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Jason Lee: A Miyazaki film is never going to be a "must-see-opening-weekend" film . . . especially one such as Ponyo, which will skew younger than his last three films. I really was hoping for a gross higher than $5 million but that was probably out of the question. I just hope that more people see this film in the weeks to come - it certainly deserves an audience.

Reagen Sulewski: It's about twice as much as any Miyazaki film has ever earned in a single weekend, so that's something.

David Mumpower: The real story is its inevitable battle with Up for the Best Animated Feature prize at the Oscars, but Reagen is right about this result. Miyazaki is far from a household name in North America, but his reputation has clearly grown in the gap since Spirited Away. This is particularly impressive since the only release Studio Ghibli has had in that time frame is the least of their releases, Howl's Moving Castle. On a sidenote, Ponyo is highly recommended viewing as it is tender, G-rated family fun. We don't get enough of that these days.

At least they have the Twilight franchise

Kim Hollis: Bandslam, the new film starring Vanessa Hudgens from Summit Entertainment, opened outside the top 12 with a weekend total of $2.2 million. Why did it fail?

Josh Spiegel: Obviously, Vanessa Hudgens just doesn't have the same appeal as Zac Efron does. She's really the only selling point for this movie; what's more, if having a new trailer for New Moon doesn't get people in the seats (or at least buying tickets and walking out after the trailer), I'm not sure anything does.





Scott Lumley: Was this just a direct-to-video film that just opened above its station?

Eric Hughes: Where's Miley Cyrus when you need her?

Jason Lee: I guess people just aren't inclined to spend $12 on a film that looks like it should have gone straight to DVD.

Reagen Sulewski: This is already becoming a cautionary tale in Hollywood circles about its marketing campaign, which for my part, had one of the worst posters I can recall, and a horrible title (probably recycled from some long lost Frankie Avalon and Annette Funnicello movie). But hey, we might get a new Vanessa Hudgens "scandal" out of this.

David Mumpower: We already did, Reagen. New photos showed up last week. As for the production budget, it's around $20 million. There isn't any good news here for the kind folks at Summit Entertainment. What they have accidentally done here is create an instant cult classic, because reviews and word-of-mouth on Bandslam are exceptional. It just got drowned out by the zealous support of District 9. People are going to find Bandslam on the home video market and they're going to wonder why they never heard anything about its theatrical release. This was poorly handled. There is just no sugar coating it.

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