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Kim Hollis: What percentage of the credit for the success of this film do you give to Seth Rogen, Zac Efron and the concept?

Jay Barney: I think Rogen and the concept deserve some credit....not sure how much of a draw Zac Efron is.

Edwin Davies: I don't think you can separate Efron and Rogen, since I think a large part of the appeal for the film lies in seeing two such different performers with such diametrically opposed careers/personas/appearances being pitted directly against each other. I also think that if you were to sub either of them out for a different actor (imagine, say, a version of Neighbors that is Zac Efron vs. Jason Segel or Seth Rogen vs. Liam Hemsworth) the film wouldn't have opened nearly as well, because both actors come with certain expectations attached to them and seeing them subtly subvert them (as Rogen does by playing a young father, which is a different role for him) is part of the fun. I also think that having them together adds legitimacy to Efron playing a real prick in an R-rated comedy, something That Awkward Moment, which made half of Neighbors' opening weekend in its entire run, lacked. Even though Rogen is the bigger draw and is coming off one of his biggest successes in This Is the End, the sheer size of this opening weekend owes something to who he was paired up with/against. Basically, I don't think you can say either actor was more directly responsible for this result; the success is dependent on these specific actors and their separate appeals to different audiences.

That plays into the importance of the concept as well. It's easy to imagine plenty of combinations of actors being slotted into the Rogen/Efron roles and the film still doing well, but hard to imagine any that would work exactly as well as this one did.

Matthew Huntley: It's hard to say for me personally, because Seth Rogen has grown increasingly obnoxious/redundant over the years, so he wouldn't be the reason I would go and see Neighbors (in fact, he kind of deters me from it), while Zac Efron I could either take or leave (he hasn't really proven himself a strong performer; but on the flip side, he hasn't proven himself a weak one, either). Their names, faces and reputations definitely played a role, but I think Edwin said it best that there are plenty of combinations of young actors that would have yielded the same result. Percentage-wise, I'd give Rogen 30% of the credit (since he thrives in raunchy comedies) and Efron 20% (who will no doubt now be cast in future raunchy comedies).

Bruce Hall: I'm going with another Wedding Crashers comparison, since Wedding Crashers is awesome and I relish any chance to refer to said awesomeness.

I think the simple premise and the dynamic between the leads is what makes this work. Of course in the case of Wedding Crashers, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn stayed pretty much within their respective comfort zones. Here, Rogen and Efron mix things up a bit and play off each other very nicely. The trailers were hilarious and as a child of the ‘80s, it absolutely delights me that the antagonists are jerky frat boys.

Most R-rated comedies that do this well do so because for whatever combination of reasons, they're just what America needed at the time. I believe that to be the case now, and I'm pretty sure I speak for everyone when I say that if I still bought movies in physical form, Neighbors would eventually take its rightful place on the Shelf of Glory in my Man Cave.

Max Braden: I'd give a large majority of the weight to the premise. The movie was originally called Townies. Local residents have always clashed with frats and loud college aged neighbors, all over the country. And I think what the trailer offered was the potential for escalating pranks played on the stuck up married couple. I suspect most of the audience was college aged guys living vicariously through Efron to see how they could get back at people trying to ruin their fun. Of course, *I* say that as someone 20 years out of college...

Kim Hollis: While I think that the concept is a big part of the reason this film succeeded, I also think that a different combination of stars would have brought about an entirely different result. People keep saying they’re tired of Seth Rogen, but This Is the End and now Neighbors seem to belie those statements. I think people *are* tired of seeing him play an annoying burnout. But when he subverts those expectations and plays against type, he suddenly becomes a lot more interesting. And Efron was a perfect foil. The fact that the audience was 53% female is probably at least a decent indicator that he was a draw here. I really admire that both actors totally played against type. This wasn’t a “safe” film for either of them, really.

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