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Matthew Huntley: I saw the panel for Jonah Hex at Comic-Con last summer and that was the first time I ever heard of the title character, so I agree with Reagan that the anemic opening can be attributed to a "too little awareness" factor. Also, I felt the trailer was loud and disorienting - it left no real impression on me (all I remember is about a half dozen explosions being shown to us in under three minutes). Other than Brolin, whom I like a lot in the movies, it seemed there was no real reason to see it. Still, I will give every movie a chance and maybe my review can do battle with Tom's. Or, who knows, maybe we'll see eye to eye.

Tom, you mentioned counter-programming, and Jonah Hex certainly was to Toy Story 3, but not necessarily to Karate Kid and A-Team, both of which have only been in theaters for two weeks. I think the studio would have seen better admissions had they released it at a time when there's virtually no other action movies playing. Remember when Ghost Rider opened to $52 million back in February 2007? Because Jonah Hex is not well-known, the studio should have researched a better release date so it would be the only option out there for action gurus.

It looks like the hex was not just on Jonah, but also on Warner Bros. (wah wah).

Josh Spiegel: I'm still baffled that there were people predicting this movie making upwards of $15 million over the three days before the weekend began. I like Josh Brolin and the majority of the supporting cast, but nothing about this movie looked appetizing. Even though they're probably mostly incomparable movies, I just kept comparing Jonah Hex to Wild Wild West. Bad comparison to make. This result is nothing if not completely expected.

Shalimar Sahota: I guess this is probably the closest I'll get to my wish of a western horror film till Cowboys & Aliens comes along.

Eric Hughes: On the plus side, Jonah Hex managed to make about nine times more money than Delgo did in its opening weekend. Everybody remember that mess?

Also, if Jennifer's Body didn't make it clear enough, it should now be understood why Michael Bay decided to drop Megan Fox from Transformers 3.

Daron Aldridge: I really thought it was strange to set the sequel to 1993's Hexed during the civil war and the makeup artists did a great job of making Ayre Gross look like a scarred Josh Brolin...(crickets)...sadly, its $2.67 million take in 1993 is comparable to Jonah's opening.

I think what went wrong, Tom, is that very few people were as similarly impressed by or sold on this movie by the trailer.

Kim Hollis: Sorry, Tom. I thought the trailer was a mess, and presumed that the movie would be the same. There is just no reason for anyone to care about Jonah Hex. He's an unknown character from the comic book world and frankly, I'm not even sure what's supposed to be interesting about him. It did about as well as it should have, really.

David Mumpower: I think everyone here knows that I believe the entire process of studio movie production is innately flawed and much more prone to failure than success. Innumerable short term contractors thrown together in large groups simply cannot excel on a consistent basis. Cohesion is everything in the creative process. Keeping this in mind, the real problem with Jonah Hex occurred on the ground floor. Who is Jonah Hex and why would he make for a good movie character?

I’m not saying that as someone completely unaware of him, either. I’ve seen the entire run of Justice League Unlimited, a good Cartoon Network program, and he was a key player in a series of episodes. Even knowing the basics of his history, I never understood the belief that this character would make for a quality 90-minute movie-going experience. Okay, this is a western with a scarfaced dude seeking revenge. With literally thousands of comic book characters available for adaptation, what’s so special about this one? Runaways, Y the Last Man and Fables are all titles that clear this basic hurdle. The quippy Deadpool and the drunken psycho Thor do as well and independent of the quality of Captain America, he is so important to many in the military that the success of the title is all but assured. Even Green Lantern, a concept I find absurd (“Fear my shiny accessory!”), at least qualifies under the science fiction umbrella as a Star Wars/comic book movie hybrid.

Jonah Hex simply does not clear that bar. There isn’t an engaging story to tell, much like The Punisher whose story arc is “punish people." Jonah Hex is that but in the old west with an uglier guy. People can stay home and play Red Dead Redemption and experience that feeling for themselves rather than pay to see it in theaters. And as an aside, I would imagine the set of Green Lantern is very nervous about this turn of events. That’s a film with a $150 million budget and a lot of heads will roll if the movie looks like a comic book caricature rather than a worthy sci-fi epic. And I cannot rule out that possibility even though Green Lantern is experiencing a pop culture resurgence at the moment thanks to the popularity of Blackest Night.

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