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Matthew Huntley: Bruce, along with Mansquito, they can also bring Sharktopus to the big screen. What a great double feature that would be.

To answer Kim's question, though, a near $12 million opening is acceptable for a movie like Skyline, especially when you consider how much of a disaster it could have been. And speaking of being a disaster, isn't it that characteristic of Skyline that makes it look entertaining? It was marketed as a B movie, and I doubt the filmmakers even thought it was going to be as highly regarded as Independence Day or District 9, so I think audiences are going to try and enjoy this movie for what it is, and I think it will have enough of an audience to be considered a success.

Edwin Davies: Considering how bad people are saying this movie is*, I'd say that $11.8 million is pretty great for Skyline. Even though there are conflicting reports about how much the film cost, most agree that it probably made its budget back by Sunday, and even if its legs get beamed up out from under it next week it it'll all be profit. Factor in worldwide numbers and it'll wind up being a moderate success all round and justify a stupid, stupid sequel.

*Though I'm not sure yet whether the consensus is that it's just bad or so bad it's good, what I've read about the ridiculous ending suggests that it starts at the former and ends at the latter. Seriously, look it up on Wikipedia. We're talking Orphan-level crazy.

Shalimar Sahota: This was a straight-to-DVD movie with actors you've barely heard of, special effects that just don't look so special anymore, and it miraculously got a cinema release and did better than expected. To be fair, I thought the marketing trailers, ending on a clump of people screaming while being risen up to a mothership, were frighteningly good. It also sounds like those trailers sold a number of people expecting an action packed alien invasion, since some reviews highlight how the film actually stays in a condo building most of the time.

Michael Lynderey: Considering this movie just sort of mysteriously appeared on the release schedule a few months ago, and was apparently never intended to be a blockbuster, I'd say this number is more than sufficient. These low-budget "mystery projects" have a spotty track record, and it's on a rare occasion that they end up being a Cloverfield or a Paranormal Activity. Sometimes, precisely because so little is known about these films, box office forecasters dare to dream big on them (and I myself briefly entertained the possibility that Skyline would make $100 million), but reality usually sets in, Snakes on a Plane-style. As for the movie itself, it's probably those fairly sturdy similarities to the Clover film that kept it from breaking out.

Reagen Sulewski: It's funny how last week we were wondering if the concept of star power was dead, when here we have a film that badly needed some star power. This is exactly the kind of effects-driven spectacular that could and has opened July 4th to ridiculous numbers. Forget the bad reviews - if you can convince, say, John Cusack or Christian Bale to appear in this, your opening weekend triples. Now, it's something of an achievement that they got this film out there on such a small budget, but it's still a blown opportunity in some respects.

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