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Pete Kilmer: I think it's a huge hit and a lot of the reasoning for that is the promotion machine known as The Rock. From his WWE days when he was starting to become a huge star he learned a huge lesson there from Vince McMahon...promote, promote, promote. Need to generate ticket sales for a WWE PPV...send the Rock. Need to generate sales for house shows...put The Rock on the phone to the local radio stations. He was there for every signing, promotion and personal appearance that would help generate ticket sales along with dvd sales and cd record sales. When he was approached by Disney to do some cross-promotion on the TV network he jumped at the chance for a week or so Disney TV was The Rock network as he guest starred on a ton of shows. Rock knows how to promote and if the team behind a project want it to succeed you can't do worse than send The Rock out to shill it. Plus the other factor is that The Rock knew he had to have a hit with this film to prove that his salary for the films are justified.

David Mumpower: Obviously, this is a clear cut hit. Disney has figured out a way to recycle a recent hit in The Pacifier, which earned $113 million, without doing a sequel per se. They swapped out Vin Diesel for The Rock (an upgrade, by the way), and it allowed for a better brand of family storytelling. Duane Johnson is more multifaceted than Diesel, whom I also like, because he can swap out from tough guy to humorist in the blink of an eye. This was a smart project, and its success has seemed like a foregone conclusion since its announcement.

People like George Clooney. Is this still news to anyone outside of Fox News?

Kim Hollis: Michael Clayton platformed to 2,511 sites while grossing an estimated $11 million. What are we to take from this result?

Reagen Sulewski: I think it's really tough to sell thrillers where no one gets shot in the trailer these days. I think this is an okay result for a movie that's one long slow burn, even with Clooney in the lead. It's the kind of film that's going to have to build based on quality, which I think it will be able to do.

David Mumpower: What I take from this is that it's a better performance than The Insider ($6.7 million), a better weekend than Good Night, and Good Luck ever had, and a total on a par with Syriana's $11.7 million. The question with this title is less about how it does in its first week of wide release but rather how well it holds up from here. The glowing reviews help (it's 90% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes), but is this a title for mainstream audiences? I'm just not sure. I hope so.

We Own the Night? Doesn't that sound like a Sting album?

Kim Hollis: We Own the Night opened to an estimated $11 million. Is this result better or worse than you expected?

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