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Shalimar Sahota: In line with expectations to me. Sure, it's lower than what Toy Story 3 opened to last year, but that had a built in audience that had been growing for over a decade. I'd be more worried if Cars 2 opened below $60 million. Even with the overly negative reviews, this is still going to end up a winner for Pixar.

Jim Van Nest: Of the Pixar films, Cars is the one (well, 2 now) that is specifically geared toward the kids. $66 million for a kid flick is outstanding, no matter how you look at it. I don't think you can compare to Toy Story 3, just because they're from the same studio. They're not the same film and they're not trying to be. I don't see how Pixar can be anything but thrilled with this result, especially considering the fact that it's been slammed pretty hardcore from the day it was announced.

Reagen Sulewski: The narrow band that Pixar releases exist in for opening weekend is remarkable for its consistency, and puzzling in that it's held more or less fast for 12 years while ticket prices have gone through the roof. So when we're talking about a film that few adults felt any passion for, and perhaps felt some dread over for all the toys they'd have to buy as a result, you can't help but conclude that this is right on the money for them. This will all end up being a rounding error once the merchandising money rolls in, though. Congratulations, Pixar, you are now George Lucas.

David Mumpower: Tim and Edwin are absolutely correct when they state that Toy Story is the anomalous franchise. Toy Story 2 was a record setter for its time and Toy Story 3 is the outlier in terms of opening weekend box office, final domestic box office and overall global take. Toy Story is the defining license in the Pixar catalog. The surprise is that Cars has become 1A to Toy Story in terms of revenue generation. The difference is that the box office capital earned by Cars 2 is almost insignificant to the bottom line for this franchise. The original Cars earned $461 million worldwide. That's roughly 7% (!) of the total earnings of Cars to date; the other 93% comes from merchandising. So, whatever Cars 2 did this weekend is a curiosity more than anything else. The one aspect of this that bears consideration that Kim Hollis pointed out to me is how many children's tickets factor into this, even by Pixar and other animated children's films. Boys under 10 comprised 30% of our viewing audience. That's probably a larger skew than the national average, but the target demographic for Cars 2 is quite possibly the younger ever for a movie earning north of $50 million. I am reminded of the opening weekend of Pokemon in this regard. Is $68 million a good enough result given these considerations? Clearly yes.

Do you like cash? Sure, we all do.

Kim Hollis: Are you okay with Pixar doing a blatantly commercial film like Cars 2 if its merchandising pays for much more ambitious projects like WALL-E, Up and next year's Brave? Or do you think they damage the brand with such a transparent sell-out film?

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