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Kim Hollis: The Green Hornet opened to $34.1 million over three days, and $40.5 million over the long Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. Are you surprised that a Seth Rogen action film could open this well?

Josh Spiegel: Kind of, but not really. I wonder if The Green Hornet is doing so well this weekend partly because it's the most palatable option for teenagers and college students who want something that's entertaining but not very challenging. Also, here's a movie where the upconversion into 3D hasn't sent audiences elsewhere. All things considered, despite the movie seeming to be too crazy to believe (Seth Rogen plays a superhero in a Michel Gondry film), the result is pretty good for a January release.

Brett Beach: I am surprised that a Seth Rogen action film that looked this crappy (as opposed to Pineapple Express, which I would say also qualifies as a SRAF) somehow managed to overcome negative buzz and get people excited, with one of the best three-day January openings ever. (This was a weekend where I thought audiences might feel compelled to stay away from the multiplex or spend most of their money on the buzzed-about Golden Globe nominees.) Nothing in the advertising for this film ever convinced me that it needed to be seen. I cringe to think that this will be used as an excuse to do more subpar 3D conversion on films when I see it as more an example of how there are very few "2D" options left for most moviegoers if they want to see a film that's being schlepped in 3D.

Bruce Hall: I think that all things considered, this has to be considered a pretty positive result. This is not traditionally the time of year that franchise films with high expectations are released. And Seth Rogen is certainly popular, but selling him as an action hero was going to be a tall order. The results are debatable, but I have to take my green felt hat off to him for pulling it off as well as he did. But The Green Hornet benefited from a soft weekend where its only real demographic competition in new release was The Dilemma, a very weak film whose expiration date seemed long past a week before it opened. The remaining threats were Tron, whose best weeks are well behind it, and a Nic Cage thriller that couldn't have shed more viewers in its second frame if you'd set the theaters on fire. Add to this a budget that ranks as pretty modest for a super hero flick and you kind of have to say that $34 million looks like a pretty solid haul. Middling reviews aside, it certainly looks like we can expect to see Seth Rogen and Jay Chou suit up for another installment sooner rather than later. Whether or not this is a good thing, I will leave to your own imaginations.

Edwin Davies: I'm not surprised that a Seth Rogen action film could open to $34.1 million considering that Pineapple Express demonstrated that he could headline an action comedy, suggesting that there is definitely an audience out there for him in these roles, but I am surprised that this Seth Rogen action film opened so high. Considering the troubled production history and mediocre-to-hostile reviews, I was expecting the film to open in the $20-25 million range. I guess that the spate of prestige pictures and lack of options for teens and action fans meant that it became a consensus choice that it might not have been on a weekend with other options.

Max Braden: Season of the Witch was dark and dingy, Green Hornet was bright and shiny. It's just the sort of commercial movie that can fill that Christmas void after the overeating has worn off and the reality of winter doldrums has started to set back in.

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