Mirren.

Reagen Sulewski: Except Bruce Willis has not been Bruce Freaking Willis for some time now. The only thing that he's gotten people to be excited about him in the last, let's say five years, is a tepid Die Hard sequel. Time will tell if this can get over $60 million, but it's the best positive sign for his career that he's had in a long time.

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