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Kim Hollis: I think the number is fine, though with a $100 million budget the film still has some work to do domestically. It probably suffers some from the tethering - whether justified or not - to American Hustle. People seem to prefer one or the other. Additionally, since all of the Christmas releases performed well below expectations, Wolf of Wall Street might be suffering from negative association there as well. Depending on what Oscar nominations look like, it could hang around for a bit. I hesitate to call this a disappointment since the story is such that I think it has a limited audience to begin with.

Kim Hollis: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty made $8 million this weekend, and has a total since Christmas day of $45.5 million. What do you think of this result?

Felix Quinonez: I feel like Walter Mitty should have dominated the family movie crowds. This seemed like the sort of movies families would want to see on Christmas and I feel like a lot of money was left on the table. Unlike Wolf of Wall Street, which will most likely get a lot of awards attention that might lead to strong Legs, Mitty should have made a lot of of its money during the holiday period because after new year I think this movie will pretty much disappear.

Edwin Davies: This is a pretty mediocre result considering that the film was billed as a very broadly appealing dramedy, one that should have taken advantage of the holiday to become the family film of choice. In the end, though, I think the ads didn't really put the plot across strongly enough, and the reviews were middling so it couldn't overcome the lackluster marketing, paving the way for it to be steamrolled by Frozen.

Max Braden: Agreed, on paper (from the release date, scope, and trailer), this should have been performing better. I would have expected it to perform like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button due to the fantasy, globetrotting, and romance. Button opened at Christmas time in 2008 to the same number of theaters but earned over double what Mitty has in each of its first two weekends. Maybe Stiller and Wiig aren't the heartthrobs that Pitt and Blanchett were, but the reason I failed to respond to Mitty's trailer was because it just looks like they're trying too hard to make the movie precious. So he daydreams, so what? Other than some nifty visuals, I can see audiences wondering why they should go see the movie. The movie is also bound to struggle in awards season because it's not included in the Golden Globes or major Guild awards lists.

Kim Hollis: I think Max has hit upon the key problem for Mitty - it just looks overly saccharine and precious. Stiller's a likable guy, but the frat pack as a whole (other than Will Ferrell in Anchorman) seems to be seeing its popularity wane. I think a lot of them should look at some alternate possibilities, like Owen Wilson with a planned Starz TV series. It's like everyone got weary of them all at once. Mitty had some interesting stuff happening in the trailer, but it's one of those things that feels like Spike Jonze ought to be directing it.

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