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Sean Collier: I don't think Cage really affected things one way or another; any mid-tier star would've pulled in the same result, I'd say. Disaster movies - especially movies that promise a multitude of disasters - sell themselves. I'm a bit surprised that it pulled down number one, and it might've done better over a holiday weekend, as Max mentioned; but I think this is a very solid result for the project, and, as Jason mentioned, another strong showing from Summit.

Kim Hollis: I just have no idea what distinguishes this movie from every other crappy-looking Nic Cage movie that we've gotten over the past few years. I mentioned to someone a few weeks ago that since Cage seems to have a success like every third movie, that should mean that Knowing (I actually had to look through the thread to remember the title) would be a hit. This should mean that Kick-Ass - or whatever his next movie on the schedule is - will fail miserably, even with its comic book roots.

David Mumpower: I think Tim's point about Next is well considered as I have no idea what the differentiation from Knowing is intuited to be. But I strongly disagree with Max's assertion that Mario Lopez would have meant just as much to the movie's bottom line. As we have discussed a lot (Cage has a new movie out every three months, it seems), North American audiences seem to have a natural recognition of Cage's works. They can readily distinguish the wheat from the chaff, and this seemed like a more exciting Cage property than normal. Because of this, it drew a decent percentage of the National Treasure opening weekend crowd.

Confound it!

Kim Hollis: How impressive a feat is it that a director as confounding as Proyas has had three hits on the scale of The Crow, I Robot and Knowing?

Jason: I find it interesting that it's taken 20 years for Proyas to churn out five movies. With that said, I respect him for what he's done. He's got a good eye for creating stories in which layers of reality get peeled back, one by one. I'm glad that a thoughtful director like him can find box-office success, even if it's not always at the level of his masterpiece, Dark City.

Brandon Scott: I don't know that I find this feat particularly impressive. Taking the three titles individually: we have The Crow which didn't do huge business, but had the added "bonus" of a hot actor dying during the shoot (akin to Ledger with The Dark Knight on a smaller scale), I, Robot had the biggest movie star on the planet, and Knowing has the divisive Cage in the lead, where he either hits big or misses badly, it seems. So, as a body of work, there is nothing truly telling in terms of Proyas' ability in particular through these titles and results. I enjoyed The Crow to some extent and Dark City, but I don't see these results indicative of his abilities/sensibilities any more than the same would apply to anyone else with the same actors and circumstances involved. A convoluted answer, but accurate to me nevertheless.

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