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Scott Lumley: I don't think crowds head out to movies like the Pink Panther expecting a lot of highbrow entertainment. That said, the trailers for this looked god awful. The sequence where Clouseau dangles the attacking karate kids over the balcony showed promise, but that was demolished the by the buffoonery so prevalent in the rest of the trailer.

What's truly terrifying about this film is the fact that Martin has a writing credit here! What exactly would he write for a film like this and why would you want credit for it? (I'm unsure of the answer to the first question, but I'm fairly certain that the answer to the second question is "yet another paycheck".)

Sean Collier: Everybody ready for the most obscure reference of the week? This "franchise" reminds me of the late-'90s Mr. Magoo movie with Leslie Nealson in literally every way. The difference, of course, is that as funny as Leslie Nealson can be, he's not exactly a respected artist, so second-rate slapstick kids movies make sense for him. At this point, two halves of Steve Martin are vying for dominance, and recently, the evil one is winning. As to why this one flopped, again, don't look at results for Steve Martin movies; look for results for live-action kiddie comedies. This one performs about with expectations.

Jason Lee: What really surprises me about this opening is the fact that the first Pink Panther had some really great box office legs. It turned a $20 million opening into a $80 million gross. To me, this says that audiences (for some incomprehensible reason) really enjoyed this film.

I honestly thought that the sequel (based on the trailer and commercials) looked to have the same sort of quality as the first (meaning, awful) and based on that, I would have assumed that 2 would have at least come close to 1's opening weekend, using the theory that "if you guys liked it when it was bad the first time, you won't be very disappointed on the second go round." Color me surprised...but pleasantly so.

Jamie Ruccio: Karma was not happy with that trailer. My fear when I saw the commercials was that it would appeal to kids and they would prop up this movie. Thankfully, they didn't. That trailer took IQ points from my meager stash. It was loathsomely stupid.

Next, on a very special episode of Heroes...

Kim Hollis: Push, the super-powered action drama from Summit Entertainment, opened to $10.2 million. Should the Twilight distributors be happy with this result?

Brandon Scott: Depending on the budget, I actually think yes. I think this got what it could out of a situation with no box office draws and perhaps a difficult concept to sell. I was intrigued by this title after seeing a pretty strong preview/review in Empire a few months back. It sounds like it didn't quite live up to the intrigue, but I am still borderline interested. Just now, it becomes a video title at best. But you know, I think Chris Evans is actually a better actor than he is given credit for. He earned my respect in the little seen '05 film London and he has a nice little career going for him. But poor Djimon, I mean, he was big in Amistad and Gladiator, among others, but with Never Back Down and this movie, he seems to be reduced to less interesting roles for a guy like him.

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