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Michael Lynderey: I think it's a very good number. True, $25 million isn't a best case scenario by any means, but hey, it beat out The Bounty Hunter, right? Ideally, this should have been a summer release. As for legs - I'd normally peg those as being respectable at the least, but there's a real avalanche of comedies coming down the pike, even if they do target different demographics. A 3.0 multiplier or so seems very possible.

Daron Aldridge: Reagen, I agree that the awareness is huge with her Palin becoming Dana Carvey's George H. W. Bush because it is what people actually think the real person is like, but does an few minute impersonation of Palin really have any quantifiable value money-wise?

David Mumpower: In terms of this opening, it's almost exactly what I had expected. As Reagen notes, the film walks a fine line between the goodwill possessed by its two leads and the hostility evoked by the god-awful commercials. What amuses me about the entire review process is that it shows just how much bias there is. Had a currently disliked talent such as Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson or M. Night Shyamalan been involved, this would be getting scathing reviews. It's the very definition of a blah film with people largely unwilling to damn it because Fey does a funny Sarah Palin impression. People who watch this and All About Steve in succession would notice no difference in quality between the two yet one becomes a Worst of Year contender while the other is (laughably) 67% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes. I'm surprised they weren't given six Emmys on opening night as well.

Max Braden: In the middle of last week, I had settled on an expectation of low 20s, mostly because the trailers were running the jokes into the ground. I'd be interested in seeing the demographics for those numbers. Contrasted to The Bounty Hunter, Date Night is more of an old school comedian pairing in a movie that Steve Martin might have done 15-20 years ago. What Valentine's Day was for couples, Date Night may have been for a slightly older audience. If the movie was able to pull in people older than 30, I think that makes the $25 million more impressive.

David Mumpower: 60% of Date Night's customers were couples over 25. Among singles, it played almost 50/50 between men and women.

Jason Lee: Personally, I think that $25.2 million is a win. There aren't too many other comedians or comediennes that could have opened this movie with this premise in this range. I think what really helped this film is that you have two actors that you EXPECT to be funny. Doesn't matter if the trailer is great or if the commercials are entertaining. All you have to say is "Steve Carell and Tina Fey" and you assume that the movie has some decent level of wit, intelligence and humor. And I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the freakin' title of the movie as a partial reason for it's success. This totally is in the vein of Valentine's Day eight weeks ago. C'mon, you have two adults looking for a fun night out on the town -- how perfect is this movie for actual couples looking for a fun night out on the town?

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