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Tim Briody: Quite a bit has to do with the fact that it came next to last in the Summer of Three-quels, and that it doesn't suck.

Shane Jenkins: Yeah, aside from shakycam-phobes, I don't know anyone who hasn't called it one of the high points of the summer.

Jim Van Nest: I think one other thing that bodes well for Bourne is the audience. While it definitely has its fanboys that had to see it opening night, the crowd skews a little older for these films and those people are in no big hurry to rush to theaters and in a lot of cases prefer to wait until the hype dies down so they can be in a less crowded theater. I haven't seen Bourne Ultimatum yet, but my wife and I will see it in theaters, we just see no big rush and would prefer a more empty quiet place to enjoy it. It would appear we're not alone.

Dan Krovich: Of course, I saw it opening night in a sold out theater and there wasn't a peep the entire time. In a time when movie theater etiquette is often lacking, it was somewhat of an anomaly to have absolutely zero annoyances at all. Either the audience was so taken in by the movie that they were completely silent or else I was so taken in that I didn't notice.

Max Braden: It's a great movie that holds up to repeat viewings for a fairly broad audience, with little competition.

We want our Blackadder movie!

Kim Hollis: Mr. Bean's Holiday, the sequel to the 1997 worldwide blockbuster Bean, surprised almost everyone by being the most popular of the four new openers this weekend, earning $10.1 million. How did this happen?

Reagen Sulewski: There's a real dearth of family options out there right now, and Mr. Bean is a really well known name, although not as much as it is outside the U.S. I suppose it's the inoffensive choice out there right now. The only reason I didn't expect this to do well is because it looked absolutely terrible compared not just to other family films, but the previous Bean film.

Dan Krovich: I think the character's popularity flies somewhat under the radar. It's had huge grosses overseas so I think that pointed to the fact that the character still maintained fairly good relevance with the fans that were around when the first Bean movie was released.

Shane Jenkins: There is nothing else for young children to see at this point, with the tanking of Daddy Day Camp and the underwhelming Underdog fading fast. Bean's G rating means it's safe for kids, and parents, who probably know Rowan Atkinson from his more adult work, might think there's something there for them to enjoy as well (whether or not that's actually the case).

David Mumpower: It's funny but we harped upon the impact of Rush Hour 2's positive recollection with consumers influencing them toward Rush Hour 3 while allowing the original Mr. Bean's success to slide under the radar a bit. That's a 1997 release that had an opening weekend of $12.7 million and final domestic receipts of $45.3 million. Those numbers inflation adjust to an $18.8 million opening and $67.0 million in box office. Against a budget of only $22 million and at a time when marketing costs were much, much lower, it was a nice, solid hit for now-defunct distributor Gramercy Pictures. Ten years later, some of the people who enjoyed its Charlie Chaplin-esque slapstick innocence were clearly willing to give a sequel a chance. $10.1 million means about half of the people who enjoyed the original came back. That has to feel like a win for its domestic distributor, Universal Pictures.

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