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The title of this movie sounds like...well, we don't want to talk about it.

Kim Hollis: Justin Bieber: Never Say Never opened to $29.5 million. How impressed are you by this result? Do you think his career will be more Miley Cyrus or more Jonas Brothers flameout?

Josh Spiegel: I don't know, I figured this would do a lot better. I'm glad I'm wrong it didn't do something closer to $50 million, but with all of the ads over the last few months and the complete media saturation of the kid on The Daily Show, Saturday Night Live, Super Bowl ads, and so on, I thought this would get more than, essentially, 3 million tickets sold. When you consider that this is being heavily touted on its 3D nature, I'm a bit surprised the overall number wasn't bigger. Bieber seems to, at least, have a sense of humor (or acts like he does), so he may do well in the future. It's hard to say, though, until he does something non-Bieberish.

Edwin Davies: It's hard to tell with child stars, but I get the feeling that Bieber could have a fairly long-lasting career if he branches out a bit more. The period when someone can be a teen idol, especially when they start so young, is very limited, and he's going to have to turn his hand to acting or a different style of music before too long otherwise he's just going to be another forgotten relic of an entire generation's childhood. Having said that, he's young, determined and has the right people behind him, so as long as he doesn't wind up doing something completely stupid he could easily have a long career ahead of him.





Matthew Huntley: Believe it or not, I didn't even know who Justin Bieber was until he made an appearance on Saturday Night Live with Tina Fey last April (when Date Movie opened). Apparently, he had been very popular even before that, which shows you just how out of touch I am with Twitter and the likes of teenage girls. So I guess that makes me even more impressed by Never Say Never's box-office results, especially given its negative cost of just $12.5 million. The movie will no doubt erode fast, but Paramount should be ecstatic.

At this point in time, based on the footage I've seen of Bieber on talk shows and awards ceremonies, he seems like a good, albeit naive, kid. He's still very young and I just hope he invests well and avoids the cliche pitfalls of super stardom at a young age. I'd rather him follow the path of Justin Timberlake than of Corey Haim. Not that he has to necessarily become an actor, but if he can keep his head on straight, I think he can maintain a successful career and not fizzle out and become a tabloid joke.

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