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The only way this movie was going to succeed this weekend was if it had been called "Football Gamer"

Kim Hollis: Gamer, the videogames-come-to-life action film starring Gerard Butler, opened to $9.2 million. Should Lionsgate be pleased with this result?

Josh Spiegel: I'd say so. Considering that Gamer opened to a bit under the opening weekend take of Crank, the debut film from the two guys who spearheaded this film, it's not too bad. Gamer, like Crank and Crank 2, is a movie that will most likely thrive on DVD and Blu-ray. Still, the main disadvantage here is that the marketing was relatively slight; I wonder if a stronger push could have gotten Gamer more dollars.

Pete Kilmer: Yeah it's a solid take for a movie that will disappear in a week or so and then get replayed endlessly on TNT. If nothing else it keeps Gerard Butler's name out there.

Sean Collier: I'm not sure what they could've done differently, so I'd call it solid. A more intriguing title, perhaps; it's currently doing battle on the marquee with Shorts and Extract to see which of the three can be the least descriptive.

Reagen Sulewski: When you throw out a movie that's based on scary technology used for nefarious purposes, you're immediately cutting off a huge portion of your audience that doesn't even know what you're talking about. The mass-media angle didn't help either, as people just don't care about that kind of thing, and then it then got dressed up as EXPLOSION!: The Movie. It's amazing it did this well.





Kim Hollis: It had a tiny budget, which tells us that the movie's writer/directors can create pretty slick-looking stuff on a shoestring amount. I think it did about as well as could be hoped.

David Mumpower: I have to say that I thought the ads for this movie made it look night and day better than it had sounded on paper. I expected it to win the weekend, meaning it failed to live up to my expectations. A single digits result for a videogame-related action film doesn't scream success to me under any circumstance. People just don't care about Gerard Butler.

So far, we know that he's a brutal guy who can win a boss fight and a romantic hun. What's next for our hero?

Kim Hollis: Where does Gerard Butler stand as a box office draw at this point?

Josh Spiegel: I think he's still somewhere in the Eric Bana range; Bana was a guy who, for a couple of years, was shoved down people's throats as the next Russell Crowe, for example; in the past year, he's chosen two roles where he played a supporting character with some kind of quirk, as opposed to the dour leading man. I think Butler could still break out, but it depends on the kind of project he chooses; also, I'm not so sure that any of the movies he's been in that were successful could have their success attributed to him. 300 does well with or without Butler. The Ugly Truth does, I bet, relatively the same with or without him. I think he has potential; first, though, he's either got to work on his American accent or stick to his native tongue.

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