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Ah, movies about lanterns. Your time has come.

Kim Hollis: Green Lantern, the latest comic book adaptation from Warner Bros./DC Comics, opened to $53.2 million. What are your thoughts on this performance?

Brett Beach: I think Ryan Reynolds and 3D did what they were supposed to do and boosted this take significantly over what it could and should have been. To open in the top 20 all-time comic book weekends is nothing to sneeze at, particularly when the early trailers were underwhelming and the money shot heavy spots released in the last couple of weeks showcased a shade of green to the proceedings that reminded me of nothing so much as a certain scientology-subtexted sci-fi debacle from 11 yrs ago (and I don't mean my first wedding/marriage). I think subsequent weeks are needed to suggest just how close this comes to recouping its budget domestically - it probably won't - and with advertising thrown into the mix, this won't see a profit until home video, even with foreign grosses figured in. Reynolds is a hot hot man, but I guess I'll be holding out for the more quality-looking Crazy, Stupid, Love, and Ryan Gosling's abs, for summertime man crush action.

Edwin Davies: This is higher than I was expecting it to make, but viewed in a wider context it isn't a particularly great result. It fell well short of Thor's opening, which is probably its nearest comparison, both in terms of the number of 3D screens and in terms of general awareness of the two characters. Furthermore, it shot under the opening of X-Men: First Class, a film which is only being screened in 2D, so doesn't benefit from the 3D price hike. Both those suggest to me that attendance for the film, and therefore general interest in the property, were really pretty low in comparison to the other comic adaptations we've seen in the last month or so. Unlike Thor, which will probably finish just above $180 million when all is said and done, the reviews aren't good enough to entice large numbers of non-fans to check it out, and if the response that some of my geekier friends is anything to go by, fans of the comic probably won't be making lots of repeat viewings. Factor in the fact that it is probably going to lose lots of its 3D screens over the next two weekends, first to Cars 2 then to Transformers, and the one thing keeping this thing from being a complete disaster is going to vanish into thin air.

Basically, this result is the equivalent of trying to run a marathon by sprinting; you'll get ahead of the pack at the beginning, but you'll run out of steam after the first couple of hundred feet.

Tim Briody: I'm just hoping that the opening and subsequent 65% drop next weekend don't prevent the Deadpool, movie which Ryan Reynolds is attached to, from happening. I want to see that movie happen because it would be one of the strangest films ever made.

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