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Brett Beach: SPOILER: Jerry O'Connell's severed penis comes flying off the screen? WTF? I am having nightmares just thinking about that...END SPOILER

Truly random thoughts - I also wouldn't classify this as obscure and I think the Weinsteins are kicking themselves for not screening this earlier for critics and building up some positive buzz. They really don't have the touch anymore. With Alexandre Aja attached and the 3D cost, I figured this to get to $15-18 million opening. If I was going to see something in 3D, this would be it (after Step Up). But of course, therein lies the conundrum: It's the sort of trashy trash upon which most of 3D's hallowed history is built but it is what is going to get set aside as the masses clamor for an Avatar-esque experience that they now expect. In just a few months we are going to see 3D films open on the same day. After Double Entendre 3D and Dance Dance Revolution 3D have tanked in the past month, this has to make the studios of all those "non-essential" 3D flicks more than a little nervous going forward. Personally, I would love to see Piranha/Machete/Scott Pilgrim on a second-run triple-feature bill come late September or early October. Make it happen Portland!

Shalimar Sahota: I like my B-movies, and the positive reviews for this one are a shock. Maybe I really ought to go see this! However, I can't comment on the lack of marketing. Over in the UK, the film is being distributed by Entertainment Film Distributors, and I've seen TV ads, bus shelter posters, and the trailer has played before almost every film I've seen this summer. I agree with Matthew that maybe releasing it during Labor Day weekend would have been a better move. I do wonder though if the special edition of Avatar will make more than the second weekend of Piranha 3D. There isn't a new 3D release till Resident Evil Afterlife, so I only hope this'll stick around for another two or three weeks! Also, the For Your Consideration ad is brilliant!

Jim Van Nest: Bottom line, there was only so many showings Dan could get to this weekend. In seriousness, part of the problem with this is that the original was SO long ago. I mean this is a third film in a franchise, some 30 years after the second. The bulk of movie goers are too young to remember the series. Hell, I had to prove to a younger friend of mine that this really WAS a sequel.

And while it may have been true in the '70s and '80s...it appears that in the 21st century, fish eating people does NOT = $$$$.

Edwin Davies: The only conclusion I can take away from this result is that Adam Scott, funny and talented though he is, is cursed. First my beloved Party Down gets cancelled, and now this.

Outside of the Adam Scott Curse (coming to theaters this Halloween), I think that at least part of this result can be attributed to the backlash against 3D, which seems to be effecting good films as well as bad. I think that people are becoming less willing to part with their cash unless they're guaranteed an Avatar-like spectacular, and killer fish didn't seem to be enough to entice people in. Hopefully the reviews will be enough to make people check it out on DVD.

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