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Max Braden: To echo comments here, it is what it is, accept it and move on, but the win here is for Bradley Cooper. He gets to say that he opened a movie that won the weekend, and he worked with Robert De Niro. That keeps his career going in the right direction. De Niro can just say it's one of his throwaway thrillers like Righteous Kill or Hide and Seek.

David Mumpower: I will say that I was impressed enough by the Limitless commercials to want to see the movie in the theater. That makes it feel like a win for the marketing department. With regards to the premise and the power of a pill, I still think Love & Other Drugs had stronger subject matter. Ask the average person if they would rather use 90% of their brain or increase their sexual prowess and the brainiac side of the picture will have tumbleweeds floating around.

Sorry, Abe fans. This title is wholly misleading.

Kim Hollis: The Lincoln Lawyer, the Matthew McConaughey film from Lionsgate, impersonated John Grisham films to a $13.2 million opening. What do you think of this result?

Josh Spiegel: Considering the very minimal marketing, especially for a courtroom drama with some big-name actors, I'm surprised it made this much. I know that Lionsgate paired up with Groupon to offer lower ticket prices with an online coupon, so who knows if the movie would've been as high up in the rankings without it. The Lincoln Lawyer looks like something of a film that will be a sleeper on DVD, but I bet Lionsgate wishes they could've gotten more interest in the film.

Edwin Davies: I'm genuinely impressed with this result seeing as, going into the weekend, there seemed to be minimal awareness of the existence of this film compared to Limitless or Paul, both of which have been very visible in terms of their advertising and in getting their cast to go out and sell the film. Until the decent reviews started coming in, I had this one down as being a complete failure, so to come away with more than $10 million and the distant possibility of legs if word-of-mouth matches the critical response is much more than I personally expected from it.

Matthew Huntley: I agree with Edwin on this one in that I'm also impressed by this movie's numbers, although I would argue the marketing for The Lincoln Lawyer was just as saturated as Paul and Limitless. It seemed any time I went to the movies over the past couple months, there was always a trailer for all three. Regardless, this is a good start, but what's troubling is the movie's $40 million budget. That seems high and if the content is as good as the reviews indicate, I hope it shows decent legs, but why was it so expensive (for a courtroom drama I mean)? Matthew McConaughey is a household name, sure, but he's hardly a box office powerhouse to warrant a huge salary.

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