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I wonder if Tony Stark made her suit

Kim Hollis: Iron Lady, featuring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, expanded from 5 to 802 venues this weekend, earning $5.4 million over the three-day portion of the weekend. What do you think of this result?

Brett Beach: This is probably about $5 million more than a Thatcher biopic would have made in the States with anybody else playing the controversial leader. Streep's performance is the only uniting factor I gather from the mostly disparaging reviews and continued award wins over the next month will keep it in the public eye, giving it anywhere between $20-$30 million when all is said and done.

Bruce Hall: I think it takes more than Meryl Streep with a British accent to make a good movie. But I also think (Fox Mulder conspiracy mode engaged) that the primary concern with this release was to beat the 2011 Oscar Fodder Deadline by 48 hours, quality of story be damned. The Iron Lady has already covered the production budget overseas, Meryl Streep will obtain her 17th Oscar nomination, water is wet, the sky is blue, death and taxes. All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again. So say we all.

Matthew Huntley: I saw The Iron Lady over the weekend and indeed its box-office expansion is more impressive than its content, but I don't expect its success to last long. Word-of-mouth will catch up and although the film can be considered informative and educational, it's not entertaining or fulfilling. Yes, Streep did take home the Golden Globe (and she's as good as she always is), but that's as far as its awards will go.

Max Braden: In a head-to-head against The Queen on paper, I'd expect them to be even. Elizabeth is a higher profile persona, and more current, but Streep is the higher profile actress with more role to play with. The release pattern wasn't quite the same - The Queen was in hundreds of theaters through November and December before expanding to almost 1,600 sites in mid January 2006, at which time it had accumulated $35 million. It went on to earn over $56 million, which I don't think Thatcher can match. I think that's largely due to a weak push in getting it in front of audiences early enough to be considered for guild nominations. The Golden Globes might give it a little boost now, though.

Kim Hollis: The Queen was also universally considered to be good, while The Iron Lady...is not. I mean, The Queen is 97% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes versus The Iron Lady's 55%. For regular openers, I don't always think reviews matter, but they certainly do for prestige films.

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