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Felix Quinonez: I think the movie started out just ok but it has since recovered quite nicely. The movie has a small budget so it will scrape out a profit and no one will be hurt by its performance. But as far as Oscars go, I do think this one will be overlooked.

Matthew Huntley: This is more or less in line with expectations I'd say. I don't think anyone, including the execs at Disney, ever thought Saving Mr. Banks would be a blockbuster, but it's turning out to be a formidable performer, surpassing its modest $35 million production budget and eating into its marketing costs. I don't think it will show a profit until it hits the home market, but given its somewhat slow start, it was nice to see it bounce back. Seems like everyone is in agreement on this.

Bruce Hall: I think that when it comes to the Academy Awards conversation, Saving Mr Banks has been overshadowed somewhat by all the buzz surrounding American Hustle. Banks performed quite well in limited release and has since posted a tidy financial profit. But I don't see it breaking out of the pack when it comes time to hand out statues. This means that too narrowly focused marketing campaign everyone's talking about might be biting Disney in the ass right about...now.

Kim Hollis: I think the box office performance to date is fine if unexceptional. Considering the fact that it's highly suited to an older audience, I'm a little surprised it hasn't been a bit more significant. I get a vibe that people are weary of Tom Hanks even though his 2013 films have been top-notch with regards to reviews and word-of-mouth. I do think Emma Thompson is likely to be an Oscar contender, which may help propel the film to some extra box office it wouldn't have otherwise attained.

Kim Hollis: Walking With Dinosaurs, an animated film based off the documentary series from the BBC, earned $3.7 million this weekend. Its total so far is $31.3 million. Why wasn't there any interest in this project?

Brett Ballard-Beach: Hmmm. As a parent do you take your kids to Frozen for a second or third time (a film whose songs you're still humming by the way) or to a critically reviled feature where majestic looking creatures talk in anachronisms and make poop jokes?

Max Braden: I think it's similar to an uncanny valley thing. Animal adventures like Ice Age can pull kids in, but if the animals look realistic, it will just look like a nature documentary. Animated adventures can show the animals sliding down mountains and being chased in unlikely scenarios, which give at least some sense of the adventure. I didn't get any sense of the plot or a reason to get excited about the movie from the Walking With Dinosaurs trailer.

Edwin Davies: The Walking with Dinosaurs series was rightly celebrated as a groundbreaking attempt to recreate life before humanity existed, and the stage show has been thrilling people for years by giving them the chance to experience the sight of realistic dinosaurs in the flesh. Trying to make an animated kid's movie, complete with celebrity voices, from that material suggests that the people involved completely misunderstood the appeal of the brand. That they made a bad film doesn't help, and that they opened against a behemoth like Frozen only makes it worse, but I think there was a terrible miscalculation somewhere down the line which was never corrected.

Felix Quinonez: I think they misunderstood what made the documentaries popular in the first place. I haven't seen the movie but it looked terrible and judging by the reviews, it is. Because of this I think they helped make Frozen the go to family movie for the holidays. That had already been out for a while and Walking with Dinosaurs should have been a real challenge for it. Instead audiences caught on that dinosaurs was a stinker and stuck with Frozen.

Bruce Hall: Not only did someone misjudge the brand when they made this movie, but they also misjudged their audience. When it's all children, remember that when we're that young, we have the attention span of a fruit fly. An irresistibly compelling story with irresistibly compelling characters is absolutely essential. But some people think that kids will watch anything as long as its brightly animated, scatological humor marks the narrative highlights and (for some reason) all the talking animals are voiced by B or C list celebrities even their parents can't identify.

More than any audience on the planet, kids need to buy what you're selling or you're simply toast. Their parents will (rightly) blame you for the experience and before long, Facebook and Twitter will be aflame with curses to your name. Also, take a look at the theatrical posters for this movie, and then take a look at the ones for Frozen. Which would YOUR kids pick?

Kim Hollis: I actually wonder if someone at Fox thought something like, "Hey, Ice Age was a big hit, so why not do an adaptation of Walking With Dinosaurs but make it stylistically similar?" That someone entirely missed the point of why people liked the documentary mini-series in the first place. To me this movie feels like a cynical attempt to reach kids and parents by showcasing dinosaurs and poop jokes, and I'm glad that people saw through it for the most part.

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