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Daron Aldridge: Matthew, as much as it pains me to predict, I have to disagree that this one will first $100 million earner of 2011. It is especially painful because I think the bland Gnomeo & Juliet will cross that line first, even if just by a few days or a week. That inferior film is already at $84 million and Spring Break for the elementary set should allow it to keep its numbers from falling too much. I hope I am wrong...very wrong. Rango will have a better run in the long haul than Gnomeo but both of these films are threatened by next weekend's Mars Needs Moms - Rango probably more so because Gnomeo is clearly aimed at the much younger crowd.

Reagen Sulewski: Bruce makes a solid point that most animated films can qualify under at least some definition of "weird." What's not weird about talking garden gnomes or woolly mammoths or wisecracking donkeys? Add lizards onto that and I think "...okay, then." Is Rango a little weirder than most of the rest of them - I guess, but then you've got one of the biggest stars out there in the voice cast in Depp, which ought to have counter-balanced that.

Another thing that I would add is that while this may not technically be from DreamWorks, it's from Paramount, which owns them, and who should be able to pull in their marketing expertise.

The heartening thing for anyone involved in this, though, does have to be that How to Train Your Dragon proved that if you avoid being labeled a failure off the bat, quality will win out. It's too soon to tell if that's going to happen here, but this figure is enough to get them going.

Shalimar Sahota: Oh yeah, I'd be pleased with that result, since I thought this would win comfortably with a $25 - $30 million opening weekend. I was going to see this regardless. Then I read the bad reviews, that it was just too weird for kids (there's probably more jokes/references for adults to enjoy here) and that it's a miracle a film like this got made. And they're right, but that only made me want to see it even more! I thought I'd enjoy it, but I didn't expect to be so genuinely surprised by it. It is insanely original and that's got to translate to good word-of-mouth. Like Matthew says, hopefully this success means we get to see more films like this in the future.

Max Braden: I'd be a little disappointed if only because my first thought to compare it to an early spring animation movie would be something like Ice Age, which opened at $46 million in the middle of March 2002 - nine years ago. It's a different animation style of course, but I don't see Gnomeo as much competition for Rango, which was heavily promoted and looks like your typical blockbuster from just the trailers. I'd also be a little unsure about it making back its production budget with this opening. As for quality, the reviews did not prepare me for how trippy it was going to be. But it's no weirder in the setting than Cars, which featured a town run entirely by Cars presumably amidst a world of humans. The animals aren't exactly cuddly, and along with some violent demeanor and slow spots it might be a challenge to keep kids' attention, but I don't doubt that the kids will demand they get at least as far as the box office or checkout counter, and if the parents pay it that's all that matters to the bottom line.

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