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Are you afraid of the Mist?

Kim Hollis: The latest Stephen King adaptation, The Mist, failed to garner the same success as summer hit 1408. It earned $13 million over five days. The rare horror film with good reviews, The Mist seemed like a likely box office hit. Why hasn't that occurred?

Pete Kilmer: Because it looked like people stuck in a quickie mart. And with no real name stars in it, that didn't help it.

Max Braden: Its competition was probably Hitman, which did better. Looking back over the past few years, Thanksgiving hasn't featured a horror thriller except for the Saw movies, released at Halloween. Bad timing for the genre.

Kim Hollis: The timing is almost certainly an element - once again, compromise films are the movies that perform best over the Thanksgiving holiday. I also have to believe that people just thought it looked a little cheesy. I'm interested in seeing it because I know Darabont's track record, but the commercials just didn't present it in a positive light - especially the ones that showed the "creatures".

David Mumpower: I believe the explanation is much more straightforward in nature. 1408 was a claustrophobic, psychological horror thriller, the types of which we hadn't seen for a long time. The Mist, on the other hand, suffered from what I would call Dark Water syndrome. Neither the name nor the premise sounds scary. Audiences are so burnt out on horror by now that if a title can't claim one of those positives, it's in a world of hurt (no pun intended).

Will The Road be so popular?

Kim Hollis: No Country for Old Men, the Coen brothers release from Miramax, platformed into 860 venues, earning $8.1 million. With a grand total of $16.6 million so far, what does the future hold for this release?

Max Braden: A slight bump from end of the year Top Ten lists and ultimately some Oscar nods.

Kim Hollis: I think it has to be considered a big success so far, and will almost certainly ride a number of Oscar nominations to a solid total. At this point, I think it is the leading - if not only - Best Picture contender.

David Mumpower: I think it's going to get major end-of-year awards attention, but its Oscar options will be limited due to the uber-violent nature of the title. The Unforgivens of the Academy Awards are few and far between. Its box office rewards are going to be about what I would expect from a Coen Brothers release with this sort of reviews.

Kim Hollis: The Departed was plenty uber-violent. In a year with little to no competition, I'm not sure that sort of thing matters as much as it might in years with more plentiful contenders.

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