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Studios should institute a box office fight to the death. Of course, Rainn Wilson would totally be out right now.

Kim Hollis: Universal's Death Race, starring Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibson and Joan Allen, opened to $12.6 million. Do you think this result is good, bad or indifferent?

Reagen Sulewski: It's no Transporter sequel, I guess, but it's better than a couple of Statham films have done lately, namely War and The Bank Job (with Statham's mistake with the latter being to actually make a good movie for once). The focus of these films is largely on the rental market, so in terms of not being a big embarrassing bomb, it's done its job.

Max Braden: I'm still boggling at what Joan Allen was doing in this. Did she look at the script and say "ah, so it's a thinking man's Running Man"? Even more surprising than her casting is that I think it won't even hurt her for her next feature. While we're on this genre, I'll note that I rented Wesley Snipes' direct to video The Art of War 2 this weekend. Please Mr. Statham, don't head down this path.

Pete Kilmer: For a schlock film that is a remake of a schlock classic, I think it's fine. This will make tons of money overseas and in the North American rental market. And it allows Joan Allen a chance to play a role she otherwise would never get a chance to play and not get hurt by it career-wise.

Kim Hollis: I think it might be a mildly disappointing opening, but not too much so. I'm a little surprised that the trailer didn't bring in more of the Fast and the Furious-type crowd, but I do think it appears to be solidly in line with what we expect from Statham these days.





David Mumpower: For a project that has been rumored for most of my adult life (and I'm old enough to remember a time before cell phones), this seems like a largely abandoned movie. I thought the trailer was pretty good but tracking down a commercial for it was like looking for a needle in Haystack Calhoun.

Daron Aldridge: Joan Allen's mortgage company must be getting ready to foreclose because she apparently really needed the money. The subprime mortgage crisis claims another victim. The lack of a character named Frankenstein was this one's downfall. It avoided the campiness and gave us a pretty generic looking action film that looks like The Running Man in cars minus the bodybuilders, wrestlers, football players and Hogan's Heroes alumni.

Brandon Scott: I thought that this film had bigger numbers in mind, so its a bit of a downer. I like Statham but these types of roles are just cookie-cutter for him and Black Ty aka Baby Boy aka Tyrese. Statham needs to keep trying to help Guy Ritchie get his mojo back and that is when I will be happiest. He's a consistent earner now with audiences but has yet to take that next step and quite frankly, he has had more than his fare share of chances. Al Swearengen, the great Deadwood character played by Ian McShane who co-stars here, would probably have some choice words for this one.

Scott Lumley: I think this performance is sucktacular. This film looks like it might have actually cost a fair amount of coin to make, so a $12 million dollar opening weekend is brutal. The window for this one might have passed.

Jason Lee: It's ahead of War (last year's August release starring Statham) but slightly behind Transporter 2 (ditto but for 2005). I think Death Race's weekend is pretty standard and consistent for Statham. That is, it's as standard and consistent as you can be with a movie named Death Race.

Sean Collier: I don't have anything to add, but I worked three shifts this weekend at the local multiplex. Once on each night, someone asked me "What's Death Race about?" I couldn't help but answer, "Well, it's about this death race, mostly."

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