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Tim Briody: And I need to start paying more attention, as I don't remember Ryan Gosling being mentioned at all. Shouldn't the guy who scored a surprise Best Actor nomination deserve a mention?

Kim Hollis: Well, the commercials I saw had: "Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins...Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling." I thought he got pretty good attention. It was Academy Award nominee David Strathairn who seemed to get the shaft.

David Mumpower: I think most North American movie-going audiences know Ryan Gosling as the guy who is always getting photographed with Rachel McAdams.

Reagen Sulewski: I don't think you can expect audiences to really embraces two guys talking at each other for two hours.

Maybe if they had fought werewolves and a vampire autocracy...

David Mumpower: Continuing the theme of lousy new openers, Vacancy opened to $7.6 million from 2,551 venues. What was the biggest cause for this film's failure?

Tim Briody: Luke Wilson? Just saying.

Kim Hollis: It was a horror film with higher than 50% positive reviews at RottenTomatoes? Honestly, I think it just skewed a little too old for the typical horror crowd.

Reagen Sulewski: I don't think it quite knew what it was. It wasn't horror-skewing enough to get that crowd, but it shared enough of that to scare off the adult thriller crowd.

David Mumpower: Do you believe a younger cast would have led to a larger opening, Kim?

Kim Hollis: I think it was a combination of cast members in their 30s and a story that teens don't relate to.

David Mumpower: What if it had cast Martin Lawrence and Tim Allen instead?

Kim Hollis: $150 million!

It's A Subtle Blend of Lateral Thinking And Extreme Violence.

David Mumpower: There is some good news at the box office. Hot Fuzz, the British action spoof from the creators of Shaun of the Dead, made $5.8 million, which is comparatively better since it opened in only 825 venues. What do you think of this start?

Reagen Sulewski: I think that's a nice build on Shaun of the Dead's numbers. I'm not sure I see the Wright/Pegg/Frost trio ever breaking mainstream in the US (just too British), but they've got an excellent thing going here.

David Mumpower: Shaun of the Dead's per-venue average in its opening weekend was $5,487, so Team Spaced is well ahead of that pace, even allowing for inflation. A $25 million final tally doesn't seem that unreasonable to me. That's got to be considered a success since it would be almost double what Shaun of the Dead did ($13.5 million).

Kim Hollis: I think it might be slightly frontloaded this weekend due to fanboys like you and me rushing out to see it. I do think that after a decent run in North American theaters, it will do very well on video. And since it's already made $48 million overseas, the studios involved are surely very happy.

Tim Briody: Shawn of the Dead caught a big following among quite a few people I know on DVD, so I'm surprised it only opened in 825 theaters, but there is some nice potential word-of-mouth that could build over the next few weeks.

Reagen Sulewski: Hot Fuzz is one of those rare cases where the North American box office is the side show. It's already north of $50 million just in the UK.

David Mumpower: So, if I'm hearing everyone right, we like this performance and even if we didn't, we could never bring ourselves to bad-mouth Simon Pegg. Does that sound about right?

California, there he went.

David Mumpower: Our final new opener of the weekend is In the Land of Women, a romantic com-drama (new terminology!) starring Meg Ryan, Adam Brody and Kristen Stewart. The Warner Bros. release earned $4.9 million from 2,155 venues. What are your thoughts on this one?

Kim Hollis: My thoughts are that the studio dumped it and never expected much from it.

Reagen Sulewski: Adam Brody should invest his money wisely?

Tim Briody: He's not having a good year, that's for sure.

David Mumpower: It's time for Adam Brody to head back to the Gilmore Girls.

Tim Briody: That reunion with Lane might be a tad awkward.

Kim Hollis: Too bad Lane married and had babies with someone else.

David Mumpower: But he's a movie and television star now! At least, he used to be.

Reagen Sulewski: Also, remember when people liked Meg Ryan?

David Mumpower: Dennis Quaid must be loving this.

The. Big. Debate.

David Mumpower: Okay, let's get to the good stuff. We are 12 days away from Spider-Man 3. This release will be followed by Shrek 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End. These franchises include four of the ten most successful domestic releases of all time. Right now at this second, which film do you think does the best of the three?

Kim Hollis: Pirates.

Tim Briody: Shrek.

Reagen Sulewski: I have to say Spider-Man.

David Mumpower: Yikes, that leaves me with the deciding vote. Gee, look at the time...

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